Educational Communication and Knowledge: Theoretical vs. Practical
2. Educational Communication
Education is educational as it promotes training, impacting the learner’s subjectivity. Effective lessons elevate the apprentice. Human formation is tied to communication and language development. Communication is sharing information, with participation as its core. It’s a philosophically established relationship where beings involve each other, a real connection involving a donation of something. This spiritual participation enriches the recipient without impoverishing the donor. Objective communication exchanges information leading to knowledge of objects, with minimal subjective influence. Subjective, existential, or personal communication involves intense reciprocity, demanding a response. It’s a shared path affecting both intelligence and emotions. While not directly revealing reality, it unveils its meaning. It follows the path of rational knowledge. Conversation, a free exchange of words within subjective communication, involves talking to someone about something. In education, objective and subjective communication complement each other, overlapping hierarchically. Teaching’s purpose is formative, using language intentionally to evoke emotions.
Educational Knowledge
1. Types of Pedagogical Knowledge
Human knowledge branches into theoretical and practical domains. Aristotle distinguished between the pursuit of truth (theoretical) and guiding human action (practical). Practical knowledge stems from action. Educational knowledge, or pedagogy, is practical, rooted in experience. We identify three knowledge levels:
- Theoretical/speculative: Seeking truth as correspondence between reason and reality.
- Practical/ethical: Directing moral action, seeking truth in practice or alignment between reason and right appetite.
- Technical/practical efficiency: Pursuing truth as correspondence between reason and the product’s idea or model.
Technical education incorporates ethics. As educator Alvira stated, learners need exercise to be educated, and educators must educate themselves. Educational knowledge integrates other knowledge, always with a practical component, making it artistic or technical. Education is productive, an ars teckno. Moral teaching is an art aiding ethical action learning.
A) Features of Professionalism
Following W. Carr and S. Kemmis, professionalism has three defining characteristics:
- Knowledge based on theoretical understanding.
- Subordination of professional interest to the client’s welfare.
- Right to make independent judgments free from external control.
B) Problems Arising in the Teaching Profession
Traditional professions are evolving due to societal changes. Regarding the knowledge underlying educational practice, are theoretical insights sufficient? Educational knowledge, being practical, cannot solely derive from theory. Theoretical knowledge aids but doesn’t solve educational challenges; learners learn through experience. Unlike medicine or engineering, where theory prescribes actions, educational knowledge isn’t directly transferable to every situation. Scientific and technical knowledge doesn’t resolve the complexity of educational decisions.
Regarding client interest subordination, identifying the teacher’s client is complex. Is it the learner? In primary and secondary education, learners are minors, with parents or guardians contracting teachers. However, they aren’t the direct recipients and may not accurately assess teaching quality. Teachers lack full control over learning outcomes, influenced by various factors. Thus, teaching isn’t a complete profession.
While teachers maintain professional-client bonds, they’re increasingly tied to institutions. Autonomy is limited by organizational contexts, schedules, and remuneration. Teachers have classroom autonomy but are accountable to schools and educational administrations, making them neither fully autonomous professionals nor mere employees. They organize their time, a professional trait, but within institutional constraints. Social changes further limit professional autonomy, bringing it closer to teachers’ levels within controlled institutions.