Overview
An Educology of Development and Learning: The Early Years (0 Through 5) (2022) presents an analysis, description and characterization, from the educological perspective, of the mutual effects of human development, the learning process and education in the initial five years of childhood. Human development consists of a synchronous progression in stages of physical and psychical maturation from birth to senescence.
Physical development is a progression in the maturation of bodily size, mass, proportion, strength and function. Psychical development is a progression in the maturation of human consciousness such that, by adulthood, an individual has the necessary and sufficient volition, perception, conception and focus of attention to (1) live as a self-directed, rational and autonomous individual who can undertake intelligent action in any given circumstance; (2) function adequately within a given physical, social and cultural environment; (3) make authentic, well-considered choices and decisions and stand responsible and accountable for their consequences; (4) nominate authentic, well-considered aspirations and undertake appropriate activities to achieve them; and (5) resolve issues and solve problems with necessary and sufficient evidence produced by conducting careful, disciplined inquiry.
Psychical development in the early years, from birth to five, is characterized by stages of increasingly complex and intelligent action as the result of the simultaneous and interconnected development in human consciousness of volition, perception, cognition and focus, all of which have mutual effects. Volition is the ability to choose and/or decide — to determine what to do and what not to do. Perception is the ability to experience extrospection of physical objects and introspection of mental objects (emotions, imaginings, internal sensations, urges and memories). Cognition is the ability to perform a complex set of functions (conceiving, knowing, understanding, inquiring and reasoning). Focus is the ability to direct attention for some period of time on some entity or state of affairs.
Maturation, Learning and Education
Maturation. Some sequential changes in human development are genetically determined, and they manifest themselves physically and psychically. The DNA, RNA and mRNA molecules in chromosomes direct physical growth and maturation and provide the psychical capabilities of volition, perception, cognition and focus of attention. While genetic inheritance is an important factor, it is not the only determinant of physical development. Other important factors include optimal nutrition, appropriate and sufficient exercise, and favorable physical environmental factors (pollution-free air, soil and water; absence of overcrowding, toxins, harmful radiation and debilitating infectious diseases).
Learning. Other extensions in function, physical and psychical, are the result of having experiences with the physical, social and cultural environment, leading to the process of learning some new range of knowing. Newborns have the genetically determined capacity and desire to learn an extensive range of knowing. From happenstance (serendipity and misadventure), they experience accidental (unguided, unintentional) learning of a range of accidental knowing. From coercion (socialization, enculturation, indoctrination and any other coercive circumstances), they experience coerced (guided, unintentional) learning of a range of compelled knowing. From inquiry (play and exploration, trial and error, problem solving, observation, imitation and/or systematic investigation), they experience discovery (unguided, intentional) learning of a range of discovered knowing. From education (the activities of teaching and intentional guided studying of some content in some context), they experience conduced (guided, intentional) learning of a range of prescribed knowing.
The learning process from the four geneses has mutual effects with the physical maturation and psychical progression of children, especially in the early years from birth to five. The genetically determined maturation process simultaneously makes possible, and sets limits to, the learning process (from any genesis). In turn, the range of knowing learned affects the processes of physical maturation and psychical advancement and the ability to engage in intelligent action.
The Elements and Variants of Education
Of the four geneses of the learning process, only effective education results in the process of conduced (guided, intentional) learning of a prescribed range of knowing — and a prescribed range of knowing is the exclusive product of the process of conduced learning resultant from effective education.
Elements. Education is a field of phenomena made up of the essential elements of people who play the role of teachers, people who play the role of students, content (funds of knowledge and/or ranges of knowing) and context (the physical, social and cultural setting), all standing in relation.
Variants. Education occurs in many configurations — official and unofficial, effective and ineffective, good and bad. It can be unofficial (in families, among friends, at workplaces) or official (in schools, academies, institutes and universities, with certifications of student achievement). It can be ineffective (the students do not achieve the intended learning outcomes) or effective. And it can be bad (students study under unethical, harmful or abusive conditions, and/or study to learn a range of knowing that is not worth knowing or is harmful) or good. Education can therefore be manifested in many configurations — official/effective/good, official/ineffective/good, official/effective/bad, and so on. The ideal configuration, of course, is that education, whether unofficial or official, is effective and good.
The Activities and Products of Education
Activities. The characteristic activities in education are teaching and intentional guided studying. Teachers provide opportunities, guidance and supervision for students to study intentionally under guidance some content; students accept, voluntarily and willingly, those opportunities. The content is some fund of knowledge and/or range of knowing organized for the purposes of teaching and intentional guided studying.
Product. The product of effective education is a student having learned intentionally under guidance a prescribed range of knowing, as specified by some intended learning outcome. A range of knowing is a cognitive state of mind that consists of a combination of some kind, level and form of learned ability. Students who have learned a prescribed range of knowing can express and/or use it linguistically, emotionally, imaginally, homeostatically (physiologically) and/or physically to engage in intelligent action, solve problems and achieve desired states of affairs. Education begins at birth, continues throughout an individual's lifetime, and contributes to some (but not all) of an individual's development and learned range of knowing.
Unofficial Education in Early Childhood
In early childhood, from birth to age five, education is largely unofficial. Those who play the role of teachers are the members within the child's domain of association — parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, siblings, cousins, friends and acquaintances of the family (or caregivers in the case of orphaned or abandoned children) — and the teaching and intentional guided studying are undertaken as part of the normal routine of family life. The content is a range of knowing about (1) the language of the family (vocabulary, pronunciation, semantics, grammar, syntax, pragmatics); (2) the norms of conduct followed by the family and community; (3) the status, social standing and behavioral expectations placed upon the child; and (4) the elements, structure and function of the physical, social and cultural environment in which the child lives.
The prescribed range of knowing that children are expected to learn in their early years includes knowing-that-one, knowing-that, knowing-how and knowing-to about: who's who in the immediate family and expectations of behavior toward them; the signs, signals and symbols used in communication; behaviors and things that are safe and others that are dangerous; behaviors that are required, permitted and forbidden; the characteristics and relations of inanimate elements and of living things in the environment; and the way of life practiced in the social and cultural environment of which the children are members.
Official Education in Early Childhood
Official education for children in the early years, mainly for ages two to four, is provided in preprimary institutions, which go by a variety of names — daycare centers, preschools, crèches, nursery schools and, confusingly, kindergartens. At age five, typically the first year of compulsory school attendance, official education is provided in the first year of primary school, which also goes by a variety of names (kindergarten, reception, preparatory, pre-primary, foundation, transition, primary 1). The teachers in official education are typically licensed or certified, and they function within the mandates, permissions and prohibitions established by a set of statutes, policies and regulations.
The stages in the physical and psychical development of children from ages two to five establish the parameters for both the content taught and the study activities. The content typically includes ranges of knowing about social norms in school environments, safety protocols, communication using signs, signals and symbols, and the elements, structures and functions of the physical, social and cultural environment beyond the family. Children in early childhood are naturally restless, physically active, inquisitive, playful, impulsive and emotionally volatile; their attention spans are short and their capacity to understand and reason is restricted. Appropriate intentional guided study activities are therefore ones which last a short time, offer variety, appeal to natural curiosity and engage children in play, physical activity, the manipulation of materials and problem solving — for example, assembling puzzles, caring for small animals, climbing and swinging, drawing and painting, listening to and reciting rhymes and stories, planting and tending gardens, playing board and listening games (such as I Spy and Simon Says), building with blocks, working with clay, and constructing collages.