The harmony of individual and public education in the Lithuanian educational system Cover Image

Individualaus ir visuomeninio ugdymo dermė: iš Lietuvos švietimo patirties
The harmony of individual and public education in the Lithuanian educational system

Author(s): Dalia Survutaitė
Subject(s): Education
Published by: Vytauto Didžiojo Universitetas
Keywords: relations between school and society, individual and public education; interaction in education; teachers’ preparedness.

Summary/Abstract: All over the world the market demonstrates an increasingly intensive tendency to compare a human as an incomparable value to a successfully functioning state. In order to secure high indices of their competitive edge economically advanced states try to find harmony in education by developing simultaneously the individual and the public element. The present article inquires into the representations of individual and public education through the analysis of pedagogical ideas. Purpose – to elucidate the (non)harmony of individual and public education through the analysis of pedagogical ideas. Methodologically, the research is based on the constructivist theory of education the role of which is especially significant in the post-modernist educational space. Indeed, successful educational innovations are founded on the constructivist strategies of self-expression and learning through interaction. Research methods include the critical and the comparative analysis of educationalist sources, the content analysis, the case analysis (internal quality appraisal performed at general education schools, Rokiškis District, in 2007–2008), the deduction, and the generalization. The subject under research comes out in the discussion of relevant legislative basis and the interrelations among separate units of the educational system. It was found that the relations between school and society manifest themselves through definite conditions emerging on the basis of interaction, co-operation, and the consolidation of forces. Conditions created on the grounds of mutual consolidation coupled with the achieved results determine the position of school within a society. The determination of school’s position in society facilitates more detailed inquiry into the educational ideas to be implemented by school as a societal product of time and spirit. Thus, thorough generalisation and analysis of separate constituent parts of educational tactics and strategies helps to detect the (non)harmony of the individual and public elements in education. Generalisation of the findings produced by 2007–2008 internal quality appraisal at general education schools in Rokiškis District indicates that schools seeking to determine the level of education boost the educational quality by combining the individual element (encourage students’ activity, independence, motivation for progress; increase the differentiation and the individualisation of teaching, the satisfaction of students’ need, etc.) with the public one (encourage students’ cooperation in class, seek to establish a link between the teaching and the reality of everyday life; secure the execution of agreements, the clarity of demands, the uniformity of rules, and the principle of justice).

  • Issue Year: 2010
  • Issue No: 99
  • Page Range: 14-22
  • Page Count: 9
  • Language: Lithuanian