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GUIDE 13

(UNESCO)
1. GENERAL INFORMATION Institution________________________________________________________ Teacher- Observer____________________ Date_________________________ 2. GOAL: To collect empirical evidences related to the four pillars of education at school, and compare them with the universal purposes in order to analyze their pedagogical implications. 3. MATERIALS: -A guide -Notes about cultural contexts -A list of children attitudes -Photocopy: UNESCO (1996), The Treasure Within. Report of the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-first Century. 4. THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS:

LEARNING THROUGHOUT LIFE The concept of learning throughout life emerges as one of the keys to the twenty-first century. It goes beyond the traditional distinction between initial and continuing education. It meets the challenges posed by a rapidly changing world. Previous reports on education have emphasized the need for people to return to education in order to deal with new situations in their personal and working lives. That need is still felt and it is becoming stronger. (UNESCO, 1996)
Education throughout life is based on four pillars

1. Learning to know 2. Learning to do

3. Learning to be 4. Learning together to live

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The dominant theme of the Edgar Faure report is Learning to Be: The World of Education Today and Tomorrow (1972). Its recommendations are still very relevant, for in the twenty-first century everyone will need to exercise greater independence and judgement combined with a stronger sense of personal responsibility for the attainment of common goals. UNESCO has alluded to another idea: learning society founded on the acquisition, renewal and use of knowledge. These are aspects that ought to be emphasized in the educational process. As the development of the information society is increasing the opportunities for access to data and facts, education should enable everyone to gather information and to select, arrange, manage and use it.

4. FIELD WORK: according to your experience inside the institution, collect evidence related to each of the four pillars of education. Fill in the table below: Pillars of education Ye N Institutional Comments o Strategies. Evidences
1. Learning to know: by combining a sufficiently broad general knowledge with the opportunity to work in depth on a small number of subjects. This also means learning to learn, so as to benefit from the opportunities education provides throughout life. 2. Learning to do: in order to acquire not only an occupational skill but also, more broadly, the competence to deal with many situations and work in teams. It also mean learning to do in the context of young peoples various social and work experiences which may be informal, as a result of the local or national context, or formal, involving courses, alternating study and work. 3. Learning to live together: by developing an understanding of other people and an appreciation of interdependence carrying out joint projects and learning to manage conflicts- in a spirit of respect for the values of pluralism, mutual understanding and peace. 4. Learning to be: so as better

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to develop ones personality and be able to act with ever greater autonomy. Judgement and personal responsibility. In that connection, education must not disregard any aspect of a persons potential: memory, reasoning, aesthetic sense, physical capacities and communication skills.

REFLECTION:

GUIDE 14

PRESENT, PAST AND FUTURE OF MY SCHOOL

Observation Number ______

1. GENERAL INFORMATION Institution:______________________________________________________________ Teacher-Observer:_____________________________________ Date:______________ 2. GOAL: To collect and analyze information about science, technology and education in order to establish their relationship according to the quality of education. 3. MATERIALS: -A guide -Photocopy: UNESCO (1996), The Treasure Within. Report of the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-first Century. -A group of teachers -A list of questions. -PEI your diary and Field notes 4. THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS: Colombian schools are being sharply criticized for economic and financial reasons. According to UNESCO,

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Education has to face up this problem now more than ever as a world society struggles painfully to be born: education is at the heart of both personal and community development; its mission is to enable each of us, without exception, to develop all our talents to the full and to realize our creative potential, including responsibility for our own lives and achievement of our personal aims. The nature of work has already changed considerably in recent years. The emergence and development of information societies and continued technological progress, which is a marked trend of the late twentieth century, emphasize the increasingly intangible dimension of work and accentuate the role played by intellectual and social skills. Education systems can therefore no longer be expected to train a labour force for stable industrial jobs; they must instead train individuals to be innovative, capable of evolving, adapting to a rapidly changing world and assimilating change. (UNESCO,1996:71). UNESCO wishes to define education not solely from the point of view of its impact on economic growth, but from the broader perspective of human development. Productivity and technological progress are the features of modern societies. Life-styles and consumer habits have changed radically, and the idea of improving human well-being by economic progress has taken hold virtually throughout the world. Development is nevertheless still profoundly inegalitarian, and growth rates vary considerably from country to country and from region to region. What is more, the disparities have been exacerbated by competition among nations and among groups. Certain countries would thus appear to be lagging behind in the race for competition. Such disparities can be partly explained as dysfunctional. They are also closely linked to contemporary forces behind development, which highlights to brainpower and innovation. Under the pressure of technological progress and modernization, the demand for education for economic purposes has been constantly on the rise in most countries. The link between the rate of technical progress and the quality of human intervention has become increasingly evident. New skills are needed and education systems are required to meet that need by providing not only the minimum of schooling or vocational training, but also training for scientists, innovators and high-level specialists. The technological changes that continuously influence the nature and organization of labour has become a matter of paramount importance. Every sector, (agriculture, industry, army, trade, education, environment) has need of evolutive skills tied in with knowledge and know how. This irreversible development is a blow to practices and qualifications acquired by repetition or by imitation. As the twenty-first century dawns, the activity of education and training of all kinds has become one of the prime movers of

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development. It also contributes to scientific and technological progress, and to the widespread advance of knowledge, which are the most decisive factors of economic growth. One initial conclusion seems to be self-evident: the developing countries may reach into the world of science and technology. Unless a vigorous effort is made to obviate this risk, some countries that lack the wherewithal to join in international technological competition are liable to become enclaves of poverty, despair or violence that cannot be eliminated by aid and humanitarian action. Even within the developed countries, entire social groups are in danger of exclusion from the process of socialization represented until recently by an industrial-type organization of labour. In both cases, the core problem is still the uneven distribution of knowledge and skills. The school should, taking advantage of television when possible, increase pupils receptivity to museums, theatres, libraries, cinemas and, more generally, the whole of the countrys cultural life. The media are an integral part of our cultural environment, in the broadest sense of the term. Their aims are not necessarily educational, but their very real power of attraction has to be taken into account. Teachers need , therefore, to develop in pupils a critical approach to television that will enable them to use it as a learning aid, sifting and arranging in order of importance the huge volume of information it conveys. We must keep in mind the essential purpose of education, which is to enable everyone to develop the ability to form judgements and act therefrom. Energetic measures are needed to analyze the causes and to attempt to find remedies. Such measures can range from the reform of teacher training to financial assistance, innovative experiments in group work, team teaching and the use of technologies enabling up-to-date teaching materials to be employed. Schooling should help pupils acquire, on the one hand, the tools for dealing with the new technologies and, on the other, the aptitudes for managing conflict and violence. They need to develop the creativity and empathy necessary for them to become actively participating and creative citizens of tomorrow. In the global village of tomorrow, lack of access to the latest information technology can have a negative impact on every level of scientific and technological education. Science and technology must be an integral part of education for everyone, a particular effort must be made to bridge the gap between the industrialized and non-industrialized countries in science and technology education.

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1. Make a list of didactic materials used in the institution: Books, booklets, guides, computers, labs, boards, mass media, general equipment. 2. Invite a teacher to have a cup of coffee. Ask him/her some questions about science, technology, progress and education. Imagine hypothetical situations such as: imagine the future of your institution. 20 years later, my school or high school will be characterized by: a). A TV in each classroom b) All students will use internet c) Teachers will communicate with other teachers all over the world d) We would not use board nor chalk e) Science and technology will be the dominant f) What else? 2. Complete the following table: put an X according to the real situation of your school or high school.
Progress, science and technology Yesterday
Yes 1. Education in my school is at the heart of both personal and community development. 2. Education in my school trains individuals to be innovative, capable of evolving, adapting to a rapidly changing world and assimilating change 3. My school is sharply criticized for economic and financial reasons. 4. My school trains a labour force for stable industrial jobs. 5. Life-styles and consumer habits change radically the culture of my school. 6. My school emphasizes the idea of improving human well-being by economic progress. 7. My school believes that development is profoundly unequal. 8. My school agrees that the inequitable distribution of the surpluses is created by higher productivity, both between countries and within certain countries regarded as being rich. No I dont know Yes

Today
No I dont know

Tomorrow
Yes No I dont know

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9. My school is closely linked to contemporary forces behind development, which give pride of place to brainpower and innovation. 10. New skills are needed and my school is training for scientists, innovators and highlevel specialists 11. In Colombia there is a marked growth in private investments. Such investments normally go together with transfers of technology and can form the basis of rapid economic development. 12. Developing countries may arrive into the world of science and technology. 13. Poor countries are excluded from progress. 14. Measures can range from the reform of teacher training to financial assistance, innovative experiments in group work, team teaching and the use of technologies enabling up-to-date teaching materials. 15. Schooling helps pupils acquire, on the one hand, the tools for dealing with the new technologies and, on the other, the aptitudes for managing conflict and violence. They need to develop the creativity and empathy necessary for them to become actively participating and creative citizens. 16. The effect of innovation and technological progress means that economies will increasingly demand competencies that require high level studies. 17. There is antagonism between education and the mass media. Educators criticize the media, and more especially television, for imposing a kind of lowest cultural common denominator, cutting down the time devoted to reading and thought. The media, for their part, readily accuse my school of conservatism and of resorting to outmoded methods to pass on obsolete knowledge, boring pupils and students, and making them lose interest in learning. 18. Funds for continuing education increases substantially. REFLECTION: