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Prehistoric and primitive cultures

  • Mesopotamia
  • North China
  • The Hindu tradition
  • The introduction of Buddhist influences
  • Classical India
  • Indian influences on Asia
  • Xi (Western) Zhou (1046–771 bce )
  • Dong (Eastern) Zhou (770–256 bce )
  • Qin autocracy (221–206 bce )
  • Scholarship under the Han (206 bce –220 ce )
  • Introduction of Buddhism
  • Ancient Hebrews
  • Education of youth
  • Higher education
  • The institutions
  • Physical education
  • The primary school
  • Secondary education
  • Early Roman education
  • Roman modifications
  • Education in the later Roman Empire
  • Ancient Persia
  • Elementary education
  • Professional education
  • Early Russian education: Kiev and Muscovy
  • Influences on Muslim education and culture
  • Aims and purposes of Muslim education
  • Organization of education
  • Major periods of Muslim education and learning
  • Influence of Islamic learning on the West
  • From the beginnings to the 4th century
  • From the 5th to the 8th century
  • The Irish and English revivals
  • The cultural revival under Charlemagne and his successors
  • Influences of the Carolingian renaissance abroad
  • Education of the laity in the 9th and 10th centuries
  • Monastic schools
  • Urban schools
  • New curricula and philosophies
  • Thomist philosophy
  • The Italian universities
  • The French universities
  • The English universities
  • Universities elsewhere in Europe
  • General characteristics of medieval universities
  • Lay education and the lower schools
  • The foundations of Muslim education
  • The Mughal period
  • The Tang dynasty (618–907 ce )
  • The Song (960–1279)
  • The Mongol period (1206–1368)
  • The Ming period (1368–1644)
  • The Manchu period (1644–1911/12)
  • The ancient period to the 12th century
  • Education of the warriors
  • Education in the Tokugawa era
  • Effect of early Western contacts
  • The Muslim influence
  • The secular influence
  • Early influences
  • Emergence of the new gymnasium
  • Nonscholastic traditions
  • Dutch humanism
  • Juan Luis Vives
  • The early English humanists
  • Luther and the German Reformation
  • The English Reformation
  • The French Reformation
  • The Calvinist Reformation
  • The Roman Catholic Counter-Reformation
  • The legacy of the Reformation
  • The new scientism and rationalism
  • The Protestant demand for universal elementary education
  • The pedagogy of Ratke
  • The pedagogy of Comenius
  • The schools of Gotha
  • Courtly education
  • The teaching congregations
  • Female education
  • The Puritan reformers
  • Royalist education
  • The academies
  • John Locke’s empiricism and education as conduct
  • Giambattista Vico, critic of Cartesianism
  • The condition of the schools and universities
  • August Hermann Francke
  • Johann Julius Hecker
  • The Sensationists
  • The Rousseauists
  • National education under enlightened rulers
  • Spanish and Portuguese America
  • French Québec
  • New England
  • The new academies
  • The middle colonies
  • The Southern colonies
  • Newfoundland and the Maritime Provinces.
  • The social and historical setting
  • The pedagogy of Pestalozzi
  • The influence of Pestalozzi
  • The pedagogy of Froebel
  • The kindergarten movement
  • The psychology and pedagogy of Herbart
  • The Herbartians
  • Other German theorists
  • French theorists
  • Spencer’s scientism
  • Humboldt’s reforms
  • Developments after 1815
  • Girls’ schools
  • The new German universities
  • Development of state education
  • Elementary Education Act
  • Secondary and higher education
  • The educational awakening
  • Education for females
  • New Zealand
  • Education under the East India Company
  • Indian universities
  • The Meiji Restoration and the assimilation of Western civilization
  • Establishment of a national system of education
  • The conservative reaction
  • Establishment of nationalistic education systems
  • Promotion of industrial education
  • Social and historical background
  • Influence of psychology and other fields on education
  • Traditional movements
  • Progressive education
  • Child-centred education
  • Scientific-realist education
  • Social-reconstructionist education
  • Major trends and problems
  • Early 19th to early 20th century
  • Education Act of 1944
  • The comprehensive movement
  • Further education
  • Imperial Germany
  • Weimar Republic
  • Nazi Germany
  • Changes after World War II
  • The Third Republic
  • The Netherlands
  • Switzerland
  • Expansion of American education
  • Curriculum reforms
  • Federal involvement in local education
  • Changes in higher education
  • Professional organizations
  • Canadian educational reforms
  • The administration of public education
  • Before 1917
  • The Stalinist years, 1931–53
  • The Khrushchev reforms
  • From Brezhnev to Gorbachev
  • Perestroika and education
  • The modernization movement
  • Education in the republic
  • Education under the Nationalist government
  • Education under communism
  • Post-Mao education
  • Communism and the intellectuals
  • Education at the beginning of the century
  • Education to 1940
  • Education changes during World War II
  • Education after World War II
  • Pre-independence period
  • The postindependence period in India
  • The postindependence period in Pakistan
  • The postindependence period in Bangladesh
  • The postindependence period in Sri Lanka
  • South Africa
  • General influences and policies of the colonial powers
  • Education in Portuguese colonies and former colonies
  • German educational policy in Africa
  • Education in British colonies and former colonies
  • Education in French colonies and former colonies
  • Education in Belgian colonies and former colonies
  • Problems and tasks of African education in the late 20th century
  • Colonialism and its consequences
  • The second half of the 20th century
  • The Islamic revival
  • Migration and the brain drain
  • The heritage of independence
  • Administration
  • Primary education and literacy
  • Reform trends
  • Malaysia and Singapore
  • Philippines
  • Education and social cohesion
  • Education and social conflict
  • Education and personal growth
  • Education and civil society
  • Education and economic development
  • Primary-level school enrollments
  • Secondary-level school enrollments
  • Tertiary-level school enrollments
  • Other developments in formal education
  • Literacy as a measure of success
  • Access to education
  • Implications for socioeconomic status
  • Social consequences of education in developing countries
  • The role of the state
  • Social and family interaction
  • Alternative forms of education

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What was education like in ancient Athens?

How does social class affect education attainment, when did education become compulsory, what are alternative forms of education, do school vouchers offer students access to better education.

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What does education mean?

Education refers to the discipline that is concerned with methods of teaching and learning in schools or school-like environments, as opposed to various nonformal and informal means of socialization .

Beginning approximately at the end of the 7th or during the 6th century, Athens became the first city-state in ancient Greece to renounce education that was oriented toward the future duties of soldiers. The evolution of Athenian education reflected that of the city itself, which was moving toward increasing democratization.

Research has found that education is the strongest determinant of individuals’ occupational status and chances of success in adult life. However, the correlation between family socioeconomic status and school success or failure appears to have increased worldwide. Long-term trends suggest that as societies industrialize and modernize, social class becomes increasingly important in determining educational outcomes and occupational attainment.

While education is not compulsory in practice everywhere in the world, the right of individuals to an educational program that respects their personality, talents, abilities, and cultural heritage has been upheld in various international agreements, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948; the Declaration of the Rights of the Child of 1959; and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 1966.

Alternative forms of education have developed since the late 20th century, such as distance learning , homeschooling , and many parallel or supplementary systems of education often designated as “nonformal” and “popular.” Religious institutions also instruct the young and old alike in sacred knowledge as well as in the values and skills required for participation in local, national, and transnational societies.

School vouchers have been a hotly debated topic in the United States. Some parents of voucher recipients reported high levels of satisfaction, and studies have found increased voucher student graduation rates. Some studies have found, however, that students using vouchers to attend private schools instead of public ones did not show significantly higher levels of academic achievement. Learn more at ProCon.org.

Should corporal punishment be used in elementary education settings?

Whether corporal punishment should be used in elementary education settings is widely debated. Some say it is the appropriate discipline for certain children when used in moderation because it sets clear boundaries and motivates children to behave in school. Others say can inflict long-lasting physical and mental harm on students while creating an unsafe and violent school environment. For more on the corporal punishment debate, visit ProCon.org .

Should dress codes be implemented and enforced in education settings?

Whether dress codes should be implemented and enforced in education settings is hotly debated. Some argue dress codes enforce decorum and a serious, professional atmosphere conducive to success, as well as promote safety. Others argue dress codes reinforce racist standards of beauty and dress and are are seldom uniformly mandated, often discriminating against women and marginalized groups. For more on the dress code debate, visit ProCon.org .

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education , discipline that is concerned with methods of teaching and learning in schools or school-like environments as opposed to various nonformal and informal means of socialization (e.g., rural development projects and education through parent-child relationships).

(Read Arne Duncan’s Britannica essay on “Education: The Great Equalizer.”)

Education can be thought of as the transmission of the values and accumulated knowledge of a society. In this sense, it is equivalent to what social scientists term socialization or enculturation. Children—whether conceived among New Guinea tribespeople, the Renaissance Florentines, or the middle classes of Manhattan—are born without culture . Education is designed to guide them in learning a culture , molding their behaviour in the ways of adulthood , and directing them toward their eventual role in society. In the most primitive cultures , there is often little formal learning—little of what one would ordinarily call school or classes or teachers . Instead, the entire environment and all activities are frequently viewed as school and classes, and many or all adults act as teachers. As societies grow more complex, however, the quantity of knowledge to be passed on from one generation to the next becomes more than any one person can know, and, hence, there must evolve more selective and efficient means of cultural transmission. The outcome is formal education—the school and the specialist called the teacher.

As society becomes ever more complex and schools become ever more institutionalized, educational experience becomes less directly related to daily life, less a matter of showing and learning in the context of the workaday world, and more abstracted from practice, more a matter of distilling, telling, and learning things out of context. This concentration of learning in a formal atmosphere allows children to learn far more of their culture than they are able to do by merely observing and imitating. As society gradually attaches more and more importance to education, it also tries to formulate the overall objectives, content, organization, and strategies of education. Literature becomes laden with advice on the rearing of the younger generation. In short, there develop philosophies and theories of education.

This article discusses the history of education, tracing the evolution of the formal teaching of knowledge and skills from prehistoric and ancient times to the present, and considering the various philosophies that have inspired the resulting systems. Other aspects of education are treated in a number of articles. For a treatment of education as a discipline, including educational organization, teaching methods, and the functions and training of teachers, see teaching ; pedagogy ; and teacher education . For a description of education in various specialized fields, see historiography ; legal education ; medical education ; science, history of . For an analysis of educational philosophy , see education, philosophy of . For an examination of some of the more important aids in education and the dissemination of knowledge, see dictionary ; encyclopaedia ; library ; museum ; printing ; publishing, history of . Some restrictions on educational freedom are discussed in censorship . For an analysis of pupil attributes, see intelligence, human ; learning theory ; psychological testing .

Education in primitive and early civilized cultures

The term education can be applied to primitive cultures only in the sense of enculturation , which is the process of cultural transmission. A primitive person, whose culture is the totality of his universe, has a relatively fixed sense of cultural continuity and timelessness. The model of life is relatively static and absolute, and it is transmitted from one generation to another with little deviation. As for prehistoric education, it can only be inferred from educational practices in surviving primitive cultures.

assignment about education

The purpose of primitive education is thus to guide children to becoming good members of their tribe or band. There is a marked emphasis upon training for citizenship , because primitive people are highly concerned with the growth of individuals as tribal members and the thorough comprehension of their way of life during passage from prepuberty to postpuberty.

Margaret Mead

Because of the variety in the countless thousands of primitive cultures, it is difficult to describe any standard and uniform characteristics of prepuberty education. Nevertheless, certain things are practiced commonly within cultures. Children actually participate in the social processes of adult activities, and their participatory learning is based upon what the American anthropologist Margaret Mead called empathy , identification, and imitation . Primitive children, before reaching puberty, learn by doing and observing basic technical practices. Their teachers are not strangers but rather their immediate community .

In contrast to the spontaneous and rather unregulated imitations in prepuberty education, postpuberty education in some cultures is strictly standardized and regulated. The teaching personnel may consist of fully initiated men, often unknown to the initiate though they are his relatives in other clans. The initiation may begin with the initiate being abruptly separated from his familial group and sent to a secluded camp where he joins other initiates. The purpose of this separation is to deflect the initiate’s deep attachment away from his family and to establish his emotional and social anchorage in the wider web of his culture.

The initiation “curriculum” does not usually include practical subjects. Instead, it consists of a whole set of cultural values, tribal religion, myths , philosophy, history, rituals, and other knowledge. Primitive people in some cultures regard the body of knowledge constituting the initiation curriculum as most essential to their tribal membership. Within this essential curriculum, religious instruction takes the most prominent place.

Essay on Education for School Students and Children

500+ words essay on education.

Education is an important tool which is very useful in everybody’s life. Education is what differentiates us from other living beings on earth. It makes man the smartest creature on earth. It empowers humans and gets them ready to face challenges of life efficiently. With that being said, education still remains a luxury and not a necessity in our country. Educational awareness needs to be spread through the country to make education accessible. But, this remains incomplete without first analyzing the importance of education. Only when the people realize what significance it holds, can they consider it a necessity for a good life. In this essay on Education, we will see the importance of education and how it is a doorway to success.

essay on education

Importance of Education

Education is the most significant tool in eliminating poverty and unemployment . Moreover, it enhances the commercial scenario and benefits the country overall. So, the higher the level of education in a country, the better the chances of development are.

In addition, this education also benefits an individual in various ways. It helps a person take a better and informed decision with the use of their knowledge. This increases the success rate of a person in life.

Subsequently, education is also responsible for providing with an enhanced lifestyle. It gives you career opportunities that can increase your quality of life.

Similarly, education also helps in making a person independent. When one is educated enough, they won’t have to depend on anyone else for their livelihood. They will be self-sufficient to earn for themselves and lead a good life.

Above all, education also enhances the self-confidence of a person and makes them certain of things in life. When we talk from the countries viewpoint, even then education plays a significant role. Educated people vote for the better candidate of the country. This ensures the development and growth of a nation.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Doorway to Success

To say that education is your doorway to success would be an understatement. It serves as the key which will unlock numerous doors that will lead to success. This will, in turn, help you build a better life for yourself.

An educated person has a lot of job opportunities waiting for them on the other side of the door. They can choose from a variety of options and not be obligated to do something they dislike. Most importantly, education impacts our perception positively. It helps us choose the right path and look at things from various viewpoints rather than just one.

assignment about education

With education, you can enhance your productivity and complete a task better in comparison to an uneducated person. However, one must always ensure that education solely does not ensure success.

It is a doorway to success which requires hard work, dedication and more after which can you open it successfully. All of these things together will make you successful in life.

In conclusion, education makes you a better person and teaches you various skills. It enhances your intellect and the ability to make rational decisions. It enhances the individual growth of a person.

Education also improves the economic growth of a country . Above all, it aids in building a better society for the citizens of a country. It helps to destroy the darkness of ignorance and bring light to the world.

assignment about education

FAQs on Education

Q.1 Why is Education Important?

A.1 Education is important because it is responsible for the overall development of a person. It helps you acquire skills which are necessary for becoming successful in life.

Q.2 How does Education serve as a Doorway to Success?

A.2 Education is a doorway to success because it offers you job opportunities. Furthermore, it changes our perception of life and makes it better.

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Education Essay Samples: Choose Yours to Get A+

What is an essay on education?

It’s a paper that students write in school or college to tell why education is important (1). The rules of structuring and formatting it are standard:

  •  Hook readers and introduce a thesis. 
  •  Provide arguments and evidence in the body to support your statement. 
  •  Write a conclusion restating the thesis and summarizing the body. 

In this article, you’ll find three samples of education essays. All are of different lengths. Choose one that fits your assignment best, and feel free to use it as an example for writing your paper like a boss.

Importance of Education: Essay (250 words)

education-essay-250-words

When asked to write an essay about the importance of education, check this sample for inspiration.









College Essay on Importance of Education (300 words)

A 300-word paper has a more complex structure. You can divide it into three paragraphs. Or, create a five-paragraph story with three parts in a body. It all depends on how you craft a thesis and how many arguments you have.

essay-on-education-300-words

Bonus: How to Write a 300 Words Essay

500 Word Essay on Why Education Is Important

500-words-essay

“Why is education important” essay can be long, too. If you get an assignment to write a 500+ word paper on this topic, here you have a sample to check.















What is education essay?

It is a short academic paper students write in school or college to explain the importance of education to the audience. It has a corresponding thesis statement and requires arguments and evidence to prove its relevance.

What is the purpose of education essay?

The purpose (2) is to explain the role of education and persuade readers of this idea with arguments and evidence.

 When writing, a student can use facts, statistics, and examples to support the arguments. Topics are numerous, but all relate to the idea that education is crucial for young generations and society in general.

How long is an essay on why education is important?

The length varies from 150 to 750 words. It depends on the assignment or how in-depth you intend to go on the topic and structure your academic paper.

Thus, a 150-word paper will be one paragraph, which is prevalent for middle school students. For 500-word essays, the structure is as follows: education essay introduction, body, and conclusion.

The longer your essay, the more structured and in-depth it will be.

Ready to Write Your Essay on Education?

I hope the examples from this article have helped you learn how to write an essay on importance of education. Whatever the length, please structure it accordingly: Follow the rules of academic writing. Use arguments and provide evidence.

An essay on education isn’t that challenging to write. Don’t be afraid to share your thoughts on the topic. Even a controversial idea works if you know how to spark readers with it.

References:

  • https://www.uopeople.edu/blog/10-reasons-why-is-education-important/
  • https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/purpose-education
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What Is Education For?

Read an excerpt from a new book by Sir Ken Robinson and Kate Robinson, which calls for redesigning education for the future.

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Student presentation

What is education for? As it happens, people differ sharply on this question. It is what is known as an “essentially contested concept.” Like “democracy” and “justice,” “education” means different things to different people. Various factors can contribute to a person’s understanding of the purpose of education, including their background and circumstances. It is also inflected by how they view related issues such as ethnicity, gender, and social class. Still, not having an agreed-upon definition of education doesn’t mean we can’t discuss it or do anything about it.

We just need to be clear on terms. There are a few terms that are often confused or used interchangeably—“learning,” “education,” “training,” and “school”—but there are important differences between them. Learning is the process of acquiring new skills and understanding. Education is an organized system of learning. Training is a type of education that is focused on learning specific skills. A school is a community of learners: a group that comes together to learn with and from each other. It is vital that we differentiate these terms: children love to learn, they do it naturally; many have a hard time with education, and some have big problems with school.

Cover of book 'Imagine If....'

There are many assumptions of compulsory education. One is that young people need to know, understand, and be able to do certain things that they most likely would not if they were left to their own devices. What these things are and how best to ensure students learn them are complicated and often controversial issues. Another assumption is that compulsory education is a preparation for what will come afterward, like getting a good job or going on to higher education.

So, what does it mean to be educated now? Well, I believe that education should expand our consciousness, capabilities, sensitivities, and cultural understanding. It should enlarge our worldview. As we all live in two worlds—the world within you that exists only because you do, and the world around you—the core purpose of education is to enable students to understand both worlds. In today’s climate, there is also a new and urgent challenge: to provide forms of education that engage young people with the global-economic issues of environmental well-being.

This core purpose of education can be broken down into four basic purposes.

Education should enable young people to engage with the world within them as well as the world around them. In Western cultures, there is a firm distinction between the two worlds, between thinking and feeling, objectivity and subjectivity. This distinction is misguided. There is a deep correlation between our experience of the world around us and how we feel. As we explored in the previous chapters, all individuals have unique strengths and weaknesses, outlooks and personalities. Students do not come in standard physical shapes, nor do their abilities and personalities. They all have their own aptitudes and dispositions and different ways of understanding things. Education is therefore deeply personal. It is about cultivating the minds and hearts of living people. Engaging them as individuals is at the heart of raising achievement.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights emphasizes that “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights,” and that “Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.” Many of the deepest problems in current systems of education result from losing sight of this basic principle.

Schools should enable students to understand their own cultures and to respect the diversity of others. There are various definitions of culture, but in this context the most appropriate is “the values and forms of behavior that characterize different social groups.” To put it more bluntly, it is “the way we do things around here.” Education is one of the ways that communities pass on their values from one generation to the next. For some, education is a way of preserving a culture against outside influences. For others, it is a way of promoting cultural tolerance. As the world becomes more crowded and connected, it is becoming more complex culturally. Living respectfully with diversity is not just an ethical choice, it is a practical imperative.

There should be three cultural priorities for schools: to help students understand their own cultures, to understand other cultures, and to promote a sense of cultural tolerance and coexistence. The lives of all communities can be hugely enriched by celebrating their own cultures and the practices and traditions of other cultures.

Education should enable students to become economically responsible and independent. This is one of the reasons governments take such a keen interest in education: they know that an educated workforce is essential to creating economic prosperity. Leaders of the Industrial Revolution knew that education was critical to creating the types of workforce they required, too. But the world of work has changed so profoundly since then, and continues to do so at an ever-quickening pace. We know that many of the jobs of previous decades are disappearing and being rapidly replaced by contemporary counterparts. It is almost impossible to predict the direction of advancing technologies, and where they will take us.

How can schools prepare students to navigate this ever-changing economic landscape? They must connect students with their unique talents and interests, dissolve the division between academic and vocational programs, and foster practical partnerships between schools and the world of work, so that young people can experience working environments as part of their education, not simply when it is time for them to enter the labor market.

Education should enable young people to become active and compassionate citizens. We live in densely woven social systems. The benefits we derive from them depend on our working together to sustain them. The empowerment of individuals has to be balanced by practicing the values and responsibilities of collective life, and of democracy in particular. Our freedoms in democratic societies are not automatic. They come from centuries of struggle against tyranny and autocracy and those who foment sectarianism, hatred, and fear. Those struggles are far from over. As John Dewey observed, “Democracy has to be born anew every generation, and education is its midwife.”

For a democratic society to function, it depends upon the majority of its people to be active within the democratic process. In many democracies, this is increasingly not the case. Schools should engage students in becoming active, and proactive, democratic participants. An academic civics course will scratch the surface, but to nurture a deeply rooted respect for democracy, it is essential to give young people real-life democratic experiences long before they come of age to vote.

Eight Core Competencies

The conventional curriculum is based on a collection of separate subjects. These are prioritized according to beliefs around the limited understanding of intelligence we discussed in the previous chapter, as well as what is deemed to be important later in life. The idea of “subjects” suggests that each subject, whether mathematics, science, art, or language, stands completely separate from all the other subjects. This is problematic. Mathematics, for example, is not defined only by propositional knowledge; it is a combination of types of knowledge, including concepts, processes, and methods as well as propositional knowledge. This is also true of science, art, and languages, and of all other subjects. It is therefore much more useful to focus on the concept of disciplines rather than subjects.

Disciplines are fluid; they constantly merge and collaborate. In focusing on disciplines rather than subjects we can also explore the concept of interdisciplinary learning. This is a much more holistic approach that mirrors real life more closely—it is rare that activities outside of school are as clearly segregated as conventional curriculums suggest. A journalist writing an article, for example, must be able to call upon skills of conversation, deductive reasoning, literacy, and social sciences. A surgeon must understand the academic concept of the patient’s condition, as well as the practical application of the appropriate procedure. At least, we would certainly hope this is the case should we find ourselves being wheeled into surgery.

The concept of disciplines brings us to a better starting point when planning the curriculum, which is to ask what students should know and be able to do as a result of their education. The four purposes above suggest eight core competencies that, if properly integrated into education, will equip students who leave school to engage in the economic, cultural, social, and personal challenges they will inevitably face in their lives. These competencies are curiosity, creativity, criticism, communication, collaboration, compassion, composure, and citizenship. Rather than be triggered by age, they should be interwoven from the beginning of a student’s educational journey and nurtured throughout.

From Imagine If: Creating a Future for Us All by Sir Ken Robinson, Ph.D and Kate Robinson, published by Penguin Books, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Copyright © 2022 by the Estate of Sir Kenneth Robinson and Kate Robinson.

275 Education Argumentative Essay Topics & Ideas

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Education, a cornerstone of societal development, is a fertile field for writing papers. In this case, education argumentative essay topics can range widely, from debates over traditional vs. digital classrooms, the effectiveness of standardized testing, and the necessity of college education in the 21st century to the balance between academics and character development. Arguments can consider whether current school curriculums cater adequately to the needs of all students or primarily reinforce societal inequalities. Examining education policies at the local, national, or international levels can provide further insights. In turn, exploring the role of educational institutions in preparing students for the future workforce, including discussions on vocational training and entrepreneurial education, is another promising direction for developing argumentative essay topics in education.

What Is an Education Argumentative Essay Topic and Its Purpose

According to its definition, an education argumentative essay topic is a specific issue, idea, policy, or practice within an educational system that provoke debate and critical thinking. For example, the main purpose for selecting an education argumentative essay topic is to persuade readers to adopt a specific viewpoint or to challenge an existing perspective regarding educational matters (Mertler, 2024). In writing, common ideas cover a wide range of subjects, including an effectiveness of standardized testing, an impact of technology in classrooms, educational equity, and a necessity of certain curriculum changes. Further on, by exploring these themes, students engage in thorough research, presenting evidence to support their arguments while addressing counterarguments to strengthen their positions (Crossley & Tian, 2022). Basically, an ultimate goal is to encourage readers to critically evaluate their beliefs and implications of educational policies on students, educators, and society as a whole. Moreover, through effective argumentative essay topics, authors not only contribute to a discourse surrounding education but also promote informed decision-making and advocacy for positive change within educational institutions (Li et al., 2020). Thus, education argumentative essay topics serve as a vital platform for dialogue, aiming to influence both public opinion and educational reform.

Education Argumentative Essay Topics & Ideas

How to Choose

Choosing a compelling education argumentative essay topic requires a careful consideration and evaluation of several key factors to ensure relevance and engagement. Firstly, students should select ideas that resonates with current educational debates or challenges, such as an effectiveness of online versus traditional learning environments or an impact of socio-economic factors on educational access (Koons, 2021). Essentially, conducting preliminary research can help them to identify areas where there is a lack of consensus or significant ongoing discussion, providing a fertile ground for argumentation. Further on, a selected education argumentative essay topic should align with personal interests and expertise, as this aspect will enhance a student’s ability to articulate informed arguments and engage readers effectively (Kleemola et al., 2022). In principle, they should consider an availability of credible sources and data to support their positions, while using robust evidence is critical for persuasive writing. Moreover, a well-defined and focused subject will facilitate a clear thesis statement, guiding an essay’s structure and its arguments (Goodson, 2024). As such, evaluating potential counterarguments can enrich an entire discussion and strengthen an overall argument, making it more persuasive. In turn, some steps for picking a good education argumentative essay topic include:

  • Identify Current Issues: Explore contemporary debates and challenges within an educational landscape to ensure a central idea is relevant and timely.
  • Reflect on Personal Interests: Choose a subject that aligns with your passions and expertise to enhance engagement and an overall quality of your arguments.
  • Conduct Preliminary Research: Investigate existing literature and studies to determine an entire availability of credible sources and data that can support your position.
  • Narrow a Focus: Select a specific aspect of a broader issue to create a more manageable and focused argument that allows for in-depth analysis.
  • Consider Counterarguments: Anticipate opposing viewpoints to strengthen your central argument and demonstrate a well-rounded understanding of education argumentative essay topic, enhancing the essay’s persuasiveness.

Best Education Argumentative Essay Topics

  • Balancing School Curriculum: Is Art Education as Important as Science?
  • Roles of Technology in Enhancing Educational Outcomes
  • The Ethics of Using Animals for School Biology Experiments
  • Parental Influence on a Child’s Academic Success
  • University Tuition Fees: Necessary Expense or Excessive Burden?
  • Should Physical Education Be Mandatory in Schools?
  • Importance of Teaching Life Skills alongside Traditional Subjects
  • Grading System: Helping Students Learn or Adding Undue Pressure?
  • Incorporating Meditation in Schools for Improved Mental Health
  • Homeschooling vs. Traditional Schooling: Which Prepares Students Better?
  • Examining the Role of Sex Education in Preventing Teenage Pregnancy
  • Importance of Introducing Multicultural Education in Schools
  • Mandatory Community Service as Part of the Curriculum: Pros and Cons
  • Cyberbullying: Should Schools Take Responsibility?
  • Unraveling the Effects of School Uniforms on Student Behavior
  • Gender-Separated Classes: Beneficial or Discriminatory?
  • Are College Degrees Worth the Financial Investment?
  • The Role of Teachers’ Salaries in Ensuring Quality Education
  • Digital Textbooks vs. Traditional Books: Which Is More Effective?
  • Evaluating the Effectiveness of Homework in Enhancing Learning
  • The Pros and Cons of Year-Round Schooling
  • Roles of Parent-Teacher Communication in Enhancing Students’ Performance
  • Effectiveness of Distance Learning: Is It Comparable to Traditional Learning?
  • Should Controversial Topics Be Discussed in School?

Easy Education Essay Topics

  • Exploring the Impact of School Lunch Programs on Student Health
  • Is Cursive Writing Necessary in Today’s Digital Age?
  • Teaching Consent in Schools: A Necessity or Overstepping Bounds?
  • Gifted Programs: Are They Unfair to Other Students?
  • Bilingual Education: Key to Global Competency or Detrimental to Native Culture?
  • Implementing Zero Tolerance Policies in Schools: Beneficial or Harmful?
  • Should Teachers Be Allowed to Carry Firearms for Classroom Protection?
  • Influence of School Infrastructure on Student Learning Outcomes
  • Incorporating Climate Change Education in School Curriculums
  • Should Students Be Grouped by Ability in Classrooms?
  • Effectiveness of Anti-Bullying Campaigns in Schools
  • The Right to Privacy: Should Schools Monitor Student’s Online Activities?
  • Evaluating the Role of Extracurricular Activities in Student Development
  • The Need for Financial Literacy Education in Schools
  • Freedom of Speech: Should Students Be Allowed to Express Controversial Opinions in School?
  • Potential Benefits of Single-Sex Schools
  • Relevance of History Education in Modern Times
  • The Influence of Religious Beliefs on Education
  • Foreign Language Requirements: Necessity or Unnecessary Burden?
  • Are Teachers’ Unions Beneficial or Detrimental to Education Quality?
  • Impacts of Parental Educational Background on Children’s Academic Achievement
  • Does Grade Inflation Devalue a College Degree?
  • Does Early Childhood Education Have Long-Term Benefits?
  • Are College Admissions Processes Fair?

Interesting Education Essay Topics

  • The Consequences of Educational Budget Cuts
  • Exploring the Role of Sports in Academic Achievement
  • Effects of Teacher Burnout on Student Learning
  • Is Educational Equality Achievable in a Capitalist Society?
  • Are Private Schools Necessarily Better than Public Schools?
  • Role of Social Media in Education: Distraction or Useful Tool?
  • Is Traditional Discipline Effective in Modern Schools?
  • Examining the Effectiveness of Montessori Education
  • Are Standardized Curriculum Frameworks Limiting Teachers’ Creativity?
  • Is There a Place for Character Education in Today’s Schools?
  • Importance of Critical Thinking Skills in the Curriculum
  • Do Student Evaluations of Teachers Improve Teaching Quality?
  • Music Education’s Influence on Academic Performance
  • Impact of Socioeconomic Status on Academic Achievement
  • Should Children Be Taught Entrepreneurship in Schools?
  • Educational Benefits of Field Trips in Curriculum
  • Does School Counseling Effectively Address Students’ Mental Health Needs?
  • The Role of Games in Enhancing Math Education
  • Is the Current Emphasis on STEM Education Justified?
  • The Influence of Family Structure on Children’s Educational Outcomes
  • Does Multitasking with Technology Hinder Learning?
  • Should Political Education Be Mandatory in Schools?
  • Effects of Classroom Diversity on Student Learning and Empathy

Academic Level Difference

Academic level differences significantly influence a whole nature and complexity of education argumentative essay topics, shaping an entire depth of analysis required at each stage of educational development. At a high school level, common ideas revolve around foundational issues, such as an effectiveness of various teaching methods, a relevance of standardized testing, or an impact of technology on learning (Koons, 2021). Basically, they tend to be more straightforward, allowing students to build critical thinking skills while exploring familiar concepts. In contrast, undergraduate-level education argumentative essay subjects may cover more nuanced discussions, such as potential implications of educational policy changes, roles of socioeconomic factors in educational attainment, or ethics of educational practices (Mertler, 2024). As such, these themes demand a greater degree of research, analytical thinking, and an ability to engage with scholarly sources. At a graduate level, key subjects require a sophisticated understanding of theoretical frameworks and methodologies, addressing complex issues, like systemic inequalities in education or an efficacy of educational reforms (Goodson, 2024). In principle, this progression illustrates how academic level differences not only influence a whole selection of education argumentative essay topics but also dictate an entire depth of inquiry and argumentation, ultimately shaping crucial skills and perspectives students develop throughout their educational journeys.

Education Essay Topics for High School

  • Does Standardized Testing Accurately Reflect a Student’s Knowledge?
  • Should Schools Invest More in Arts Education?
  • Is a Year-Round School Calendar Beneficial for Learning?
  • Are School Uniforms Necessary for a Conducive Learning Environment?
  • Does Homework Actually Benefit Students?
  • Should Advanced Courses Be Made Available to All High School Students?
  • Can Online Learning Replace Traditional Classroom Teaching?
  • How Is Essential Sex Education in High School Curriculum?
  • The Impact of School Infrastructure on Quality of Education
  • Are School Sports Essential for Student Development?
  • Does Bilingual Education Enhance Cognitive Skills?
  • Does Parental Involvement Improve Academic Performance?
  • Is There a Need to Reinvent School Discipline Policies?
  • How Does the Use of Technology in Schools Affect Learning?
  • The Role of Schools in Promoting Healthy Eating Habits
  • Are School Field Trips Essential for Practical Learning?
  • Should Schools Introduce Personal Finance Classes?
  • Physical Education Classes: Necessity or Luxury?
  • Effect of Bullying on Academic Performance
  • The Influence of Peer Pressure on Students’ Performance
  • Should We Teach Entrepreneurship in High Schools?
  • Does a Longer School Day Improve Learning Outcomes?
  • Roles of Moral Education in Character Building

Education Essay Topics for College Students

  • Incorporating Technology in Classrooms: Necessity or Distraction?
  • Standardized Testing: An Effective Evaluation Tool or a Hindrance to Creativity?
  • University Degrees: Essential for Success or Overrated?
  • Pros and Cons of Single-Sex Education: A Deep Dive
  • Private vs. Public Schools: Who Provides a Better Education?
  • Traditional Education vs. Online Learning: Comparing Effectiveness
  • Impact of Extracurricular Activities on Academic Performance
  • Bilingual Education: Potential Benefits and Challenges
  • Vocational Training: Does It Deserve More Emphasis in the Curriculum?
  • Effects of Class Size on Student Learning Outcomes
  • Homeschooling vs. Traditional Schooling: Weighing the Outcomes
  • Mandatory Physical Education: A Boon or Bane?
  • College Athletes: Should They Be Paid?
  • Education in Rural vs. Urban Settings: Exploring Disparities
  • Funding: How Does It Impact the Quality of Education?
  • Role of Sex Education in Schools: Analyzing the Importance
  • Uniforms in Schools: Do They Promote Equality?
  • Plagiarism Policies: Are They Too Strict or Not Enough?
  • Art Education: Is It Being Neglected in Schools?
  • Teaching Soft Skills: Should It Be Mandatory in Schools?
  • Tuition Fees: Do They Restrict Access to Higher Education?
  • Inclusion of Students With Disabilities: Analyzing Best Practices

Education Argumentative Essay Topics for University

  • Cyberbullying: Should Schools Have a Greater Responsibility?
  • STEM vs. Liberal Arts: Which Provides a Better Future?
  • Impacts of Mental Health Services in Schools
  • Grade Inflation: Does It Devalue a Degree?
  • Diversity in Schools: Does It Enhance Learning?
  • Gap Year: Does It Help or Hinder Students?
  • Recess: Is It Necessary for Students’ Well-Being?
  • Early Childhood Education: Does It Contribute to Later Success?
  • Parental Involvement: How Does It Influence Student Performance?
  • Value of Internships in Higher Education
  • Curriculum: Is It Outdated in Today’s Fast-Paced World?
  • Digital Textbooks vs. Paper Textbooks: Evaluating the Differences
  • Learning a Second Language: Should It Be Mandatory?
  • Censorship in School Libraries: Freedom or Protection?
  • Life Skills Education: Is It Missing From Our Curriculum?
  • Teachers’ Pay: Does It Reflect Their Value in Society?
  • College Rankings: Do They Truly Reflect Educational Quality?
  • Corporal Punishment: Does It Have a Place in Modern Education?
  • Student Loans: Are They Creating a Debt Crisis?
  • Learning Styles: Myth or Real Educational Framework?
  • Grading System: Is It the Best Measure of Students’ Abilities?

Education Argumentative Essay Topics for Master’s and Ph.D.

  • Assessing the Impact of Remote Learning on Student Engagement and Academic Performance
  • Should Standardized Testing Be Abolished in Favor of More Holistic Assessment Methods?
  • Evaluating the Effectiveness of Bilingual Education Programs in Improving Academic Outcomes
  • How Do Teacher Training Programs Impact Classroom Management and Student Success?
  • Implications of Artificial Intelligence in Personalized Learning and Its Ethical Considerations
  • Exploring the Correlation Between Early Childhood Education and Long-Term Academic Achievement
  • The Importance of Inclusive Education Practices for Students With Disabilities
  • Are Online Degree Programs a Viable Alternative to Traditional Education Pathways?
  • The Effectiveness of Peer Tutoring in Enhancing Academic Performance and Social Skills
  • Should Higher Education Institutions Prioritize Vocational Training Over Traditional Degree Programs?
  • Evaluating the Role of Arts Education in Developing Creativity and Innovation in Students
  • Should the Curriculum Include Comprehensive Financial Literacy Education for Students?
  • The Necessity of Cultural Competence Training for Educators in Diverse Classroom Settings
  • Should Schools Implement Year-Round Education to Improve Academic Performance?
  • Evaluating the Need for Comprehensive Sex Education in High Schools
  • Are Charter Schools More Effective Than Traditional Public Schools in Improving Student Achievement?
  • The Importance of Sustainability Education in Preparing Students for Future Challenges
  • Analyzing the Effectiveness of Classroom Management Strategies on Student Behavior
  • Should College Athletes Be Compensated for Their Participation in Sports Programs?
  • The Influence of Cultural Diversity on Curriculum Development in Multicultural Education

Academic Topics Essay

  • Fostering Creativity: Should Schools Prioritize the Arts?
  • Student Debt: Consequences and Possible Solutions
  • Bullying Policies in Schools: Are They Effective?
  • Teaching Ethics and Values: Whose Responsibility?
  • Distance Learning: The New Normal Post-Pandemic?
  • School Censorship: Are There Limits to Freedom of Speech?
  • College Admissions: Is the Process Fair?
  • Standardizing Multilingual Education: A Possibility?
  • Learning Disabilities: How Can Schools Provide Better Support?
  • Does Class Size Impact the Quality of Education?
  • Integrating Technology: Are There Potential Risks?
  • Affirmative Action in College Admissions: Fair or Biased?
  • The Role of Private Tuition: Supplemental Help or Unfair Advantage?
  • Military-Style Discipline in Schools: Effective or Harmful?
  • Should Schools Implement Mental Health Curriculums?
  • Early Education: Does It Pave the Way for Success?
  • Grading System: Is it an Accurate Measure of Student Ability?
  • Career Counseling in Schools: Should It be Mandatory?
  • Addressing Racial Bias in Educational Materials
  • The Debate Over Prayer in Schools: Freedom of Religion or Church-State Separation?
  • The Impact of Zero-Tolerance Policies on the School Environment
  • Education Funding: The Pros and Cons of School Vouchers
  • University Rankings: Helpful Guide or Harmful Pressure?
  • Personal Finance Education: Should It Be Included in the Curriculum?

Argumentative Essay Topics on Education

  • Impacts of Standardized Testing on Students’ Creativity
  • Digital Learning Platforms vs. Traditional Classroom Teaching
  • Effectiveness of the Montessori Education System
  • Mandatory Foreign Language Education: A Necessity or Luxury?
  • Single-Sex Schools’ Role in Modern Society
  • Teachers’ Salaries: A Reflection of Their Value in Society?
  • Technological Devices in Classrooms: A Boon or Bane?
  • Inclusion of Life Skills in the Curriculum
  • Ethical Education: Its Significance and Implementation
  • Educating Children About Climate Change and Sustainability
  • Homeschooling vs. Traditional Schooling: Which Yields Better Results?
  • School Uniforms: Do They Encourage Uniformity Over Individuality?
  • The Role of Extracurricular Activities in Holistic Education
  • Importance of Critical Thinking in the Curriculum
  • Corporate Sponsorship in Schools: Ethical Considerations
  • Increasing Parental Involvement in Children’s Education
  • Vocational Training in High School: Is It Necessary?
  • The Merits and Demerits of Charter Schools
  • Prioritizing Health Education in the School Curriculum
  • Diversifying History Lessons: The Impact on Cultural Understanding
  • Gifted and Talented Programs: Unfair Advantage or Necessary Support?
  • Implementing Mindfulness Training in Schools
  • Mandatory Physical Education: Is It Vital for Health?
  • Advantages and Disadvantages of Year-Round Schooling
  • The Potential of Virtual Reality in Education

Education Persuasive Essay Topics

  • Enhancing Creativity: The Importance of Art Education in Schools
  • Mandatory Coding Lessons: Preparing Students for the Digital Future
  • Bilingual Education: Encouraging Multilingualism From an Early Age
  • Parental Involvement: Crucial for Academic Success or an Invasion of Privacy?
  • Cyberbullying Awareness: Should It Be Part of the School Curriculum?
  • The Role of Technology in Modern Education: Boon or Bane?
  • Sex Education: Essential for Reducing Teen Pregnancy and STD Rates
  • Standardized Tests: Accurate Measure of a Student’s Capabilities or Outdated Practice?
  • Religious Studies: The Necessity of Teaching World Religions in Public Schools
  • Homework Overload: Assessing the True Impact on Students’ Mental Health
  • School Uniforms: Encouraging Discipline or Suppressing Individuality?
  • Inclusion in Classrooms: The Benefits of Educating Special Needs Students Alongside Their Peers
  • Teacher Salaries: The Need for Higher Pay to Attract Quality Educators
  • Educational Video Games: Revolutionizing Learning or Distraction From Studying?
  • Student Athletes: Balancing Academics and Sports Participation
  • Year-Round Schooling: Improving Learning Retention or Overloading Students?
  • Early Education: The Benefits of Pre-School Programs
  • Social Media: Its Role in Modern Education
  • Field Trips: Enhancing Learning Outside the Classroom
  • Classroom Size: The Impact on Learning and Engagement
  • Vocational Training: Essential for Preparing Students for the Workforce
  • Distance Learning: Exploring its Advantages and Disadvantages

Education Research Paper Topics

  • Extracurricular Activities: The Importance in Students’ Holistic Development
  • Multiple Intelligence Theory: Implementing Diverse Teaching Strategies
  • Classroom Decor: Its Influence on Student Engagement and Learning
  • Mindfulness Practices: Promoting Emotional Health in Schools
  • Sustainability Education: Fostering Environmentally-Conscious Citizens
  • Cultural Diversity: Promoting Inclusion and Acceptance in Schools
  • Physical Education: Addressing Childhood Obesity through School Programs
  • Gifted and Talented Programs: Benefits and Drawbacks
  • Homeschooling: Advantages Over Traditional Schooling
  • Alternative Assessment Methods: Moving Beyond Exams and Grades
  • Bullying Prevention: The Role of Schools and Teachers
  • College Admissions: The Controversy Around Legacy Preferences
  • Ethics Education: Instilling Moral Values in Students
  • Student Loans: The Crisis and Its Impact on Higher Education
  • Nutrition Education: Promoting Healthy Eating Habits in Schools
  • Digital Literacy: Essential Skills for the 21st Century
  • Grade Inflation: The Deterioration of Academic Standards in Higher Education
  • Climate Change Education: Teaching the Next Generation About Global Warming
  • Character Education: Building Integrity and Responsibility in Students
  • Music Education: Its Influence on Cognitive Development
  • Literacy Programs: Overcoming Reading and Writing Challenges
  • Mentorship Programs: Enhancing Student Success and Confidence
  • Financial Literacy: Preparing Students for Real-World Money Management

Strong Education Argumentative Essay Topics

  • Is Censorship Justified in School Libraries?
  • The Benefits and Drawbacks of Single-Sex Schools
  • Is College Preparation in High School Adequate?
  • Are Teachers’ Salaries Commensurate With Their Job Responsibilities?
  • Cyberbullying: Should Schools Intervene?
  • The Importance of Cultural Diversity in Education
  • Should Mental Health Education Be Mandatory in Schools?
  • Do School Rankings Reflect the Quality of Education?
  • The Relevance of Cursive Writing in Today’s Digital World
  • Should Religious Studies Be Part of the School Curriculum?
  • Are Students Overburdened with Excessive Schoolwork?
  • The Implications of Zero Tolerance Policies in Schools
  • School Safety: Responsibility of Schools or Parents?
  • Does Grade Inflation Diminish the Value of Education?
  • Are Life Skills Education Necessary in Schools?
  • The Debate on Home Schooling vs. Traditional Schooling
  • Is it Necessary to Teach World Religions in High Schools?
  • Does a School’s Location Affect the Quality of Education?
  • The Argument for Teaching Emotional Intelligence in Schools
  • Should Attendance Be Mandatory in High School?
  • Could Meditation and Mindfulness Improve Students’ Concentration?
  • The Role of Music Education in Student Development
  • Do Students Learn More From Books or Computers?
  • The Need for Environmental Sustainability Education in Schools

Crossley, S., & Tian, Y. (2022). Argumentation features and essay quality: Exploring relationships and incidence counts. Journal of Writing Research , 14 (1), 1–34. https://doi.org/10.17239/jowr-2022.14.01.01

Goodson, P. (2024). Becoming an academic writer: 50 exercises for paced, productive, and powerful writing . Sage.

Kleemola, K., Hyytinen, H., & Toom, A. (2022). The challenge of position-taking in novice higher education students’ argumentative writing. Frontiers in Education , 7 , 1–14. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2022.885987

Koons, M. (2021). Writing an argumentative essay: The complete introductory guide to writing an argumentative essay for beginner students . Write Illusion LLC.

Li, Y., Wang, K., Xiao, Y., & Froyd, J. E. (2020). Research and trends in STEM Education: A systematic review of journal publications. International Journal of STEM Education , 7 (1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-020-00207-6

Mertler, C. A. (2024). Introduction to educational research . SAGE Publications.

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assignment about education

Research Topics & Ideas: Education

170+ Research Ideas To Fast-Track Your Dissertation, Thesis Or Research Project

Dissertation Coaching

I f you’re just starting out exploring education-related topics for your dissertation, thesis or research project, you’ve come to the right place. In this post, we’ll help kickstart your research topic ideation process by providing a hearty list of research topics and ideas , including examples from actual dissertations and theses..

PS – This is just the start…

We know it’s exciting to run through a list of research topics, but please keep in mind that this list is just a starting point . To develop a suitable education-related research topic, you’ll need to identify a clear and convincing research gap , and a viable plan of action to fill that gap.

If this sounds foreign to you, check out our free research topic webinar that explores how to find and refine a high-quality research topic, from scratch. Alternatively, if you’d like hands-on help, consider our 1-on-1 coaching service .

Overview: Education Research Topics

  • How to find a research topic (video)
  • List of 50+ education-related research topics/ideas
  • List of 120+ level-specific research topics 
  • Examples of actual dissertation topics in education
  • Tips to fast-track your topic ideation (video)
  • Where to get extra help

Topic Kickstarter: Research topics in education

Education-Related Research Topics & Ideas

Below you’ll find a list of education-related research topics and idea kickstarters. These are fairly broad and flexible to various contexts, so keep in mind that you will need to refine them a little. Nevertheless, they should inspire some ideas for your project.

  • The impact of school funding on student achievement
  • The effects of social and emotional learning on student well-being
  • The effects of parental involvement on student behaviour
  • The impact of teacher training on student learning
  • The impact of classroom design on student learning
  • The impact of poverty on education
  • The use of student data to inform instruction
  • The role of parental involvement in education
  • The effects of mindfulness practices in the classroom
  • The use of technology in the classroom
  • The role of critical thinking in education
  • The use of formative and summative assessments in the classroom
  • The use of differentiated instruction in the classroom
  • The use of gamification in education
  • The effects of teacher burnout on student learning
  • The impact of school leadership on student achievement
  • The effects of teacher diversity on student outcomes
  • The role of teacher collaboration in improving student outcomes
  • The implementation of blended and online learning
  • The effects of teacher accountability on student achievement
  • The effects of standardized testing on student learning
  • The effects of classroom management on student behaviour
  • The effects of school culture on student achievement
  • The use of student-centred learning in the classroom
  • The impact of teacher-student relationships on student outcomes
  • The achievement gap in minority and low-income students
  • The use of culturally responsive teaching in the classroom
  • The impact of teacher professional development on student learning
  • The use of project-based learning in the classroom
  • The effects of teacher expectations on student achievement
  • The use of adaptive learning technology in the classroom
  • The impact of teacher turnover on student learning
  • The effects of teacher recruitment and retention on student learning
  • The impact of early childhood education on later academic success
  • The impact of parental involvement on student engagement
  • The use of positive reinforcement in education
  • The impact of school climate on student engagement
  • The role of STEM education in preparing students for the workforce
  • The effects of school choice on student achievement
  • The use of technology in the form of online tutoring

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Level-Specific Research Topics

Looking for research topics for a specific level of education? We’ve got you covered. Below you can find research topic ideas for primary, secondary and tertiary-level education contexts. Click the relevant level to view the respective list.

Research Topics: Pick An Education Level

Primary education.

  • Investigating the effects of peer tutoring on academic achievement in primary school
  • Exploring the benefits of mindfulness practices in primary school classrooms
  • Examining the effects of different teaching strategies on primary school students’ problem-solving skills
  • The use of storytelling as a teaching strategy in primary school literacy instruction
  • The role of cultural diversity in promoting tolerance and understanding in primary schools
  • The impact of character education programs on moral development in primary school students
  • Investigating the use of technology in enhancing primary school mathematics education
  • The impact of inclusive curriculum on promoting equity and diversity in primary schools
  • The impact of outdoor education programs on environmental awareness in primary school students
  • The influence of school climate on student motivation and engagement in primary schools
  • Investigating the effects of early literacy interventions on reading comprehension in primary school students
  • The impact of parental involvement in school decision-making processes on student achievement in primary schools
  • Exploring the benefits of inclusive education for students with special needs in primary schools
  • Investigating the effects of teacher-student feedback on academic motivation in primary schools
  • The role of technology in developing digital literacy skills in primary school students
  • Effective strategies for fostering a growth mindset in primary school students
  • Investigating the role of parental support in reducing academic stress in primary school children
  • The role of arts education in fostering creativity and self-expression in primary school students
  • Examining the effects of early childhood education programs on primary school readiness
  • Examining the effects of homework on primary school students’ academic performance
  • The role of formative assessment in improving learning outcomes in primary school classrooms
  • The impact of teacher-student relationships on academic outcomes in primary school
  • Investigating the effects of classroom environment on student behavior and learning outcomes in primary schools
  • Investigating the role of creativity and imagination in primary school curriculum
  • The impact of nutrition and healthy eating programs on academic performance in primary schools
  • The impact of social-emotional learning programs on primary school students’ well-being and academic performance
  • The role of parental involvement in academic achievement of primary school children
  • Examining the effects of classroom management strategies on student behavior in primary school
  • The role of school leadership in creating a positive school climate Exploring the benefits of bilingual education in primary schools
  • The effectiveness of project-based learning in developing critical thinking skills in primary school students
  • The role of inquiry-based learning in fostering curiosity and critical thinking in primary school students
  • The effects of class size on student engagement and achievement in primary schools
  • Investigating the effects of recess and physical activity breaks on attention and learning in primary school
  • Exploring the benefits of outdoor play in developing gross motor skills in primary school children
  • The effects of educational field trips on knowledge retention in primary school students
  • Examining the effects of inclusive classroom practices on students’ attitudes towards diversity in primary schools
  • The impact of parental involvement in homework on primary school students’ academic achievement
  • Investigating the effectiveness of different assessment methods in primary school classrooms
  • The influence of physical activity and exercise on cognitive development in primary school children
  • Exploring the benefits of cooperative learning in promoting social skills in primary school students

Secondary Education

  • Investigating the effects of school discipline policies on student behavior and academic success in secondary education
  • The role of social media in enhancing communication and collaboration among secondary school students
  • The impact of school leadership on teacher effectiveness and student outcomes in secondary schools
  • Investigating the effects of technology integration on teaching and learning in secondary education
  • Exploring the benefits of interdisciplinary instruction in promoting critical thinking skills in secondary schools
  • The impact of arts education on creativity and self-expression in secondary school students
  • The effectiveness of flipped classrooms in promoting student learning in secondary education
  • The role of career guidance programs in preparing secondary school students for future employment
  • Investigating the effects of student-centered learning approaches on student autonomy and academic success in secondary schools
  • The impact of socio-economic factors on educational attainment in secondary education
  • Investigating the impact of project-based learning on student engagement and academic achievement in secondary schools
  • Investigating the effects of multicultural education on cultural understanding and tolerance in secondary schools
  • The influence of standardized testing on teaching practices and student learning in secondary education
  • Investigating the effects of classroom management strategies on student behavior and academic engagement in secondary education
  • The influence of teacher professional development on instructional practices and student outcomes in secondary schools
  • The role of extracurricular activities in promoting holistic development and well-roundedness in secondary school students
  • Investigating the effects of blended learning models on student engagement and achievement in secondary education
  • The role of physical education in promoting physical health and well-being among secondary school students
  • Investigating the effects of gender on academic achievement and career aspirations in secondary education
  • Exploring the benefits of multicultural literature in promoting cultural awareness and empathy among secondary school students
  • The impact of school counseling services on student mental health and well-being in secondary schools
  • Exploring the benefits of vocational education and training in preparing secondary school students for the workforce
  • The role of digital literacy in preparing secondary school students for the digital age
  • The influence of parental involvement on academic success and well-being of secondary school students
  • The impact of social-emotional learning programs on secondary school students’ well-being and academic success
  • The role of character education in fostering ethical and responsible behavior in secondary school students
  • Examining the effects of digital citizenship education on responsible and ethical technology use among secondary school students
  • The impact of parental involvement in school decision-making processes on student outcomes in secondary schools
  • The role of educational technology in promoting personalized learning experiences in secondary schools
  • The impact of inclusive education on the social and academic outcomes of students with disabilities in secondary schools
  • The influence of parental support on academic motivation and achievement in secondary education
  • The role of school climate in promoting positive behavior and well-being among secondary school students
  • Examining the effects of peer mentoring programs on academic achievement and social-emotional development in secondary schools
  • Examining the effects of teacher-student relationships on student motivation and achievement in secondary schools
  • Exploring the benefits of service-learning programs in promoting civic engagement among secondary school students
  • The impact of educational policies on educational equity and access in secondary education
  • Examining the effects of homework on academic achievement and student well-being in secondary education
  • Investigating the effects of different assessment methods on student performance in secondary schools
  • Examining the effects of single-sex education on academic performance and gender stereotypes in secondary schools
  • The role of mentoring programs in supporting the transition from secondary to post-secondary education

Tertiary Education

  • The role of student support services in promoting academic success and well-being in higher education
  • The impact of internationalization initiatives on students’ intercultural competence and global perspectives in tertiary education
  • Investigating the effects of active learning classrooms and learning spaces on student engagement and learning outcomes in tertiary education
  • Exploring the benefits of service-learning experiences in fostering civic engagement and social responsibility in higher education
  • The influence of learning communities and collaborative learning environments on student academic and social integration in higher education
  • Exploring the benefits of undergraduate research experiences in fostering critical thinking and scientific inquiry skills
  • Investigating the effects of academic advising and mentoring on student retention and degree completion in higher education
  • The role of student engagement and involvement in co-curricular activities on holistic student development in higher education
  • The impact of multicultural education on fostering cultural competence and diversity appreciation in higher education
  • The role of internships and work-integrated learning experiences in enhancing students’ employability and career outcomes
  • Examining the effects of assessment and feedback practices on student learning and academic achievement in tertiary education
  • The influence of faculty professional development on instructional practices and student outcomes in tertiary education
  • The influence of faculty-student relationships on student success and well-being in tertiary education
  • The impact of college transition programs on students’ academic and social adjustment to higher education
  • The impact of online learning platforms on student learning outcomes in higher education
  • The impact of financial aid and scholarships on access and persistence in higher education
  • The influence of student leadership and involvement in extracurricular activities on personal development and campus engagement
  • Exploring the benefits of competency-based education in developing job-specific skills in tertiary students
  • Examining the effects of flipped classroom models on student learning and retention in higher education
  • Exploring the benefits of online collaboration and virtual team projects in developing teamwork skills in tertiary students
  • Investigating the effects of diversity and inclusion initiatives on campus climate and student experiences in tertiary education
  • The influence of study abroad programs on intercultural competence and global perspectives of college students
  • Investigating the effects of peer mentoring and tutoring programs on student retention and academic performance in tertiary education
  • Investigating the effectiveness of active learning strategies in promoting student engagement and achievement in tertiary education
  • Investigating the effects of blended learning models and hybrid courses on student learning and satisfaction in higher education
  • The role of digital literacy and information literacy skills in supporting student success in the digital age
  • Investigating the effects of experiential learning opportunities on career readiness and employability of college students
  • The impact of e-portfolios on student reflection, self-assessment, and showcasing of learning in higher education
  • The role of technology in enhancing collaborative learning experiences in tertiary classrooms
  • The impact of research opportunities on undergraduate student engagement and pursuit of advanced degrees
  • Examining the effects of competency-based assessment on measuring student learning and achievement in tertiary education
  • Examining the effects of interdisciplinary programs and courses on critical thinking and problem-solving skills in college students
  • The role of inclusive education and accessibility in promoting equitable learning experiences for diverse student populations
  • The role of career counseling and guidance in supporting students’ career decision-making in tertiary education
  • The influence of faculty diversity and representation on student success and inclusive learning environments in higher education

Research Topic Mega List

Education-Related Dissertations & Theses

While the ideas we’ve presented above are a decent starting point for finding a research topic in education, they are fairly generic and non-specific. So, it helps to look at actual dissertations and theses in the education space to see how this all comes together in practice.

Below, we’ve included a selection of education-related research projects to help refine your thinking. These are actual dissertations and theses, written as part of Master’s and PhD-level programs, so they can provide some useful insight as to what a research topic looks like in practice.

  • From Rural to Urban: Education Conditions of Migrant Children in China (Wang, 2019)
  • Energy Renovation While Learning English: A Guidebook for Elementary ESL Teachers (Yang, 2019)
  • A Reanalyses of Intercorrelational Matrices of Visual and Verbal Learners’ Abilities, Cognitive Styles, and Learning Preferences (Fox, 2020)
  • A study of the elementary math program utilized by a mid-Missouri school district (Barabas, 2020)
  • Instructor formative assessment practices in virtual learning environments : a posthumanist sociomaterial perspective (Burcks, 2019)
  • Higher education students services: a qualitative study of two mid-size universities’ direct exchange programs (Kinde, 2020)
  • Exploring editorial leadership : a qualitative study of scholastic journalism advisers teaching leadership in Missouri secondary schools (Lewis, 2020)
  • Selling the virtual university: a multimodal discourse analysis of marketing for online learning (Ludwig, 2020)
  • Advocacy and accountability in school counselling: assessing the use of data as related to professional self-efficacy (Matthews, 2020)
  • The use of an application screening assessment as a predictor of teaching retention at a midwestern, K-12, public school district (Scarbrough, 2020)
  • Core values driving sustained elite performance cultures (Beiner, 2020)
  • Educative features of upper elementary Eureka math curriculum (Dwiggins, 2020)
  • How female principals nurture adult learning opportunities in successful high schools with challenging student demographics (Woodward, 2020)
  • The disproportionality of Black Males in Special Education: A Case Study Analysis of Educator Perceptions in a Southeastern Urban High School (McCrae, 2021)

As you can see, these research topics are a lot more focused than the generic topic ideas we presented earlier. So, in order for you to develop a high-quality research topic, you’ll need to get specific and laser-focused on a specific context with specific variables of interest.  In the video below, we explore some other important things you’ll need to consider when crafting your research topic.

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If you’re still unsure about how to find a quality research topic within education, check out our Research Topic Kickstarter service, which is the perfect starting point for developing a unique, well-justified research topic.

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71 Comments

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You can find our list of nursing-related research topic ideas here: https://gradcoach.com/research-topics-nursing/

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parental involvement and students academic performance

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How about School management and supervision pls.?

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Bonang Morapedi

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Nkwain Chia Charles

Kindly help me with the research questions on the topic” Effects of workplace conflict on the employees’ job performance”. The effects can be applicable in every institution,enterprise or organisation.

Kelvin Kells Grant

Greetings, I am a student majoring in Sociology and minoring in Public Administration. I’m considering any recommended research topic in the field of Sociology.

Sulemana Alhassan

I’m a student pursuing Mphil in Basic education and I’m considering any recommended research proposal topic in my field of study

Cristine

Research Defense for students in senior high

Kupoluyi Regina

Kindly help me with a research topic in educational psychology. Ph.D level. Thank you.

Project-based learning is a teaching/learning type,if well applied in a classroom setting will yield serious positive impact. What can a teacher do to implement this in a disadvantaged zone like “North West Region of Cameroon ( hinterland) where war has brought about prolonged and untold sufferings on the indegins?

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I wish to get help on topics of research on educational administration PhD level

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William AU Mill

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request suggestion on topic in masters in medical education .

D.Newlands PhD.

Look at British Library as they keep a copy of all PhDs in the UK Core.ac.uk to access Open University and 6 other university e-archives, pdf downloads mostly available, all free.

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Aman

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Ellyjoy

Am a PhD student in Educational Foundations would like a sociological topic. Thank

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also916

Greetings and Regards I am a doctoral student in the field of philosophy of education. I am looking for a new topic for my thesis. Because of my work in the elementary school, I am looking for a topic that is from the field of elementary education and is related to the philosophy of education.

shantel orox

Masters student in the field of curriculum, any ideas of a research topic on low achiever students

Rey

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Omada Victoria Enyojo

Amazing guidelines

JAMES MALUKI MUTIA

I am a graduate with two masters. 1) Master of arts in religious studies and 2) Master in education in foundations of education. I intend to do a Ph.D. on my second master’s, however, I need to bring both masters together through my Ph.D. research. can I do something like, ” The contribution of Philosophy of education for a quality religion education in Kenya”? kindly, assist and be free to suggest a similar topic that will bring together the two masters. thanks in advance

betiel

Hi, I am an Early childhood trainer as well as a researcher, I need more support on this topic: The impact of early childhood education on later academic success.

TURIKUMWE JEAN BOSCO

I’m a student in upper level secondary school and I need your support in this research topics: “Impact of incorporating project -based learning in teaching English language skills in secondary schools”.

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Feb 1, 2023

5 Example Essays on Education for Students

Got an essay assignment about education here are 5 examples to inspire you.

Do you have an essay assignment on education or just looking up different kinds of essay topics on education? We have you covered! In this blog post, we will be sharing different kinds of essays to inspire you like the benefits of education, classroom experience, public schools vs private schools and more!

Education in itself has a wide array of topics to write and research about that can be challenging for students. That is why we are here to help you overcome these challenges by giving you examples of different types of essays on education that you can write easily and definitely impress your teachers.

To help speed up your essay writing process about education or other various topics, we recommend using Jenni.ai . This AI writing assistant is a great tool if you feel like you need a little help to finish up that essay right on time! 

Here are our Top 5 Amazing College Essays about Education:

1. Benefits of Education for a Well-Rounded, Successful Person

Introduction

In this day and age, basic education has become more and more accessible with the addition of public schools and public education systems worldwide. However, many adults are still struggling to achieve a proper education and attain the skills and knowledge they need to be successful in life. This is a problem because not having proper education and skills, statistically makes it difficult for people to get good-paying jobs and find success in their lives.

As most corporate jobs these days require employees to have at least a college education or a Bachelor's degree in order to be considered "hireable", this puts a lot of people at a disadvantage and limits their chances of finding a successful career.

But as we know, a lot of countries of the world have different kinds of education systems. Some don't even have access to education at all as some people have to work from a young age in order to support their families and themselves.

People have been combating this discrepancy by having multiple fundraisers for different types of community-wide education systems which aim to provide proper education for all. 

Career Opportunities for Degree holders in Different Fields

It is a well-known fact that a degree holder is more likely to get more opportunities for a job as opposed to a person without a degree or an education in general. This is especially true for jobs that require technical skills that a college education offers like engineering, computer science, medicine, architecture and more.

The more education and skills you accumulate, the more marketable you become. A lot of opportunities are easily accessible just because of a degree from a good college. Having a degree makes getting into better jobs and positions easier as well.

There are multiple benefits that come with having a degree or education. Character development, job opportunities, life skills and improved self-esteem are just some of the many benefits that come with higher education. These skills are valuable in the workplace and help you to become a better employee and a better overall person.

1st Study on Benefits of Education for a Well-Rounded, Successful Person

According to statistics, uneducated people are more likely to live in poverty whereas educated people are more likely to have a stable job, provide for themselves and their families and live a better life overall. Especially with inflation going at an all-time high in recent years, living a stable life is becoming more and more difficult compared to the past.

Having an education and accumulating life skills all the way up to a person's adult life is necessary in order to improve quality of life and professional development.

2nd Study on Benefits of Education for a Well-Rounded, Successful Person

Another study has shown that proper childhood education leads to a healthier lifestyle, spending habits and more. Those who aren't properly educated tend to spend their money unwisely on unnecessary things which leads to debt and even bankruptcy in many cases.

This benefits employers and households alike because an educated economy is a successful economy. There will be fewer crimes, more jobs, and more people who can afford their basic necessities which is why education is so important, especially when raising the generations to come.

Earning Gap between people with Unfinished Learning and Degree Holders

A lot of people have different reasons for unfinished studies like finances, personal commitments or a lack of resources to name a few. Regardless, there is a big difference in earning potential between those who have finished their degrees and those who didn't.

That huge gap makes it clear how important it is to finish your education and get the appropriate certifications or skills you need in order to succeed in the workforce. Whether you decide to pursue an online degree program or attend classes on campus, you will be making an investment in your future that will greatly benefit you in the long run.

1st study on Earning Gap between people with Unfinished Learning and Degree Holders

A study was conducted by academic experts at Arizona State University where participants who had finished their formal education were compared with those who had yet to finish their studies.

This study shows that degree holders are earning 84% higher household incomes as opposed to those who did not finish their studies. This significant difference is the deciding factor for many when deciding whether or not to continue their studies and that is why it is especially important for students to stay motivated throughout their entire academic careers.

2nd study on Earning Gap between people with Unfinished Learning and Degree Holders

Statistically speaking, degree holders have a lower rate of unemployment as opposed to non-degree holders. While the study does not show that this difference can be attributed to a lack of education, it does show that those who are in possession of a degree have an easier time finding a job in their field which in turn leads to higher salaries and a better quality of life.

Education is a major necessity in life in order to have a higher chance of succeeding in the professional or personal world. It is important to get the proper education you need so that you can achieve your professional goals and have the financial stability necessary to support yourself and your loved ones. An incomplete education will lead to less opportunity and thus less money down the line.

But all hope is not lost as some of the richest people in the world like Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and Steve Jobs all did not have college degrees but still ended up very successful in their own fields. At the end of the day, education is like the surefire way to secure a proper contingency plan for your dreams, but sometimes your determination, drive, motivation, and luck as well as your willingness to work hard to achieve your goals in order to be successful might just be enough to compensate for a lack of education.

2. Impact of Education

"Another impact of achieving an education is that it brings knowledge to one’s life. Knowledge is a powerful benefit for people in their understanding. Both Douglass and Malcolm also recognized the power of knowledge that impacted them in the following education. With great effort, Malcolm was fascinated with the knowledge he gained “I could for the first time pick up a book and read and now begin to understand what the book was saying”.

He made a progress in reading to understand the contents of a book even if it is the first time he picked it up. Knowledge also assisted Douglass in finding the injustice of slavery and motivating him to gain his freedom. In the essay “Learning to Read and Write”, he states that “the more I read, the more I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers.

I could regard them in no other light than a band of successful robbers, who had left their home, went to Africa, and stolen us from our homes and in a star, garland reduced us to slavery.”(64). He became cognizant of what fate was on hold for the enslavers. That idea impacted him to gain more knowledge and escape slavery to share his knowledge and what must be done. Today, people who want to gain knowledge have to go to school for their education. People that attend are taught the essential lessons that they need in order to move forward in life. Out of everyone in my family, I am the only one given the chance to go to college."

In this essay, the writer talks about the relevance and importance of education in our everyday lives. The writer believes that going to school and learning from others who can teach us about the world is a valuable thing to do as it allows us to gather information and apply it to our lives and make better choices in the future.

3. What Makes a Child Disadvantaged

"The effects of early childhood educational programs, both short and long-term, for all children are remarkable. Some assume that children with disabilities cannot get the full experience and that they cannot take advantage of the experiences that they would encounter in a preschool-type program.

On the other hand, a study done by Lamorey and Bricker found that “children with disabilities enrolled in integrated early childhood programs demonstrated higher lever of social play and more appropriate social interactions, and were more likely to initiate interactions with peers”.

Even though some may believe that disadvantaged students may get socially abused in a preschool-type program, the social development of the disadvantaged child can be one of the most influential effects that these programs can have on the student.

Any one person can tell from experience that children who have any type of disadvantage tend to be either secluded from the rest of society or to be more antisocial and isolated. In a study called the Ypsilanti Perry Preschool"

This essay about education talks about disadvantaged students and the effects it may have later on in their lives in school and their whole life as they get older. Childhood experience is the foundation for future development so it is important to give them an equal opportunity to learn, grow, and explore their surroundings without distractions or any other impediments that hinder their chances of development.

4. Safety on College Campuses

"Safety is a tremendous issue on college campuses, and additional procedures need to be taken to prevent crimes from happening. When walking onto a college campus as a young adult, people get a rush of the unknown. The unknown could be going to college parties and late-night study groups. College should be like any high school or elementary school and have better security measures to protect its students. 

In another incident at Western Kentucky University, a young woman was raped, stabbed, and burned to death in her dorm. Everyone that entered the building was supposed to sign in and show identification in this case the one involved walked in without being questioned, he proceeded to her room where she was brutally murdered. When visitors are seen by security and made to sign in and show identification, it would help monitor the visitors in each building.

Therefore, guards stationed outside of dorms at night would prevent unauthorized visitors in the building and the guards could personally identify who enters and leaves each building. Thirdly, visitors on campus are not a bad thing, but they must be monitored for student safety. There have been other crimes on campuses like purse snatching in the middle of the day, car break-ins, and shoplifting at the school stores."

This essay discusses campus issues that are present in most universities and schools. Aside from proper education, safety is a primary priority when it comes to learning in these institutions. The speaker uses the example of a woman being murdered by an intruder to show that additional security measures need to be implemented to ensure the safety of students and faculty alike.

5. School Education

"Without knowledge, people would be confused and lost with the decisions to make in life. I believe that many people, including myself, are seeking to be interested in education and become more successful in life. In “Against School,” Gatto argues that in our current school education system, boredom is a major component. I agree with him from my own experience.

Both students and teachers are bored in schools today. The learning should be much more interesting and active for students in school, therefore, teachers need to grab their student attention.

When I was in high school, my parents asked me a question at the dinner table, “What did you learn at school today?” Most often my answers were “nothing.” This conversation is an example of how boredom is commonly found in American public schools. Students complain that the teachers are unable to teach their material and the teacher complains that the students do not want to learn. Gatto discusses this common school attitude in his article.

Also, he gives the question then who is to blame for the affection of boredom among teachers and students alike. Gatto answers with the simple sentence “We all are.” Here is the truth that people are responsible for their own education and their own entertainment."

In this essay, the author talks about their opinion that school is no longer a privilege but a necessity in today's society. He suggests that in order to make students more productive members of society, they should be taught that their time is valuable and they need to be productive with that time. Knowledge is important for an individual's growth and prosperity which is why the speaker says "without knowledge, people would be confused and lost with the decisions to make in life". 

Writing essays about education is such a broad topic that you can talk about it in many different forms and aspects. You can write about classroom experience, opportunities in life with education, the difficulties in a student's life and so much more.

If you want to write and create high-quality essays about education or various other topics, we recommend using Jenni.ai to assist you with your essay writing process. This app allows you to have an AI writing assistant who will help you come up with ideas for your papers and also create original content for you based on your ideas. Sign up for free here!

Start Writing With Jenni Today

Sign up for a free Jenni AI account today. Unlock your research potential and experience the difference for yourself. Your journey to academic excellence starts here.

Greater Good Science Center • Magazine • In Action • In Education

Our Best Education Articles of 2022

Our most popular education articles of 2022 explore how to help students feel connected to each other and cultivate character strengths like curiosity and humility, amid the many stressors and pressures that young people are facing today. They also offer support for educators’ and school leaders’ well-being, and reflect on hopes for transformative change in education. 

If you are looking for specific activities to support your students’ and colleagues’ social and emotional well-being in 2023, visit our  Greater Good in Education  website, featuring free research-based practices, lessons, and strategies for cultivating kinder, happier, and more equitable classrooms and schools. For a deeper dive into the science behind social-emotional learning, mindfulness, and ethical development, consider our suite of self-paced  online courses  for educational professionals, including our capstone course,  Teaching and Learning for the Greater Good . Or join one of our new communities of practice that focus on educator well-being, offering space for rest, reflection, togetherness, and hope—and some science, too!

Here are the 12 best education articles of 2022, based on a composite ranking of pageviews and editors’ picks.


assignment about education

Six Ways to Find Your Courage During Challenging Times , by Amy L. Eva: Courage doesn’t have to look dramatic or fearless. Sometimes it looks more like quiet perseverance.

Calm, Clear, and Kind: What Students Want From Their Teachers , by Jenna Whitehead: Researchers asked students what makes a caring teacher—and these same qualities may help support your well-being as an educator.

How to Help Teens Put Less Pressure on Themselves , by Karen Bluth: Self-compassion can help teens who are struggling with toxic perfectionism. Five Ways to Support the Well-Being of School Leaders , by Julia Mahfouz, Kathleen King, and Danny Yahya: Burnout rates are high among principals. How can we fight burnout and promote self-care?

How to Help Your Students Develop Positive Habits , by Arthur Schwartz: Small habits repeated regularly can help students cultivate character strengths like patience, gratitude, and kindness.

Can We Make Real, Transformative Change in Education? , by Renee Owen: A new program is preparing leaders to facilitate systemic change in education in order to better serve all students.

Five Ways to Help Students Feel Connected at School Again , by Jennifer de Forest and Karen VanAusdal: According to students themselves, they are yearning for opportunities to connect with friends and peers as they head back to school.

How to Prepare for the Stresses of College , by Erin T. Barker and Andrea L. Howard: Researchers explain the most common causes of stress and distress at college, and what students can do to thrive during a big life transition.

How Humility Can Make Your Students the Best People Ever , by Vicki Zakrzewski: Simple ways for educators to help students move from “me” to “we.”

Four Ways to Inspire Humble Curiosity in Your Students , by Amy L. Eva: Humility and curiosity can encourage students to be passionate about learning and open to others’ perspectives.

What Middle Schoolers Can Teach Us About Respect , by Sara E. Rimm-Kaufman and Lia E. Sandilos: Teens are developing a nuanced understanding of what respect means. Here are some ideas for cultivating more of it in the classroom.

Why Teachers Need Each Other Right Now , by Amy L. Eva: Here are four simple ways to find social support as an educational professional.

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The World Bank Group is the largest financier of education in the developing world, working in 94 countries and committed to helping them reach SDG4: access to inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all by 2030.

Education is a human right, a powerful driver of development, and one of the strongest instruments for reducing poverty and improving health, gender equality, peace, and stability. It delivers large, consistent returns in terms of income, and is the most important factor to ensure equity and inclusion.

For individuals, education promotes employment, earnings, health, and poverty reduction. Globally, there is a  9% increase in hourly earnings for every extra year of schooling . For societies, it drives long-term economic growth, spurs innovation, strengthens institutions, and fosters social cohesion.  Education is further a powerful catalyst to climate action through widespread behavior change and skilling for green transitions.

Developing countries have made tremendous progress in getting children into the classroom and more children worldwide are now in school. But learning is not guaranteed, as the  2018 World Development Report  (WDR) stressed.

Making smart and effective investments in people’s education is critical for developing the human capital that will end extreme poverty. At the core of this strategy is the need to tackle the learning crisis, put an end to  Learning Poverty , and help youth acquire the advanced cognitive, socioemotional, technical and digital skills they need to succeed in today’s world. 

In low- and middle-income countries, the share of children living in  Learning Poverty  (that is, the proportion of 10-year-old children that are unable to read and understand a short age-appropriate text) increased from 57% before the pandemic to an estimated  70%  in 2022.

However, learning is in crisis. More than 70 million more people were pushed into poverty during the COVID pandemic, a billion children lost a year of school , and three years later the learning losses suffered have not been recouped .  If a child cannot read with comprehension by age 10, they are unlikely to become fluent readers. They will fail to thrive later in school and will be unable to power their careers and economies once they leave school.

The effects of the pandemic are expected to be long-lasting. Analysis has already revealed deep losses, with international reading scores declining from 2016 to 2021 by more than a year of schooling.  These losses may translate to a 0.68 percentage point in global GDP growth.  The staggering effects of school closures reach beyond learning. This generation of children could lose a combined total of  US$21 trillion in lifetime earnings  in present value or the equivalent of 17% of today’s global GDP – a sharp rise from the 2021 estimate of a US$17 trillion loss. 

Action is urgently needed now – business as usual will not suffice to heal the scars of the pandemic and will not accelerate progress enough to meet the ambitions of SDG 4. We are urging governments to implement ambitious and aggressive Learning Acceleration Programs to get children back to school, recover lost learning, and advance progress by building better, more equitable and resilient education systems.

Last Updated: Mar 25, 2024

The World Bank’s global education strategy is centered on ensuring learning happens – for everyone, everywhere. Our vision is to ensure that everyone can achieve her or his full potential with access to a quality education and lifelong learning. To reach this, we are helping countries build foundational skills like literacy, numeracy, and socioemotional skills – the building blocks for all other learning. From early childhood to tertiary education and beyond – we help children and youth acquire the skills they need to thrive in school, the labor market and throughout their lives.

Investing in the world’s most precious resource – people – is paramount to ending poverty on a livable planet.  Our experience across more than 100 countries bears out this robust connection between human capital, quality of life, and economic growth: when countries strategically invest in people and the systems designed to protect and build human capital at scale, they unlock the wealth of nations and the potential of everyone.

Building on this, the World Bank supports resilient, equitable, and inclusive education systems that ensure learning happens for everyone. We do this by generating and disseminating evidence, ensuring alignment with policymaking processes, and bridging the gap between research and practice.

The World Bank is the largest source of external financing for education in developing countries, with a portfolio of about $26 billion in 94 countries including IBRD, IDA and Recipient-Executed Trust Funds. IDA operations comprise 62% of the education portfolio.

The investment in FCV settings has increased dramatically and now accounts for 26% of our portfolio.

World Bank projects reach at least 425 million students -one-third of students in low- and middle-income countries.

The World Bank’s Approach to Education

Five interrelated pillars of a well-functioning education system underpin the World Bank’s education policy approach:

  • Learners are prepared and motivated to learn;
  • Teachers are prepared, skilled, and motivated to facilitate learning and skills acquisition;
  • Learning resources (including education technology) are available, relevant, and used to improve teaching and learning;
  • Schools are safe and inclusive; and
  • Education Systems are well-managed, with good implementation capacity and adequate financing.

The Bank is already helping governments design and implement cost-effective programs and tools to build these pillars.

Our Principles:

  • We pursue systemic reform supported by political commitment to learning for all children. 
  • We focus on equity and inclusion through a progressive path toward achieving universal access to quality education, including children and young adults in fragile or conflict affected areas , those in marginalized and rural communities,  girls and women , displaced populations,  students with disabilities , and other vulnerable groups.
  • We focus on results and use evidence to keep improving policy by using metrics to guide improvements.   
  • We want to ensure financial commitment commensurate with what is needed to provide basic services to all. 
  • We invest wisely in technology so that education systems embrace and learn to harness technology to support their learning objectives.   

Laying the groundwork for the future

Country challenges vary, but there is a menu of options to build forward better, more resilient, and equitable education systems.

Countries are facing an education crisis that requires a two-pronged approach: first, supporting actions to recover lost time through remedial and accelerated learning; and, second, building on these investments for a more equitable, resilient, and effective system.

Recovering from the learning crisis must be a political priority, backed with adequate financing and the resolve to implement needed reforms.  Domestic financing for education over the last two years has not kept pace with the need to recover and accelerate learning. Across low- and lower-middle-income countries, the  average share of education in government budgets fell during the pandemic , and in 2022 it remained below 2019 levels.

The best chance for a better future is to invest in education and make sure each dollar is put toward improving learning.  In a time of fiscal pressure, protecting spending that yields long-run gains – like spending on education – will maximize impact.  We still need more and better funding for education.  Closing the learning gap will require increasing the level, efficiency, and equity of education spending—spending smarter is an imperative.

  • Education technology  can be a powerful tool to implement these actions by supporting teachers, children, principals, and parents; expanding accessible digital learning platforms, including radio/ TV / Online learning resources; and using data to identify and help at-risk children, personalize learning, and improve service delivery.

Looking ahead

We must seize this opportunity  to reimagine education in bold ways. Together, we can build forward better more equitable, effective, and resilient education systems for the world’s children and youth.

Accelerating Improvements

Supporting countries in establishing time-bound learning targets and a focused education investment plan, outlining actions and investments geared to achieve these goals.

Launched in 2020, the  Accelerator Program  works with a set of countries to channel investments in education and to learn from each other. The program coordinates efforts across partners to ensure that the countries in the program show improvements in foundational skills at scale over the next three to five years. These investment plans build on the collective work of multiple partners, and leverage the latest evidence on what works, and how best to plan for implementation.  Countries such as Brazil (the state of Ceará) and Kenya have achieved dramatic reductions in learning poverty over the past decade at scale, providing useful lessons, even as they seek to build on their successes and address remaining and new challenges.  

Universalizing Foundational Literacy

Readying children for the future by supporting acquisition of foundational skills – which are the gateway to other skills and subjects.

The  Literacy Policy Package (LPP)   consists of interventions focused specifically on promoting acquisition of reading proficiency in primary school. These include assuring political and technical commitment to making all children literate; ensuring effective literacy instruction by supporting teachers; providing quality, age-appropriate books; teaching children first in the language they speak and understand best; and fostering children’s oral language abilities and love of books and reading.

Advancing skills through TVET and Tertiary

Ensuring that individuals have access to quality education and training opportunities and supporting links to employment.

Tertiary education and skills systems are a driver of major development agendas, including human capital, climate change, youth and women’s empowerment, and jobs and economic transformation. A comprehensive skill set to succeed in the 21st century labor market consists of foundational and higher order skills, socio-emotional skills, specialized skills, and digital skills. Yet most countries continue to struggle in delivering on the promise of skills development. 

The World Bank is supporting countries through efforts that address key challenges including improving access and completion, adaptability, quality, relevance, and efficiency of skills development programs. Our approach is via multiple channels including projects, global goods, as well as the Tertiary Education and Skills Program . Our recent reports including Building Better Formal TVET Systems and STEERing Tertiary Education provide a way forward for how to improve these critical systems.

Addressing Climate Change

Mainstreaming climate education and investing in green skills, research and innovation, and green infrastructure to spur climate action and foster better preparedness and resilience to climate shocks.

Our approach recognizes that education is critical for achieving effective, sustained climate action. At the same time, climate change is adversely impacting education outcomes. Investments in education can play a huge role in building climate resilience and advancing climate mitigation and adaptation. Climate change education gives young people greater awareness of climate risks and more access to tools and solutions for addressing these risks and managing related shocks. Technical and vocational education and training can also accelerate a green economic transformation by fostering green skills and innovation. Greening education infrastructure can help mitigate the impact of heat, pollution, and extreme weather on learning, while helping address climate change. 

Examples of this work are projects in Nigeria (life skills training for adolescent girls), Vietnam (fostering relevant scientific research) , and Bangladesh (constructing and retrofitting schools to serve as cyclone shelters).

Strengthening Measurement Systems

Enabling countries to gather and evaluate information on learning and its drivers more efficiently and effectively.

The World Bank supports initiatives to help countries effectively build and strengthen their measurement systems to facilitate evidence-based decision-making. Examples of this work include:

(1) The  Global Education Policy Dashboard (GEPD) : This tool offers a strong basis for identifying priorities for investment and policy reforms that are suited to each country context by focusing on the three dimensions of practices, policies, and politics.

  • Highlights gaps between what the evidence suggests is effective in promoting learning and what is happening in practice in each system; and
  • Allows governments to track progress as they act to close the gaps.

The GEPD has been implemented in 13 education systems already – Peru, Rwanda, Jordan, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Islamabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sierra Leone, Niger, Gabon, Jordan and Chad – with more expected by the end of 2024.

(2)  Learning Assessment Platform (LeAP) : LeAP is a one-stop shop for knowledge, capacity-building tools, support for policy dialogue, and technical staff expertise to support student achievement measurement and national assessments for better learning.

Supporting Successful Teachers

Helping systems develop the right selection, incentives, and support to the professional development of teachers.

Currently, the World Bank Education Global Practice has over 160 active projects supporting over 18 million teachers worldwide, about a third of the teacher population in low- and middle-income countries. In 12 countries alone, these projects cover 16 million teachers, including all primary school teachers in Ethiopia and Turkey, and over 80% in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Vietnam.

A World Bank-developed classroom observation tool, Teach, was designed to capture the quality of teaching in low- and middle-income countries. It is now 3.6 million students.

While Teach helps identify patterns in teacher performance, Coach leverages these insights to support teachers to improve their teaching practice through hands-on in-service teacher professional development (TPD).

Our recent report on Making Teacher Policy Work proposes a practical framework to uncover the black box of effective teacher policy and discusses the factors that enable their scalability and sustainability.

 Supporting Education Finance Systems

Strengthening country financing systems to mobilize resources for education and make better use of their investments in education.

Our approach is to bring together multi-sectoral expertise to engage with ministries of education and finance and other stakeholders to develop and implement effective and efficient public financial management systems; build capacity to monitor and evaluate education spending, identify financing bottlenecks, and develop interventions to strengthen financing systems; build the evidence base on global spending patterns and the magnitude and causes of spending inefficiencies; and develop diagnostic tools as public goods to support country efforts.

Working in Fragile, Conflict, and Violent (FCV) Contexts

The massive and growing global challenge of having so many children living in conflict and violent situations requires a response at the same scale and scope. Our education engagement in the Fragility, Conflict and Violence (FCV) context, which stands at US$5.35 billion, has grown rapidly in recent years, reflecting the ever-increasing importance of the FCV agenda in education. Indeed, these projects now account for more than 25% of the World Bank education portfolio.

Education is crucial to minimizing the effects of fragility and displacement on the welfare of youth and children in the short-term and preventing the emergence of violent conflict in the long-term. 

Support to Countries Throughout the Education Cycle

Our support to countries covers the entire learning cycle, to help shape resilient, equitable, and inclusive education systems that ensure learning happens for everyone. 

The ongoing  Supporting  Egypt  Education Reform project , 2018-2025, supports transformational reforms of the Egyptian education system, by improving teaching and learning conditions in public schools. The World Bank has invested $500 million in the project focused on increasing access to quality kindergarten, enhancing the capacity of teachers and education leaders, developing a reliable student assessment system, and introducing the use of modern technology for teaching and learning. Specifically, the share of Egyptian 10-year-old students, who could read and comprehend at the global minimum proficiency level, increased to 45 percent in 2021.

In  Nigeria , the $75 million  Edo  Basic Education Sector and Skills Transformation (EdoBESST)  project, running from 2020-2024, is focused on improving teaching and learning in basic education. Under the project, which covers 97 percent of schools in the state, there is a strong focus on incorporating digital technologies for teachers. They were equipped with handheld tablets with structured lesson plans for their classes. Their coaches use classroom observation tools to provide individualized feedback. Teacher absence has reduced drastically because of the initiative. Over 16,000 teachers were trained through the project, and the introduction of technology has also benefited students.

Through the $235 million  School Sector Development Program  in  Nepal  (2017-2022), the number of children staying in school until Grade 12 nearly tripled, and the number of out-of-school children fell by almost seven percent. During the pandemic, innovative approaches were needed to continue education. Mobile phone penetration is high in the country. More than four in five households in Nepal have mobile phones. The project supported an educational service that made it possible for children with phones to connect to local radio that broadcast learning programs.

From 2017-2023, the $50 million  Strengthening of State Universities  in  Chile  project has made strides to improve quality and equity at state universities. The project helped reduce dropout: the third-year dropout rate fell by almost 10 percent from 2018-2022, keeping more students in school.

The World Bank’s first  Program-for-Results financing in education  was through a $202 million project in  Tanzania , that ran from 2013-2021. The project linked funding to results and aimed to improve education quality. It helped build capacity, and enhanced effectiveness and efficiency in the education sector. Through the project, learning outcomes significantly improved alongside an unprecedented expansion of access to education for children in Tanzania. From 2013-2019, an additional 1.8 million students enrolled in primary schools. In 2019, the average reading speed for Grade 2 students rose to 22.3 words per minute, up from 17.3 in 2017. The project laid the foundation for the ongoing $500 million  BOOST project , which supports over 12 million children to enroll early, develop strong foundational skills, and complete a quality education.

The $40 million  Cambodia  Secondary Education Improvement project , which ran from 2017-2022, focused on strengthening school-based management, upgrading teacher qualifications, and building classrooms in Cambodia, to improve learning outcomes, and reduce student dropout at the secondary school level. The project has directly benefited almost 70,000 students in 100 target schools, and approximately 2,000 teachers and 600 school administrators received training.

The World Bank is co-financing the $152.80 million  Yemen  Restoring Education and Learning Emergency project , running from 2020-2024, which is implemented through UNICEF, WFP, and Save the Children. It is helping to maintain access to basic education for many students, improve learning conditions in schools, and is working to strengthen overall education sector capacity. In the time of crisis, the project is supporting teacher payments and teacher training, school meals, school infrastructure development, and the distribution of learning materials and school supplies. To date, almost 600,000 students have benefited from these interventions.

The $87 million  Providing an Education of Quality in  Haiti  project supported approximately 380 schools in the Southern region of Haiti from 2016-2023. Despite a highly challenging context of political instability and recurrent natural disasters, the project successfully supported access to education for students. The project provided textbooks, fresh meals, and teacher training support to 70,000 students, 3,000 teachers, and 300 school directors. It gave tuition waivers to 35,000 students in 118 non-public schools. The project also repaired 19 national schools damaged by the 2021 earthquake, which gave 5,500 students safe access to their schools again.

In 2013, just 5% of the poorest households in  Uzbekistan  had children enrolled in preschools. Thanks to the  Improving Pre-Primary and General Secondary Education Project , by July 2019, around 100,000 children will have benefitted from the half-day program in 2,420 rural kindergartens, comprising around 49% of all preschool educational institutions, or over 90% of rural kindergartens in the country.

In addition to working closely with governments in our client countries, the World Bank also works at the global, regional, and local levels with a range of technical partners, including foundations, non-profit organizations, bilaterals, and other multilateral organizations. Some examples of our most recent global partnerships include:

UNICEF, UNESCO, FCDO, USAID, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation:  Coalition for Foundational Learning

The World Bank is working closely with UNICEF, UNESCO, FCDO, USAID, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as the  Coalition for Foundational Learning  to advocate and provide technical support to ensure foundational learning.  The World Bank works with these partners to promote and endorse the  Commitment to Action on Foundational Learning , a global network of countries committed to halving the global share of children unable to read and understand a simple text by age 10 by 2030.

Australian Aid, Bernard van Leer Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Canada, Echida Giving, FCDO, German Cooperation, William & Flora Hewlett Foundation, Conrad Hilton Foundation, LEGO Foundation, Porticus, USAID: Early Learning Partnership

The Early Learning Partnership (ELP) is a multi-donor trust fund, housed at the World Bank.  ELP leverages World Bank strengths—a global presence, access to policymakers and strong technical analysis—to improve early learning opportunities and outcomes for young children around the world.

We help World Bank teams and countries get the information they need to make the case to invest in Early Childhood Development (ECD), design effective policies and deliver impactful programs. At the country level, ELP grants provide teams with resources for early seed investments that can generate large financial commitments through World Bank finance and government resources. At the global level, ELP research and special initiatives work to fill knowledge gaps, build capacity and generate public goods.

UNESCO, UNICEF:  Learning Data Compact

UNESCO, UNICEF, and the World Bank have joined forces to close the learning data gaps that still exist and that preclude many countries from monitoring the quality of their education systems and assessing if their students are learning. The three organizations have agreed to a  Learning Data Compact , a commitment to ensure that all countries, especially low-income countries, have at least one quality measure of learning by 2025, supporting coordinated efforts to strengthen national assessment systems.

UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS):   Learning Poverty Indicator

Aimed at measuring and urging attention to foundational literacy as a prerequisite to achieve SDG4, this partnership was launched in 2019 to help countries strengthen their learning assessment systems, better monitor what students are learning in internationally comparable ways and improve the breadth and quality of global data on education.

FCDO, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation:  EdTech Hub

Supported by the UK government’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the EdTech Hub is aimed at improving the quality of ed-tech investments. The Hub launched a rapid response Helpdesk service to provide just-in-time advisory support to 70 low- and middle-income countries planning education technology and remote learning initiatives.

MasterCard Foundation

Our Tertiary Education and Skills  global program, launched with support from the Mastercard Foundation, aims to prepare youth and adults for the future of work and society by improving access to relevant, quality, equitable reskilling and post-secondary education opportunities.  It is designed to reframe, reform, and rebuild tertiary education and skills systems for the digital and green transformation.

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Four of the biggest problems facing education—and four trends that could make a difference

Eduardo velez bustillo, harry a. patrinos.

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In 2022, we published, Lessons for the education sector from the COVID-19 pandemic , which was a follow up to,  Four Education Trends that Countries Everywhere Should Know About , which summarized views of education experts around the world on how to handle the most pressing issues facing the education sector then. We focused on neuroscience, the role of the private sector, education technology, inequality, and pedagogy.

Unfortunately, we think the four biggest problems facing education today in developing countries are the same ones we have identified in the last decades .

1. The learning crisis was made worse by COVID-19 school closures

Low quality instruction is a major constraint and prior to COVID-19, the learning poverty rate in low- and middle-income countries was 57% (6 out of 10 children could not read and understand basic texts by age 10). More dramatic is the case of Sub-Saharan Africa with a rate even higher at 86%. Several analyses show that the impact of the pandemic on student learning was significant, leaving students in low- and middle-income countries way behind in mathematics, reading and other subjects.  Some argue that learning poverty may be close to 70% after the pandemic , with a substantial long-term negative effect in future earnings. This generation could lose around $21 trillion in future salaries, with the vulnerable students affected the most.

2. Countries are not paying enough attention to early childhood care and education (ECCE)

At the pre-school level about two-thirds of countries do not have a proper legal framework to provide free and compulsory pre-primary education. According to UNESCO, only a minority of countries, mostly high-income, were making timely progress towards SDG4 benchmarks on early childhood indicators prior to the onset of COVID-19. And remember that ECCE is not only preparation for primary school. It can be the foundation for emotional wellbeing and learning throughout life; one of the best investments a country can make.

3. There is an inadequate supply of high-quality teachers

Low quality teaching is a huge problem and getting worse in many low- and middle-income countries.  In Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, the percentage of trained teachers fell from 84% in 2000 to 69% in 2019 . In addition, in many countries teachers are formally trained and as such qualified, but do not have the minimum pedagogical training. Globally, teachers for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects are the biggest shortfalls.

4. Decision-makers are not implementing evidence-based or pro-equity policies that guarantee solid foundations

It is difficult to understand the continued focus on non-evidence-based policies when there is so much that we know now about what works. Two factors contribute to this problem. One is the short tenure that top officials have when leading education systems. Examples of countries where ministers last less than one year on average are plentiful. The second and more worrisome deals with the fact that there is little attention given to empirical evidence when designing education policies.

To help improve on these four fronts, we see four supporting trends:

1. Neuroscience should be integrated into education policies

Policies considering neuroscience can help ensure that students get proper attention early to support brain development in the first 2-3 years of life. It can also help ensure that children learn to read at the proper age so that they will be able to acquire foundational skills to learn during the primary education cycle and from there on. Inputs like micronutrients, early child stimulation for gross and fine motor skills, speech and language and playing with other children before the age of three are cost-effective ways to get proper development. Early grade reading, using the pedagogical suggestion by the Early Grade Reading Assessment model, has improved learning outcomes in many low- and middle-income countries. We now have the tools to incorporate these advances into the teaching and learning system with AI , ChatGPT , MOOCs and online tutoring.

2. Reversing learning losses at home and at school

There is a real need to address the remaining and lingering losses due to school closures because of COVID-19.  Most students living in households with incomes under the poverty line in the developing world, roughly the bottom 80% in low-income countries and the bottom 50% in middle-income countries, do not have the minimum conditions to learn at home . These students do not have access to the internet, and, often, their parents or guardians do not have the necessary schooling level or the time to help them in their learning process. Connectivity for poor households is a priority. But learning continuity also requires the presence of an adult as a facilitator—a parent, guardian, instructor, or community worker assisting the student during the learning process while schools are closed or e-learning is used.

To recover from the negative impact of the pandemic, the school system will need to develop at the student level: (i) active and reflective learning; (ii) analytical and applied skills; (iii) strong self-esteem; (iv) attitudes supportive of cooperation and solidarity; and (v) a good knowledge of the curriculum areas. At the teacher (instructor, facilitator, parent) level, the system should aim to develop a new disposition toward the role of teacher as a guide and facilitator. And finally, the system also needs to increase parental involvement in the education of their children and be active part in the solution of the children’s problems. The Escuela Nueva Learning Circles or the Pratham Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) are models that can be used.

3. Use of evidence to improve teaching and learning

We now know more about what works at scale to address the learning crisis. To help countries improve teaching and learning and make teaching an attractive profession, based on available empirical world-wide evidence , we need to improve its status, compensation policies and career progression structures; ensure pre-service education includes a strong practicum component so teachers are well equipped to transition and perform effectively in the classroom; and provide high-quality in-service professional development to ensure they keep teaching in an effective way. We also have the tools to address learning issues cost-effectively. The returns to schooling are high and increasing post-pandemic. But we also have the cost-benefit tools to make good decisions, and these suggest that structured pedagogy, teaching according to learning levels (with and without technology use) are proven effective and cost-effective .

4. The role of the private sector

When properly regulated the private sector can be an effective education provider, and it can help address the specific needs of countries. Most of the pedagogical models that have received international recognition come from the private sector. For example, the recipients of the Yidan Prize on education development are from the non-state sector experiences (Escuela Nueva, BRAC, edX, Pratham, CAMFED and New Education Initiative). In the context of the Artificial Intelligence movement, most of the tools that will revolutionize teaching and learning come from the private sector (i.e., big data, machine learning, electronic pedagogies like OER-Open Educational Resources, MOOCs, etc.). Around the world education technology start-ups are developing AI tools that may have a good potential to help improve quality of education .

After decades asking the same questions on how to improve the education systems of countries, we, finally, are finding answers that are very promising.  Governments need to be aware of this fact.

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Eduardo Velez Bustillo's picture

Consultant, Education Sector, World Bank

Harry A. Patrinos

Senior Adviser, Education

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Philosophy of Education

Philosophy of education is the branch of applied or practical philosophy concerned with the nature and aims of education and the philosophical problems arising from educational theory and practice. Because that practice is ubiquitous in and across human societies, its social and individual manifestations so varied, and its influence so profound, the subject is wide-ranging, involving issues in ethics and social/political philosophy, epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of mind and language, and other areas of philosophy. Because it looks both inward to the parent discipline and outward to educational practice and the social, legal, and institutional contexts in which it takes place, philosophy of education concerns itself with both sides of the traditional theory/practice divide. Its subject matter includes both basic philosophical issues (e.g., the nature of the knowledge worth teaching, the character of educational equality and justice, etc.) and problems concerning specific educational policies and practices (e.g., the desirability of standardized curricula and testing, the social, economic, legal and moral dimensions of specific funding arrangements, the justification of curriculum decisions, etc.). In all this the philosopher of education prizes conceptual clarity, argumentative rigor, the fair-minded consideration of the interests of all involved in or affected by educational efforts and arrangements, and informed and well-reasoned valuation of educational aims and interventions.

Philosophy of education has a long and distinguished history in the Western philosophical tradition, from Socrates’ battles with the sophists to the present day. Many of the most distinguished figures in that tradition incorporated educational concerns into their broader philosophical agendas (Curren 2000, 2018; Rorty 1998). While that history is not the focus here, it is worth noting that the ideals of reasoned inquiry championed by Socrates and his descendants have long informed the view that education should foster in all students, to the extent possible, the disposition to seek reasons and the ability to evaluate them cogently, and to be guided by their evaluations in matters of belief, action and judgment. This view, that education centrally involves the fostering of reason or rationality, has with varying articulations and qualifications been embraced by most of those historical figures; it continues to be defended by contemporary philosophers of education as well (Scheffler 1973 [1989]; Siegel 1988, 1997, 2007, 2017). As with any philosophical thesis it is controversial; some dimensions of the controversy are explored below.

This entry is a selective survey of important contemporary work in Anglophone philosophy of education; it does not treat in detail recent scholarship outside that context.

1. Problems in Delineating the Field

2. analytic philosophy of education and its influence, 3.1 the content of the curriculum and the aims and functions of schooling, 3.2 social, political and moral philosophy, 3.3 social epistemology, virtue epistemology, and the epistemology of education, 3.4 philosophical disputes concerning empirical education research, 4. concluding remarks, other internet resources, related entries.

The inward/outward looking nature of the field of philosophy of education alluded to above makes the task of delineating the field, of giving an over-all picture of the intellectual landscape, somewhat complicated (for a detailed account of this topography, see Phillips 1985, 2010). Suffice it to say that some philosophers, as well as focusing inward on the abstract philosophical issues that concern them, are drawn outwards to discuss or comment on issues that are more commonly regarded as falling within the purview of professional educators, educational researchers, policy-makers and the like. (An example is Michael Scriven, who in his early career was a prominent philosopher of science; later he became a central figure in the development of the field of evaluation of educational and social programs. See Scriven 1991a, 1991b.) At the same time, there are professionals in the educational or closely related spheres who are drawn to discuss one or another of the philosophical issues that they encounter in the course of their work. (An example here is the behaviorist psychologist B.F. Skinner, the central figure in the development of operant conditioning and programmed learning, who in works such as Walden Two (1948) and Beyond Freedom and Dignity (1972) grappled—albeit controversially—with major philosophical issues that were related to his work.)

What makes the field even more amorphous is the existence of works on educational topics, written by well-regarded philosophers who have made major contributions to their discipline; these educational reflections have little or no philosophical content, illustrating the truth that philosophers do not always write philosophy. However, despite this, works in this genre have often been treated as contributions to philosophy of education. (Examples include John Locke’s Some Thoughts Concerning Education [1693] and Bertrand Russell’s rollicking pieces written primarily to raise funds to support a progressive school he ran with his wife. (See Park 1965.)

Finally, as indicated earlier, the domain of education is vast, the issues it raises are almost overwhelmingly numerous and are of great complexity, and the social significance of the field is second to none. These features make the phenomena and problems of education of great interest to a wide range of socially-concerned intellectuals, who bring with them their own favored conceptual frameworks—concepts, theories and ideologies, methods of analysis and argumentation, metaphysical and other assumptions, and the like. It is not surprising that scholars who work in this broad genre also find a home in the field of philosophy of education.

As a result of these various factors, the significant intellectual and social trends of the past few centuries, together with the significant developments in philosophy, all have had an impact on the content of arguments and methods of argumentation in philosophy of education—Marxism, psycho-analysis, existentialism, phenomenology, positivism, post-modernism, pragmatism, neo-liberalism, the several waves of feminism, analytic philosophy in both its ordinary language and more formal guises, are merely the tip of the iceberg.

Conceptual analysis, careful assessment of arguments, the rooting out of ambiguity, the drawing of clarifying distinctions—all of which are at least part of the philosophical toolkit—have been respected activities within philosophy from the dawn of the field. No doubt it somewhat over-simplifies the complex path of intellectual history to suggest that what happened in the twentieth century—early on, in the home discipline itself, and with a lag of a decade or more in philosophy of education—is that philosophical analysis came to be viewed by some scholars as being the major philosophical activity (or set of activities), or even as being the only viable or reputable activity. In any case, as they gained prominence and for a time hegemonic influence during the rise of analytic philosophy early in the twentieth century analytic techniques came to dominate philosophy of education in the middle third of that century (Curren, Robertson, & Hager 2003).

The pioneering work in the modern period entirely in an analytic mode was the short monograph by C.D. Hardie, Truth and Fallacy in Educational Theory (1941; reissued in 1962). In his Introduction, Hardie (who had studied with C.D. Broad and I.A. Richards) made it clear that he was putting all his eggs into the ordinary-language-analysis basket:

The Cambridge analytical school, led by Moore, Broad and Wittgenstein, has attempted so to analyse propositions that it will always be apparent whether the disagreement between philosophers is one concerning matters of fact, or is one concerning the use of words, or is, as is frequently the case, a purely emotive one. It is time, I think, that a similar attitude became common in the field of educational theory. (Hardie 1962: xix)

About a decade after the end of the Second World War the floodgates opened and a stream of work in the analytic mode appeared; the following is merely a sample. D. J. O’Connor published An Introduction to Philosophy of Education (1957) in which, among other things, he argued that the word “theory” as it is used in educational contexts is merely a courtesy title, for educational theories are nothing like what bear this title in the natural sciences. Israel Scheffler, who became the paramount philosopher of education in North America, produced a number of important works including The Language of Education (1960), which contained clarifying and influential analyses of definitions (he distinguished reportive, stipulative, and programmatic types) and the logic of slogans (often these are literally meaningless, and, he argued, should be seen as truncated arguments), Conditions of Knowledge (1965), still the best introduction to the epistemological side of philosophy of education, and Reason and Teaching (1973 [1989]), which in a wide-ranging and influential series of essays makes the case for regarding the fostering of rationality/critical thinking as a fundamental educational ideal (cf. Siegel 2016). B. O. Smith and R. H. Ennis edited the volume Language and Concepts in Education (1961); and R.D. Archambault edited Philosophical Analysis and Education (1965), consisting of essays by a number of prominent British writers, most notably R. S. Peters (whose status in Britain paralleled that of Scheffler in the United States), Paul Hirst, and John Wilson. Topics covered in the Archambault volume were typical of those that became the “bread and butter” of analytic philosophy of education (APE) throughout the English-speaking world—education as a process of initiation, liberal education, the nature of knowledge, types of teaching, and instruction versus indoctrination.

Among the most influential products of APE was the analysis developed by Hirst and Peters (1970) and Peters (1973) of the concept of education itself. Using as a touchstone “normal English usage,” it was concluded that a person who has been educated (rather than instructed or indoctrinated) has been (i) changed for the better; (ii) this change has involved the acquisition of knowledge and intellectual skills and the development of understanding; and (iii) the person has come to care for, or be committed to, the domains of knowledge and skill into which he or she has been initiated. The method used by Hirst and Peters comes across clearly in their handling of the analogy with the concept of “reform”, one they sometimes drew upon for expository purposes. A criminal who has been reformed has changed for the better, and has developed a commitment to the new mode of life (if one or other of these conditions does not hold, a speaker of standard English would not say the criminal has been reformed). Clearly the analogy with reform breaks down with respect to the knowledge and understanding conditions. Elsewhere Peters developed the fruitful notion of “education as initiation”.

The concept of indoctrination was also of great interest to analytic philosophers of education, for, it was argued, getting clear about precisely what constitutes indoctrination also would serve to clarify the border that demarcates it from acceptable educational processes. Thus, whether or not an instructional episode was a case of indoctrination was determined by the content taught, the intention of the instructor, the methods of instruction used, the outcomes of the instruction, or by some combination of these. Adherents of the different analyses used the same general type of argument to make their case, namely, appeal to normal and aberrant usage. Unfortunately, ordinary language analysis did not lead to unanimity of opinion about where this border was located, and rival analyses of the concept were put forward (Snook 1972). The danger of restricting analysis to ordinary language (“normal English usage”) was recognized early on by Scheffler, whose preferred view of analysis emphasized

first, its greater sophistication as regards language, and the interpenetration of language and inquiry, second, its attempt to follow the modern example of the sciences in empirical spirit, in rigor, in attention to detail, in respect for alternatives, and in objectivity of method, and third, its use of techniques of symbolic logic brought to full development only in the last fifty years… It is…this union of scientific spirit and logical method applied toward the clarification of basic ideas that characterizes current analytic philosophy [and that ought to characterize analytic philosophy of education]. (Scheffler 1973 [1989: 9–10])

After a period of dominance, for a number of important reasons the influence of APE went into decline. First, there were growing criticisms that the work of analytic philosophers of education had become focused upon minutiae and in the main was bereft of practical import. (It is worth noting that a 1966 article in Time , reprinted in Lucas 1969, had put forward the same criticism of mainstream philosophy.) Second, in the early 1970’s radical students in Britain accused Peters’ brand of linguistic analysis of conservatism, and of tacitly giving support to “traditional values”—they raised the issue of whose English usage was being analyzed?

Third, criticisms of language analysis in mainstream philosophy had been mounting for some time, and finally after a lag of many years were reaching the attention of philosophers of education; there even had been a surprising degree of interest on the part of the general reading public in the United Kingdom as early as 1959, when Gilbert Ryle, editor of the journal Mind , refused to commission a review of Ernest Gellner’s Words and Things (1959)—a detailed and quite acerbic critique of Wittgenstein’s philosophy and its espousal of ordinary language analysis. (Ryle argued that Gellner’s book was too insulting, a view that drew Bertrand Russell into the fray on Gellner’s side—in the daily press, no less; Russell produced a list of insulting remarks drawn from the work of great philosophers of the past. See Mehta 1963.)

Richard Peters had been given warning that all was not well with APE at a conference in Canada in 1966; after delivering a paper on “The aims of education: A conceptual inquiry” that was based on ordinary language analysis, a philosopher in the audience (William Dray) asked Peters “ whose concepts do we analyze?” Dray went on to suggest that different people, and different groups within society, have different concepts of education. Five years before the radical students raised the same issue, Dray pointed to the possibility that what Peters had presented under the guise of a “logical analysis” was nothing but the favored usage of a certain class of persons—a class that Peters happened to identify with (see Peters 1973, where to the editor’s credit the interaction with Dray is reprinted).

Fourth, during the decade of the seventies when these various critiques of analytic philosophy were in the process of eroding its luster, a spate of translations from the Continent stimulated some philosophers of education in Britain and North America to set out in new directions, and to adopt a new style of writing and argumentation. Key works by Gadamer, Foucault and Derrida appeared in English, and these were followed in 1984 by Lyotard’s The Postmodern Condition . The classic works of Heidegger and Husserl also found new admirers; and feminist philosophers of education were finding their voices—Maxine Greene published a number of pieces in the 1970s and 1980s, including The Dialectic of Freedom (1988); the influential book by Nel Noddings, Caring: A Feminine Approach to Ethics and Moral Education , appeared the same year as the work by Lyotard, followed a year later by Jane Roland Martin’s Reclaiming a Conversation . In more recent years all these trends have continued. APE was and is no longer the center of interest, although, as indicated below, it still retains its voice.

3. Areas of Contemporary Activity

As was stressed at the outset, the field of education is huge and contains within it a virtually inexhaustible number of issues that are of philosophical interest. To attempt comprehensive coverage of how philosophers of education have been working within this thicket would be a quixotic task for a large single volume and is out of the question for a solitary encyclopedia entry. Nevertheless, a valiant attempt to give an overview was made in A Companion to the Philosophy of Education (Curren 2003), which contains more than six-hundred pages divided into forty-five chapters each of which surveys a subfield of work. The following random selection of chapter topics gives a sense of the enormous scope of the field: Sex education, special education, science education, aesthetic education, theories of teaching and learning, religious education, knowledge, truth and learning, cultivating reason, the measurement of learning, multicultural education, education and the politics of identity, education and standards of living, motivation and classroom management, feminism, critical theory, postmodernism, romanticism, the purposes of universities, affirmative action in higher education, and professional education. The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Education (Siegel 2009) contains a similarly broad range of articles on (among other things) the epistemic and moral aims of education, liberal education and its imminent demise, thinking and reasoning, fallibilism and fallibility, indoctrination, authenticity, the development of rationality, Socratic teaching, educating the imagination, caring and empathy in moral education, the limits of moral education, the cultivation of character, values education, curriculum and the value of knowledge, education and democracy, art and education, science education and religious toleration, constructivism and scientific methods, multicultural education, prejudice, authority and the interests of children, and on pragmatist, feminist, and postmodernist approaches to philosophy of education.

Given this enormous range, there is no non-arbitrary way to select a small number of topics for further discussion, nor can the topics that are chosen be pursued in great depth. The choice of those below has been made with an eye to highlighting contemporary work that makes solid contact with and contributes to important discussions in general philosophy and/or the academic educational and educational research communities.

The issue of what should be taught to students at all levels of education—the issue of curriculum content—obviously is a fundamental one, and it is an extraordinarily difficult one with which to grapple. In tackling it, care needs to be taken to distinguish between education and schooling—for although education can occur in schools, so can mis-education, and many other things can take place there that are educationally orthogonal (such as the provision of free or subsidized lunches and the development of social networks); and it also must be recognized that education can occur in the home, in libraries and museums, in churches and clubs, in solitary interaction with the public media, and the like.

In developing a curriculum (whether in a specific subject area, or more broadly as the whole range of offerings in an educational institution or system), a number of difficult decisions need to be made. Issues such as the proper ordering or sequencing of topics in the chosen subject, the time to be allocated to each topic, the lab work or excursions or projects that are appropriate for particular topics, can all be regarded as technical issues best resolved either by educationists who have a depth of experience with the target age group or by experts in the psychology of learning and the like. But there are deeper issues, ones concerning the validity of the justifications that have been given for including/excluding particular subjects or topics in the offerings of formal educational institutions. (Why should evolution or creation “science” be included, or excluded, as a topic within the standard high school subject Biology? Is the justification that is given for teaching Economics in some schools coherent and convincing? Do the justifications for including/excluding materials on birth control, patriotism, the Holocaust or wartime atrocities in the curriculum in some school districts stand up to critical scrutiny?)

The different justifications for particular items of curriculum content that have been put forward by philosophers and others since Plato’s pioneering efforts all draw, explicitly or implicitly, upon the positions that the respective theorists hold about at least three sets of issues.

First, what are the aims and/or functions of education (aims and functions are not necessarily the same)? Many aims have been proposed; a short list includes the production of knowledge and knowledgeable students, the fostering of curiosity and inquisitiveness, the enhancement of understanding, the enlargement of the imagination, the civilizing of students, the fostering of rationality and/or autonomy, and the development in students of care, concern and associated dispositions and attitudes (see Siegel 2007 for a longer list). The justifications offered for all such aims have been controversial, and alternative justifications of a single proposed aim can provoke philosophical controversy. Consider the aim of autonomy. Aristotle asked, what constitutes the good life and/or human flourishing, such that education should foster these (Curren 2013)? These two formulations are related, for it is arguable that our educational institutions should aim to equip individuals to pursue this good life—although this is not obvious, both because it is not clear that there is one conception of the good or flourishing life that is the good or flourishing life for everyone, and it is not clear that this is a question that should be settled in advance rather than determined by students for themselves. Thus, for example, if our view of human flourishing includes the capacity to think and act autonomously, then the case can be made that educational institutions—and their curricula—should aim to prepare, or help to prepare, autonomous individuals. A rival justification of the aim of autonomy, associated with Kant, champions the educational fostering of autonomy not on the basis of its contribution to human flourishing, but rather the obligation to treat students with respect as persons (Scheffler 1973 [1989]; Siegel 1988). Still others urge the fostering of autonomy on the basis of students’ fundamental interests, in ways that draw upon both Aristotelian and Kantian conceptual resources (Brighouse 2005, 2009). It is also possible to reject the fostering of autonomy as an educational aim (Hand 2006).

Assuming that the aim can be justified, how students should be helped to become autonomous or develop a conception of the good life and pursue it is of course not immediately obvious, and much philosophical ink has been spilled on the general question of how best to determine curriculum content. One influential line of argument was developed by Paul Hirst, who argued that knowledge is essential for developing and then pursuing a conception of the good life, and because logical analysis shows, he argued, that there are seven basic forms of knowledge, the case can be made that the function of the curriculum is to introduce students to each of these forms (Hirst 1965; see Phillips 1987: ch. 11). Another, suggested by Scheffler, is that curriculum content should be selected so as “to help the learner attain maximum self-sufficiency as economically as possible.” The relevant sorts of economy include those of resources, teacher effort, student effort, and the generalizability or transfer value of content, while the self-sufficiency in question includes

self-awareness, imaginative weighing of alternative courses of action, understanding of other people’s choices and ways of life, decisiveness without rigidity, emancipation from stereotyped ways of thinking and perceiving…empathy… intuition, criticism and independent judgment. (Scheffler 1973 [1989: 123–5])

Both impose important constraints on the curricular content to be taught.

Second, is it justifiable to treat the curriculum of an educational institution as a vehicle for furthering the socio-political interests and goals of a dominant group, or any particular group, including one’s own; and relatedly, is it justifiable to design the curriculum so that it serves as an instrument of control or of social engineering? In the closing decades of the twentieth century there were numerous discussions of curriculum theory, particularly from Marxist and postmodern perspectives, that offered the sobering analysis that in many educational systems, including those in Western democracies, the curriculum did indeed reflect and serve the interests of powerful cultural elites. What to do about this situation (if it is indeed the situation of contemporary educational institutions) is far from clear and is the focus of much work at the interface of philosophy of education and social/political philosophy, some of which is discussed in the next section. A closely related question is this: ought educational institutions be designed to further pre-determined social ends, or rather to enable students to competently evaluate all such ends? Scheffler argued that we should opt for the latter: we must

surrender the idea of shaping or molding the mind of the pupil. The function of education…is rather to liberate the mind, strengthen its critical powers, [and] inform it with knowledge and the capacity for independent inquiry. (Scheffler 1973 [1989: 139])

Third, should educational programs at the elementary and secondary levels be made up of a number of disparate offerings, so that individuals with different interests and abilities and affinities for learning can pursue curricula that are suitable? Or should every student pursue the same curriculum as far as each is able?—a curriculum, it should be noted, that in past cases nearly always was based on the needs or interests of those students who were academically inclined or were destined for elite social roles. Mortimer Adler and others in the late twentieth century sometimes used the aphorism “the best education for the best is the best education for all.”

The thinking here can be explicated in terms of the analogy of an out-of-control virulent disease, for which there is only one type of medicine available; taking a large dose of this medicine is extremely beneficial, and the hope is that taking only a little—while less effective—is better than taking none at all. Medically, this is dubious, while the educational version—forcing students to work, until they exit the system, on topics that do not interest them and for which they have no facility or motivation—has even less merit. (For a critique of Adler and his Paideia Proposal , see Noddings 2015.) It is interesting to compare the modern “one curriculum track for all” position with Plato’s system outlined in the Republic , according to which all students—and importantly this included girls—set out on the same course of study. Over time, as they moved up the educational ladder it would become obvious that some had reached the limit imposed upon them by nature, and they would be directed off into appropriate social roles in which they would find fulfillment, for their abilities would match the demands of these roles. Those who continued on with their education would eventually become members of the ruling class of Guardians.

The publication of John Rawls’s A Theory of Justice in 1971 was the most notable event in the history of political philosophy over the last century. The book spurred a period of ferment in political philosophy that included, among other things, new research on educationally fundamental themes. The principles of justice in educational distribution have perhaps been the dominant theme in this literature, and Rawls’s influence on its development has been pervasive.

Rawls’s theory of justice made so-called “fair equality of opportunity” one of its constitutive principles. Fair equality of opportunity entailed that the distribution of education would not put the children of those who currently occupied coveted social positions at any competitive advantage over other, equally talented and motivated children seeking the qualifications for those positions (Rawls 1971: 72–75). Its purpose was to prevent socio-economic differences from hardening into social castes that were perpetuated across generations. One obvious criticism of fair equality of opportunity is that it does not prohibit an educational distribution that lavished resources on the most talented children while offering minimal opportunities to others. So long as untalented students from wealthy families were assigned opportunities no better than those available to their untalented peers among the poor, no breach of the principle would occur. Even the most moderate egalitarians might find such a distributive regime to be intuitively repugnant.

Repugnance might be mitigated somewhat by the ways in which the overall structure of Rawls’s conception of justice protects the interests of those who fare badly in educational competition. All citizens must enjoy the same basic liberties, and equal liberty always has moral priority over equal opportunity: the former can never be compromised to advance the latter. Further, inequality in the distribution of income and wealth are permitted only to the degree that it serves the interests of the least advantaged group in society. But even with these qualifications, fair equality of opportunity is arguably less than really fair to anyone. The fact that their education should secure ends other than access to the most selective social positions—ends such as artistic appreciation, the kind of self-knowledge that humanistic study can furnish, or civic virtue—is deemed irrelevant according to Rawls’s principle. But surely it is relevant, given that a principle of educational justice must be responsive to the full range of educationally important goods.

Suppose we revise our account of the goods included in educational distribution so that aesthetic appreciation, say, and the necessary understanding and virtue for conscientious citizenship count for just as much as job-related skills. An interesting implication of doing so is that the rationale for requiring equality under any just distribution becomes decreasingly clear. That is because job-related skills are positional whereas the other educational goods are not (Hollis 1982). If you and I both aspire to a career in business management for which we are equally qualified, any increase in your job-related skills is a corresponding disadvantage to me unless I can catch up. Positional goods have a competitive structure by definition, though the ends of civic or aesthetic education do not fit that structure. If you and I aspire to be good citizens and are equal in civic understanding and virtue, an advance in your civic education is no disadvantage to me. On the contrary, it is easier to be a good citizen the better other citizens learn to be. At the very least, so far as non-positional goods figure in our conception of what counts as a good education, the moral stakes of inequality are thereby lowered.

In fact, an emerging alternative to fair equality of opportunity is a principle that stipulates some benchmark of adequacy in achievement or opportunity as the relevant standard of distribution. But it is misleading to represent this as a contrast between egalitarian and sufficientarian conceptions. Philosophically serious interpretations of adequacy derive from the ideal of equal citizenship (Satz 2007; Anderson 2007). Then again, fair equality of opportunity in Rawls’s theory is derived from a more fundamental ideal of equality among citizens. This was arguably true in A Theory of Justice but it is certainly true in his later work (Dworkin 1977: 150–183; Rawls 1993). So, both Rawls’s principle and the emerging alternative share an egalitarian foundation. The debate between adherents of equal opportunity and those misnamed as sufficientarians is certainly not over (e.g., Brighouse & Swift 2009; Jacobs 2010; Warnick 2015). Further progress will likely hinge on explicating the most compelling conception of the egalitarian foundation from which distributive principles are to be inferred. Another Rawls-inspired alternative is that a “prioritarian” distribution of achievement or opportunity might turn out to be the best principle we can come up with—i.e., one that favors the interests of the least advantaged students (Schouten 2012).

The publication of Rawls’s Political Liberalism in 1993 signaled a decisive turning point in his thinking about justice. In his earlier book, the theory of justice had been presented as if it were universally valid. But Rawls had come to think that any theory of justice presented as such was open to reasonable rejection. A more circumspect approach to justification would seek grounds for justice as fairness in an overlapping consensus between the many reasonable values and doctrines that thrive in a democratic political culture. Rawls argued that such a culture is informed by a shared ideal of free and equal citizenship that provided a new, distinctively democratic framework for justifying a conception of justice. The shift to political liberalism involved little revision on Rawls’s part to the content of the principles he favored. But the salience it gave to questions about citizenship in the fabric of liberal political theory had important educational implications. How was the ideal of free and equal citizenship to be instantiated in education in a way that accommodated the range of reasonable values and doctrines encompassed in an overlapping consensus? Political Liberalism has inspired a range of answers to that question (cf. Callan 1997; Clayton 2006; Bull 2008).

Other philosophers besides Rawls in the 1990s took up a cluster of questions about civic education, and not always from a liberal perspective. Alasdair Macintyre’s After Virtue (1984) strongly influenced the development of communitarian political theory which, as its very name might suggest, argued that the cultivation of community could preempt many of the problems with conflicting individual rights at the core of liberalism. As a full-standing alternative to liberalism, communitarianism might have little to recommend it. But it was a spur for liberal philosophers to think about how communities could be built and sustained to support the more familiar projects of liberal politics (e.g., Strike 2010). Furthermore, its arguments often converged with those advanced by feminist exponents of the ethic of care (Noddings 1984; Gilligan 1982). Noddings’ work is particularly notable because she inferred a cogent and radical agenda for the reform of schools from her conception of care (Noddings 1992).

One persistent controversy in citizenship theory has been about whether patriotism is correctly deemed a virtue, given our obligations to those who are not our fellow citizens in an increasingly interdependent world and the sordid history of xenophobia with which modern nation states are associated. The controversy is partly about what we should teach in our schools and is commonly discussed by philosophers in that context (Galston 1991; Ben-Porath 2006; Callan 2006; Miller 2007; Curren & Dorn 2018). The controversy is related to a deeper and more pervasive question about how morally or intellectually taxing the best conception of our citizenship should be. The more taxing it is, the more constraining its derivative conception of civic education will be. Contemporary political philosophers offer divergent arguments about these matters. For example, Gutmann and Thompson claim that citizens of diverse democracies need to “understand the diverse ways of life of their fellow citizens” (Gutmann & Thompson 1996: 66). The need arises from the obligation of reciprocity which they (like Rawls) believe to be integral to citizenship. Because I must seek to cooperate with others politically on terms that make sense from their moral perspective as well as my own, I must be ready to enter that perspective imaginatively so as to grasp its distinctive content. Many such perspectives prosper in liberal democracies, and so the task of reciprocal understanding is necessarily onerous. Still, our actions qua deliberative citizen must be grounded in such reciprocity if political cooperation on terms acceptable to us as (diversely) morally motivated citizens is to be possible at all. This is tantamount to an imperative to think autonomously inside the role of citizen because I cannot close-mindedly resist critical consideration of moral views alien to my own without flouting my responsibilities as a deliberative citizen.

Civic education does not exhaust the domain of moral education, even though the more robust conceptions of equal citizenship have far-reaching implications for just relations in civil society and the family. The study of moral education has traditionally taken its bearings from normative ethics rather than political philosophy, and this is largely true of work undertaken in recent decades. The major development here has been the revival of virtue ethics as an alternative to the deontological and consequentialist theories that dominated discussion for much of the twentieth century.

The defining idea of virtue ethics is that our criterion of moral right and wrong must derive from a conception of how the ideally virtuous agent would distinguish between the two. Virtue ethics is thus an alternative to both consequentialism and deontology which locate the relevant criterion in producing good consequences or meeting the requirements of moral duty respectively. The debate about the comparative merits of these theories is not resolved, but from an educational perspective that may be less important than it has sometimes seemed to antagonists in the debate. To be sure, adjudicating between rival theories in normative ethics might shed light on how best to construe the process of moral education, and philosophical reflection on the process might help us to adjudicate between the theories. There has been extensive work on habituation and virtue, largely inspired by Aristotle (Burnyeat 1980; Peters 1981). But whether this does anything to establish the superiority of virtue ethics over its competitors is far from obvious. Other aspects of moral education—in particular, the paired processes of role-modelling and identification—deserve much more scrutiny than they have received (Audi 2017; Kristjánsson 2015, 2017).

Related to the issues concerning the aims and functions of education and schooling rehearsed above are those involving the specifically epistemic aims of education and attendant issues treated by social and virtue epistemologists. (The papers collected in Kotzee 2013 and Baehr 2016 highlight the current and growing interactions among social epistemologists, virtue epistemologists, and philosophers of education.)

There is, first, a lively debate concerning putative epistemic aims. Alvin Goldman argues that truth (or knowledge understood in the “weak” sense of true belief) is the fundamental epistemic aim of education (Goldman 1999). Others, including the majority of historically significant philosophers of education, hold that critical thinking or rationality and rational belief (or knowledge in the “strong” sense that includes justification) is the basic epistemic educational aim (Bailin & Siegel 2003; Scheffler 1965, 1973 [1989]; Siegel 1988, 1997, 2005, 2017). Catherine Z. Elgin (1999a,b) and Duncan Pritchard (2013, 2016; Carter & Pritchard 2017) have independently urged that understanding is the basic aim. Pritchard’s view combines understanding with intellectual virtue ; Jason Baehr (2011) systematically defends the fostering of the intellectual virtues as the fundamental epistemic aim of education. This cluster of views continues to engender ongoing discussion and debate. (Its complex literature is collected in Carter and Kotzee 2015, summarized in Siegel 2018, and helpfully analyzed in Watson 2016.)

A further controversy concerns the places of testimony and trust in the classroom: In what circumstances if any ought students to trust their teachers’ pronouncements, and why? Here the epistemology of education is informed by social epistemology, specifically the epistemology of testimony; the familiar reductionism/anti-reductionism controversy there is applicable to students and teachers. Anti-reductionists, who regard testimony as a basic source of justification, may with equanimity approve of students’ taking their teachers’ word at face value and believing what they say; reductionists may balk. Does teacher testimony itself constitute good reason for student belief?

The correct answer here seems clearly enough to be “it depends”. For very young children who have yet to acquire or develop the ability to subject teacher declarations to critical scrutiny, there seems to be little alternative to accepting what their teachers tell them. For older and more cognitively sophisticated students there seem to be more options: they can assess them for plausibility, compare them with other opinions, assess the teachers’ proffered reasons, subject them to independent evaluation, etc. Regarding “the teacher says that p ” as itself a good reason to believe it appears moreover to contravene the widely shared conviction that an important educational aim is helping students to become able to evaluate candidate beliefs for themselves and believe accordingly. That said, all sides agree that sometimes believers, including students, have good reasons simply to trust what others tell them. There is thus more work to do here by both social epistemologists and philosophers of education (for further discussion see Goldberg 2013; Siegel 2005, 2018).

A further cluster of questions, of long-standing interest to philosophers of education, concerns indoctrination : How if at all does it differ from legitimate teaching? Is it inevitable, and if so is it not always necessarily bad? First, what is it? As we saw earlier, extant analyses focus on the aims or intentions of the indoctrinator, the methods employed, or the content transmitted. If the indoctrination is successful, all have the result that students/victims either don’t, won’t, or can’t subject the indoctrinated material to proper epistemic evaluation. In this way it produces both belief that is evidentially unsupported or contravened and uncritical dispositions to believe. It might seem obvious that indoctrination, so understood, is educationally undesirable. But it equally seems that very young children, at least, have no alternative but to believe sans evidence; they have yet to acquire the dispositions to seek and evaluate evidence, or the abilities to recognize evidence or evaluate it. Thus we seem driven to the views that indoctrination is both unavoidable and yet bad and to be avoided. It is not obvious how this conundrum is best handled. One option is to distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable indoctrination. Another is to distinguish between indoctrination (which is always bad) and non-indoctrinating belief inculcation, the latter being such that students are taught some things without reasons (the alphabet, the numbers, how to read and count, etc.), but in such a way that critical evaluation of all such material (and everything else) is prized and fostered (Siegel 1988: ch. 5). In the end the distinctions required by the two options might be extensionally equivalent (Siegel 2018).

Education, it is generally granted, fosters belief : in the typical propositional case, Smith teaches Jones that p , and if all goes well Jones learns it and comes to believe it. Education also has the task of fostering open-mindedness and an appreciation of our fallibility : All the theorists mentioned thus far, especially those in the critical thinking and intellectual virtue camps, urge their importance. But these two might seem at odds. If Jones (fully) believes that p , can she also be open-minded about it? Can she believe, for example, that earthquakes are caused by the movements of tectonic plates, while also believing that perhaps they aren’t? This cluster of italicized notions requires careful handling; it is helpfully discussed by Jonathan Adler (2002, 2003), who recommends regarding the latter two as meta-attitudes concerning one’s first-order beliefs rather than lessened degrees of belief or commitments to those beliefs.

Other traditional epistemological worries that impinge upon the epistemology of education concern (a) absolutism , pluralism and relativism with respect to knowledge, truth and justification as these relate to what is taught, (b) the character and status of group epistemologies and the prospects for understanding such epistemic goods “universalistically” in the face of “particularist” challenges, (c) the relation between “knowledge-how” and “knowledge-that” and their respective places in the curriculum, (d) concerns raised by multiculturalism and the inclusion/exclusion of marginalized perspectives in curriculum content and the classroom, and (e) further issues concerning teaching and learning. (There is more here than can be briefly summarized; for more references and systematic treatment cf. Bailin & Siegel 2003; Carter & Kotzee 2015; Cleverley & Phillips 1986; Robertson 2009; Siegel 2004, 2017; and Watson 2016.)

The educational research enterprise has been criticized for a century or more by politicians, policymakers, administrators, curriculum developers, teachers, philosophers of education, and by researchers themselves—but the criticisms have been contradictory. Charges of being “too ivory tower and theory-oriented” are found alongside “too focused on practice and too atheoretical”; but in light of the views of John Dewey and William James that the function of theory is to guide intelligent practice and problem-solving, it is becoming more fashionable to hold that the “theory v. practice” dichotomy is a false one. (For an illuminating account of the historical development of educational research and its tribulations, see Lagemann 2000.)

A similar trend can be discerned with respect to the long warfare between two rival groups of research methods—on one hand quantitative/statistical approaches to research, and on the other hand the qualitative/ethnographic family. (The choice of labels here is not entirely risk-free, for they have been contested; furthermore the first approach is quite often associated with “experimental” studies, and the latter with “case studies”, but this is an over-simplification.) For several decades these two rival methodological camps were treated by researchers and a few philosophers of education as being rival paradigms (Kuhn’s ideas, albeit in a very loose form, have been influential in the field of educational research), and the dispute between them was commonly referred to as “the paradigm wars”. In essence the issue at stake was epistemological: members of the quantitative/experimental camp believed that only their methods could lead to well-warranted knowledge claims, especially about the causal factors at play in educational phenomena, and on the whole they regarded qualitative methods as lacking in rigor; on the other hand the adherents of qualitative/ethnographic approaches held that the other camp was too “positivistic” and was operating with an inadequate view of causation in human affairs—one that ignored the role of motives and reasons, possession of relevant background knowledge, awareness of cultural norms, and the like. Few if any commentators in the “paradigm wars” suggested that there was anything prohibiting the use of both approaches in the one research program—provided that if both were used, they were used only sequentially or in parallel, for they were underwritten by different epistemologies and hence could not be blended together. But recently the trend has been towards rapprochement, towards the view that the two methodological families are, in fact, compatible and are not at all like paradigms in the Kuhnian sense(s) of the term; the melding of the two approaches is often called “mixed methods research”, and it is growing in popularity. (For more detailed discussion of these “wars” see Howe 2003 and Phillips 2009.)

The most lively contemporary debates about education research, however, were set in motion around the turn of the millennium when the US Federal Government moved in the direction of funding only rigorously scientific educational research—the kind that could establish causal factors which could then guide the development of practically effective policies. (It was held that such a causal knowledge base was available for medical decision-making.) The definition of “rigorously scientific”, however, was decided by politicians and not by the research community, and it was given in terms of the use of a specific research method—the net effect being that the only research projects to receive Federal funding were those that carried out randomized controlled experiments or field trials (RFTs). It has become common over the last decade to refer to the RFT as the “gold standard” methodology.

The National Research Council (NRC)—an arm of the US National Academies of Science—issued a report, influenced by postpostivistic philosophy of science (NRC 2002), that argued that this criterion was far too narrow. Numerous essays have appeared subsequently that point out how the “gold standard” account of scientific rigor distorts the history of science, how the complex nature of the relation between evidence and policy-making has been distorted and made to appear overly simple (for instance the role of value-judgments in linking empirical findings to policy directives is often overlooked), and qualitative researchers have insisted upon the scientific nature of their work. Nevertheless, and possibly because it tried to be balanced and supported the use of RFTs in some research contexts, the NRC report has been the subject of symposia in four journals, where it has been supported by a few and attacked from a variety of philosophical fronts: Its authors were positivists, they erroneously believed that educational inquiry could be value neutral and that it could ignore the ways in which the exercise of power constrains the research process, they misunderstood the nature of educational phenomena, and so on. This cluster of issues continues to be debated by educational researchers and by philosophers of education and of science, and often involves basic topics in philosophy of science: the constitution of warranting evidence, the nature of theories and of confirmation and explanation, etc. Nancy Cartwright’s important recent work on causation, evidence, and evidence-based policy adds layers of both philosophical sophistication and real world practical analysis to the central issues just discussed (Cartwright & Hardie 2012, Cartwright 2013; cf. Kvernbekk 2015 for an overview of the controversies regarding evidence in the education and philosophy of education literatures).

As stressed earlier, it is impossible to do justice to the whole field of philosophy of education in a single encyclopedia entry. Different countries around the world have their own intellectual traditions and their own ways of institutionalizing philosophy of education in the academic universe, and no discussion of any of this appears in the present essay. But even in the Anglo-American world there is such a diversity of approaches that any author attempting to produce a synoptic account will quickly run into the borders of his or her competence. Clearly this has happened in the present case.

Fortunately, in the last thirty years or so resources have become available that significantly alleviate these problems. There has been a flood of encyclopedia entries, both on the field as a whole and also on many specific topics not well-covered in the present essay (see, as a sample, Burbules 1994; Chambliss 1996b; Curren 1998, 2018; Phillips 1985, 2010; Siegel 2007; Smeyers 1994), two “Encyclopedias” (Chambliss 1996a; Phillips 2014), a “Guide” (Blake, Smeyers, Smith, & Standish 2003), a “Companion” (Curren 2003), two “Handbooks” (Siegel 2009; Bailey, Barrow, Carr, & McCarthy 2010), a comprehensive anthology (Curren 2007), a dictionary of key concepts in the field (Winch & Gingell 1999), and a good textbook or two (Carr 2003; Noddings 2015). In addition there are numerous volumes both of reprinted selections and of specially commissioned essays on specific topics, some of which were given short shrift here (for another sampling see A. Rorty 1998, Stone 1994), and several international journals, including Theory and Research in Education , Journal of Philosophy of Education , Educational Theory , Studies in Philosophy and Education , and Educational Philosophy and Theory . Thus there is more than enough material available to keep the interested reader busy.

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The authors and editors would like to thank Randall Curren for sending a number of constructive suggestions for the Summer 2018 update of this entry.

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Library of Congress Catalog Data: ISSN 1095-5054

Original article | Base for Electronic Educational Sciences 2020, Vol. 1(1) 20-26

The Use of Assignments in Education

Ömer Gökhan Ulum

pp. 20 - 26   |  DOI: https://doi.org/10.29329/bedu.2020.253.2   |  Manu. Number: MANU-2006-24-0002.R1

Published online: September 17, 2020   |   Number of Views: 842   |  Number of Download: 957

In all educational levels, teachers assign their students with different activities to practice and reinforce what they have learnt. Further, assignments are valuable educational tools that raise students’ consciousness as believed by teachers, parents, and authorities. It functions, in a sense, a bridge between schools and homes. Assignments require the effort, time, and dedication of students, families, and teachers. Thus, it is crystal clear that assignments are practical tools to develop communicative skills and provide learning experiences in order to achieve the needed behavior change. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to examine the views of state primary school students on the assignments given by their teachers. The participants of the study were chosen from the most convenient and accessible schools located in Adana, Turkey. The sample consisted of 250 primary school students (178 female and 72 male) who voluntarily participated in the study. Based upon a qualitative research design, a semi-structured interview designed by the researcher was utilized in order to attain the required data. Therefore, based on a descriptive research design, this study involved the data analysis of descriptive statistics (SPSS 22.0) in order to report the views of participants in numerical data. The findings of the study suggest that assignments are favored by the students, which may be attributed to their school level.

Keywords: Assignment, education, reinforcement, learning, revision

How to Cite this Article?


Ulum, O.G. (2020). The Use of Assignments in Education . (1), 20-26. doi: 10.29329/bedu.2020.253.2


Ulum, O. (2020). The Use of Assignments in Education . , 1(1), pp. 20-26.


Ulum, Omer Gokhan (2020). "The Use of Assignments in Education ". 1 (1):20-26. doi:10.29329/bedu.2020.253.2.

References


Babadoğan, C. (1990). Ev ödevlerinin eğitim programı içindeki yeri [The place of homework in the education program]. Ankara University Journal of Educational Sciences, 23(2), 745-767. https://doi.org/10.1501/Egifak_0000000783


Baltaoğlu, M. G., Sucuoğlu, H., & Öztürk, N. (2017). Classroom teachers’ opinions about homeworks. Journal of Education and Future, 11, 95-109.


Blazer, C. (2009). Homework. literature review. Research Services, Miami-Dade County. Public Schools. Retreived on the 22nd of June, 2020 from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED536245


Bempechat, J. (2019). The case for (quality) homework: Why it improves learning, and how parents can help. Education Next, 19(1), 36-44.


Boctor, L. (2013). Active-learning strategies: The use of a game to reinforce learning in nursing education. A case study. Nurse education in practice, 13(2), 96-100.


Chaiklin, S. (2003). The zone of proximal development in Vygotsky’s analysis of learning and instruction.Vygotsky’s educational theory in cultural context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.


Cooper, H. (1989). Synthesis of research on homework. Educational leadership, 47(3), 85-91.


Cooper, H. M., & Gersten, R. M. (2003). Homework tips for parents. US Department of Education, Educational Partnerships and Family Involvement Unit. Jessup, MD: Education Publications Center.


Cooper, H., Robinson, J. C., & Patall, E. A. (2006). Does homework improve academic achievement? A synthesis of research, 1987–2003. Review of educational research, 76(1), 1-62.


Darling-Hammond, L., & Sykes, G. (2003). Wanted, a national teacher supply policy for education: The right way to meet the" highly qualified teacher" challenge. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 11(33).


Dawson, P. (2009). Homework: A guide for parents. Communique, 38(1), 26-28.


Deveci, İ., & Onder, I. (2013). The Students' Views Related to the Given Homeworks in the Science and Technology Courses: A Qualitative Study. US-China Education Review, 3(1), 1-9.


Ektem, I. S., & Yıldız, S. B. (2017). İngilizce ev ödevlerine yönelik öğretmen görüşleri [Teacher views about english homework]. Çukurova Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi, 26(3), 78-91.


Enhancing Student Learning. (2006). All about homework. Retreived on the 18th of January, 2015 from ped.state.nm.us/Parents/dl09/ft_mod3.pdf
Eshach, H. (2007). Bridging in-school and out-of-school learning: Formal, non-formal, and informal education. Journal of science education and technology, 16(2), 171-190.

Halici Page, M., & Mede, E. (2018). Comparing task-based instruction and traditional instruction on task engagement and vocabulary development in secondary language education. The Journal of Educational Research, 111(3), 371-381.


Kapikiran, Ş., & Kiran, H. (1999). Ev ödevinin öğrencinin akademik başarisina etkisi [The effect of the homevvork on the student'sacademic success]. Pamukkale University Journal of Education, 5(5), 54-60.


Kember, D. (2004). Interpreting student workload and the factors which shape students' perceptions of their workload. Studies in higher education, 29(2), 165-184.


Koohang, A., & Durante, A. (2003). Learners’ perceptions toward the web-based distance learning activities/assignments portion of an undergraduate hybrid instructional model. Journal of Information Technology Education: Research, 2(1), 105-113.


LeCourt, D. (1998). Critical pedagogy in the computer classroom: Politicizing the writing space. Computers and composition, 15(3), 275-295.


Li, T., & Xiao, J. (2019). Evaluation of chinese homework in primary school: connotation, problems and strategies. US-China Education Review, 9(6), 187-192.


McDonald, M. A. (2008). The pedagogy of assignments in social justice teacher education. Equity & Excellence in Education, 41(2), 151-167.

Ok, M., & Çalışkan, M. (2019). Ev Ödevleri: Öğretmen, öğrenci ve veli görüşleri [Homework: Opinions of teachers, students and parents]. OPUS– International Journal of Society Researches, 11(18), 594-620.


Protheroe, N. (2009). Good homework policy. Principal, 89(1), 42-45.


Reid, M. J., Webster-Stratton, C., & Beauchaine, T. P. (2001). Parent training in Head Start: A comparison of program response among African American, Asian American, Caucasian, and Hispanic mothers. Prevention Science, 2(4), 209-227.


Soylu, C., & Topaloğlu, C. (2015). Bilişsel davranışçı terapide ev ödevi uygulamaları. Current Approaches in Psychiatry, 7(3).


Vygotsky, L. S. (1987). The collected works of LS Vygotsky: the fundamentals of defectology (Vol. 2). London: Springer Science & Business Media.

Volume 1 Issue 1

September 2020

Base for Electronic Educational Sciences

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assignment about education

Education Assignment Topics

Table of Contents

How to find topics about education to write about?

Argumentative topics on education for assignment writing, interesting topics on education in canada to write about, current problems in modern education, topics to discuss education, history of education, controversial topics in education, debate topics, education topics for research, how to choose the right educational topic to write about.

Education Assignment Topics

People who are learning about education in college or university are typically studying to become teachers.

Some people want to become teachers so that they can help children learn and grow. Others want to become education researchers so that they can help improve the education system. Still others want to work in policy so that they can help make decisions about how education should be run. Also you can use our assignment writing service AssignmentBro if you have troubles with choosing a topic.

There are a lot of different majors that require studying about education in college or university. Some examples include elementary education, special education, and educational administration.

There are many types of education that exist in the modern world. Some of the most common include:

  • Classroom-based education is the type of education that most people are familiar with. Students attend classes in a physical classroom setting and are taught by a teacher.
  • Online education is a type of education where students learn through the use of the internet. They may attend live online classes or they may access course materials online.
  • Homeschooling is a type of education where parents teach their children at home instead of sending them to a traditional school.

Different concepts that are associated with education exist. Some of the most important include pedagogy, curriculum, and assessment.

There are a lot of different education essay topics that you can write about. You could write about the different types of education, such as public, private, and homeschooling. You could also write about the different levels of education, such as elementary, middle, and high school. You could also write about the different methods of education, such as traditional, online, and distance learning. Whatever you choose to write about, make sure that you have a clear thesis and that you support your thesis with evidence.

  • Is homeschooling a viable option for education?
  • Are charter schools a good way to improve education?
  • Is online schooling as effective as traditional schooling?
  • Are private schools better than public schools?
  • Is early childhood education important?
  • Should parents be more involved in their child’s education?
  • Should the education system be more focused on vocational training?
  • Is the current education system in the United States effective?
  • Is homeschooling a viable option for all families?
  • Is online learning as effective as in-person learning?
  • Should the Common Core be adopted by all states?
  • Is standardized testing an effective way to measure student achievement?
  • Are charter schools a good way to improve public education?
  • Are private schools a better option than public schools?
  • Should the Education Department get rid of No Child Left Behind?
  • Should the Department of Education be more focused on vocational training?
  • Should school uniforms be mandatory in all schools?
  • Should students be required to take a foreign language in school?
  • Should year-round schooling be an option for all families?
  • Is homeschooling a more effective option than traditional schooling?
  • Are Montessori schools a good option for education?
  • Are Waldorf schools a good option for education?
  • Should the current education system in the United States be reformed?
  • Are charter schools a good way to improve education in urban areas?
  • Are private schools a good way to improve education in rural areas?
  • Should the education system be more focused on preparing students for college?
  • Should the education system be more focused on preparing students for the workforce?
  • Is the current education system in the United States adequate?
  • What are the most effective ways to improve education in the United States?
  • What are the most important reforms that need to be made to the education system in the United States?
  • The education system in Canada
  • The history of education in Canada
  • The importance of education in Canada
  • The different types of educational institutions in Canada
  • The education system in Quebec
  • The education system in Ontario
  • The education system in Alberta
  • The education system in British Columbia
  • The education system in Saskatchewan
  • The education system in Manitoba
  • The education system in Nova Scotia
  • The education system in New Brunswick
  • The education system in Newfoundland and Labrador
  • The education system in Prince Edward Island
  • The education system in the Northwest Territories
  • The education system in Nunavut
  • The education system in Yukon
  • The education system in the Arctic
  • The education system in Indigenous communities
  • The education system in rural communities

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  • The high cost of education
  • The achievement gap between rich and poor students
  • The declining quality of public education
  • The rising popularity of private schools
  • The difficulty of attracting and retaining good teachers
  • The increasing use of standardized tests
  • The growing importance of college admission exams
  • The declining value of a college degree
  • The rising cost of college tuition
  • The increasing use of technology in education
  • The decreasing amount of time spent on teaching in schools
  • The growing number of students who are homeschooled
  • The decreasing amount of time spent on teaching in the classroom
  • The decreasing amount of time spent on traditional academics in schools
  • The growing popularity of homeschooling
  • The declining interest in pursuing a college education
  • The decreasing attention span of students
  • The growing number of homeschooled students
  • The increasing number of students with learning disabilities
  • The decreasing number of students attending traditional schools
  • The rising cost of private schools
  • The history of education
  • The purpose of education
  • The benefits of education
  • The challenges of education
  • The different types of education
  • The different levels of education
  • The different methods of education
  • The different philosophies of education
  • The different approaches to education
  • The different systems of education
  • The different types of learners
  • The different learning styles
  • The different ways of learning
  • The different stages of learning
  • The different needs of learners
  • The different motivations for learning
  • The different obstacles to learning
  • The different ways of overcoming these obstacles
  • The different ways of enhancing learning
  • The different roles of educators

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  • The rise of medieval universities in the 12th century.
  • The suppression of the universities by the state in the 16th century.
  • The rise of the modern research university in the 19th century.
  • The spread of compulsory education in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
  • The expansion of higher education in the mid-20th century.
  • The civil rights movement and the desegregation of schools in the United States in the mid-20th century.
  • The women’s rights movement and the expansion of educational opportunities for women in the late 20th century.
  • The growth of distance education and online learning in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
  • The increasing focus on educational standards and accountability in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
  • The rise of new educational technologies in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
  • September 11th and the impact of terrorism on education.
  • The global financial crisis of 2008 and its impact on education budgets.
  • The increasing importance of international education in the 21st century.
  • The increasing prevalence of educational inequality in the 21st century.
  • The rise of alternative education models in the 21st century.
  • The debate over the role of education in society in the 21st century.
  • The impact of the digital revolution on education.
  • The rise of artificial intelligence and its impact on education.
  • The increasing focus on environmental education in the 21st century.
  • The evolving role of education in the 21st century.

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  • Is homeschooling a viable option for kids?
  • Are charter schools better than public schools?
  • Should the school day start later?
  • Should students be required to wear uniforms?
  • Should there be year-round schooling?
  • Are standardized tests effective?
  • Should recess be abolished?
  • Is homework necessary?
  • Should schools offer more vocational and trade-based classes?
  • Is college worth the cost?
  • Should students be graded on a curve?
  • Should schools eliminate letter grades?
  • Is grade inflation a problem?
  • Should schools offer more AP and IB classes?
  • Should the school day be shorter?
  • Should there be more recess and less academic time?
  • Should schools teach sex education?
  • Should there be stricter gun control laws in schools?
  • Should schools do more to prevent bullying?
  • Should schools be teaching about mental health?
  • Should the education system place more emphasis on vocational training?
  • Are single-sex schools more effective than co-ed schools?
  • Is the current education system in the US effective?
  • Are charter schools a good solution to improving the education system?
  • Should the government invest more in education?
  • Is college tuition too high?
  • Should there be more emphasis on STEM education?
  • Is the No Child Left Behind Act effective?
  • Should there be mandatory standardized testing?
  • Are teachers adequately prepared to teach?
  • Is the education system too focused on standardized test scores?
  • Should there be more parental involvement in education?
  • Should prayer be allowed in schools?
  • Are religious schools a good option for families?
  • Should the education system be more inclusive of special needs students?
  • Are sports teams a good way to promote school spirit and unity?
  • Should schools offer more extracurricular activities?
  • What is the best way to improve the education system?
  • How effective are current educational methods? Are there any methods that are particularly effective for certain types of learners?
  • What is the best way to teach a child to read?
  • What is the best way to teach math?
  • How can educators best deal with disruptive students in the classroom?
  • Is it more important for students to learn facts or to learn to think critically?
  • How should educators deal with cheating?
  • Is it more important for students to learn to write well or to learn to use computers?
  • What is the best way to teach history?
  • What is the best way to teach science?
  • What is the best way to deal with bullying in schools?
  • How can we make sure that all students have access to a quality education?
  • What are the most effective ways to motivate students?
  • What factors lead to students dropping out of school?
  • How can we best prepare students for the workforce?
  • What are the most effective ways to teach English to non-native speakers?

There are a lot of different education topics that you can write about. But how do you choose the right one? Here are some steps that you can follow:

  • First, think about what you want to write about. Do you want to write about the different types of education? Or do you want to write about the different levels of education? Or do you want to write about the different methods of education?
  • Once you know what you want to write about, narrow your focus down to one specific topic. For example, if you want to write about the different types of education, you could write about the advantages and disadvantages of public education.
  • Once you have a specific topic in mind, do some research on that topic. This will help you understand the issue better and give you something to write about.
  • After you have done your research, it’s time to start writing. Remember to have a clear thesis and to support your thesis with evidence.

assignment about education

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assignment about education

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9 Common Types of Assignment in Education

Education assignments take different formats based on the unit you are studying and the goals a tutor wants to achieve. The concept being tested will also dfetermine the type of assignment.

assignment about education

Here are the 9 most common types of assignments you will find in a class setting.

If you as what is assignment in education, the most obvious answer you will get is an essay. Essays come with topics and prompts that direct the student on the issues to study. A student may also be required to craft a topic around a subject.

An essay-assignment requires you to adhere to the instructions provided. You must also follow a set academic structure and format your paper by adhering to particular rules. A sample, example, or template will help you to produce a better essay.

  • Case studies

A case study involves examining a particular situation from an academic lens. You are mainly required to use the knowledge acquired while studying a specific topic. For instance, you may study the civil rights movement and are asked to study Rosa Park’s influence. The cases help you to understand a concept better.

  • Creativity assignments

A creativity exercise is one of the types of assignment in education that examine the ability of the student to practice what he has learned in class. Once you learn to write a short story or film script, the assignment may require you to write one. The results will help your tutor to evaluate your level of understanding.

The education system is supposed to teach kids the power of collaboration. Some of the assignments will involve group work. The students are supposed to work on an essay or collect data together. It ensures that students can learn to work as a team, a skill they will need in workplaces and when completing personal projects.

Group work requires a team leader. In this social distance era, the team has to discover ways to collaborate. They can use online tools for meetings and document editing. This is the ultimate test for collaboration.

  • Field assignments

Field assignments involve collecting data, interviews, and observations. It may also involve a visit to historical sites, watching games, and observing phenomena like the launch of a rocket. It is a type of education assignment that brings the student face to face with an actual situation. It takes the students away from the library, giving them a different learning experience.

The tests came with questions about past topics. The tutor in such a case wants to assess how well you understood past topics. It will help him to improve your performance in future topics. It will also help you to determine how well you understood the topic and whether you need further clarification.

  • Future-tests

The questions or tests focus on topics that you are yet to cover. It is a model of assignment on education that will prepare the student for what is to come. Assignments on future tests require you to read ahead. You will be better prepared for the next lesson. It also tests your diligence in the search for new materials that can be used to make the topics easier to understand.

  • Practical tests

The tests involve practical work. You build a robot or enact a play. It is also an application type of assignment. The tutor wants you to innovate and test the skills or concepts you have learned.

Research assignments want you to discover a mystery behind a subject or topic. You have to collect data, review literature, and develop a hypothesis. It is the purest form of academic writing.

The different kinds of writing assignments combine with practical work to assess your ability to demonstrate your knowledge. You can get help on all these assignments by choosing to pay someone to do my homework online. They also require a strategy that will help you to achieve the set objectives.

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COMMENTS

  1. Education

    Education is a discipline that is concerned with methods of teaching and learning in schools or school-like environments as opposed to various nonformal and informal means of socialization (e.g., rural development projects and education through parent-child relationships). Education is a discipline that is concerned with methods of teaching and ...

  2. Education

    Education is the transmission of knowledge, skills, and character traits and manifests in various forms. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education also follows a structured approach but occurs outside the formal schooling system, while informal education entails unstructured learning through daily ...

  3. Essay on Education for School Students and Children

    500+ Words Essay on Education. Education is an important tool which is very useful in everybody's life. Education is what differentiates us from other living beings on earth. It makes man the smartest creature on earth. It empowers humans and gets them ready to face challenges of life efficiently. With that being said, education still remains ...

  4. Essay On Education: Examples to Help With Your Assignment

    500 Word Essay on Why Education Is Important. "Why is education important" essay can be long, too. If you get an assignment to write a 500+ word paper on this topic, here you have a sample to check. Education stands as the foundational pillar upon which the progress and evolution of individuals and societies rest.

  5. 4 Core Purposes of Education, According to Sir Ken Robinson

    Personal. Education should enable young people to engage with the world within them as well as the world around them. In Western cultures, there is a firm distinction between the two worlds, between thinking and feeling, objectivity and subjectivity. This distinction is misguided.

  6. 275 Education Argumentative Essay Topics & Ideas

    255 Education Argumentative Essay Topics & Ideas. Education, a cornerstone of societal development, is a fertile field for writing papers. In this case, education argumentative essay topics can range widely, from debates over traditional vs. digital classrooms, the effectiveness of standardized testing, and the necessity of college education in ...

  7. 170+ Research Topics In Education (+ Free Webinar)

    The use of student data to inform instruction. The role of parental involvement in education. The effects of mindfulness practices in the classroom. The use of technology in the classroom. The role of critical thinking in education. The use of formative and summative assessments in the classroom.

  8. 5 Example Essays on Education for Students

    4. Safety on College Campuses. "Safety is a tremendous issue on college campuses, and additional procedures need to be taken to prevent crimes from happening. When walking onto a college campus as a young adult, people get a rush of the unknown. The unknown could be going to college parties and late-night study groups.

  9. Our Best Education Articles of 2022

    Here are the 12 best education articles of 2022, based on a composite ranking of pageviews and editors' picks. Six Ways to Find Your Courage During Challenging Times, by Amy L. Eva: Courage doesn't have to look dramatic or fearless. Sometimes it looks more like quiet perseverance. Calm, Clear, and Kind: What Students Want From Their ...

  10. Ideas about Education

    Exclusive articles about Education. But during those moments of doubt and defeat, it's the questions you ask yourself that can really make the difference in where you go from there. Psychologist Angela Duckworth PhD explains. Posted Nov 2022. In the US, community solar projects could provide people in low-income communities with clean, cheaper ...

  11. The 10 Education Issues Everybody Should Be Talking About

    No. 1: Kids are right. School is boring. Daryn Ray for Education Week. Out-of-school learning is often more meaningful than anything that happens in a classroom, writes Kevin Bushweller, the ...

  12. Guide to Writing in Education

    Don't wait to begin your. assignment until you have time to write. Start right away thinking about the ideas and problems you are considering. Talk with your classmates and those. professionals you come in contact with about your ideas and listen to theirs. carefully. rewarding.

  13. Education Overview: Development news, research, data

    Education is a human right, a powerful driver of development, and one of the strongest instruments for reducing poverty and improving health, gender equality, peace, and stability. It delivers large, consistent returns in terms of income, and is the most important factor to ensure equity and inclusion. For individuals, education promotes ...

  14. Four of the biggest problems facing education—and four trends that

    In 2022, we published, Lessons for the education sector from the COVID-19 pandemic, which was a follow up to, Four Education Trends that Countries Everywhere Should Know About, which summarized views of education experts around the world on how to handle the most pressing issues facing the education sector then.We focused on neuroscience, the role of the private sector, education technology ...

  15. Education Week

    Education Week's ambitious project seeks to portray the reality of teaching and to guide smarter policies and practices for the workforce of more than 3 million educators: The State of Teaching ...

  16. Philosophy of Education

    Philosophy of Education. Philosophy of education is the branch of applied or practical philosophy concerned with the nature and aims of education and the philosophical problems arising from educational theory and practice. Because that practice is ubiquitous in and across human societies, its social and individual manifestations so varied, and ...

  17. Writing a Philosophy of Education or Teaching Philosophy Statement

    Your teaching philosophy should be 1-3 pages in length and written in first person and in present tense. (You might include a shortened summary of your teaching philosophy statement on your syllabus or faculty profile.) It should state your goal of education and several ideas you have about how to reach that goal.

  18. The Use of Assignments in Education

    Further, assignments are valuable educational tools that raise students' consciousness as believed by teachers, parents, and authorities. It functions, in a sense, a bridge between schools and homes. Assignments require the effort, time, and dedication of students, families, and teachers. Thus, it is crystal clear that assignments are ...

  19. (PDF) The Use of Assignments in Education

    Abstract. In all educational levels, teachers assign their students with different activities to practice and reinforce what they have learnt. Further, assignments are valuable educational tools ...

  20. Education Assignment Topics to Write About

    You could write about the different types of education, such as public, private, and homeschooling. You could also write about the different levels of education, such as elementary, middle, and high school. You could also write about the different methods of education, such as traditional, online, and distance learning.

  21. 9 Popular Types of Assignment in Education

    It is a type of education assignment that brings the student face to face with an actual situation. It takes the students away from the library, giving them a different learning experience. Past-tests ; The tests came with questions about past topics. The tutor in such a case wants to assess how well you understood past topics.

  22. Google for Education

    Create new assignments. Create assignments, quizzes, and lesson content for your students. ... Spend less time on administrative tasks and more time making an impact on student education. Equip your teachers with tools, resources, and professional development so they can focus on their students. Discover K-12 solutions;

  23. Get Started with Assignments

    Easily distribute, analyze, and grade student work with Assignments for your LMS. Assignments is an application for your learning management system (LMS). It helps educators save time grading and guides students to turn in their best work with originality reports — all through the collaborative power of Google Workspace for Education. Get ...

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