Rediscovering the Meaning of Education: The Aims of Teaching in an Era of “Learnification”

Abstract

The aim of education is a key question; in a certain sense it is a traditional question — viewed by some as a given. Indeed, perhaps because it appears to be self-evident, it has long since ceased to be a focus, with a number of undesirable consequences. Education invariably remains an action that is explicitly or implicitly imbued with intentionality, but if it loses sight of its goals (or, worse still, does not acknowledge them expressively), it risks becoming ethically and politically ambiguous, if not downright corrupted or distorted.

Keywords

• aims of education
• values
• evidence-based education
• phenomenology
• school