Nine issues for reflection in education

Abstract

This paper presents a review of the work of several authors (including teachers, educational psychologists, philosophers, professors and managers of educational institutions) on nine major educational issues in school organization and teaching practice. It starts with the definition of what is learning, and how this affects school organization. Several issues are considered in the essay: motivation to study, its types and limits; forms of assessment and their impact on learning strategies; the nature of teachers’ work; the competitiveness among students, teachers, and schools, and its relationship to academic excellence; the Pygmalion effect in teaching, learning and school organization, particularly in regard to the ‘homogeneous’ groups; the role of textbooks in learning and how to live with them; the roles of joy, suffering and sadness in learning and their impact on school organization and teaching practices. Lastly some key features of the role of education in the commodification of the current world are discussed.