English Blog
What Is The Purpose Of Higher Education – Knowledge Or Utility?
What is the purpose of higher education – knowledge or utility? Such question encourages a false dichotomy since both are needed for people’s genuine education; never one at the expense of the other. Higher education institutions, primarily universities, must have a two-pronged approach in the search for knowledge, to develop the highest degree of creative [...]
“Today there is a need to educate for uncertainty”
In this interview, professor Miguel Ángel Escotet reveals the key factors for achieving an education adapted to the future. To his mind, it is crucial to allow students take a more active role in their own education, to strive for a balance between the cognitive and affective domains and educate for an increasingly uncertain world.
The Corporate Management Is An Unfit Model for Education
What are the bases of culture and society? What is the cultural and social context of education? How can the social forces that influence teaching and learning be adapted to enhance the educational process? What are the cultural and social foundations of education in America? What are the purposes of education in a global society? [...]
University Reform And Change For What Kind Of Society?
No social institution can be studied in a vacuum. The university as an institution can only be understood within the context of the education system which, in turn, can only be comprehended within the context of society as a whole. As one of the pillars of the social system, the university must be analyzed and [...]
Teaching Beyond The Transmission of Knowledge
“Teaching to the test at the expense of teaching to the heart is wrong and reduces education to a very superficial acquisition of knowledge and values. Standardized testing for measuring knowledge, skills and attitudes goes against learning styles and individual differences.” “One of the most important rules of teaching is to preach by example. Are [...]
Exercising Shared Authority in Higher Education
The authority of governing is gained through the existence of levels of participation and cooperation in decision-making The picture above shows the signature ceremony of the the Magna Charta Universitatum signed in Piazza Maggiore at Bologna in September 18, 1988 by 388 Rectors of worldwide main universities. They were representing the Autoritas Universitatum of the traditional [...]
It Is Impossible To Transfer Science Between Cultures
Can we transfer science from one country to another or from one culture to other culture? Is a scientific fact different in the United States and China? Who owns science? Are we confusing science with technology? Science does not come into existence by spontaneous generation. Scientific knowledge is not only an inheritance from the past [...]
Accountability and Autonomy of Higher Education
University reform has been characterized by partial changes in the system. Universities have rarely undertaken all-encompassing reforms. These reforms have been associated with changes in the legislation that governs the ways in which the academic and administrative systems are organized. There is clearly a tendency to confuse reforms with legal changes. Paradoxically, the frequency and [...]
Is the University Centered on The Learner or The Professor?
FROM ACADEMIC ETHOS TO ADMINISTRATIVE ETHOS The academic ethos of universities has changed very little since the Middle Ages until the present. However, there is a significant difference between the origin of universities as social institutions and contemporary universities. At first, their structure was more informal and, contrary to what one might think, more flexible. It [...]
Philosophical Divagations on Educational Technology
What has come to be know as educational technology sprang from behaviorist psychology and philosophical positivism and gradually came to include the theories of systems and of communication. However, the different incidence of each of the contributions in each place, and the passing of time, have shown all too clearly the shortcomings of the atomistic [...]
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