Page 102 - DEDU501_DEVELOPMENT_OF_EDUCATION_SYSTEM_ENGLISH

Development of Education System

Notes 10.4 Knowledge and Understanding

The question, ‘What should be taught to the young’? derives from a deeper question, namely,
What aims are worth pursuing in education? The answer is a vision of the capabilities and
values that every individual must have and a socio-political and cultural vision for society. This
is not a single aim, but a set of aims. So also the content selected seeks to do justice to the entire
set of aims; it has to be comprehensive and balanced. The curriculum needs to provide experiences
that build the knowledge base through a progressive introduction to the capabilities of thinking
rationally, to understand the world through various disciplines, foster aesthetic appreciation
and sensitivity towards others, to work and to participate in economic processes. This section
discusses the nature and forms of knowledge and understanding as necessary elements terrains
for making informed curricular choices and approaches to content. Knowledge can be conceived
as experience organised through language into patterns of thought (or structures of concepts),
thus creating meaning, which in turn helps us understand the world we live in. It can also be
conceived of as patterns of activity, or physical dexterity with thought, contributing to acting in
the world, and the creating and making of things. Human beings over time have evolved many
bodies of knowledge, which include a repertoire of ways of thinking, of feeling and of doing
things, and constructing more knowledge. All children have to re-create a significant part of this
wealth for themselves, as this constitutes the basis for further thinking and for acting appropriately
in this world. It is also important to learn to participate in the very process of knowledge
creation, meaning making and human action, i.e. work.
10.4.1 Basic Capabilities

Children’s basic capabilities are those that form the broad basis for the development of
understanding, values and skills.
(a) Language and other forms of expression provide the basis for meaning making, and
sharing with others. They create possibilities of development of understanding and
knowledge, providing the ability to symbolise, codify, and to remember and record.
Development of language for a child is synonymous with development of understanding
and identity, and also the capability of relating with others. It is not only verbal languages
with scripts, but also languages without scripts, sign languages, scripts such as Braille
and the performing arts, that provide the bases for making meaning and the expression.
(b) Forming and sustaining relationships with the social world, with the natural world, and
with one’s self, with emotional richness, sensitivity and values. This gives meaning to
life, providing it with emotional content and purpose. This is also the basis for ethics
and morality.
(c) Capabilities for work and action involves the coordination of bodily movement with
thought and volition, drawing on skill and understanding, and directing oneself to
achieve some purpose or create something. It also involves handling tools and
technologies, and the ability to manipulate and organise things and experiences, and to
communicate.
10.4.2 Knowledge in Practice
A vast array of human activities and practices sustain social living and culture. Crafts such as
weaving, carpentry and pottery, and occupations such as farming and shopkeeping, constitute
alongwith and performing and visual arts and sports a valuable form of knowledge. These
forms of knowledge are of a practical nature, tacit and often only partially articulated. Many of
them involve abilities that are developed. These include the ability to conceptualise and imagine
products that are useful or aesthetic, the knowledge of and ability to work with materials to
fashion a product, knowledge of one’s own abilities, appreciation of team work, and attitudes
of persistence and discipline. This is true whether it is an object being fashioned or whether it
is a play to be presented to an audience.

96 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY