Education can be divided into broad sense and narrow sense. The purpose of education in a broad sense refers to people's expectations of the educated. People here include all parties directly involved in the education process, such as teachers, parents, students and so on. It also includes various social organizations that indirectly participate in the educational process, such as the government and religious groups. Any member or organization participating in education has an expectation for the result of the educated, which can be understood as a broad educational purpose. The diversity of educational purposes in a broad sense inevitably requires that the value orientation should be guided by the situation in order to realize the continuous optimization of educational purposes. The narrow sense of educational purpose refers to the general requirements set by a country for the results of educational activities, that is, a country's prediction or stipulation of the results or standards to be achieved by education before carrying out educational activities.

supplement

The purpose of education is the starting point and foundation of educational activities, and it is also the destination of educational activities. After the purpose of education is determined, educational activities can be organized, planned and systematically carried out in the predetermined direction. Educational purpose plays a very important role and function in educational activities, which is reflected in the following four aspects.

(A) the guiding function

The purpose of education points out the development direction for the object of education, determines the development result in advance, and also points out the work direction and goal for educators. The purpose of education has a goal-oriented function for both educatees and educators, such as the establishment of educational system, the choice of educational content, and the methods and means adopted in the educational process, which must be carried out in accordance with the educational purpose. If the educational work deviates from the educational purpose, the predetermined educational effect will not be achieved.

(2) Select function

Since the development of human society, there are many complicated knowledge and experiences that students need to learn, various skills that need to be cultivated, and various intellectual abilities that need to be developed. With the purpose of education, the basic scope of educational content selection is determined, which ensures that education can scientifically make valuable choices for human rich culture. At the same time, the purpose of education also provides a basis for choosing the corresponding educational channels, methods and forms.

(C) Incentive function

The purpose of education is an idea of the future development of the educated, which has ideal characteristics, which determines that it has the function of stimulating educational behavior. It not only encourages educators to transform educational goals and training goals into students' learning goals in a certain way, but also encourages educatees to actively participate in educational activities. In educational activities, only when the educated realize the requirements or significance of the educational purpose for their future growth can they take it as the direction of their efforts and constantly develop and improve themselves according to the requirements of the educational purpose.

Evaluation function

The purpose of education not only points out the direction for educational activities, but also provides a scale and fundamental standard for checking and evaluating the quality of educational activities. Whether it is a process evaluation or a summative evaluation, it must be based on the educational purpose. At the same time, the purpose of education can only be reflected in various evaluation systems of school education, so as to effectively play its guiding and regulating functions.