Principle of Education

 

CH1:INTRO DUCTION PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION

 

1.1 Education

Education is defined by different educationists in different ways. Some see education as a process of socializing the individual in the norms and values of a particular social group.

For our purpose we shall define education as a process by which the individual acquires desired skills, knowledge, values and attitudes in order to be able to function fully in the society. Education enables an individual to apply the knowledge and skills acquired to improve his/her life, in particular, and the society in general.

Quality of education is now an issue of every  nation concern without quality education, development will not occur. Only the educated people can command the skills necessary for sustainable economic growth and for a better life.

         If education is the to life ,then you need to get the right key.

 

The word “process” under-scores that education is a continuous activity that never ends. It is only  the school education that begins and ends with the time of schooling, but education as such continues throughout a person’s life. This could mean that education is a long-life process. The learner has to be actively involved in the learning process, if the desired knowledge, skills and attitudes are to be acquired.

1.2 Types of Education:

There are three types of education namely: formal education, non-formal education and informal Education.

1.2.1 Formal Education

Formal education is a form of education, where learning takes place in special institutions such as schools, colleges. It is characterized by being highly structured and rigidly organized. The pupils go through specific classes to learn different content at the end of which they sit specified examinations, and achievement recognized by award of certificates.

1.2.2 Non-formal Education.

Non-formal education is often organized outside the usual formal time in the school. It may be seen to take the forms of adult education, family planning programmes, seminars, practical training. Club activities in schools and communities. It also serves as an alternative for those who miss out of formal schooling for one reason or another. In Short, it has flexibility in choice of content,   methods, time table and meeting places.

1.2.3 Informal Education

Informal education takes place anywhere and at any time, as long as one is awake. It is often unconsciously learnt. Its main purpose is to transfer some social values which are held highly in a given society. It is socialization process which is the result of interaction among people in a given society. Informal education is not organized with specific purpose in view. It takes place naturally.

 It involves what pupils learn as they interact with family members, peers, teachers, in mosques and mass media

 History of Education

History of education may be defined as a study of the past educational developments, especially of education systems, theories and institutions within the general historical context of social, economic, political, cultural, scientific and technological change.

Functions of Education                                      

Education serves us to:.

-   Meet the economic and social needs of national development by equipping the youth to play an active and productive role in the life of the nation.

-   Provide opportunities for fullest development of individual talents and personality.

-   Development of social and moral value: society is always in tension with narrowism. There is no social or moral value. Education teaches the moral and social value like co’operation tolerance,sympathy,feelings,love, respect towards elder helping the poor and needy person

-   Providing opportunity or equality:  education teaches us to give equal opportunities in all aspects irrespective of caste, creed, color, sex and  religion

-    Education helps the  individuals to reconstruct the experience and adjust with the environment, because life is Education and education is life.

-   Foster positive attitudes toward other countries and the international community

-   Makes you confident: education gives  you the confidence to express your views and opinions.

-   Everybody likes a wise and knowledgeable person ! Educated people are considered highly reputable in the society. The more Educated you are, the more respect you will get from those around you.

-   We live in an ever changing world.  New technologies keep coming up and if you don’t want to be left behind, you must keep up with the world which is moving really fast.  With out education it will be difficult for you to adapt to all these changes.

-   Promote the diffusion and practice of genuine Islamic faith, values, principles and laws

-   Foster human rights, freedom, social justice and national unity.

 

SPECIAL NEEDS EDUCATION

 Definition of the term “exceptional children”

Henry(1950)., defines exceptional children( children with special needs  ) as those who deviate from what is supposed to be average in physical, mental, emotional or social characteristics to such an extent that they require special education services in order to develop to their maximum capacity.

Crunk Shank (1958) seems to concur with the above definition saying that exceptional children are those who deviate intellectually so markedly from what is considered to be normal growth and development that they cannot receive maximum benefit from regular school programs and require special classes or supplemental instructional services.

Admittedly it is difficult to define exceptionality but as the foregoing definition goes, it is important to note that exceptional children are those who will require specialized skills and services.

 

Categories (types) of special needs children

Exceptional children can be categorized as follows:

·   Gifted and talented children

·   Visually impaired

·   Hearing impaired

·   Physically challenged

·   Mentally challenged

·   Children with emotional and behavioral problems

·   Children with chronic health  problems

·   Children with specific learning difficulties

·   Children living under difficult circumstance.

Classification of exceptional children

    The gifted and talented

   Who are the gifted Students? Those are very bright, creative and are talented students.

Consider this situation, a  Story

Latoya was already an advanced reader when she entered 1^st grade in a large urban school district.  Her teacher noticed the challenging chapter books Latoya brought to school and read with little effort . After administering a reading assessment, the school’s reading consultant confirmed that Latoya was reading at the 5^th grade level . Latoya parents reported with  the pride that she had started to read independently when she was 3 years old .and had read every book she could get her hands on. In her struggling urban school, Latoya received no particular accommodations, and by 5^th grade , she was still reading at just above the 5^th grade level. Her 5^th grade teacher had no idea that Latoya had ever been an advanced reader.

Latoya is not alone. There is a group with special needs.

There is no agreement about what constitutes a gifted student, one reason being that individuals         can have many gifts.

Identified giftedness as a combination of three basic characteristics i.e.

·        Above average general ability

·        High level of creativity

·        High level of task commitment or motivation to achieve in certain areas

How a teacher identifies the gifted children

Truly gifted children are not  the students who simply learn quickly with little effort. The work of gifted students is original, extremely advanced for their age. These students  children may read fluently  with little instruction by age 3or 4 . They may play a musical  instrument like  skillful adult  turn a visit to the grocery store into a mathematical puzzle, and becomes fascinated with algebra  when their friends are having  trouble  carrying in addition Although this characteristic is present, it is important that the teacher notices those children who

-   Reason things out, think clearly, use common sense and practical knowledge

-   Have knowledge of many things

-   Have a large vocabulary accurately used

-   Perform difficult mental tasks

-   Ask many questions and are interested in a wide range of things

Problems associated with talent giftedness

·        Non-participation

·        They may get into trouble

How to manage the gifted children

Many suggestions have been put forward

Some people feel that the gifted children should be put in classes according to mental age rather than chronological age. They could be allowed to skip grades. This approach would solve one problem but create another problem for the gifted child. If a child skips grades he is removed from his social emotional peers, which may affect social adjustment later. For this reason some approaches have advised that the child should be retained in class with his age-mates but be given additional work or material.

 Hearing impaired (the deaf)

Who are deaf children?

The deaf children are those who are born with little or no hearing or who suffered the loss of hearing in infancy before speech and language patterns are acquired. Not all hearing- impaired children are deaf.

 

 Classification of hearing impairments

The deaf refer to those children whose sense of hearing is non-functional. They are divided into the following two broad categories:

-       Congenitally deaf- those born deaf

-       Adventitiously deaf- those born with normal hearing but loose sense of hearing through disease or accident

What are some of the signs of hearing impairment?

Some of the signs of hearing problems are

-       Turning one ear towards the speaker

-       Covering  one ear in conversation

-       Trouble of consonant sounds

-       Not following directions

-       Seeming distracted or confused at times

-       Frequent asking people to repeat what they have said.

-       Mispronouncing new words or names

-       Being reluctant to participate in class discussions.

How are hearing impaired children managed?

Over the years several approaches have been developed in the management of hearing impaired children.

ü They have been trained in speech reading also called lip reading.

ü They have also been trained in sign language and finger spelling.

ü  Today technological innovations such as teletypewriters.

What Vision  impairment

Vision  impairment  means that a person’s eyesight cannot be corrected to a “normal” level. Vision  impairment mat be caused by loss of visual  acuity, where the eye does not see objects as clearly as usual.

Vision impairment in child

Vision impairment changes how a child understands and functions in the  world. Impaired Vision  can affect a child’s cognitive, emotional, neurological and physical development.

Nearly two-thirds of children with Vision impairment also  have one or more other development disabilities, such as Mental retardation, cerebral palsy, hearing loss.

Students who have  difficulty  seeing often hold books either very close to or very far from their eyes.  They may squint ,rub their eyes frequently, complain that  their eyes burn or itch . The eyes may actually be swallow. The students with  Vision problem may misread  material on the chalkboard describe their vision as being  blurred, be very sensitive to light, hold their heads at an odd angle.

Causes of visual impairment

There are varied causes of visual impairment

-       Infectious diseases

-       Hereditary factors

-       Accidents and injury to the eyes also cause blindness.

-       Poisoning caused by the spitting chemicals that are harmful to the eyes are known to cause blindness

-       Glaucoma

-       Cataract  

-       Color blindness

-      Tumors

Management of the visually impaired students

There are special materials and equipment that help visually impaired students to function in regular classrooms. These include

ü Large print typewriters,

ü Variable speed tape recorders,

ü Special calculators, the abacus.

ü Needing Braille materials

ü Charts, models and special measuring devices.

ü White cane tool

Children living  under difficult circumstances

Children whose families  cannot provide them adequate care safety and protection.

Some of them are given  there

ü Home less children

ü Orphaned

ü Children separated from parents

ü Migrant and refugee children

ü Street children

ü Children affected by war and conflict etc.