Overall, I would have to say this was a very enjoyable article. The main purpose is to try and give definitions to some of the terminology, in particular, education, training, aims, goals and objectives, which are tossed around within the field of education. In trying to do so, Posner exposes us, through example, to some of the more well-known people who have also tried to distinguish between the various forms of knowledge acquisition.
Posner first gives us a definition of training as “....the specific situations in which people will use what they learn” and education as “....the situations in which people will use what they learn.” (pg 70) When it comes to curriculum, we are looking at content approaches and process approaches. In many ways, the two overlap quite often and as Posner states, “....the assumptions when formulating curricula for educational contexts is that most of the situations for which we prepare students are unpredictable.” (pg 70) From a learning standpoint, knowledge of some subjects is used “associatively” and “interpretively”, whereas knowledge of other subjects is used “replicatively” and “applicatively”. The former, as explained by Posner, is education and the later is training. It is the difference between fundamental principles as one receives in education and the job-related skills one receives through training.
Some of the other terms Posner tries to explain are the differences between aims, goals, and objectives. Although they are often used interchangeably, there are slight differences in the meaning. The impression I got when reading Posner, was that of a funnel with aims being at the widest part and then gradually becoming more focused with goals, and finally, the most detailed with objectives. Posner also goes on to categorize them into societal goals, administrative goals and educational goals. The chart on pg 72 does a good job of incorporating the terms and showing the relationship amongst them. In this section, the most significant statement was: “as societal values have changed throughout history, the intended purpose of an education has followed suit.” (pg 74) Societal goals are those which try to change society for the better, administrative goals are those which are required by an organization, and educational goals are the result of what is supposed to take place “over the years and across the subject matters of schooling.” (pg 76) On the other hand, the more narrowly defined are learning objectives, which can be further broken down into lesson objectives and course objectives.
From learning objectives, we are them re-introduced to the likes of Bloom along with his taxonomies of learning, mainly cognitive, affective, and psychomotor, Gagne’s five major categories of learning outcomes, and Ryle’s two types of knowledge; “knowing that”, which deals with “subject matter” and “knowing how” , which deals with “skills”, and the distinct differences between the two.
Up to this point, Posner has dealt with the process of learning. In the latter part of chapter 4, he focuses on content from a behavioural psychological view, a pedagogical view, and a multicultural view (which I don’t cover here). The amazing facet of this part of the reading was the fact that depending on how you look at curriculum the way in which educators teach it will be skewed towards that view.
QUESTIONS FOR THE CLASS:
- How important is it for educators to distinguish between education and training when it comes to curricula?
- Is education curricula, as you deliver it, primarily content or process based?
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2 comments:
Vince,
I'm not sure that you can split up training and eduation all the time. If you aren't "educated" with the knowledge base how can you even think about the training. On the flip side I can train someone to open and close a gate but at some point aren't they going to want to know(the eduation) why they are doing it? I think that having both of them in the curriculum is going to strengthen them both.
In my teaching both content and process are used. The correct way to change a dressing(process)is demonstrated and the rationale(content) for that process is also discussed. The proff that the student has learned is by a repeat demonstration while they are explaining why they are doing it that way. So there is instant feedback mechanism.
Jacquie
Jacquie...
This is an example of what Ryle called the “know that” and the “know how”. Each of them is concerned with learning but one through content (the know t hat) and one with process (the know how). In a profession such as nursing, the knowing that (the theory) is intertwined with the knowing how (the actual doing). In my earlier posting, Posner mentioned the idea of education and training and the purposes. Training is used more in vocational settings where the learning is replicated and education is primarily based on proportional knowledge. Overall, you’re absolutely correct in that education and training are complementary to each other.
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