Education is the whole process of training a new generation to engage in social life, and it is also the key link to inherit and carry forward the production experience of human society. Mainly refers to the process of cultivating school-age children, teenagers and young people. Broadly speaking, all activities that enhance people's knowledge and skills and affect people's ideology and morality are education. Education in a narrow sense mainly refers to school education, which means that educators exert purposeful, planned and organized influence on the body and mind of the educated according to the requirements of a certain society (or class) and cultivate them into people needed by a certain society (or class). Types include formal education, adult education, technical education, special education and lifelong education.
Basic explanation of education
① The whole process of training a new generation to engage in social life mainly refers to the process of training children, teenagers and young people in schools.
Persuade people to comply with (rules, instructions or requirements, etc.). ) reason: advise ~.
The definition of education
The Origin and Connotation of "Education"
1. The origin of the word "education" in Chinese
First seen in Mencius? Dedication: "A gentleman has three pleasures, but the king of the world does not exist. Parents exist, brothers have no chance, and they are happy; Yang is worthy of the sky, regardless of people, but also happy; If you are educated by talented people in the world, you will have three pleasures. The explanation of Shuo Wen Jie Zi is that "teaching is applied from the top and effective from the bottom"; Education, fostering children makes good. " It was at the end of 19 and the beginning of the 20th century that "education" became a common word. /kloc-In the second half of the 9th century, China people began to establish new education. The popularity of the word "education" in modern Chinese is linked with the modernization of education in China, which reflects the modern transformation of China's educational discourse from "learning-oriented" to "teaching-oriented".
2. The origin of the word "education" in western languages
In the west, the word education comes from the Latin educare. The original meaning is "derivative" or "derivative", which refers to something originally hidden in the body and mind and triggered by some means. Etymologically speaking, the word "education" in western languages means to emphasize that education is a natural activity from the inside out, aiming at arousing the inherent or potential qualities of natural people from the inside out, thus becoming a realistic development state.
3. The connotation of education
Education can be divided into broad sense and narrow sense. Education in a broad sense refers to all social practice activities that purposefully affect people's physical and mental development. Education in a narrow sense mainly refers to school education, that is, educators exert influence on the body and mind of the educated in a purposeful, planned and organized way according to certain social requirements and the development law of the educated, expecting the expected changes of the educated.
The essence and function of education
1. Multiple Examinations of the Essence of Education
(1) connotation. The essence of education refers to the fundamental characteristic that education, as a social activity, is different from other social activities, that is, the question of "what is education". It reflects the inherent stipulation of educational activities, that is, the fundamental characteristics of educational activities.
(2) Four views on the essence of education: superstructure theory; Productivity theory; Special category theory; Multiple attribute theory.
(3) The fifth viewpoint about the essence of education, the theory of consciousness substitution;
In Tang Zhen's view, the essence of cultural education can be summarized as: teaching new individuals ways and means to deal with objects with the knowledge we have mastered about our objects and their relationships. It is a process in which one kind of consciousness changes another kind of consciousness. It is a process in which one kind of consciousness covers or even destroys another kind of consciousness in view of the collision, running-in, infiltration and change between consciousness, which may cause pain to individuals. Because any two individuals face different objects, there will be differences or conflicts in the consciousness gained from different objects, and the recipients of cultural and educational activities will have certain exclusion. In the real society, in order to weaken the rejection psychology of the recipients, first of all, educational activities are mainly carried out between the young and the old. Older people (or those who get knowledge first) generally live in the position of educators, while young people lack knowledge and are like a whiteboard, so they are educated. The second is to induce through utilitarianism and other means. For example, in ancient times, there was a call for "learning to be an excellent official", and today there is a call for educational goals such as "knowledge is wealth", so that educational activities can be carried out normally.
Obviously, cultural education has instrumental significance in enhancing the individual's choice characteristics. Educators conceptualize and knowledgeable the experience of predecessors in the struggle with the object world and pass it on to individuals. Individuals have acquired the consciousness of the object before they get involved in it. Is the individual going to enter these objects or choose another object? The knowledge they gained gave them the answer.
Cultural education changes the individual's choice direction by changing the individual's consciousness space. Through cultural education, human beings have increased the space of individual consciousness, thus finding a shortcut and teaching individuals the ways and means of choosing objects. The cultural achievements of human beings are attached to the individual's consciousness through educators, shaping new individuals and providing a perspective and microscope for the individual's future direction.
(See Tang Zhen's Acceptance and Choice and China Social Sciences Press's Science, Technology and Culture Bring New Direction)
2. Educational function
The so-called educational function refers to the efficacy and role of educational activities. This is a question of "what is education for?" The function of education can be roughly divided into personal development function and social development function. The individual development function of education can be divided into two aspects: the individual socialization function and the individual individualization function of education. The fields of social activities mainly include economy, politics and culture, so the social development function of education can be divided into economic function, political function and cultural function of education. The main functions of education are:
(1) The primary function of education is to promote individual development, including individual socialization and individualization.
(2) The most basic function of education is to influence economic development. Modern society emphasizes that the economic function of education mainly includes: providing a good background for the sustained and stable development of the economy; Improve the potential labor ability of the educated; Form ideas, attitudes and behaviors that adapt to modern economic life.
(3) The most direct function of education is to influence political development.
(4) The most far-reaching function of education is to influence cultural development. Education should not only convey culture, but also meet the requirements of the continuation and renewal of culture itself.
What is education? At first glance, this question seems simple, but at an international education conference, Dr. Huang Quanyu, who was studying in the United States, asked a British educator, but there was no following. It can be seen that this problem is not that simple. With regard to the definition of education, educators, thinkers and some people at home and abroad have their own "quotations", which can be summarized as follows: Confucius said: "The way of a university is to be moral and for the people, and stop at perfection." Lu Xun: "Education is to cultivate people." Children's education is mainly about understanding, guidance and liberation. Cai Yuanpei: "Education is to help the educated develop their abilities, improve their personality and do their part in human culture, rather than making the educated a special tool." Tao Xingzhi: Education is a "life education" based on and for life, which cultivates people with action ability, thinking ability and creativity. Huang Quanyu: Education "The important thing is not to load the car, but to fill the tank with oil." Zhong Qiquan: Education is the basis of "student development" and "personality growth". Qin Wenjun: "Education should be a door. Open it, full of sunshine and flowers. It can bring confidence and happiness to children." There are also many wonderful and incisive expositions about "education" abroad: Marx and Engels: Education is to promote "the free development of individual originality." Kant: Education is the process of self-design, self-choice, self-construction and self-evaluation, and it is the development of self-ability. It embodies the social will and mechanism that educators and educatees explore together in equality, freedom, prudence and seriousness. It is not "instigation" or "substitution", and it is not to let the young butterflies in the cocoon cater to or yield against their will. Einstein: "What is education? When you forget all the education, the rest is education. " Howard. Gardner: What is education? Education is to let children experience and discover what the world is like and what role educators can play in it. People-friendly education: training personalized talents is the foundation of education. Montessori: "Education is to stimulate life, enrich life, help children survive with their own strength and help them develop this spirit." Jaspers: "Education is the education of human soul, not the accumulation of rational knowledge." Amicus: Education is "education of love". Various interpretations, each with its own merits, all lead to the door of truth from a certain angle. The education research report submitted by the International 2 1 Century Education Committee to UNESCO said: Education is "to ensure that everyone enjoys the freedom of thought, judgment, emotion and imagination needed to give full play to their talents, and to control their own destiny as firmly as possible." As an educator, figuring out what education is is of great benefit to understanding the essence of education, clarifying one's own functions and responsibilities, and finding the way forward. This is not a question of walking into a dead end after talking. Because there is no rational consciousness, it is impossible to be a conscious educator in practice.
Education is a way to change people's understanding of the objective world and a positive and effective way to actively guide people to think, understand and transform the world. From the perspective of neutral words, it can have an impact, and from the perspective of derogatory words, it can have an impact.
Education is a kind of inheritance and promotion of human morality, science, technology, knowledge reserve and spiritual realm, and it is also the transmission of human civilization. Use others to appropriately change some subjective ideology. Changing other people's ideas and ideas is a scientific method. Education is also the cheapest national defense system.
In short, the essential attribute of education is that education is an influence, a positive influence, and a positive influence on human understanding and transforming the objective world and itself. The ultimate goal of education is to teach or not to teach! That is to teach them the ability of self-reflection and self-management for survival and development.
Generally speaking, "teaching: doing and learning (or imitating);" Education: Treat objectivity with a correct attitude. "The ultimate goal of education is to treat objectivity with correct habits and attitudes.
The logical starting point of education:
The logical starting point of education is naturally the emergence of human society. The transformation from apes to humans is due to productive labor, and apes gradually formed a main mechanism with brain and hand as the core. The brain can think and the hands can operate, which makes people different from ordinary animals and become "advanced animals". With the subject mechanism, it is possible to become a subject with practical cognitive ability, and human beings can upgrade themselves to the subject of understanding and transforming the objective world, thus turning the objective world into the object of human transformation and understanding. Understanding and transforming the objective world requires subjective ability. Human society is a form of existence created by human beings in social practice.
The function and significance of education definition and its difference from education view
Generally, defining a thing is to reveal its essence and characteristics on the one hand, and to determine its position and boundary in the comprehensive classification system of related things on the other hand, so that this thing stands out from the comprehensive classification system of related things. The same is true of the definition of education. For example, training, study and training are all related to education. The correct definition of education faces the problem of distinguishing education from training and learning from training.
People must have a basic understanding of * * before they can communicate with each other on educational issues. Therefore, it is necessary to describe the meaning of education, make clear provisions, that is, give its definition. Education existed long before people defined it. No matter what people defined it, it would not change the essence and characteristics of education. An appropriate definition of education can help people understand education rationally and objectively, facilitate people to analyze and discuss various educational phenomena and problems, and lay the foundation for establishing a correct view of education.
Both the definition of education and the concept of education have the sentence pattern of "education is ……", so people can easily confuse the two. The definition of education describes the essence and characteristics of education, so it should be objective. Educational concept is people's view on education, including the function, value, function and purpose of education, which is diverse and subjective and is intended to guide people's educational activities.
The scientific definition of education is helpful for people to understand education objectively, to establish correct educational concepts, to formulate correct educational policies, plans and systems, and to promote people to carry out reasonable, reasonable, compliant and appropriate educational activities.
Educational activities defined by event definition method
Education is something that appears and develops with the activities of human society, not the object created by human beings. Therefore, the definition of education is suitable to use the genetic definition method of "species difference plus genus", which is defined by the characteristics of the defined thing in the process of occurrence or formation as "species difference" and the similar "genus concept" to which the thing belongs.
Observing some generally recognized educational activities such as teachers' teaching to students and parents' guidance to children, we can find that the ways and means of speaking, writing and demonstrating used in these activities are actually spreading information, while students and children receive corresponding information through auditory, visual and tactile channels, so these educational activities can be classified as information dissemination activities. Information dissemination and communication is a part of social activities and the foundation of social existence and development. Taking information dissemination activities as the "general concept" of educational activities conforms to the requirements of the definition rules. Moreover, taking "information dissemination" as the characteristic of educational activities can be distinguished from learning activities characterized by "receiving information".
However, not all information dissemination activities are educational activities, and people have various motives for disseminating information. Suppose that publicity activities are based on expressing opinions, while teachers and parents engage in educational activities based on changing the quality and ability of students and children and making them grow up. Therefore, taking "paying attention to the quality and ability of others" as the motive feature of educational activities, that is, "seed difference", can distinguish it from other information dissemination activities.
Because people's quality and ability include both physical and psychological aspects. People stimulated by information can trigger their physiological reactions, such as forming conditioned reflex, which should belong to the characteristics and functions of training activities. The effect of educational activities is the spiritual world and psychological state that affects people's thoughts, concepts, knowledge, emotions and other related consciousness. Therefore, adding "affecting others' spiritual world or psychological state" as another feature in the definition of education can distinguish educational activities from training activities that affect physiological functions.
To sum up, the following definition of education can be formed: education refers to information dissemination activities that focus on the quality and ability of others and affect their spiritual world or psychological state. The information disseminator in educational activities is called educator, and the object of information dissemination is called educational object. In reality, there are not only simple educational activities, but also education is often combined with other things to form compound activities, such as education and training activities, publicity and education activities, entertainment and leisure activities and so on. They not only have the characteristics and functions of educational activities, but also have the characteristics and functions of other things, making the forms of educational activities rich and diverse.
Basic concepts and macro concepts of education
The above definition of education not only reflects the essence of education, but also distinguishes educational activities from other activities such as learning, training and publicity, which can be regarded as the basic concept of education. But compared with the "educational background" that people often say, the scope of this definition is much narrower. Traditionally, people regard learning and training, education and training, training and subsidized training as education, which shows that there is another much larger concept of education in people's consciousness, that is, the macro concept of education. It includes not only activities such as education, training and learning basic concepts that can directly affect people's quality and ability, but also activities that can help and promote the former, which is what people call training activities. Macro education is actually equivalent to training, so the definition of training is also the definition of macro education. On the basis of the above-mentioned basic definition of education, the macro definition of education (training) is removed from the "species difference" that can distinguish learning, training and other activities: activities that pay attention to people's quality and ability.
The only feature of macro education is "focusing on people's quality and ability", which shows that judging whether an activity is education is not the result. In reality, not all educational activities can achieve the expected results, and some even fail. However, some activities, such as research activities and publicity activities, can affect people's quality and ability, but they are not recognized as educational activities. When people hold different positions and pay attention to people's quality and ability, they can look at people's quality and ability from both positive and negative aspects, develop and strengthen some people's quality and ability positively, and weaken and restrain some people's quality and ability negatively. People's qualities and abilities can be divided into congenital and acquired. Innate, like other animals, is created by the long-term evolution of nature. What is obtained can be divided into two situations, one is obtained or realized unintentionally; Secondly, it was deliberately made by people. Macro-education summarizes all activities deliberately carried out for people's quality and ability.
For a long time, the word education has many concepts. The description (definition) of the word education in Modern Chinese Dictionary includes two aspects. First, it expresses the macro concept of education-"the whole process of cultivating a new generation to engage in social life". However, it uses the word training when describing the concept of education, and it uses the word education when expressing the concept of training-"long-term education and training according to a certain purpose", which is suspected of circular description (definition). Secondly, it expresses the basic concept of education-"teaching and inspiration", but at the same time it expresses teaching as "educational guidance", which is also suspected of circular description (definition). When defining, the defined item cannot be directly or indirectly included in the defined item, otherwise a circular definition error will be formed. In this regard, the description of the word education in Xinhua Dictionary has no circular definition. The description of the word education in Xinhua Dictionary is also divided into two aspects. One is "social activities with the direct purpose of influencing people's physical and mental development", which clearly expresses the macro concept of education. The second is "reasoning", which distinguishes education from training activities, probably to express the basic concept of education. However, this statement cannot distinguish education from activities such as study, research and publicity, because these activities can also make people understand the truth. Therefore, it is debatable to express the basic concept of education in this way.
The macro concept of education described in Xinhua Dictionary and Modern Chinese Dictionary is also called education in a broad sense. Accordingly, narrow education generally refers to school education. Because school education includes all kinds of training activities such as education, training, learning, funding, etc., school education (that is, education in a narrow sense) also belongs to the category of macro education. Just like education, it is difficult to form a unified definition by integrating many concepts in the same field. Therefore, when people use or understand the word education in different occasions and contexts, they need to pay special attention to its exact meaning.
The definition of "education"
The definition of "education" is the connotation or significance of education. Defining "education" is the beginning of rational understanding of educational phenomena and an important symbol of scientific education awareness activities.
In the field of education, there are various definitions of "education", which can be said that different people have different opinions. Generally speaking, people define "education" from two different angles, one is the social angle and the other is the individual angle. The former Soviet Union and China generally define "education" from a social perspective, while educators in Britain and the United States generally define "education" from an individual perspective. The definition of "education" from the social perspective can be divided into different levels: (1) In a broad sense, all activities that enhance people's knowledge and skills and affect people's ideology and morality are education. (2) In a narrow sense, it mainly refers to school education, which refers to the activities that educators exert influence on the body and mind of the educated in a purposeful, planned and organized way according to the requirements of a certain society or class, and cultivate them into people needed by a certain society or class. (3) In a narrow sense, it sometimes refers to ideological education activities. This definition emphasizes the influence of social factors on individual development, and regards "education" as a subsystem of the whole social system, which allocates or undertakes certain social functions. Defining "education" from an individual perspective often equates "education" with an individual's learning or development process. The most essential understanding of education is the knowledge instillation and behavior guidance of people's thoughts by society; First, the object of education is people; Second, the content must be benign and meaningful.
Education is a practical activity to promote individual socialization and social individualization under a certain social background.
If defined around the basic elements of educational activities, education can be defined as a social activity in which people consciously transmit information to others through a number of methods, media and other forms, hoping to influence their spiritual world or psychological state and help or hinder others from acquiring certain concepts, qualities and abilities. People in the former role are called educators, while people in the latter role are called educational objects. This definition accords with all human educational activities and can be used as the basic definition of education.
Zhang Xiulin, a contemporary poet and cultural scholar, has the following explanation in the article On Education:
The so-called education should be the teaching and dissemination of social culture. Social culture, including art and science, should include three levels of content. The first level refers to high-level culture, which is abstract and intangible, such as social psychology, aesthetics and values. The second level refers to things or things' culture. From the first level, it is concrete. Although there is no concrete existence, we can really feel its structure and activities, such as political power and its institutions. The third level refers to the surface culture, which is both visible and tangible. Simply speaking, it is spiritual culture, spiritual materialized culture and material culture. The purpose of education is to educate people, in fact, it is to let people accept all kinds of useful knowledge, so as to absorb and melt this knowledge and make it directly act on society, or to sublimate new knowledge on the basis of this knowledge, that is, to discover and invent. The former is like a physical change, and the person who accepts it is like a container for things. A few things are still the same, but in a different place, some miscellaneous things are probably what we often call practical talents-skilled or skilled talents; The latter is similar to a chemical reaction, which produces different and other things. Such talents can master the first-class culture well and easily form their own unique ideas, concepts and research methods. This is the creative talent. The cultural influence of a country and a nation in the world is mainly the influence of first-class culture and creative talents. The highly developed nervous system of human beings is the material basis and prerequisite for the emergence and development of education. It provides complete thinking functions such as feeling, memory, association, imagination and reasoning, which makes people's consciousness influence and spread each other.
Educational purpose
The purpose of education is put forward and formulated by people, which embodies people's subjective will. Because people hold different values on education, they have formed different opinions on the basis of formulating educational objectives.