EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

Educational research

A large amount of research in education is published every year; such research drives much educational policy and practice. But educational research raises many philosophical issues. How is it best conducted, and how are its results best interpreted and translated into policy? Should it be modeled on research in the natural sciences? In what ways (if any) does competent research in the social sciences differ from that in the natural sciences? Can educational research aim at objectivity and the production of objective results, or is it inevitably subjective? Should researchers utilize quantitative methods or qualitative ones? How is this distinction best understood? Are both legitimate modes of research, or is the first problematically scientistic or positivistic, or the second problematically subjective, impressionistic, or unreliable? These and related issues are largely philosophical, involving philosophy of science (both natural and social) and epistemology, but they clearly involve the social sciences as well.

EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY
Educational psychology is the theoretical and research branch of modern psychology, concerned with the learning processes and psychological problems associated with the teaching and training of students. The educational psychologist studies the cognitive development of students and the various factors involved in learning, including aptitude and learning measurement, the creative process, and the motivational forces that influence dynamics between students and teachers. Educational psychology is a partly experimental and partly applied branch of psychology, concerned with the optimization of learning. It differs from school psychology, which is an applied field that deals largely with problems in elementary and secondary school systems.

Educational psychology traces its origins to the experimental and empirical work on association and sensory activity by the English anthropologist Sir Francis Galton, and the American psychologist G. Stanley Hall, who wrote The Contents of Children's Minds (1883). The major leader in the field of educational psychology, however, was the American educator and psychologist Edward Lee Thorndike, who designed methods to measure and test children's intelligence and their ability to learn. Thorndike proposed the transfer-of-training theory, which states that “what is learned in one sphere of activity ‘transfers' to another sphere only when the two spheres share common ‘elements.' ”

AUDIOVISUAL EDUCATION

AUDIOVISUAL EDUCATION
Audiovisual education is the use of supplementary teaching aids, such as recordings, transcripts, and tapes; motion pictures and videotapes; radio and television; and computers, to improve learning.

Audiovisual education has developed rapidly since the 1920s by drawing on new technologies of communication, most recently the computer. History has shown that pictures, specimens, demonstrations, and other audiovisual means are effective teaching tools. John Amos Comenius (1592–1670), a Bohemian educator, was one of the first to propose a systematic method of audiovisual education. His Orbis Sensualium Pictus (“Picture of the Sensual World”), published in 1658, was profusely illustrated with drawings, each playing an important role in teaching the lesson at hand. Comenius was followed by other great educators, including Jean-Jacques Rousseau, John Locke, and J.H. Pestalozzi, who advocated the use of sensory materials to supplement teaching.

Audiovisual aids were widely employed by the armed services during and after World War II. This and much research over the intervening years indicate that, when skillfully used, audiovisual aids can lead to significant gains in recall, thinking, interest, and imagination.

PHYSICAL EDUCATION

PHYSICAL EDUCATION
Physical education, training in physical fitness and in skills requiring or promoting such fitness. Many traditional societies included training in hunting, ritual dance, and military skills, while others—especially those emphasizing literacy—often excluded physical skills.

The spread of literacy in the West between 1500 and 1800 coincided with a new awareness that fitness helps the mind. Gymnasiums opened across Europe, the first in Copenhagen in 1799. The German Turnverein movement grew, expanding to the United States with immigration. Per Ling developed a teaching system for physical education in Stockholm in 1814, and Otto Spiess (1810–1858) popularized another system in Germany. As public schools in Germany, Denmark, and the United States tried these systems, physical education joined baccalaureate curricula, becoming a major at Columbia University in 1901 and elsewhere later.

Japan's schools have linked physical and mental training since the 17th century. Public schools with compulsory physical education were founded in 1872; the trend since 1945 has been toward individual physical and mental development. The Soviet Union, after 1917, placed great emphasis on physical education, both in schools and in special physical education institutes.

Today, physical education is a required course in most primary and secondary schools in countries with compulsory education. Most teaching takes place inside gymnasiums or other facilities built specifically for physical education activities, although outdoor sports are also emphasized.

DISTANCE EDUCATION

DISTANCE EDUCATION
Distance Education is the methods of instruction that utilize different communications technologies to carry teaching to learners in different places. Distance education programs enable learners and teachers to interact with each other by means of computers, artificial satellites, telephones, radio or television broadcasting, or other technologies. Instruction conducted through the mail is often referred to as correspondence education, although many educators simply consider this the forerunner to distance education. Distance education is also sometimes called distance learning. While distance learning can refer to either formal or informal learning experiences, distance education refers specifically to formal instruction conducted at a distance by a teacher who plans, guides, and evaluates the learning process. As new communications technologies become more efficient and more widely available, increasing numbers of elementary schools, secondary schools, universities, and businesses offer distance education programs.

Nearly every country in the world makes use of distance education programs in its education system. Britain’s nationally supported Open University, based in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England, has one of the best-known programs. A vast majority of the school’s 133,000 students receive instruction entirely at a distance. More than 20 other countries have national open universities in which all instruction is provided by distance education methods. This method of education can be especially valuable in developing countries. By reaching a large number of students with relatively few teachers, it provides a cost-effective way of using limited academic resources. Many businesses use distance education programs to train employees or to help them update skills or knowledge. Employees may take such programs in the workplace or at home in their spare time.

THE NEED FOR REMEDIAL EDUCATION

THE NEED FOR REMEDIAL EDUCATION
Many students need additional instructional support in a particular subject at some point in their school years. Some students need more remedial support than others.

Many educators consider remedial education necessary to overcome the ill effects of poverty. Schools always have had difficulty educating children who live in economically disadvantaged households. Educational researchers note that relatively few low-income households are able to afford educational resources that could help create a rich, supportive learning environment in the home. For instance, families living in poverty are less likely to be able to afford books, computers, encyclopedias, and other learning resources. Children in such households often have difficulty matching the academic achievement of more advantaged children who live in homes and communities that provide greater access to educational resources. In addition, parents with low incomes typically have lower levels of educational attainment themselves. These parents often find it difficult to offer their children the same sort of academic advice and support that wealthier and better-educated parents can provide their own children.

Schools in lower-income communities are typically funded less than schools in higher-income communities. On various measures, such as class sizes, teacher qualifications, access to curriculum materials, and library facilities, schools in lower-income communities rank below those in higher-income communities. The result is that often students in lower-income communities receive a lower-quality education. This problem produces a greater need for remedial education programs.

There are many other reasons why students may fall behind academically and need remedial instruction. Teachers differ in their expertness for teaching math, reading, and other subjects. Thus, a student might need remedial help if he had teacher A in first grade but not if he had been lucky enough to have teacher B. School systems also differ in their support for teachers. In a school district with overcrowded classrooms, the same teacher B might be overwhelmed with work and not be able to attend to individual needs as well. Finally, parent involvement plays an important role in a student’s learning. Students whose parents are highly involved in their education are less likely to need remedial help than students whose parents are not involved...

REMEDIAL EDUCATION

REMEDIAL EDUCATION
Remedial Education is the special instruction designed to help students catch up to a desired level of academic achievement. In the United States and Canada, remedial education is common at all levels of schooling, from preschools through colleges and universities. The most common remedial education programs focus on developing students’ basic skills in reading, writing, and mathematics.

Some remedial education programs attempt to remedy insufficient learning in previous academic settings. These programs typically involve reteaching subjects or redesigning lessons to make the instruction clearer or more personalized for individual students. Remedial programs may also be designed to compensate for an educational disadvantage. For instance, a preschool program may provide learning opportunities designed to help children who are considered at risk of educational failure because of limited English proficiency. In higher education, a remedial math course may help some first-year college or university students compensate for inadequate preparation in math during high school.

Remedial education is based on the presumption that a student underachieves because of extrinsic (environmental) factors, such as poverty or insufficient access to high-quality education. Remedial education thus differs from special education, where the source of the learning difficulty is generally viewed as intrinsic—that is, due to a disability or disorder that exists within the individual. To avoid a common misperception that students in remedial programs have an intrinsic learning difficulty, some educators in the United States prefer to use the term developmental education rather than remedial education. Most educators consider programs in English as a Second Language (ESL) to be neither remedial, developmental, nor special education but a separate category of educational support.

Historically, schools allowed children to fall behind academically if they had difficulty matching the achievement of their peers. Most students who found learning difficult eventually dropped out of school to find work in occupations that did not require high levels of educational achievement. However, as society has changed and work has become more complex, the accepted minimum levels of educational achievement have steadily risen, especially since the 1960s. Enrollment levels in remedial education programs have likewise risen.