Excellence in Education :: essays research papers

The concept of honor in cultivation is one that, on thesurface, seems to be unquestionable. After all, who wouldnot accede that students within our schools should, in fact,excel? certainly teachers, parents, and administrators canagree on excellence as an aim to fool away for. Theinterpretation of the term "excellence" is, however, lessobvious. How do we regard excellence? Is it the collegebound student with a broad liberal arts education? Is it thestudent who graduates high school trained in a particularizedtrade? Many in the field of education cannot come to an concord on how our schools can best achieve excellencefor and from our students. One of the galore(postnominal) authorities who have contributed a modelfor what schools should be is Robert L. Ebel. According toEbel, acquaintance is the single most significant and mostimportant goal in the education of children. In his article"What are schools for?" Ebel dish ups "that schools are for accomplishmen t, and that what ought to be versed mostly is useful fellowship" (3). He builds this declaration in answer totrends in education that focus upon other aspects oflearning in schools. Ebel states in the beginning of hisarticle, that he does not assume schools should be social research agencies, recreational facilities, adjustmentcenters, or custodial institutions. (3). While he does notdeny that our nation is currently wrestling with a dreary aline of social ailments, he does argue that the answer tosuch problems can or should lie within the jurisdiction ofour schools.In discussing educations relegation to provide useful experience, Ebel defines what he means by the word acknowledgeledge "It is an integrated structure of relationshipsamong concepts and propositions" (5). Knowledge, theway Ebel describes it is not the same as information. Ebelstates that "knowledge is built out of information bythinking". Knowledge, according to Ebel, must(prenominal) beconstruct ed from information by each individual learner itcannot be looked up, or given to students by a parent orteacher. " A student must earn the right to say I know byhis own thoughtful efforts to understand" (Ebel, 5). Theintellectual proficiencies many educators fancy to teach are,like information, substantively useless to Ebel without aknowledge base of operations on which to draw from.Ebel feels that a good teacher can "motivate, direct, and hang the learning process to great advantage". AlthoughEbel feels that good teachers are essential to providing a"favorable learning environment," he puts much of theaccountability for learning on the students themselves. Ebelfeels that teachers are there to facilitate students in theirlearning, not to nip those who are indifferent andunmotivated and do not wish to learn, against their will.