educational psychology

ALLAMA IQBAL OPEN UNIVERSITY

Assignment No.2

Course: Foundations of Education (6500)

Semester: Spring, 2015 Level: MA/M.Ed.

Q.No.1

Differentiate between "Essentialism" and "Reconstructionism". Also discuss their application in educational process.

Ans

Many philosophers have identified at least three broad philosophies of education: Essentialism, Perennials, and Experimentalism. Essentialism has sometimes been further divided into Idealism and Realism, and Experimentalism has been divided into Progressivism and Reconstructionism. Additionally, some philosophers of education recognize an Existentialist approach to education as well.

Now, just because philosophers of education have formulated a few categories of educational philosophies does not mean that one or more of these philosophies can be said to "the" philosophy of education which prevails in American schools.

Essentialism (rooted in idealism and realism)

Aim: To educate the useful and competent person

Curriculum: Basic education: reading, writing, arithmetic, history, English, science, foreign languages

Educational Implications: Emphasis on skills and subjects that transmit the cultural heritage and contribute to socioeconomic efficiency

Proponents: Bagley, Bestor, Conant, Morrison

"back-to-basics" movement

The "back-to-basics" movement derives from essentialist principles. Back-to-basics proponents contend that social experimentation and untested innovations have lowered academic standards. They charge that many children in elementary schools have not mastered basic literary and computational skills and those academic weaknesses in high schools result from the absence of a prescribed curriculum. The back-to-basics position is that schools should concentrate on the essential skills and subjects that contribute to literacy and to social and intellectual efficiency. Back-to-basics proponents want teachers restored as educational authorities. Teachers must be well prepared and accountable for children's learning. Regular assignments, homework, recitations, and frequent testing and evaluation should be standard practices.

In the 1980s and 1990s, a series of national reports on the condition of American education generated a period of ne-oessentialist educational reforms. The term neoessentialist indicates that this movement reiterated themes from earlier essentialists. These essentialist themes were prescribed as remedies for certain economic and social problems facing the US, such as lowered productivity and increasing violence. Neoessentialism was clearly evident in the 1983 report A NATION AT RISK, which recommended a high school curriculum of "five new basics": English, mathematics, science, social studies, and computer science.

Reconstructionism as an Educational Philosophy

Theodore Brameld (1904-1987) was the founder of social Reconstructionism, in reaction against the realities of World War II. He recognized the potential for either human annihilation through technology and human cruelty or the capacity to create a beneficent society using technolog and human compassion. George Counts (1889-1974) recognized that education was the means of preparing people for creating this new social order.

Social-Reconstructionist education is based on the theory that society can be reconstructed through the complete control of education. The objective is to change society to conform to the basic ideals of the political party or government in power or to create a utopian society through education.

Communist education is probably the most pervasive version of operational social-reconstructionism in the world today. Originally based on the philosophy of Karl Marx and institutionalized in the Soviet Union, it now reaches a large proportion of the world's youth. From the 1950s onward, much attention has been paid to the ideal of "polytechnization." Man, so the argument runs, is not simply Homo sapiens but rather Homo faber, the constructor and builder. He attains full mental, moral, and spiritual development through entering into social relations with others, particularly in cooperative efforts to produce material, artistic, and spiritual goods and achievements. The school should prepare pupils for such productive activities--for instance, by studying and, if possible, sharing in the work done in field, farm, or factory. A different social-reconstructionist movement is that of the kibbutzim (collective farms) of Israel. The most striking feature of kibbutz education is that the parents forgo rearing and educating their offspring themselves and instead hand the children over to professional educators, sometimes immediately after birth. The kibbutzim type of education developed for both practical and economic reasons, but gradually educational considerations gained prominence.

These were:

(1) that the kibbutz way of life makes for complete equality of the sexes,

(2) that the education of children in special children's houses is the best way of perpetuating the kibbutz way of life,

(3) that collective education is more "scientific" than education within the family, inasmuch as children are reared and trained by experts (i.e., qualified nurses, kindergarten teachers, and other educators), in an atmosphere free of the tensions engendered by family relationships, and

Social Reconstructionism is also called Critical Theory. It is a philosophy that emphasizes the addressing of social questions and a quest to create a better society and worldwide democracy. Reconstructionist educators focus on a curriculum that highlights social reform as the aim of education.

Critical theorists, like social Reconstructionists, believe that systems must be changed to overcome oppression and improve human conditions. Paulo Freire (1921-1997) was a Brazilian whose experiences living in poverty led him to champion education and literacy as the vehicle for social change. In his view, humans must learn to resist oppression and not become its victims, nor oppress others.

Application in educational process

For social Reconstructionists and critical theorists, curriculum focuses on student experience and taking social action on real problems, such as violence, hunger, international terrorism, inflation, and inequality. Strategies for dealing with controversial issues (particularly in social studies and literature), inquiry, dialogue, and multiple perspectives are the focus. Community-based learning and bringing the world into the classroom are also strategies.

Reconstructionism is the radical branch of progressivism. Reconstructionists see society as in serious disrepair. Much of the basis of their thought is found in the Great Depression of the 1930's, although some modern exponents also find a basis for it in what they consider to the "exploitation of the Third World" by the powerful industrial nations. At any rate, the Reconstructionists see education as the means by which a new social order is to be devised, with the schools serving as the means by which the coming generation is to be "educated" to function in this order. Despite its seeming authoritarianism, Reconstructionists insist that the development of this new order must come about democratically.

The idea of social-reconstructionist education rests on a 19th-century belief in the power of education to change society. In the last quarter of the 20th century there has been considerable pessimism, but the idea that schooling can influence either society or the individual is widely held, affecting the growth of tertiary-level alternatives, management strategies, and education of disadvantaged people, both in industrialized and in developing countries.

The inclusion of all children and youth is part of a general integrative trend that has accelerated since World War II. It relates to some newer developments as well. Concern for the earth's endangered environment has become central, emphasizing in both intellectual and social life the need for cooperation rather than competition, the importance of understanding interrelationships of the ecosystem, and the idea that ecology can be used as an organizing concept. In a different vein, the rapid development of microelectronics, particularly the use of computers for multiple functions in education, goes far beyond possibilities of earlier technological advances. Although technology is thought of by some as antagonistic to humanistic concerns, others argue that it makes communication and comprehension available to a wider population and encourages "system thinking," both ultimately integrative effects.

Q.No.2

What is socialization and social stratification? Discuss the role of family and peer groups in this process.

Ans

Socialization, is a term used by sociologists, social psychologists, anthropologists, political scientists and educationalists to refer to the lifelong process of inheriting and disseminating norms, customs and ideologies, providing an individual with the skills and habits necessary for participating within their own society. Socialization is thus "the means by which social and cultural continuity are attained"Socialization describes a process which may lead to desirable outcomes sometimes labeled "moral"as regards the society where it occurs. Individual views on certain issues, for instance race or economics, are influenced by the society's consensus and usually tend toward what that society finds acceptable or "normal". Many socio-political theories postulate that socialization provides only a partial explanation for human beliefs and behaviors, maintaining that agents are not blank slates predetermined by their environment; scientific research provides evidence that people are shaped by both social influences and genes. Genetic studies have shown that a person's environment interacts with his or her genotype to influence behavioral outcome.

Primary socialization for a child is very important because it sets the ground work for all future socialization. Primary Socialization occurs when a child learns the attitudes, values, and actions appropriate to individuals as members of a particular culture. It is mainly influenced by the immediate family and friends. For example if a child saw his/her mother expressing a discriminatory opinion about a minority group, then that child may think this behavior is acceptable and could continue to have this opinion about minority groups.

Secondary socialization Secondary socialization refers to the process of learning what is the appropriate behavior as a member of a smaller group within the larger society. Basically, it is the behavioral patterns reinforced by socializing agents of society. Secondary socialization takes place outside the home. It is where children and adults learn how to act in a way that is appropriate for the situations they are in. Schools require very different behavior from the home, and Children must act according to new rules. New teachers have to act in a way that is different from pupils and learn the new rules from people around them. Secondary Socialization is usually associated with teenagers and adults, and involves smaller changes than those occurring in primary socialization. Such examples of Secondary Socialization are entering a new profession or relocating to a new environment or society.

Anticipatory socialization Anticipatory socialization refers to the processes of socialization in which a person "rehearses" for future positions, occupations, and social relationships. For example, a couple might move in together before getting married in order to try out, or anticipate, what living together will be like. Research by Kenneth J. Levine and Cynthia A. Hoffner suggests that parents are the main source of anticipatory socialization in regards to jobs and careers.

Re-socialization Re-socialization refers to the process of discarding former behavior patterns and reflexes, accepting new ones as part of a transition in one's life. This occurs throughout the human life cycle. Re-socialization can be an intense experience, with the individual experiencing a sharp break with his or her past, as well as a need to learn and be exposed to radically different norms and values. One common example involves re-socialization through a total institution, or "a setting in which people are isolated from the rest of society and manipulated by an administrative staff". Re-socialization via total institutions involves a two step process: 1) the staff work to root out a new inmate's individual identity & 2) the staff attempt to create for the inmate a new identity. Other examples of this are the experience of a young man or woman leaving home to join the military, or a religious convert internalizing the beliefs and rituals of a new faith. An extreme example would be the process by which a transsexual learns to function socially in a dramatically altered gender role.

Stratification

Social stratification is a society's categorization of people into socioeconomic strata, based upon their occupation and income, wealth and social status, or derived power (social and political). As such, stratification is the relative social position of persons within a social group, category, geographic region, or social unit. In modern Western societies, social stratification typically is distinguished as three social classes:

(i) The upper class,

(ii) The middle class,

(iii) The lower class; in turn, each class can be subdivided into strata, e.g. the upper-stratum, the middle-stratum, and the lower stratum. Moreover, a social stratum can be formed upon the bases of kinship or caste, or both.

The categorization of people by social strata occurs in all societies, ranging from the complex, state-based societies to tribal and feudal societies, which are based upon socio-economic relations among classes of nobility and classes of peasants. Historically, whether or not hunter-gatherer societies can be defined as socially stratified or if social stratification began with agriculture and common acts of social exchange, remains a debated matter in the social sciences. Determining the structures of social stratification arises from inequalities of status among persons, therefore, the degree of social inequality determines a person's social stratum. Generally, the greater the social complexity of a society, the more social strata exist, by way of social differentiation.

Social stratification is a term used in the social sciences to describe the relative social position of persons in a given social group, category, geographical region or other social unit. It derives from the Latin strtum (plural strata; parallel, horizontal layers) referring to a given societys categorization of its people into rankings of socioeconomic tiers based on factors like wealth, income, social status, occupation and power. In modern Western societies, stratification is often broadly classified into three major divisions of social class: upper class, middle class, and lower class. Each of these classes can be further subdivided into smaller classes (e.g. "upper middle").Social strata may also be delineated on the basis of kinship ties or caste relations.

The concept of social stratification is often used and interpreted differently within specific theories. In sociology, for example, proponents of action theory have suggested that since social stratification is commonly found in developed societies, wherein a dominance hierarchy may be necessary in order to maintain social order and provide a stable social structure. So-called conflict theories, such as Marxism, point to the inaccessibility of resources and lack of social mobility found in stratified societies. Many sociological theorists have criticized the extent to which the working classes are unlikely to advance socioeconomically while the wealthy tend to hold political power which they use to exploit the proletariat (laboring class). Talcott Parsons, an American sociologist, asserted that stability and social order are regulated, in part, by universal values. Such values are not identical with "consensus" but can as well be an impetus for ardent social conflict as it has been multiple times through history. Parsons never claimed that universal values, in and by themselves, "satisfied" the functional prerequisites of a society. Indeed, the constitution of society is a much more complicated codification of emerging historical factors. Theorists such as Ralf Dahrendorf alternately note the tendency toward an enlarged middle-class in modern Western societies due to the necessity of an educated workforce in technological economies. Various social and political perspectives concerning globalization, such as dependency theory, suggest that these effects are due to change in the status of workers to the third world.

Q.No.3

Discuss the concept of curriculum. Elaborte the principles of curriculum development in a Muslim society.

Ans

Concept of curriculum

The concept of the curriculum as subjects and subject matter has been reflected in a plethora of theories relating to principles for selection, sequence, and grade placement of subject matter. Comprehensive state merits of the theory underlying curriculum planning for a subject curriculum are of relatively recent origin, perhaps because the process was so long unchallenged and in a general sense is well known. Curriculum planning for a subject curriculum follows a fairly common formula:

1.Use export judgment (bases on various social and educational factory to determine what subjects to teach.

2.Use some criterion (difficulty, interest sequence, for example) to select the subject matter for particular populations (grouped, for example, by state district age, or grade.

3.Plan end implement appropriate methods of instruction to ensure mastery of the subject matter selected.

The Curriculum as Experiences

The concept of the curriculum as the experiences of the learner, including those utilizing organized subject matter, was introduced in early curriculum publications. Caswell and Campbell embraced the experiences concept of the curriculum as they observed the sterility of instruction based on textbooks and courses of study outlining subject matter. In their popular Curriculum Development (1935), they gave this concept wide exposure, holding the school curriculum to be composed of all the experiences children have under the guidance of teachers. Many subsequent publications utilized similar definitions.

Historically and currently, the dominant concept of the curriculum is that of subjects and subject matter therein to be taught by teachers and learned by students. In high schools and colleges, the term curriculum has been and still is widely used to refer tot eh set of subjects or courses offered, and also to those required or recommended or grouped for other purposes; thus, such terms as the college preparatory curriculum, science curriculum, and premedical curriculum are commonly used. In curriculum terminology, program of studies is more properly used in these connections.

Despite efforts for over a half century to achieve broader and different curriculum foci, the concept of curriculum as subject matter persists as the basis of the dominant curriculum design. It was central to and emphasize by the wave of curriculum development in the subject fields that began in the 1950s and was stimulated by the Russian advance into outer space and subsequent pressure to Improve American education.

The Curriculum as Objectives

Early efforts at curriculum improvement made much use of aims and objectives as bases for curriculum planning. The scientific-management approach used in business and industry at the turn of this century encouraged Bobbitt to apply scientific principles to the curriculum field. By applying such procedures, Bobbitt determined curriculum objectives based on skills and knowledge needed by adults. Bobbitt defined curriculum as that series of things which children and youth must do and experiences by way of developing ability to do the things well that make up the affairs of adult life.

Tyler contributed a model that systematized this approach through the Eight-Year Study of school college relations and his later publications. Instruction tended to be subsumed under curriculum, although the phrase curriculum end instruction was commonly employed to include both curriculum designs and instructional strategies. However, methods courses tended to remain apart from curriculum courses in teacher education and certification. A series of research studies in instruction paralleled the search for new curriculum content beginning in the 1950s, and many writers began to separate more definitely the study of curriculum and the study of instruction. One result was a definition of curriculum as consisting solely of objectives or ends and instruction as the means of their attainment. This view of the curriculum was clearly stated by Johnson:

Curriculum is concerned not with what students will do in the learning situation, but with what they wilt learn (or be able to do) as a consequence of what they do. Curriculum is concerned with whet results, not with what happens. And it stands in en anticipatory relationship to the learning process not in a reportorial relationship, after the tact. It deals with expectations or intentions, and more specifically, with the learning outcomes intended to be achieved through instruction, that is through the experiences provided through what happens end what learners do.

In order to develop a design for a curriculum it is necessary to identify its basic elements. Tyler, for example, points out that it is important as a part of a comprehensive theory of organization to indicate just what kinds of elements will serve satisfactorily as organizing elements. And in a given curriculum it is important to identify the particular elements that shall be used.

But even among the meager statements about these elements, there is no consensus as to how to categorize them. Tyler identifies three, which seem to be pertinent mostly to establishing a sequence of learning experiences and are rather similar to the threads of integration discussed. These are the concepts which recur in the sequence of learning experiences, skills which take a long time to master, and values and ideas.

Perhaps one way of identifying these elements is to consider the major points about which decisions need to be made in the process of curriculum development, including such considerations as the principles of learning and ideas about the nature of learners and of knowledge. The points of these decisions the aims and objectives, the content and learning experiences, and evaluation then become macroscopic elements of the curriculum.

Most curriculum designs contain these elements, but many have them in defective balanced, mostly because these elements are poorly identified or have an inadequate theoretical rationale. For example, the subject design usually pays relatively little attention to objectives, or defines them in too narrow a scope. The core curricula stress learning experiences but are often defective in describing their content, or else the scope of the content is defective. Many curriculum designs eventuate in a program which is inappropriate to the students for whom it is intended, either because it is based on an inadequate concept of the learning process or because a greater uniformity of learning is assumed than is warranted. Few curriculum designs postulate and provide for the upper and lower limits in achieving objectives according to student backgrounds or for different qualities of depth according to differences in ability. Such defects in design usually pose difficulties in implementation.

Principles of curriculum development in a Muslim society

Islamic education is not to cram the pupils head with facts but to prepare them for a life of purity and sincerity. This total commitment to character building based on the ideals of Islamic ethics is the highest goal of Islamic education. Here he stressed on character building that needs to be molded together in an educational curriculum which he considers as the highest objective of Islamic education. A more comprehensive definition of Islamic education was composed at the First World Conference on Muslim Education in Makkah in 1977, the following words:

Education should aim at the balanced growth of the total personality of man through the training of mans spirit, intellect, his rational self, feelings and bodily senses. Education should cater therefore for the growth of man in all its aspects: spiritual, intellectual, imaginative, physical, scientific, linguistic, both individually and collectively and motivate all aspects towards goodness and the attainment of perfection. The ultimate aim of Muslim education lies in the realization of complete submission to Allah on the level of the individual, the community and humanity at large.

Therefore, as agreed by Muslim scholars in the Mecca Declaration above, it is clear that in order to develop the Islamic system and society, an educational system and its curriculum must be planned according to Islamic worldview as stresses that Islamization of curriculum is to place the curriculum and its four components i.e. aims and objectives, content, methods of teaching and method of evaluation within the Islamic worldview.

The first period is the period of development which started with the resurgence of the Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H) in Makkah until the end of Umayyad period. The main characteristics of religious curriculum of this period are:

Purely Arabic in nature

strengthening the basis of Islamic religion and spreading its teaching

based on religious sciences and Arabic grammar

concentrate more on study of Hadith and jurisprudence

concentrate more on Arabic grammar and literature

the initial study of foreign languages

Q.No.4

Critically discuss the functions of school and role of teachers in social development of students.

Ans

The effective educator must be ever mindful of the simple fact that children go to school for a living. School is their job, their livelihood, their identity. Therefore, the critical role that school plays in the child's social development and self-concept must be recognized. Even if a child is enjoying academic success in the classroom, his attitude about school will be determined by the degree of social success that he experiences.

There is much that the teacher can do to foster and promote social development in the student. Children tend to fall into four basic social categories in the school setting:

REJECTED: Students who ate consistently subjected to ridicule, bullying and harassment by classmates.

ISOLATED: Students who, although not openly rejected, are ignored by classmates and are uninvolved in the social aspects of school.

CONTROVERSIAL: Students who have established a circle of friends based upon common interests or proximity but seldom move beyond that circle.

POPULAR: Students who have successfully established positive relationships within a variety of groups.

Many students with learning disabilities find themselves in the rejected or isolated subgroups.

Their reputations as "low status" individuals plague then throughout their school careers. It is important for the teacher to assist the students' classmates in changing their view of this child.

Punishment

Punishment is an extremely ineffective method of modifying bullying or rejecting behavior. If you punish Billy for rejecting Joey, you only increase Billy's resentment of his classmate. However, you can increase a child's level of acceptance in several ways.

First, the teacher must become a "talent scout." Attempt to determine specific interests, hobbies or strengths of the rejected child. This can be accomplished via discussions, interviews or surveys. Once you have identified the child's strengths, celebrate it in a very public manner. For example, if the student has a particular interest in citizen band radios, seek out a read-aloud adventure story in which a short-wave radio plays an important role in the plot. Encourage the child to bring his CB into class and conduct a demonstration of its use. By playing the expert role, a rejected or isolated child can greatly increase his status.

Assign the isolated child to a leadership position in the classroom wherein his classmates become dependent upon him. This can serve to increase his status and acceptance among his peers. Be mindful of the fact that this may be an unfamiliar role for him and he may require some guidance from you in order to ensure his success.

Most important, the teacher must clearly demonstrate acceptance of and affection for the isolated or rejected child. This conveys the constant message that the child is worthy of attention. The teacher should use her status as a leader to increase the status of the child.

The teacher can assist the child by making him aware of the traits that are widely-accepted and admired by his peers. Among these traits are:

smiles/laughs

greets others

extends invitations

converses

shares

gives compliments

It is important that the teacher recognize the crucial role that the child's parents and siblings can play in the development of social competence. Ask his parents to visit school for a conference to discuss the child's social status and needs. School and home must work in concert to ensure that target skills are reinforced and monitored. Social goals should be listed and prioritized. It is important to focus upon a small group of skills such as sharing and taking turns, rather than attempting to deal simultaneously with the entire inventory of social ski

Assign the troubled child to work in pairs with a high-status child who will be accepting and supportive. Cooperative education activities can be particularly effective in this effort to include the rejected child in the classroom. These activities enable the child to use his academic strengths while simultaneously developing his social skills.

The teacher must constantly search for opportunities to promote and encourage appropriate social interactions for the socially inept child (e.g., "Andrew, would you please go over to Sally's desk and tell her that I would like her to bring me her math folder?"). Have students work in pairs to complete experiments, bulletin boards and peer tutoring.

The student with social skill deficits invariably experiences rejection in any activity that requires students to select classmates for teams or groups. This selection process generally finds the rejected child in the painful position of being the "last one picked." Avoid these humiliating and destructive situations by pre-selecting the teams or drawing names from a hat.

Q.No.5

Write notes on the following:

(i) Sources of Finance in Education

(ii) Process of Logical Reasoning in Education

Ans part I

There are a number of studies that support the linkage between education and development. Education per se is not development but can prepare individuals to enhance their chances of exploring ways and means for development.

The relationship between education and development is a two-way process, that is, quality education leads to development and development can pave the way for quality education.

In recent times, the term 'knowledge economy' has become a currency concept. In most developing countries, the state of education in quantitative and qualitative terms is questionable. Recognizing the significant role education can play, rulers in developing countries should invest more in education as this investment may ensure a bright future for them. Pakistan was at the lowest rung of the ladder as its allocation for education was only 2.2 per cent of GDP. This amount was less than the amount allocated by the Maldives (8.1), Iran (5.4), Malaysia (5.1), South Korea (4.2), Thailand (4.0), India (3.7), Sri Lanka (3.1), Nepal (2.9), Afghanistan (2.3) and Bangladesh (2.3). These figures suggest the lack of priority given to education by Pakistan's decision-makers. Is it because we do not have enough financial resources that we cannot allocate more funds for education?Before we hasten to answer this question let us see what the military expenditure was as a percentage of GDP in 2006. Here Pakistan is on the top rung with 3.2 per cent followed by Sri Lanka (2.6), India (2.5), Nepal (1.6), Bangladesh (1.5) and Bhutan (one per cent). This suggests that it is more an issue of priority than that of financial resources.

According to the CIA Fact Book, "Pakistan's proposed defense budget for financial year 2006-07 accounts for about one-fifth of the total budget and is 20 times more than what the country plans to spend on education and health. The country's percentage rise in the defense budget was more than 15 per cent in 2005-06. Pakistan's defense budget as a percentage of GDP is 4.5 per cent (2006) and Rs4.26bn in total (ranked 39th)."

The size of the defense budget is normally not fully visible. Some interesting strategies have been evolved to downplay the impact. For instance, in 2001 the amount spent on the pensions of armed personnel was not shown as a part of the defense budget; it was mentioned under civil expenditure. The second dimension is quite disturbing. This is the actual expenditure. In defense, more money is spent than the estimated amount. But in education, a large amount of money remains unspent because of various reasons. Either the promised money is not released on time, or money is re-appropriated, or the process of the release of money is so complex that the heads of educational institutions give up.

There could be any reason but the fact is that in almost all plans a large amount remains unspent. A couple of examples should suffice to give an idea of the problem. For instance, in the Second Five-Year Plan (1960-65) Rs78m was allocated for primary education whereas only Rs18m was actually spent. Similarly, in the Seventh Five-Year Plan (1988-93) Rs10128m was allocated for primary education whereas only Rs6399.17m was actually spent. These are just two examples which show the overall trend in spending on education. Contrary to this, spending on defense is more than the estimated figures given in the budget.

The third dimension which is equally important is the appropriateness of the spent money. The post-9/11 scenario saw the inflow of massive foreign aid for 'better education' in Pakistan. This was a great opportunity to utilize financial resources in an appropriate manner. For instance, in the Parha Likha Punjab (literate Punjab) programmed for which a large sum of money was available, nothing concrete could be achieved because much was spent on political appointments and image-building advertisements in the print and electronic media. Crash teacher education courses were organised without any meaningful change in the education system.

The perennial problem in the domain of education in Pakistan is that each government comes up with attractive slogans without the required political will. The result is that we are still grappling with the issues of quality at a very basic level.

The fourth dimension in financing education is lack of monitoring and accountability that has encouraged people to experiment, mess up and get away with their errors. What happened to some good educational initiatives, for instance, the Nai Roshni schools? Where did the funds collected in the name of Iqra go? Why did projects with huge foreign funds fail? We may never know the answers to these questions as there is no strong tradition of accountability in Pakistan.

Thus low allocation, under-spending, inappropriate spending and lack of accountability have done untold damage to the education sector in the country. What is happening is linked to socio-political practices in the wider sphere of society. For instance, for a long period of Pakistan's history the army has overtly and covertly dominated politics. That is why the tendency has been to spend more on defence. Educational initiatives were not given due importance.

We see glaring inconsistencies in the policies of different governments resulting in half-baked ideas and practices. What is required is a new perspective. By understanding the significance of education, allocating more funding for it and spending the money in a more appropriate manner, we can hope to bring about a positive change.

Change in the educational sphere is linked to the bigger societal sphere whose socio-political practices impact on education. Does that mean that we must wait until societal practices change and then start working for improvement in education? An alternative route is to improve our education in terms of its quality for societal development - a concept of development which is not confined to economic well-being alone but that ensures emancipation and individual freedom as well.

The World financial crisis of 2008 2010, exposed the weaknesses in the several of the first world economies, which were earlier considered to be the paradigm of economic success. Failure of the banking system, collapse of sub-prime mortgage business, ascending debt-to-GDP ratio, unpredictable unemployment and bankruptcies declared by several established businesses, raised serious doubts regarding the foundations of those economies.

Pakistan and most of the Middle Eastern economies have remained safe from the domino effect of the world financial crises, both for entirely separate reasons. The problems confronting Pakistans economy are due to economic mismanagement, living in quandary regarding policies, misplacement of priorities and corruption not worldwide recession.While the first world countries continue to have the resources and finances to deficit finance their economies out of recession, to push start the cycle and to increase the aggregate demand third world and smaller economies like Pakistan have few viable options to exercise, these options being more functional and realistic.

Over the years, the first world or developed countries have converted their economies into well-documented ones, bringing an end to leakages and corruption. This documentation along-with the checks & balances of financial institutions, helps them to measure and record, the consequences of various modes of quantitative ease or deficit financing. Although the outcome may not be as perfect, however, it allows the economy some breathing space and the government to implement long term structural reforms.

Ans part ii

Process of Logical Reasoning in Education

Formal or logical approaches to reasoning specify the syntactic form of valid inferences (i.e., those that do not lead to logical contradictions). In contrast, psychological approaches to reasoning explain cognitive performance or how people actually reason. Inferences that are syntactically valid from a logical perspective may be practically uninformative.

From a psychological perspective, reasoning may be defined as the set of mental processes used to derive inferences or conclusions from premises. Reasoning helps to generate new knowledge and to organize existing knowledge, rendering it more usable for future mental work. Reasoning is therefore central to many forms of thought such as scientific, critical, and creative thinking, argumentation, problem solving, and decision making. Each of these more complex forms of thought can employ inductive, deductive, and abductive reasoning which are described below.

Induction. Inductive reasoning is ampliative; it generates new knowledge. Inductive reasoning supports inferences but does not guarantee that the inferences are true. Vickers (2006) characterizes inductive reasoning as contingent (i.e., dependent on past experiences and observations). There are many forms of inductive reasoning such as enumerative induction and analogical reasoning. The best known form is enumerative induction in which the general properties of a class are inferred from a specific set of empirical observations. For example, upon observing that all the birds in the neighborhood have wings and fly, a person infers that all birds have wings and fly. Generalizations of this kind, though commonplace in human reasoning, are clearly fallible (ostriches and penguins are birds and have wings, but do not fly). The preceding example illustrates a general epistemic problem with inductive inferences, which philosophers refer to as the problem of underdetermination.

Analogical reasoning is another form of inductive reasoning that is important in generating new knowledge. Analogical reasoning involves the transfer of knowledge elements and relationships among knowledge elements (e.g., object properties and property relations such as correlated features) from a well-known domain, a base, to an unknown or partially known domain, a target (see Gentner, Holyoak, & Koikinov, 2001). For example, the analogy of a biological cell as a factory allows people to transfer knowledge about how a factory works (it has parts that are specialized to perform certain tasks and that operate together to maintain the functioning of the whole) to understand how a cell works. Analogical reasoning is often employed in instruction to help student understand new concepts by analogical transfer from more familiar concepts (Clement, 1993; Baker & Lawson, 2001, Thagard, 2006). Inductive reasoning presumes principles of regularity or continuity in the world that allow the drawing of inferences about new instances from past experience. Induction plays a role in concept formation and concept learning in every domain of knowledge from natural language to science.

Deduction. Deduction refers to processes of inference which guarantee logically valid conclusions from a set of premises. In other words, assuming that the premises are correct, the conclusions deduced from these premises must also be correct. Transitive inferences of the kind described earlier (Jane is taller than Mary; Mary is taller than Jill; therefore Jane is taller than Jill) are one form of deductive inference. Deduction is a constituent of many varieties of cognitive performance such as text comprehension, scientific and mathematical reasoning, and argumentation. Deduction also plays an important role in categorical reasoning. If, for example, scientists were to discover the remains of a hitherto unknown animal in permafrost, conduct DNA analysis on the remains and conclude that the animal was a mammal. they could then deduce that this previously unknown species had defining mammalian characteristics (e.g., it gave birth to its young and had body hair). One of the main cognitive functions of deductive reasoning is to organize knowledge in ways that allow one to derive parsimonious conclusions from sets of premises.

Abduction. The term abduction was coined by Charles Peirce (18391914) to refer to a third mode of inference that was distinct from induction and deduction and played a crucial role in scientific reasoning and discovery. Adductive reasoning is a form of reasoning in which individuals start by attending to a particular phenomenon and try to construct a hypothesis that best explains their observation. The process is often called inference to the best explanation (Lipton, 1961; Thagard & Shelley, 1997). Many causal inferences are abductive in nature.

An example of abductive reasoning would be an inquiry into a car crash in which investigators try to reconstruct what happened from forensic evidence (e.g., patterns of damage to a car and its surroundings, data from physiological and toxicological exams conducted on the driver and passengers). From the forensic data, they reconstruct the most plausible or likely explanation for the crash.