BESC 131
EDUCATION: CONCEPT, NATURE AND PERSPECTIVES
BESC 131 Free Solved Assignment
BESC 131 Free Solved Assignment July 2021 & Jan 2022
Assignment A
1 Explain the scope of education from the viewpoint of different learning environments such as informal, formal and non-formal education.
Ans: Formal education: the hierarchically structured, chronologically graded education system’, running from primary school through the university and including, in addition to general academic studies, a variety of specialised programmes and institutions for full-time technical and professional training.
Informal education: the truly lifelong process whereby every individual acquires attitudes, values, skills and knowledge from daily experience and the educative influences and resources in his or her environment – from family and neighbours, from work and play, from the market place, the library and the mass media.
Non-formal education: any organised educational activity outside the established formal system – whether operating separately or as an important feature of some broader activity – that is intended to serve identifiable learning clienteles and learning objectives.
The distinction made is largely administrative. Formal education is linked with schools and training institutions, non-formal with community groups and other organizations, and informal covers what is left, e.g. interactions with friends, family and work colleagues.
(See, for example, Coombs and Ahmed 1974).
Formal education or formal learning usually takes place in the premises of the school, where a In nonformal education, someone (who is not in school) can learn literacy, other basic skills or job skills. BESC 131 Free Solved Assignment
Home education, individualized instruction (such as programmed learning), distance learning and computer-assisted instruction are other possibilities.
Non-formal education is imparted consciously and deliberately and systematically implemented. It should be organized for a homogeneous group.
Non-formal, education should be programmed to serve the needs of the identified group. This will necessitate flexibility in the design of the curriculum and the scheme of evaluation.
2 Discuss educational philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi with special reference to aims of education, curriculum, pedagogy and role of teachers.
Ans: Gandhiji’s Basic Education was the practical embodiment of his philosophy of education.
His basic education takes up the challenging task of preparing the young learners to become morally sound, individually independents, socially constructive, economically productive and responsible future citizens which can prove helpful in solving the problem of unemployment by making youth self-employed by giving them skill training.
Gandhiji believed that education should develop all the capacities of the child so that he becomes a complete human being. BESC 131 Free Solved Assignment
In this way, fully and harmoniously developed personality is able to realize the ultimate aim of life which is Truth or God. Gandhiji has himself explained – “By education I mean all-round drawing out of the best in child’s and man’s body, mind and spirit.
Literacy is neither the beginning nor the end of education This is only a means through which man or woman can be educated ” His Basic Principles of Education includes:
From seven to fourteen years of age, education of each child should be free, compulsory and universal.
The medium of instruction should be mother-tongue.
Mere literacy cannot be equated with education. Education should employ some craft as a medium of education so that the child gains economic self-reliance for his life.
Education should develop human values in the child. Education should create useful, responsible and dynamic citizens.
By education all the hidden powers of child should develop according to the community of which he is an integral part. Education should achieve the harmonious development of child’s body, mind, heart and soul.
All education should be imparted through some productive craft or industry and a useful correlation should be established with that industry.
The industry should be such that the child is able to achieve gainful work experience through practical work. Education should be made self-supporting through some productive work. BESC 131 Free Solved Assignment
Education should lead to economic independence and self-reliance for livelihood. Thus, in Gandhiji’s educational thoughts the development of the personality of child is more important than mere literacy or knowledge of different subjects.
In other words he believed in life-centered as well as child-centered education. Besides learning of three R’s Reading, Writing and Arithmetic in school, he insisted on development of these H’s Hand, Heart and Head.
Thus, the aim of Education should be of developing the integrated personality of the child. Gandhiji was having clarity in the idea that one of the basic principles of education is that work and knowledge must never be separated.
Separation of learning from labor results in social injustices. In dynamic societies, education has to equip individuals with the skills and attitudes necessary for them to adapt to changing conditions, and for constructive participation in the task of social change.
This can prove helpful in solving the problems of frustration, depression, anxiety and feeling of committing suicide among youth.
Aims of Education
According to Gandhiji the true aim of education is to draw out of the best in child and man-body, mind, and spirit. The system of education must produce efficient citizen and true leaders of the country. BESC 131 Free Solved Assignment
One of the important aspects of Gandhij’s educational philosophy is basic or technical education, which means the knowledge, or education that could help rural people in the promotion of village handicrafts or to establish cottage industries.
The ultimate purpose behind this attempt was to make young men and women self-reliant in the economic field.
Even in the modern perspective his idea or basic education is well worth and it has no clash with the concept of today’s job oriented or technical education.
In fact, Gandhiji wants the students to prepare themselves for technical knowledge right from the days of his primary level or education; it can prove to be a milestone in the direction of value education.
Curriculum
The curriculum of basic education should be completely reoriented, so as to eliminate narrow, exclusive, competitive nationalism and emphasis the ideal of a united world.
Thus the curriculum would set Indian history & Indian geography against a background of world history with special reference to social and cultural development of a man.
The curriculum would also provide for the study of fundamental universal ethics. Thus Gandhiji suggested the following studies in the Basic Scheme in order to develop the whole man—the intellectual, physical and spiritual powers
1. A basic craft in accordance with the local conditions,
2 Mother tongue,
3 Arithmetic,
4 Social Studies,
5 General Science including Health and Hygiene, Astronomy,
6 Art-Music and Painting,
7 Hindi,
8 Home Science for girls and
9 Physical Education.
Assignment B
3 Discuss the factors that affect social change with suitable examples.
Ans: Some of the most important factors of social change are as under:
Physical Environment: Certain geographic changes sometimes produce great social change. Climate, storms, social erosion, earthquakes, floods, droughts etc., definitely affect social life and induce social change. BESC 131 Free Solved Assignment
Human life is closely bound up with the geographical conditions of the earth. Human history is full of examples that flourishing civilisations fell prey to natural calamities.
The distribution of population over various regions, the variations in the population densities, the agricultural production, flora and fauna, the joys and hardships-all indicate a change when a change in the physical environment occurs.
Demographic (biological) Factor: Broadly speaking, demography is concerned with the size and structure of human population.
The social structure of a society is closely related with the changes in the size, composition and distribution of population.
The size of the population is based mainly upon three factors birth change in the physical environment occurs. , death rate and migration (immigration and emigration)
Cultural Factor:It is an established fact that there is an intimate connection between our beliefs and social institutions, our values and social relationships.
Values, beliefs, ideas, institutions are the basic elements of a culture. Certainly, all cultural changes involve social change. Social and the cultural aspects are closely interwoven.
Thus, any change in the culture (ideas, values, beliefs etc.) brings a corresponding change in the whole social order. Social institutions cannot live on life shells within which life is extinct. BESC 131 Free Solved Assignment
Ideational Factor: Among the cultural factors affecting social change in modern times, the development of science and secularisation of thought have contributed a lot to the development of the critical and innovative character of the modern outlook.
We no longer follow many customs or habits merely because they have the age-old authority of tradition. On the contrary, our ways of life have increasingly become on the basis of rationality.
Economic Factor: the most far-reaching is the impact of industrialisation. It has revolutionised the whole way of life, institutions, organisations and community life.
In traditional production systems, levels of production were fairly static since they were geared to habitual, customary needs.
Modern industrial capitalism promotes the constant revision of the technology of production, a process into which science is increasingly drawn.
4 Describe the functions of school as an agency for the socialization of the child.
Ans: School in the modern time is treated as the most suitable, active and formal agency of education. As per the changing need of the hour, school develops and grows with its specific goals.BESC 131 Free Solved Assignment
It is emerged out of the demand for education and pressure on the parents regarding their educational pursuit.
Socialization refers to a process by which individuals acquire a personal identity and learn the knowledge, language, and social skills required to interact with others.
Again, students don’t only learn from the academic curriculum prepared by teachers and school administrators.
They also learn social rules and expectations from interactions with others. Students in America receive rewards for following schedules and directions, meeting deadlines, and obeying authority.
They learn how to avoid punishment by reducing undesirable behaviors like offensive language.
They also figure out that to be successful socially, they must learn to be quiet, to wait, to act interested even when they’re not, and to please their teachers without alienating their peers.
When the child comes to the school, his formal indoctrination into the culture of the society begins. He is exposed to a wider background than hitherto known to him.
He is formally introduced to the lore and the learning, the arts and the sciences, the values and the beliefs, the customs and taboos of the society from a wider circle, his teachers play a very significant role. BESC 131 Free Solved Assignment
The child may admire, respect and love some of his teachers. The impression which they make during this impressionable age lasts almost throughout his life.
5 Describe the characteristics of experimental method as a method of educational psychology.
Ans: Educational psychology focuses on the study of human behavior in which an experimenter can better understand the subject.
In order to study the subject, the experimenter uses certain methods to gather data. These methods are Introspection, Observation Method, Case Study Method, Interview Method, Differential Method, and Experimental Method.
In the Experimental Method, a hypothesis is tested with a subject and experimenter, and variables are manipulated, measured, and can be controlled.
For example, a student (the subject) can be carefully observed by the instructor (the experimenter) to measure the hypothesis the instructor is interested in, the student’s aptitude (the independent variable), in a controlled environment such as the classroom (the dependent variable).
A conclusion is drawn when the instructor observes and gathers how well the student performs in the classroom environment.
So, through the experimental method, a method commonly used in educational psychology to study the learning process and behavior, the subject and the experimenter work together to establish a cause and effect. BESC 131 Free Solved Assignment
From there, the independent variable and the dependent variable are observed, a relationship is established, and a conclusion is drawn.
Observation under controlled conditions: An experiment consists of objective observation of actions performed under rigidly controlled or laboratory conditions.
Control is the basic element in experimentation. In it the influence of extraneous factors that are not included in the hypothesis are prevented from operating and confusing the outcome which is to be appraised.
Three types of control, namely
(i) Physical control,
(ii) Selective control,
(iii) Statistical control are operated in an experiment.
Randomisation:As it very difficult to exercise complete control, efforts are made to assign cases in the experimental and control groups randomly.
Replication: Replication implies conducting a number of sub- experiments within the framework of an overall experimental design.
Assignment C
6 Discuss role of family as an agency for the development of education of the child.
Ans: The home is a primary agency of education. It is an informal but active agency. Family is also called an original social institution which gave birth to other organizations.
Every individual is born in a family and socialization takes place there at first. It is an important institution for child-rearing. BESC 131 Free Solved Assignment
The child is introduced to the culture of the society in the family itself and fulfils his needs Physical, emotional, psychological and social.
He gets his fundamental education through interaction with others in the family. There is an atmosphere of congenial love, affection, sympathy and understanding in the family and this promotes mutual interaction and informal education.
In face of all these limitations and difficulties, the role of the family cannot be underestimated.
In small families, children are born and brought up and must be influenced by the other members of the family.
The spirit of love and affection, sympathy and understanding in the family facilitates educational or learning process or the child.
The family must provide the basic tools or elementary knowledge for education. The good qualities of heart, head and hand are better imbibed through interaction in the family than in anywhere else. BESC 131 Free Solved Assignment
Group living begins and flourishes in the family and the child learns than in anywhere else. Group living begins and flourishes in the family and the child learns different skills of group living for his future life.
Congenial relations and sympathetic understanding among the members of the family are conducive to the development of personality and growth of education
Parental attention to the care of children and happy as well as harmonious relations between the parents and children would make the family “a sweet home” which is essential for well-being of the children as well as for good of the society.
7 Explain the concept of Metaphysics and its relation with education.
Ans: The metaphysics of education can be understood from the various perspectives of epistemology — a branch of philosophy that explores the nature of knowledge.
This includes the way knowledge is acquired, as well as the thoroughness and limitations of knowledge. The study of epistemology can be applied to the metaphysics of educational instruction.BESC 131 Free Solved Assignment
An externalist approach to education focuses on presenting students with information. The instructor emphasizes reading material, lectures, and multisensory explanations such as infographics and experimental analysis.
In contrast, an internalist approach to education focuses on a more subjective development of knowledge.
A internalist instructor emphasizes class discussion, group collaboration, and student autonomy in learning.
The externalist approach therefore is based on the external presentation of learning material, while the internalist approach is based on the internal comprehension of the student.
Of course, techniques from both methods can be used to optimize educational effectiveness. Within epistemology are numerous schools of thought that appeal to both the internalist and externalist approaches to knowledge.
Empiricism is the theory that knowledge is acquired through sensory experience. In contrast, idealism argues that knowledge is formed internally by innate properties of the human mind. BESC 131 Free Solved Assignment
Rationalism is a third epistemological school of thought that combines properties from both the empiricist and idealist schools and adds the concept of abstraction as a third property of knowledge.
Finally, constructivism argues that knowledge is constructed through social and traditional tendencies, and thus is relative.
8 Concept and aims of education as per John Dewey.
Ans : According to John Dewey, the development of social efficiency is one of the aims of education To him, school is a social institution.
The school should be organised in such a way that the activities of the outer world are reflected. BESC 131 Free Solved Assignment
Education takes place with the participation of the individual in social activities and relationships with his fellow human beings.
Dewey holds that education is a necessity for healthy living in the society. Education bridges the gulf between the innate nature of the child and the social needs and demands.
It gives him social consciousness. The school directs guides and controls the inborn propensities of the child in socially desirable channels.
The teacher must know the original nature of the child as well as the social demands. The teacher has to direct and guide the child’s activities in socially desirable channels.
The school is a social environment — “simplified, purified, balanced and graded.”
Thus the school provides a special type of environment. The school as a special environment will cultivate, within the child, the attitudes and dispositions which are necessary for a continuous and progressive life in a society.
The teacher has to play a significant role in this regard. He serves as the main directing force and organizer of the special environment of the school.
Dewey formulated “social efficiency” as aim of education in view of the changing tenor of society. BESC 131 Free Solved Assignment
This change has been brought by the application of science to the means of production and distribution, by the rise of great manufacturing centers and by the rapid growth of means of communication.
The school must take cognizance of these changes to fit the child in this changed situation in an effective manner.
Dewey emphasises that education is not a preparation for life; it is life itself. The child lives in the present. The future is meaningless to him.
Hence it is absurd to expect him to do things for some future preparation. As the child lives in the present, the educative process will be naturally based on the present needs and interests of the child.
9 Differentiate between enculturation and acculturation.
Ans: Enculturation and acculturation are terms that are used in sociology and social anthropology, to explain different processes of absorption of cultural traits by the people. Both processes help in explaining socialization on individuals in a society.
Enculturation helps a person living in a society imbibe and immerse social values of the culture that surrounds him. There is another term acculturation that is sometimes used for this very process and confuses
The process of socialization that helps a person to acquire social norms, values, behaviors, language and other tools of the culture that surrounds him in a society is labeled as enculturation. BESC 131 Free Solved Assignment
Much help in this process comes from parents, peers and siblings that provide the necessary push and pull to make a person learn what makes him socially more or better fit in his society.
All people in the society learn about acceptable behaviors and the behaviors they need to avoid.
Acculturation
Acculturation is a process of socialization that takes place whenever there is a meeting of two different cultures.
These changes taking place can be seen both at cultural as well as psychological levels. Both the cultures are affected with changes seen or felt in both cultures.
The changes that can be seen easily are the changes in clothing, language, and customs or practices. BESC 131 Free Solved Assignment
However, despite claims by anthropologists and sociologists about acculturation being a two way process of change, there is proof to suggest that changes take place mostly in the norms and values apart from clothing and language of minorities living inside a country rather than affecting majority customs and traditions.
What is the difference between Enculturation and Acculturation?
• Both enculturation and acculturation are processes of socialization taking place in a society.
• Whereas enculturation is a process that helps an individual to imbibe social values, norms, customs etc. of the culture he lives in, acculturation is a two way change process that takes placed when there is a meeting of two cultures.
• In acculturation there are changes felt in both cultures though mostly it is the minority culture that gets changed by way of changed language, clothing, customs and practices.
• Enculturation helps an individual to survive and better fit into the culture he finds himself surrounded
• No difference between the two terms is accepted in some countries where acculturation is considered as same as enculturation.
10 Discuss educational implications of social constructivism.
Ans: Social constructivism is a learning theory propounded by Lev Vygotsky in 1968. The theory states that language and culture are the frameworks through which humans experience, communicate, and understand reality.
According to Vygotsky, language and culture play essential roles both in human intellectual development and in how humans perceive the world.
This is to say that learning concepts are transmitted by means of language, interpreted and understood by experience and interactions within a cultural setting.
Since it takes a group of people to have language and culture to construct cognitive structures, knowledge therefore is not only socially constructed but co-constructed.
The link here is that while the constructivist sees knowledge as what students construct by themselves based on the experiences they gather from their environment, the social constructivist sees knowledge as what students do in collaboration with other students, teachers and peers.
Social constructivism is a variety of cognitive constructivism that emphasizes the collaborative nature of learning under the guidance of a facilitator or in collaboration with other students. BESC 131 Free Solved Assignment
In social constructivism children’s understanding is shaped not only through adaptive encounters with the physical world but through interactions between people in relation to the world that is not merely physical and apprehended by the senses, but cultural, meaningful and significant, and made so primarily by language.
Hein (1991) puts it in his own way that the level of potential development (academic achievement) is the level of development that the learner is capable of reaching under the guidance of teachers or in collaboration with peers.
He sees learning as a social activity associated with other human beings like the peers, family members as well as casual acquaintances, including the people that existed before.
Social Constructivism recognizes the social aspect of learning and the use of conversation, interaction with others, and the application of knowledge as an essential aspect of learning and a means to achieving learning objectives.
11 Explain the phases of creativity.
Ans: Preparation: This first stage is all about gathering information. This is the stage where you do user research and empathize with the users in order to define the problem and your users’ needs.
Some people think that creative ideas just pop up from a vacuum, but creative ideas are always solutions to a problem or a need.
At this stage, you also use various ideation methods to help you understand, attack and build your design problem and creative idea from various angles.
You provoke your habitual thinking in order to better understand your design problem, your idea and your design space.
Incubation: At this stage, you take a step back from the problem and allow your mind to wander to let it contemplate and work the problem through.
You nurture the unconscious thought process, for example, by staying open to the ideas that come to you while you do the dishes or go for a walk. You open your mind to all ideas—even the crazy ones.
Illumination: This is the third stage. This stage essentially describes the classic “eureka!” or “aha” moment of insight. BESC 131 Free Solved Assignment
However, the fact that illumination has an entire stage devoted to it shows that it’s essentially not just a quick moment of insight and helps us understand that it’s something we can—and should—work towards achieving.
The third stage is what most people think is a classic characteristic of a creative person, but creativity is a process which even the most seemingly unimaginative people can learn to manage and nurture.
Verification/implementation: At this fourth stage, you build on the “aha” solution. You evaluate, analyze and build on your idea.
You then polish it to make sure that it’s both useful and novel.
At this stage, you would also often choose to prototype and test your idea in order to find out if it meets the users’ needs which you defined at the preparation stage and, if so, polish it as needed. BESC 131 Free Solved Assignment
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