Other important ingredient is 'abilities'.We also expect an educated person to be able to do certain things. For instance, we expect an educated person to be able to add up a few two digit and three digit numbers without using a calculator, to read and understand a newspaper report, and to make an informed reasoned guess (verdict) about the guilt of the "accused" in a law court after a careful consideration of available evidence. When faced with familiar as well as novel situations, we expect an educated person to be able to perform required tasks, make informed intelligent decisions and arrive at informed rational conclusions. We also expect him/her to deal rationally with disagreements, choose from alternative beliefs and courses of action, and recognize when information is insufficient to make a reasoned choice from competing alternatives.
Neuropsychologists use the term declarative memory to refer to the know-that type of knowledge, and procedural memory to refer to the know-how-to type of knowledge. For instance, knowing that the square root of four is two is a form of declarative knowledge, while knowing how to find the square root of a number is a form of procedural knowledge. An educated person should be able to function effectively in familiar and novel situations in personal and intellectual life. To satisfy this requirement, one needs both declarative and procedural forms of knowledge.
Neuropsychologists use the term declarative memory to refer to the know-that type of knowledge, and procedural memory to refer to the know-how-to type of knowledge. For instance, knowing that the square root of four is two is a form of declarative knowledge, while knowing how to find the square root of a number is a form of procedural knowledge. An educated person should be able to function effectively in familiar and novel situations in personal and intellectual life. To satisfy this requirement, one needs both declarative and procedural forms of knowledge.
An educated person should possess mastery of the general thinking abilities required for making informed intelligent decisions, estimates, assessments, and inferences.
For instance, in addition to the specialized thinking abilities that their respective professions call for, educated lawyers, engineers and historians should possess the general thinking abilities that are crucial for functioning as intelligent lay people, when weighing advice from their doctor to perform an operation, when helping their children decide which university to apply to, or when making an intelligent assessment of the credibility of a newspaper report.
Observe that thinking ability, whether general or domain-specific, presupposes knowledge. In order to think critically about a doctor's recommendation, one needs medical information of the kind that is generally available in a good medical encyclopedia. In order to assess the credibility of the claim that there is life on Mars, one needs a minimal amount of information about the environment of Mars, and how scientists make inferences from fossil remains.
Educatedness as the enhanced capability to cope successfully with novel situations: Now, novel situations may demand additional or advanced information and additional or advanced thinking abilities. Moreover, the information and thinking abilities that one can draw upon to meet the demands of life keep expanding, and hence there is no point at which the acquisition of knowledge, skills and abilities can be said to be complete. It follows therefore that an educated person should have the capability to enhance and modify their knowledge and thinking abilities on an ongoing basis so as to cope with novel situations and to cope with them in a more successful manner. This is a requirement on the capability for independent learning.
For instance, in addition to the specialized thinking abilities that their respective professions call for, educated lawyers, engineers and historians should possess the general thinking abilities that are crucial for functioning as intelligent lay people, when weighing advice from their doctor to perform an operation, when helping their children decide which university to apply to, or when making an intelligent assessment of the credibility of a newspaper report.
Observe that thinking ability, whether general or domain-specific, presupposes knowledge. In order to think critically about a doctor's recommendation, one needs medical information of the kind that is generally available in a good medical encyclopedia. In order to assess the credibility of the claim that there is life on Mars, one needs a minimal amount of information about the environment of Mars, and how scientists make inferences from fossil remains.
Educatedness as the enhanced capability to cope successfully with novel situations: Now, novel situations may demand additional or advanced information and additional or advanced thinking abilities. Moreover, the information and thinking abilities that one can draw upon to meet the demands of life keep expanding, and hence there is no point at which the acquisition of knowledge, skills and abilities can be said to be complete. It follows therefore that an educated person should have the capability to enhance and modify their knowledge and thinking abilities on an ongoing basis so as to cope with novel situations and to cope with them in a more successful manner. This is a requirement on the capability for independent learning.
An educated person should be capable of independent learning that facilitates coping with and adapting to the changing environment.
A person who does not have the capability for independent learning cannot be considered educated. Independent learning is not merely the ability to use the library and internet to acquire the knowledge that others have generated. It also involves the ability to generate knowledge on one's own, either based on an existing body of knowledge, or creating knowledge where none existed. The ability to generate knowledge is research, which calls for the mastery of the modes of rational inquiry which have evolved over a long time in academic disciplines.
Learning involves the expansion, modification, and rectification of existing information, and the expansion and strengthening of thinking abilities.The educated sociologists should be able to pick up a couple of textbooks on neuropsychology and expand their existing knowledge of how the brain works, motivated either by curiosity, or by the need to understand social behaviour in terms of the functioning of the human brain. They should also be able to modify their existing beliefs about society on the basis of new information. In many cases, it may also involve rejecting some of the beliefs which were once held to be correct.
Starting our exploration of educatedness with knowledge,it is found that the abilities of thinking and learning are closely tied up with knowledge.
Learning involves the expansion, modification, and rectification of existing information, and the expansion and strengthening of thinking abilities.The educated sociologists should be able to pick up a couple of textbooks on neuropsychology and expand their existing knowledge of how the brain works, motivated either by curiosity, or by the need to understand social behaviour in terms of the functioning of the human brain. They should also be able to modify their existing beliefs about society on the basis of new information. In many cases, it may also involve rejecting some of the beliefs which were once held to be correct.
Starting our exploration of educatedness with knowledge,it is found that the abilities of thinking and learning are closely tied up with knowledge.
Along with ability to think, the ability to learn,ability to use language is another ingredient of the education.Language plays a central role in constructing, critically evaluating, transmitting, and receiving knowledge.Language is also used for aesthetic purposes (as in poetry), persuasion (as in advertisements and political speeches), and so on, but the primary role of language in higher education is epistemic.
An educated person should be capable of using language clearly, precisely and effectively for epistemic purposes.
-A different mind set can be observed in an educated person.The following are some characteristic features :
-An awareness of the uncertainty and fallibility of human knowledge (including so called "objective" scientific knowledge).
-The willingness to doubt and question propositions that are claimed as knowledge, by others (including "authorities") as well as by ourselves, and the unwillingness to accept knowledge claims that are unaccompanied by sufficient evidence.
-An openness of mind that allows one to modify and abandon earlier beliefs on the basis of new evidence, as well as the willingness and ability to look for such evidence.
-Intellectual curiosity and enjoyment of knowledge, thinking, and learning in themselves. A student becomes an independent learner only when learning becomes its own reward. Independent learning cannot flourish in an educational environment where knowledge, thinking, and learning are associated with pain and boredom, pursued only for the pragmatic goals of material success in life.
-The ability to subject one's own beliefs to the process of critical thinking requires special emphasis. Critical thinking requires the capacity and predilection to seek rational grounds for accepting or rejecting beliefs.
There are at least three successively difficult levels of the critical scrutiny of beliefs, expressible in terms of the following questions:
A.How can I show that I am right and my opponent is wrong? (What kind of rational grounds would support my beliefs and refute my opponent's beliefs?)
B.How can I check if the authority I trust (teacher, textbook, community) is right or wrong? (What kinds of rational grounds would justify my acceptance or rejection of the beliefs that I am exposed to?)
C.How can I check if I am wrong or my opponent is right? (What kind of rational grounds would refute my beliefs and support my opponent's beliefs?)
However, since the human intellect in reality is closely tied up with emotional states, we find it easier to engage in A and extremely difficult to engage in C. The highest form of critical thinking is the auto-critical thinking of type C that demands liberation from emotional attachment to the self.
The kind of critical thinking needed in debating competitions is of type A. In a debate, each of the two competing parties are expected to decide which side they are on prior to the debate, and then go on to show that whichever side they have chosen to support is the right one. We do not win debating competitions by pursuing truth, with the willingness to pursue evidence that may show that our original position was wrong. The practice of argumentation in the law court is also of type A. Lawyers who pursue truth and end up arguing against their clients' interests are unlikely to continue as lawyers. In contrast, critical thinking in science crucially demands the detachment that allows one to pursue evidence against one's own original convictions.
-The willingness to doubt and question propositions that are claimed as knowledge, by others (including "authorities") as well as by ourselves, and the unwillingness to accept knowledge claims that are unaccompanied by sufficient evidence.
-An openness of mind that allows one to modify and abandon earlier beliefs on the basis of new evidence, as well as the willingness and ability to look for such evidence.
-Intellectual curiosity and enjoyment of knowledge, thinking, and learning in themselves. A student becomes an independent learner only when learning becomes its own reward. Independent learning cannot flourish in an educational environment where knowledge, thinking, and learning are associated with pain and boredom, pursued only for the pragmatic goals of material success in life.
-The ability to subject one's own beliefs to the process of critical thinking requires special emphasis. Critical thinking requires the capacity and predilection to seek rational grounds for accepting or rejecting beliefs.
There are at least three successively difficult levels of the critical scrutiny of beliefs, expressible in terms of the following questions:
A.How can I show that I am right and my opponent is wrong? (What kind of rational grounds would support my beliefs and refute my opponent's beliefs?)
B.How can I check if the authority I trust (teacher, textbook, community) is right or wrong? (What kinds of rational grounds would justify my acceptance or rejection of the beliefs that I am exposed to?)
C.How can I check if I am wrong or my opponent is right? (What kind of rational grounds would refute my beliefs and support my opponent's beliefs?)
However, since the human intellect in reality is closely tied up with emotional states, we find it easier to engage in A and extremely difficult to engage in C. The highest form of critical thinking is the auto-critical thinking of type C that demands liberation from emotional attachment to the self.
The kind of critical thinking needed in debating competitions is of type A. In a debate, each of the two competing parties are expected to decide which side they are on prior to the debate, and then go on to show that whichever side they have chosen to support is the right one. We do not win debating competitions by pursuing truth, with the willingness to pursue evidence that may show that our original position was wrong. The practice of argumentation in the law court is also of type A. Lawyers who pursue truth and end up arguing against their clients' interests are unlikely to continue as lawyers. In contrast, critical thinking in science crucially demands the detachment that allows one to pursue evidence against one's own original convictions.
We expect education to nurture the physical, emotional, interpersonal, intellectual, aesthetic, moral, and spiritual dimensions of human development, but when it comes to the concept of educatedness, only the intellectual dimension appears to be relevant.Take the moral dimension as an example. Let us imagine that Einstein was an extremely immoral person who was ready to cheat, lie, and kill in order to achieve his own selfish goals. Would we consider him uneducated? Chances are that we would say no. The word "educated" is biased towards the intellectual dimension of education, probably due to the historical accident of educational institutions focusing on the intellectual aspect of education.Inability to engage in moral reasoning is a gap in educatedness.Having made the rational inference, choosing an action that is morally good or morally bad is not a matter of the intellect, but of moral values.
On a lighter note we can say that an educated person possess three characteristics.He/she can entertain oneself, one who can entertain another, and one who can entertain a new idea.
Qualities of an Educated Person :
Qualities of an Educated Person :
1. A broadly knowledgeable mind
2. Self confidence
3. A life purpose
4. A touch of class
5. Good leadership skills
6. The ability to work with a team
7. Patience
8. Good public speaking skills
9. Good writing skills
10. Resourcefulness
11. A desire for responsibility
12. Honesty
13. A public spirit
14. The ability to work well alone
15. An eye for details
16. The ability to focus at will
17. Perseverance
18. The ability to handle pressure
19. Curiosity
20. An attractive personal style
2. Self confidence
3. A life purpose
4. A touch of class
5. Good leadership skills
6. The ability to work with a team
7. Patience
8. Good public speaking skills
9. Good writing skills
10. Resourcefulness
11. A desire for responsibility
12. Honesty
13. A public spirit
14. The ability to work well alone
15. An eye for details
16. The ability to focus at will
17. Perseverance
18. The ability to handle pressure
19. Curiosity
20. An attractive personal style
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