LESSON 2 SOCIAL INSTITUTION OF EDUCATION

• EDUCATION refers to the organized transmission of a culture's knowledge, skills, and values from one generation to another.
• EDUCATION is defined as a social institution which meets the need to educate and retrain the members of the society.
• LEARNING is a product of socialization in which culture is transmitted from one generation to another.
• LEARNING is the alteration of behavior resulting from informal or formal education.
• There are 3 different perspectives on education; FORMAL, INFORMAL, and NONFORMAL.
• FORMAL EDUCATION is the "education system" with its hierarchical structures and chronological succession of grades, from primary to university, which, in addition to general academic studies comprises a variety of specialized programs and full-time technical and vocational training institutions.
• Example of FORMAL EDUCATION - Students attending classes regularly and are assessed through exams & assignments.
• INFORMAL EDUCATION is a lifelong process par excellence, whereby each individual acquires attitudes, skills, values and knowledge through everyday experience; through the educational influences and resources of his/her environment, namely family neighbors, workplace, and leisure, in the market, and the library; and through the mass communications media.
• Example of INFORMAL EDUCATION - Learning to cook by watching and helping family members in the kitchen/Picking up new vocabulary by conversing with a friend.
• NONFORMAL EDUCATION comprises all those activities that are organized outside the established formal system, whether functioning separately or as an important part of broader activity, and designed to serve identifiable clientele and educational objectives.
• Example of NONFORMAL EDUCATION - Adult education programs offering computer literacy courses at a community center/Language classes provided by a non-profit organization for immigrants.
• MANIFEST FUNCTIONS are the positive things that people intend their actions to accomplish.
• LATENT FUNCTIONS are the positive consequences they did not intend.
• There are 3 types of Manifest functions; (a) TEACHING KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS, (b) CULTURAL TRANSMISSION OF VALUES, and (c) SOCIAL INTEGRATION.
• TEACHING KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS - Education's most obvious manifest function is to teach knowledge and skills-whether the traditional three R's or their more contemporary counterparts, such as computer literacy.
• Teaching Knowledge and Skills - EACH GENERATION MUST TRAIN THE NEXT TO FILL THE GROUP'S SIGNIFICANT POSITIONS.
• CULTURAL TRANSMISSION OF VALUES is a process by which schools pass on a society's core values from one generation to the next.
• Schools in SOCIALIST SOCIETY stress values that support socialism.
• Schools in a CAPITALIST SOCIETY teach values that support capitalism.
• SOCIAL INTEGRATION - Among the ways they promote a sense of national identity is by having students salute the flag and sing the national anthem.
• SOCIAL INTEGRATION - To forge a national identity is to stabilize the political system.
• SCHOOLING provides child care for the growing number of one-parent and two-career families.
• SCHOOLING also occupies thousands of young people in their teens and twenties who would otherwise be competing for limited opportunities in the job market.
• There are 3 types of Latent Functions; (a) GATEKEEPING/SOCIAL PLACEMENT, (b) REPLACING FAMILY FUNCTIONS, and (c) SOCIAL CONTROL.
• Sociologists TALCOTT PARSONS, KINGSLEY DAVIS, and WILBERT MOORE pioneered a view called social placement.
• GATEKEEPING, also known as social placement, means to open the doors of opportunity for some and to close them to others.
• To accomplish gatekeeping, schools use some form of TRACKING, sorting students into different educational "tracks" or programs on the basis of their perceived abilities.
• An example of replacing family functions is CHILD CARE. It was an unintended consequence.
• SOCIAL CONTROL is using social institutions to maintain social order and prevent crime.
• EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS help to preserve and promote or modify the conditions of social life through teaching and learning.
• FAMILY is the primary informal educational institution.
• The PARENTS serve as the first and foremost teachers.
• The FAMILY is the first and foremost school.
• The PEER GROUP/BARKADA exerts great influence on the socialization of the individual.
• The MASS MEDIA are extremely influential agencies of informal and non-formal education.
• The internet, movies, newspapers, magazines, and televisions are examples of MASS MEDIA; they are the sources of entertainment and information.
• The WORKPLACE in a society largely segregates economic life from family and other affairs of day-to-day community living.
• The CHURCH may be considered the major source of doctrinal as well as secular education.
• The STREET GANG in a largely urban phenomenon is a group of young people who associate together to commit crimes. It is an important agency of survival, identity, and income.
• The STREET GANGS offer the members a well-defined territory and protection from other street gangs.