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Thursday, August 7, 2014

School - A Strong Foundation for Education

The city of Faridabad takes pride in its rapidly growing economy and developing various sectors of work. This city of Haryana has active industrial sector and successfully working education sector of the region. In the past few decades this city has become an important education hub of the Northern India. Today this city has commendable literacy rate that has been increasing with the change in time. A better education background of the Faridabad city has made it possible for thousands of young people to get better job opportunities.

If you are relocating to this part of the country you will easily get a number of prestigious educational institutions. Vidya Sanskar International School is one of the well known institutes of the region. This school is all about providing best opportunities to the young children so that they could progress in their life and could grow up to be independent and responsible citizens of the country.

The location of the Vidya Sanskar International School is Kheri Jasana Road, New Faridabad, Faridabad; Haryana. This school has impressive school campus. A well maintained school campus is situated on a large area of the land and is surrounded with lush green trees. A pollution free zone makes the whole area a better place for education. This school is located in one of the posh locations of the state. This school has spacious and smartly designed classrooms, a better sitting arrangement, properly furnished and air-conditioned; different activity rooms for various co curricular programs, a large school library that provides many interesting reads and various academic syllabus related reference materials; different practical rooms and laboratories which are well equipped; a grassy school play ground for the outdoor activities of the students.

This school provides education from pre nursery class till twelfth standard and is affiliated with the Cambridge International Examinations (CIE). This coeducational school has always envisioned creating new milestones and providing an all round development to the students. The academic and co curricular programs and activities are dynamic and inspiring. The school curriculum is well managed and aims at providing a wide range of activities to the students that could help students to stay abreast with the world level changes and developments. The Vidya Sanskar International School has dedicated and friendly faculty members who are always there to help the students with their study related problems and confusions, and they also guide them with their career related issues. The school envisions creating the world class leaders of tomorrow who could take just and rational decisions for the betterment and prosperity of the society and country.

The Sanskar Vidya International School has involved the interactive teaching technique to help students understand the academic concepts in a simple and hassle free way. A home like comfortable environment and an encouraging school environment makes students to take part in the school activities in full enthusiasm and zeal. Now you can easily search for the school online. This school has maintained its official website that provides descriptive information related to the school; you just need to log in to the site and collect the needed data.

Saturday, November 23, 2013

Education in Theory and Perspective

What is the meaning of education?

Webster defines education as the process of educating or teaching. Educate is further defined as "to develop the knowledge, skill, or character of..." Thus, from these definitions, we might assume that the purpose of education is to develop the knowledge, skill, or character of students.

It is also defined in Oxford that education is the knowledge, abilities, and the development of character and mental powers that are resulted from intellectual, moral, and physical trainings. So, it can be said that someone who already got education will have additional knowledge, abilities and change in character and mental power.

While in Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, it is stated that:
Education encompasses teaching and learning specific skills, and also something less tangible but more profound: the imparting of knowledge, positive judgment and well-developed wisdom. Education has as one of its fundamental aspects the imparting of culture from generation to generation (see socialization). Education means 'to draw out', facilitating realization of self-potential and latent talents of an individual. It is an application of pedagogy, a body of theoretical and applied research relating to teaching and learning and draws on many disciplines such as psychology, philosophy, computer science, linguistics, neuron-science, sociology and anthropology.

From the quotation above, it is assumed that education does not merely transfer knowledge or skill, but more specifically it trains people to have positive judgment and well-developed wisdom, better characters and mental powers. Through education, someone will be able to search through their natural talent and self-potential, empower them and finally will result in gaining their self-esteem and better life.

The history of education according to Dieter Lenten, president of the Free University Berlin 1994 "began either millions of years ago or at the end of 1770". Education as a science cannot be separated from the educational traditions that existed before. Education was the natural response of early civilizations to the struggle of surviving and thriving as a culture. Adults trained the young of their society in the knowledge and skills they would need to master and eventually pass on.

The education of an individual human begins since he was born and continues throughout his life. Even, some people believe that education begins even before birth, as evidenced by some parents' playing music or reading to the baby in the womb to hope it will influence the child's development. For some, the struggles and triumphs of daily life provide far more instruction than does formal. Family members may have a profound educational effect - often more profound than they realize - though family teaching may function very informally.

Education: the purpose, function and in practice

Theorists have made a distinction between the purpose of education and the functions of education. A purpose is the fundamental goal of the process-an end to be achieved, while Functions are other outcomes that may occur as a natural result of the process- byproducts or consequences of schooling. To elaborate these terms, it can be seen in reality that some teachers believe that the transfer of knowledge from teacher to students is the main purpose of education, while the transfer of knowledge from school to the real world or the application of what has been transferred is something that happens naturally as a consequence of possessing that knowledge; it is called a function of education.

Here are some quotations taking from The Meaning of Education:
"The only purpose of education is to teach a student how to live his life-by developing his mind and equipping him to deal with reality. The training he needs is theoretical, i.e., conceptual. He has to be taught to think, to understand, to integrate, to prove. He has to be taught the essentials of the knowledge discovered in the past-and he has to be equipped to acquire further knowledge by his own effort" ~An Rand

"The aim of education should be to teach us rather how to think, than what to think-rather to improve our minds, so as to enable us to think for ourselves, than to load the memory with the thoughts of other men." ~Bill Beattie

From the above information it can be said that the purpose of education is to prepare the students to be able to face their life by facilitating them to develop their mind and equip them with "hard skill" and "soft skill" to deal with reality. As the result of this education, they themselves will be able to think, to understand, to integrate and to prove their ability.

Talking about the purpose of education, there are some overviews about it. There are different outlooks between autocratic and democratic regarding education. It is quite clear that each type of world outlook demands its consistent type of education. The autocratic wants the education in the purpose of making docile followers. So, that is why they prefer a type of education whose purpose is to build docility and obedience. In the other hand, Democracy is different from them. Democracy wishes all people to be able and willing to judge wisely for themselves. The democratic will seek a type of education whose purpose is to build responsible, thinking, public-spirited citizenship in all people.

This is also different for the authoritarian society. For them, it is just enough for the leaders to know what they want without thinking about what their people want. It is quite in contrary to what a democratic society wants. For the democracy society, the leaders and the most important - the large majority of the people must see clearly the aims/purpose of the type of education they have. In other words, in a democracy it is essential that the leaders and people have clear philosophy of life and a clear philosophy of education.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sri_Redneck

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How To Find The Best Distance Education Schools

Every time you browse using the World wide web, you shall stumble upon a brand-new net website that is offering and advertising essays to unwary college students all around the world. As a matter of fact, all of these businesses are disreputable, illegitimate and doing their consumers a main disservice and damaging them in the long run.

Questioning why purchasing an essay online is a poor notion? Continue reading for the answer to your query.

First and foremost, you should identify where these online, Custom College Essay creating products obtain their essays from. Even though, most such businesses will definitely strive to persuade you that they are just generating these essays using a qualified and also effective team of writers. On the contrary, most of these custom college essay writing services delegate their writing projects to different nations such as India, Pakistan as well as Bangladesh, among lots of others. Merely take into account it, an individual that has no technical or in depth awareness of your subject matter, inhabiting India or Bangladesh, is being paid a couple bucks per hour to produce your paper.

Presently you're quite possibly thinking just what's so unsatisfactory relating to picking an essay that was generated in a faraway nation? In addition to the clear waste of an opportunity to rise academically, in addition to the evident waste of your college instruction, a paper created by another inhabiting one more part of the planet simply are able to not match the your abilities as well as knowledge of the topic, neither can it live up to your tutor's hopes. There are several, excellent authors out there, however many of these suppliers don't find them because they in most cases charge a lot even more for academic papers.

In fact, many of the custom college essay producing products are going to supply you with a paper that is reused from an up until recently composed piece done for some other consumer. In the same manner, a couple of the essays are even reproduced over the Internet and it becomes a great deal simpler for an instructor to find out that it was copied and also is plagiarized.

University teachers have adequate experience to pinpoint plagiarized essays from their pupils and also may likewise deduce whether it was carried out by them, or whether they had another do it for them. It is certainly not that hard to do for them, due to the fact that they recognize the best way you communicate and also compose through the additional stuff you have actually tendered and also sometimes it is extremely visible. As a pupil, you should take into account this a minimum of thrice just before you think of making such a tremendous mistake. The following time you are thinking about skipping one of your assignments and trying to find an essay that is on purchase over the Internet, assume long and also hard pertaining to how you are losing your college fee. Not just are you squandering your funds, you are likewise presenting that your academic education and learning was a full waste of time also, not to mention what could happen if you obtained caught.

Schools in Greater Noida Promote Modernised Education

Every parent wants their child to get the best quality education at primary level so that at later stages no enough mentoring and guidance is required. Well, today most of the schools are on same pattern making their best efforts to provide an overall development to their students. In fact, parents are searching for such schools which can provide their kid with a multi talented persona. For all those parents who wanted their wards to receive modern education needs to understand what it actually stands for. It's just not mugging the text books and writing the same in the answer sheets; it's also not to over pressurize a 5 year old for studying four books for same subject. But it meant giving practical exposure to the things about which they are reading in the book.
What education signifies is the acquisition of knowledge or skills. So modern education can be understood us learning what is happening around you, getting the knowledge about the past, present and future and how to generate rationale thinking about it. It can also be through various tools and mediums like - Visual, audio or Kinesthetic (Practical).
It's different and difficult to find such institutions but BSE Board has affiliated those schools which are eligible for your trust and faith. There are many schools in Greater Nokia which not only promotes the generic thoughts and thinking, but gives a wider view of life to each of its students. Pupils studying here are allowed and encouraged to think out of the box as it is the only way to sustain the killing competition at the global level. Not just at primary level, but even secondary school Greater Nokia is more focused towards the quality of the education being possessed by the individual rather than just the results, percentage and society reputation.
Aster public School is the BSE School in Greater Nokia offering best education which can mold your child€™s future to sustain the ever changing modal of the society. It has great infrastructure to nurture your child€™s extracurricular interest and make him an all round personality of the future. Here the talent is encouraged to bloom and values are taught to make things understand better. At aster, they DNA€™t tell you what is wrong and what is right but they mold the thinking in the way that always the correct way is chosen with better confidence and rationale in the mind.

Sunday, November 10, 2013

Treating Students Like Customers: Interview


Laura Palmer Noone was one of five speakers in a lecture series at Duke University called Re-imagining the Academy. She spoke with Faith & Leadership about the for-profit model of higher education and the University of Phoenix.

Q: Describe the difference between the traditional model and the for-profit model of higher education. 

LPN: It’s hard to say that there’s a for-profit model and a traditional model. Traditional education is not monolithic, nor is for-profit. I can only speak to the University of Phoenix and some of its peer institutions.

The University of Phoenix is very much focused on a different type of student. They’re first-generation college students. They’re older, maybe a single parent, probably working at least part time and maybe full time. There’s a pretty high likelihood they had at least one parent born outside the U.S. All those factors make for a different academic experience and different academic needs.

We focus on the needs of students, No. 1, and making sure they’ve learned what we wanted them to learn, as opposed to [putting] the needs of the institution first. [Traditional] institutions have a very important research component to them. But that’s not to say that one is better than the other. It’s just that they’re different and have different missions.

Q: You’ve previously said that you came to believe early on that there needed to be a different model for higher education. How did you come to believe that? 

LPN: I was a traditional student in the sense that I did my undergraduate work [at the University of Dubuque] and then went on to get my MBA and my law degree [both at the University of Iowa].

Although I went to very fine law and business schools, neither of those programs particularly suited me to what was going to happen when I was out in the real world. I didn’t really know how to practice law until I actually got into a law firm. I realized there was something missing. We were imparting knowledge but not necessarily imparting the skills that go with the knowledge. I was pleased to find that there was a focus on that at the University of Phoenix.

Q: How does the University of Phoenix do that? 

LPN: One of the things that businesses tell us is that they need people who can work in teams. Yet higher education has traditionally been an isolated event. You, as a student, go to class and do your own work; you never learn to work in a team. Then all of a sudden we take you out of higher education, put you in the real world and expect you to be able to work in a team. You have never had to function like that.

So why not teach that as part of the curriculum? Why not teach people how to function as a team and how to work to produce a greater product?

Q: What do you think other institutions can learn from the University of Phoenix? 

LPN: We treat adult students as customers and as consumers of education -- not in the sense that the customer is always right, but in the sense that they are entitled to timely, accurate information delivered in a courteous manner. We don’t need to make them wait in endless lines or walk across campus to go to some building. Their time is valuable to them, and we should treat them as such.

They also have real-world experiences and learning experiences that may have occurred outside the walls of higher education. We should honor those.

Q: When you talk to audiences about the for-profit model, what reaction do you usually get? 

LPN: It has changed some over time, and it definitely depends on the audience.

And I say this with all the love in my heart, but usually the most hostile reaction is from faculty. I think there’s a fear among them that what I’m talking about will spell an end to life as they know it.

Among administration, there is certainly a mixture of interest -- especially in how for-profits are able to move quickly to respond to changes -- and a little bit of jealousy, because it’s often harder to make sweeping changes in more traditional institutions. Then there’s the aspect of, “How did [the University of Phoenix] get so successful?”

Q: How do you know that the University of Phoenix model works and that it is successful? 

LPN: I’ve seen the results. I’ve seen the students who come out of the system. I started out as a faculty member at the university, and I know what my students learned. I know it was a rigorous and intense experience, and I know that I felt every bit as comfortable on what they were learning in that five-week period as when I was teaching 16-week semesters.

Q: Some questions have been raised about the academic quality, the dropout rate and students defaulting on their loans at the University of Phoenix. How do you respond to that? 

LPN: I’m no longer an official representative of the university, but the university takes great pride in measuring the academic outcomes of their students. They use nationally known exams, and [students at the University of Phoenix] always come out as being very equivalent.

I think the people who are saying that the university’s academic quality is inferior are doing so out of willful ignorance. They’re not analyzing the data to see that students are in fact learning at the same pace.

The dropout rate is a different sort of question. There’s a lot of research as to why students drop out or default on their loans. If you look at the demographics of the students who are likely to drop out or default, there are very identifiable factors. Institutions like the University of Phoenix have a lot of these students with those multiple risk factors. They have a lot of first-generation college students, students who have lower socioeconomic levels and students who are single parents. All those things make it far more difficult for people to complete [a degree].

The second thing is most everybody looks at the Integrated Post-secondary Education Data System (IPEDS) rates. They measure only first-time freshmen. So if you took even one course at a community college and then came to the University of Phoenix and finished up, you wouldn’t be counted in the graduation rate, because you aren’t a first-time student. I think that’s true of a lot of students at for-profits.

Q: What are areas for improvement at the University of Phoenix? 

LPN: The model is constantly being refined, and even to this day they’re refining aspects of it to make sure that it continues to evolve. That’s one of the things that I will give the university a great deal of credit for. They looked at the change in demographics and the change in the needs of their students, and they realized there were things they were going to have to make changes to in order to serve their needs.

Higher education overall has evolved as well, a little faster probably than sometimes it wanted to. I think it was forced to make some changes because of the success of institutions like University of Phoenix.

Q: The University of Phoenix was founded in 1976 and started with five-week courses taught on-site. What have been some of the changes there since then? 

LPN: Undergraduate classes are still five weeks for a three-credit-hour course; graduate courses are six weeks. But one of the changes is that the University of Phoenix used to be a degree-completion institution only. You had to come in with the first two years of coursework completed. Gradually, the admission requirements were changed so students could come in with fewer credits.

Another change occurred in 1989, when the university launched an online program -- long before online was popular. The whole idea was, “How can we better serve students’ needs?” There were some students who, even though we made this as convenient as possible to go to a campus, sometimes it wasn’t convenient and their schedule wouldn’t allow it.

A few years ago the university also decided that it needed to have more flexibility than to be tied to traditional textbooks. So the university changed to all-electronic resources, which allows you to take the best of this textbook and this textbook and this textbook and put them all together and add simulations to make a much more robust learning environment.

Q: What do you think higher education will look like in 10, 20 years? 

LPN: I hope that higher ed adapts to the point where it can understand that one size does not fit all. Not everybody has the ability to go to a traditional institution, but everybody should have the opportunity to better themselves through higher education.

Some institutions that have not been particularly selective and don’t have an identified mission or differentiating factor -- I think that there will be some failures of those institutions or a consolidation among their ranks.

I also think you’re going to see a lot more instructional technology.

I don’t think this is going to mean the end to residential education. All these institutions will be around for many years to come, but they serve a narrow section of the population. The needs of the American populace and workforce are much broader than that.

We need to have other vehicles to retrain people and to train people who didn’t go to college right out of high school or went for a semester or two and didn’t finish. There are millions of people in the U.S. who have some college and no degree, and they are ripe candidates for going back to school and becoming part of the solution to reigniting the economic engine.

Though the residential experience will not go away entirely, it will not be the norm. It will be the exception. And to a large extent, it probably already is. 

Saturday, November 9, 2013

Resurrecting Detroit


In the eyes of many, Detroit has become a joke. The news of the city’s bankruptcy in July quickly mutated from a national news headline to a Twitter and late night talk show punchline. I haven’t lived in “The D” since I graduated from high school, but for me, it will always be home. And I wasn’t laughing.

I grew up going to Tigers’ games with my dad; I relished the Bad Boys era of the Pistons and suffered through the Lions many, many seasons of defeat. I spent summers at Greek Town and Belle Isle; I lounged on our front porch when it was too hot to sleep in our non-air conditioned home on Littlefield Street. When others ridiculed my city, I came to her defense every time. 

But as much as I love Detroit, I am well-acquainted with her struggles. 

Our neighborhood public schools were woefully underperforming, and my parents had to work the system in order to find high-quality schools for my brother and me. And even though my Detroit public high school did a phenomenal job educating urban kids, our resources paled in comparison to wealthier suburban districts. We were just kids, but even we felt the burden of our city’s problems.

So in the midst of bankruptcy, that’s where my mind and heart linger: What does bankruptcy mean for the children of Detroit? If many of the city’s children were already facing crumbling facilities and overcrowded classrooms, what happens now that the municipal debt comes crashing down? 

Let’s start with the facts. Detroit Public Schools (DPS) are primarily funded by the state of Michigan and function as a separate entity from the city. So, in the most pragmatic terms, the direct impact on the schools should be minimal. 

But Detroit’s schools were already underwater financially—even before the city filed for bankruptcy. In 2008 the state of Michigan took financial control of the school district and appointed an emergency financial manager. Ever since, the schools have been struggling to crawl out of a mountain of debt. The city’s population has shrunk by over a quarter of a million people in the last decade. Not only that, but the number of students in DPS will likely drop to just 40,000 by 2016, according to the Associated Press. In a city with residents under financial strain, the schools will have to increasingly do more with less money. 

Beyond the tangible bread and butter budget issues, there are more nuanced problems. One of the most important factors that influence a child’s education is the classroom teacher. And while all teachers want the best for their students, some teachers are more successful than others. The most skilled and successful teachers, not surprisingly, have more options. And, quite frankly, these teachers can work in suburban districts that have the budget to pay more (not tens of thousands of dollars more, of course—but more is more). Detroit teachers were already among the lowest paid in the state; filing for bankruptcy will not help increase salaries. 

When a city files Chapter 11 there is an unmistakable sense of uncertainty and fear surrounding its future. We’ve already heard talk of city employees losing pensions; beloved treasures at the Detroit Institute of Arts may be up for sale. Ambiguity does not motivate individuals to join your teaching workforce. Humans long for security; and Detroit cannot offer that in the foreseeable future. 

The city’s financial management and school district leadership have long been seized by the state. One Detroit’s recent mayor is serving his second prison sentence and still owes the city hundreds of thousands of dollars in restitution. One can only imagine how things could get worse. 

As a Christian, I believe in the tried and true power of grace, redemption and resurrection. Detroit is poised to receive all three. God’s track record, as evidenced in the Bible, suggests he shows up when things are seemingly at their worst. 

For all of its failing infrastructure, the core of the city remains: its people. They are Detroit’s secret weapon. They are steadfast, resilient and full of faith. They will lead the city’s renaissance. They will revitalize schools and demonstrate what the children of Detroit are truly made of. But they cannot do it alone. 

The leaders, teachers, families and students in Detroit Public Schools deserve the best. As an advocate for educational equity, and a Detroiter at heart, I have to believe better times are in Detroit’s future. I have to believe that just when we seem to be hitting the worst of times, the best are yet to come. 

To be sure, this resurrection will require incredible hard work from multiple sectors. We need business leaders, community leaders, philanthropists and entrepreneurs. 

Friday, November 8, 2013

The Real Crisis in Higher Education


When Plato established his Academy in Athens in 387 BC, he laid a foundation for education in the West that regarded knowledge as inseparable from character. In the end, he said, a man's intellect or cleverness or skills couldn't help him if he lacked virtue. "A person with a bad soul will govern his life badly."

This Western ideal is worth recalling now, as more governments struggle to manage the costs of higher education. It has become a major issue during the US election season, as worries mount about escalating tuition fees and student debt to cover them. A recent Pew Research Center poll found that 75 per cent of adults think higher education has become unaffordable — and most believe it's not worth the money.

Liberals see a "student loan crisis" and denounce cuts in government spending on education. Newspapers such as the New York Times blame for-profit colleges for "defrauding" students with deceptive recruitment policies. Conservatives, for their part, criticize the expansion of federal loan programs for encouraging inflated tuition rates and student indebtedness. 

Mostly missing from the discussion, however, is meaningful talk about the fundamental purposes of higher education and how best to achieve them.

So far, conservatives are not contributing much to this debate. Too many have focused narrowly on costs, techniques, and new technologies. Writing in National Affairs, the Heritage Foundation's Stuart Butler lauds the arrival of online degree courses as the savior of higher education. He writes: "Improvements in customized and sophisticated student-education data . . . make it easy to imagine the interaction quality of online tutorials surpassing the effectiveness of the traditional system." We are assured that nothing of enduring value would be lost in this brave new virtual world.

Here is a well-meaning approach to education reform that is as subversive as it is impoverished. Does anyone really imagine that, given the choice, teachers such as Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Jesus and Maimonides would opt for the online tutorial?

The great minds of the Western tradition believed that real knowledge — including moral wisdom — is communicated through concrete, embodied relationships. It is the give-and-take of the classroom, the educator fully present with his students, which makes possible the highest purposes of the academy. For the aim is not only to nurture minds that can think for themselves, but which pursue with integrity the great truths about the human condition. It is here, in the bricks and mortar of the academy, that deep friendships are formed, the moral and spiritual relationships that help us on our life's journey.

Can we afford to remain ignorant of this legacy in the West? Butler shrugs it off. "For most young people today," he writes, "electronic friendships and networks are the norm." There is no hint that anything whatsoever may be amiss with this trend.

Cicero sounded the alarm when he saw republican ideals fading from the public consciousness: "Memory is the treasury and guardian of all things." Our historical amnesia about the ends of the academy is widespread. We no longer treasure or guard those things once considered essential to education. No wonder we produce so many graduates with bad souls who cannot govern themselves.

Yet if we do not recover our cultural memory — if we worship at the altar of efficiency and economy — the explosive costs of a college degree will become a footnote in the crisis of the West.