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1、Definition of Educationby Don Berg, FounderAttitutor ServicesProviding a proper definition of education is complicated by the fact that there is not a clear consensus about what is important about being and becoming educated.For many people the importance of education lies in future job prospects, f
2、or others its quality of citizenship, and yet others just want literacy, critical thinking, and/or creativity.I propose that behind all the differences of opinion about what it means to be educated is one very basic idea: an educated person is someone who perceives accurately, thinks clearly, and ac
3、ts effectively on self-selected goals.A better understanding of what education is, one that builds upon this idea, is crucial to enable people to reason about education productively.This will lead to more effective school reform programs and improve the everyday lives of students and teachers.A bett
4、er definition of education that aligns with how many psychologists and other cognitive scientists talk about learning is cognitive cartography, or mental mapmaking. In this essay, I will first present the cognitive cartography definition of education.Second, I will explain the primary flaw in the do
5、minant educational system, one that results from using the inadequate delivery metaphor in our definition of education.Finally, I will preview four proposals for large-scale and sustainable systems changes in education that will enable us to implement a new definition of education.The definition of
6、education guiding mainstream schools today is that education is the delivery of knowledge, skills, and information from teachers to students. While the above metaphoreducation as a delivery systemsoundsreasonable, it misses what is most important about education.This mistaken idea of what true educa
7、tion is and how it can be achieved is the root problem in mainstream education today.This conception of education contributes to harming students and teachers by driving policy makers to insist on accounting for the units of information that students demonstrate knowledge of on tests.The perceived n
8、eed for mass scale standardized outcomes leads to a kind of instructional bookkeeping that drives administrators to control teachers behavior, which in turn is directed to controlling students behavior in ways that increases symptoms of anxiety, depression, and other forms of diminished psychologica
9、l well-being.Student outcomes as measured by tests bear little relationship to true education, and so the instructional bookkeeping scheme is a failure even before the harm it causes is taken into consideration.Cognitive Cartography Definition of EducationLets go through an example of an everyday li
10、teral map-making process before we explore the metaphor.Pretend you are here with me in Portland, Oregon, and you want to get to Los Angeles, California.I make two points on a piece of paper then label them Portland and Los Angeles, but, having given you just these two pieces of information is total
11、ly useless.The two points can only become a map after I depict the relationships between the two points, such as indicating which way is north and then adding a connection between the points, such as highways, trail systems, or transportation options like buses, trains or airplanes.But even that is
12、of limited use because if you do not know how you relate to the places I have already drawn, then the information is still useless.If you falsely believe that you are on the west side of Portland then you are likely to make navigational mistakes that will get you ever more lost from the very beginni
13、ng of your trip.In order for the map to become useful, you have to know where you are and how your position relates to the points and lines on the map.If I do an adequate job of depicting the relationships between you and 1) your current location, 2) at least one of the transportation options you ha
14、ve available to you, and 3) your destination, then you should be able to accomplish your goal of getting to Los Angeles.If I do not do an adequate job, then you still might get to Los Angeles, but only if you overcome the limitations of the flawed map I provide you with.All of this is analogous to o
15、ur most common ideas about education. Units are useless until 1) they are effectively related to each other, 2) the depicted relations reflect modes of change that are actually available to the learner, and 3) the learner can fit themselves into that particular picture of the world in a way the gets
16、 them where they want to be.Instead of a spatial change of state from Oregon to California we are now talking about changing the learners state of mind.The key quality of educated people is the ability to move from negative states of mind to neutral or positive states of mind independent of the circumstances in which they find themselves situated.Positive states of mind are objectively the most productive sta
