Socrates Educational Theory

BENOIT ASTRID
‘No child left
behind’
Reflective
work
Level 4 Diploma in
Education Studies

School profile
CARITAS – Centre of learning
With more than 50 years of experience serving the needy,
Caritas Mauritius is, to date, a solidarity network of more than a
thousand volunteers serving 50,000 beneficiaries through its
listening services spread throughout the island.
Wherever there is a need, a Caritas team provides concrete
help, love, and support.
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Table of Contents
School profile 1
Historical and contemporary issues in Education unit 1 3
Multidisciplinary approaches to education unit 2 7
Theories of learning unit 3 14
Equality, Diversity & Inclusion unit 4 21
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Historical and contemporary issues in
Education
Unit 1
Question 1
Analyse an independent and reflective perspective on the
historical context of education.
I have chosen educational theory of Socrates. For him,
education is all about knowing how to live well. Education is not
only based on knowledge. He puts emphasis on moral value
and ethics more than knowledge. Moreover, to teach is not only
to explain to children how we get the good answer but it is
more about questioning students until they get the answer by
himself.
I like the fact that Socrates put forward that the goal of
education is to live well, to have moral values and ethics and to
have ‘important’ knowledge. To have moral values help
students to develop relationship with others at work, home or in
social life and to become a good citizen. It helps in shaping the
character and personality of a child which is important. In
addition to that, Socrates way of teaching is a good technique
to apply in class. Spoon feeding a child will only help him to
answer questions for exams. The aim is output is only to make
the child grasps information and to make him know only what
he should know. However, Socrates theory of learning is based
on questioning. Making the child think by himself, trying to find
the source of the subject and to try to understand by
themselves. It helps them to give their views and opinions and
develop critical thinking.
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On the other side, his philosophies cannot be fully applied in
the 21st century. Nowadays, children have a lot of subjects to
learn at school. Teachers do not have time to go in depth for
each subject as the syllabus is very bulky. In addition to that, in
some countries the aim of education is to pass exams. They will
focus on learning everything in books to be able get a
certificate and to go to secondary school. We are living in a
world where one should be better than the other to earn more
money. Competition is what we feel the most at school. It is the
survival of the fittest. Unfortunately, moral values today are not
as important as in the past and this is causing a lot of problems
such as corruption, selfishness, lack of respect.
The views of Socrates are what I prefer because he talk about
moral values and ethics which are disappearing slowly.
Emphasis is not put on a student personal development but
more of acquiring more and more knowledge. It is important as
it will the child to be smart, skilled, to have a good character
and independent. What we see nowadays is that for instance
freshly graduated from university student come at work with lot
of diplomas but when they start working they do not have a
personality, do not socialize or do not know how to do it. They
also have lack of creativity or have a lack of critical thinking.
What is the use of having many certificates and have a job
when you don’t even know how to work, communicate, discuss
with people? So yes, I think that it is very important to help in
the development of children’s personality, moral value and
ethics that only focusing on academic achievements.
Question 2
Analyse how these key issues in contemporary education can
impact on classroom contexts.
My observation has been carried out on students of 8 years old
during their ICT class. They come from difficult family
background such as mono-parental situation, parents are in jail
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or have drug issues. The main issues that have been observed
are poverty, lack of technology and disciplinary problems.
Most of the students in the class do not have a mobile phone
because they come from low income family. They are very
interested in the class because it is the only moment that they
can get access to a computer. They go on Google and make
researches. Students are amazed by technology and they learn
very quickly. The issue is that we cannot give them homework
to do on computer because not all them have one. They feel
ashamed of not having a laptop due to their situations. There
are some on the contrary who have one and master IT very well
which result in a gap between both. They keep teasing and
challenging each other on the fact they some have more
devices that the other. Poverty has a great impact on
education. Some children are discouraged because they don’t
have enough money to buy a computer, or to do project work
like their friends. Some are often absent from ICT classes and
do not give relevant reasons for their absence.
Poverty is a big challenge nowadays. More and children are not
being able to go to school due to lack of funds. My school is a
voluntary institution where children get free tuition classes
after school hours to help them. Some are regular and others
irregular. Some have the capacity to work well but are often
absent because their parents need them to do household or
because parents neglect them and do not make sure that they
go to tuition regularly. Other children come to school and do
not have proper hygiene and are malnourished and weak and
are unable to concentrate. The fact is that children living in
poverty won’t get out of this vicious cycle without education.
Only a few percentage of children has succeeded through hard
work and determination and parents support.
Education has evolved since years and under different aspect.
The curriculum for instance has changed several times. The
system tried to improve each time and find new formula.
Actually, we are using the 9 year schooling which aim is to
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