Education as a Field of Phenomena
The field of phenomena which is denoted by the term education is one in which someone plays the role of teacher and teaches someone who plays the role of student and studies intentionally under guidance some content in some setting with the purpose in mind that the student learns intentionally under guidance a range of prescribed knowing as specified by some intended learning outcome. Education can be official or unofficial, effective or ineffective and good or bad.
The Product of Effective Education
When education is effective (when the teaching and intentional guided studying result in the process of intentional guided learning), the product is an extension in the cognitive state of mind of the student. The student has a new prescribed range of knowing as specified by some intended learning outcome. They undergo a change in cognitive state from not being able to read, to being able to read, not being able to sail a skiff to being able to sail a skiff, not being able to play a piece on the guitar to being able to play a piece on the guitar.
Intended Learning Outcomes
An intended learning outcome is a statement of the range of knowing that students are intended to learn intentionally under guidance. Historically accepted categories for specifying intended learning outcomes — such as Bloom's taxonomy and knowledge-skills-attitudes categories — have been widely used for this purpose. However, none of them is a genuine taxonomy. A genuine taxonomy is a classification that is derived from a theory, in which there are no overlapping classes and in which all of the classes are covered. The Bloom taxonomy was derived from the exigency of an annual meeting of educational psychologists rather than from a theory of education, and the knowledge-skills-attitudes categories are overlapping and incomplete. The use of the terms "knowledge" and "knowing" is also confused in many educological discourses. The term "knowledge" denotes recorded true statements about phenomena, whereas the term "knowing" denotes a cognitive state of mind of a person. Only persons can know, not books or databases. The product of effective education is an extension in the knowing of the student, not an extension in the knowledge of the student.
Knowing – A Cognitive State of Mind
Knowing is a cognitive state of mind. The educological taxonomy of intended learning outcomes distinguishes four kinds of knowing, levels of knowing (from preconventional through postconventional) and five forms of expression of knowing. These can be arranged into a taxonomy which can be used to state intended learning outcomes in a clear, precise and complete manner.
Taxonomy of Intended Learning Outcomes
The taxonomy of intended learning outcomes can be used to state intended learning outcomes in a clear, precise and complete manner. The four kinds of knowing, levels of knowing (from preconventional through postconventional) and five forms of expression of knowing can be arranged into a taxonomy which can be used to state intended learning outcomes in the following way:
Students are intended to learn intentionally under guidance
(1) a kind of knowing
(2) at a level of knowing
(3) in a form of knowing
(4) about an object of knowing
and the evidence of whether, or to what extent, the students have learned the range of knowing is
(1) some specified linguistic and/or physical performance and/or
(2) some specified product of a linguistic and/or physical performance