Sabtu, 24 Maret 2012

CalSouthern’s Online MS in Psychology Degree Program

CalSouthern’s Online MS in Psychology Degree Program CalSouthern’s Master of Science (MS) masters in psychology online degree program is designed to provide the strongest possible foundation in the study of psychology, while simultaneously allowing you to focus your studies on one of a variety of specialized fields, maximizing the relevance of your educational experience to your particular interests and career goals. By supplementing your required core courses with five elective courses in a specific topic area, you can customize your online MS in psychology with an emphasis on chemical dependency and compulsive disorders, industrial and organization psychology, pastoral counseling, sports psychology, and general psychology.
The online MS in psychology degree program is an excellent option for a wide variety of students. People who are already working in mental health can utilize the MS to both enhance their skill sets and to position themselves for career advancement. The MS may also be the preferable degree program for people who want to transition into CalSouthern’s doctoral program and then perhaps pursue licensure as a licensed psychologist — it provides the most direct route to CalSouthern’s doctoral degree: the PsyD. Students in CalSouthern’s online MS in psychology program will benefit from a dedicated and accessible community of faculty, administration (even the deans readily make themselves available to you should you require their guidance), staff, and fellow students who are all eager to support you in your educational journey. Your faculty, as well as your personal academic advisor, are highly educated, experienced mental health professionals who are happy to share their expertise.
It won’t take long for you to see what makes CalSouthern—and its School of Behavioral Sciences—different. It may be an online degree program—with the convenience and flexibility that allow adult, working students to study at their own pace and on their own time—but the dedication to service, integrity, and academic excellence combine to make CalSouthern a very humanistic, supportive environment. Explore CalSouthern and see the difference for yourself.
The Master of Science in Psychology degree program offers a wide range of academic and professionally oriented psychology courses. This degree is offered in response to a strong demand from students and industry leaders for a degree that is designed for those interested in pursuing a strong theoretical foundation in psychology that can be applied to related fields such as sports psychology, pastoral counseling, life coaching, and trainers in business and industry.

This program places an emphasis on science and research and in obtaining practical experience in a non-clinical setting. The MS in Psychology is designed to be generally applicable to related fields, but does not lead to licensure as a MFT. The curriculum covers both the theoretical knowledge needed to offer integrated services that can be applied to sport psychology, pastoral counseling, life-coaching, and consultation in business and industry.

MS Credits:
Required to complete: 42
Accepted in transfer: 6

Rabu, 14 Maret 2012

The Meaning of Education

Recently, a university professor wrote a letter to the editor of the local newspaper. He commented that people shouldn't put too much weight on the recently released trends in SRA scores of the state's high school students. The professor went on to describe some of the unanswered questions about the nature and value of assessment. He mentioned that one of the problems with assessment was the ongoing disagreement on the very purpose of education.
A few days later, a scathing response was printed from a community member who questioned whether the University really wanted someone on their staff who didn't even know the purpose of education. Clearly, this person assumed that his definition of education was shared by all. What is the purpose of education? Do we find it in the definition of the word "education"—or is it something more?
Webster defines education as "the process of educating or teaching." Hmmm. Not particularly useful, is it. Educate is further defined as "to develop the knowledge, skill, or character of…" Thus, from these definitions, we might assume that education means to develop the knowledge, skill, or character of students. But this definition offers little unless we further define words such as develop, knowledge, and character.
What is knowledge? Many think of it as a body of information that exists "out there"—the results or products of human thought processes that have taken on a life of their own. In this view, Knowledge…with a capitol K…is the sum total of facts, truths, laws, principles, and ideas that man has produced. Human history is also considered Knowledge, although the accepted version varies from culture to culture. Codified in language, this Knowledge has been accumulated in books and other storage devices over the ages. (For more on this, see the article on beliefs about knowledge.)
If we look at the standards and benchmarks that have been developed by many states—or at E. D. Hirsch's list of information needed for "Cultural Literacy",1 we realize how robust this definition of Knowledge is. In this definition, "developing the Knowledge…of the student" is conceputalized as "giving" them these facts, truths, laws, principles, ideas, and history. This in spite of considerable research suggesting that knowledge is not "out there," but arises in the mind of an individual when that person interacts with the world.
This is hardly a new argument. In ancient Greece, Socrates argued that education was about drawing out what was already within the student. "I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think." (As many of you know, the word education comes from the Latin e-ducere meaning "to lead out.") At the same time, the Sophists, a group of itinerant teachers, promised to give students the necessary knowledge and skills to gain positions with the city-state.
So what is education…really???

One Word…Many Meanings

There is a dangerous tendency to assume that when people use the same words to describe a situation, they perceive that situation in the same way. This is rarely the case. Once we get beyond a dictionary definition that is often of little practical value, the meaning we assign to a word is actually an expression of a belief, not an absolute fact. Here are a couple of examples.
"The central task of education is to implant a will and facility for learning; it should produce not learned but learning people. The truly human society is a learning society, where grandparents, parents, and children are students together." ~Eric Hoffer
"No one has yet realized the wealth of sympathy, the kindness and generosity hidden in the soul of a child. The effort of every true education should be to unlock that treasure." ~Emma Goldman
"The only purpose of education is to teach a student how to live his life—by developing his mind and equipping him to deal with reality. The training he needs is theoretical, i.e., conceptual. He has to be taught to think, to understand, to integrate, to prove. He has to be taught the essentials of the knowledge discovered in the past—and he has to be equipped to acquire further knowledge by his own effort." ~Ayn Rand
"The aim of education should be to teach us rather how to think, than what to think—rather to improve our minds, so as to enable us to think for ourselves, than to load the memory with the thoughts of other men." ~Bill Beattie
"The one real object of education is to leave a man in the condition of continually asking questions." ~Bishop Creighton
"The central job of schools is to maximize the capacity of each student." ~Carol Ann Tomlinson
These quotations demonstrate the diversity of beliefs about the meaning and purpose of education. How would you complete the statement, "The purpose of education is..."? If you ask five of your fellow teachers to complete that sentence, it is likely that you'll have five different statements. Some will place the focus on knowledge, some on learning, some on the teacher, and others on the development of the student. Yet people's beliefs in the purpose of education lie at the heart of their teaching behaviors.
Despite what the letter writer might have wished, there is no definition of education that is agreed upon by all, or even most, educators. The meanings they attach to the word are complex beliefs arising from their own values and experiences. To the extent that those beliefs differ, how likely is it that we can "standardize" what and how students learn? Worse, many educators have never been asked to state their beliefs—or even to reflect on what they believe. At the very least, teachers owe it to their students to bring their definitions into consciousness and examine them for validity.

Purposes and Functions

To make matters more complicated, theorists have made a distinction between the purpose of education and the functions of education. A purpose is the fundamental goal of the process—an end to be achieved. Functions are other outcomes that may occur as a natural result of the process—byproducts or consequences of schooling. For example, some teachers believe that the transmission of knowledge is the primary purpose of education, while the transfer of knowledge from school to the real world is something that happens without effort as a consequence of possessing that knowledge—a function of education.2
Because a purpose is an expressed goal, more effort is put into attaining it. It becomes a part of the explicit and official curriculum. Because functions are assumed to occur without directed effort, they are often ignored during instruction, particularly when time is an issue. It is, therefore, critical to determine which outcomes you consider a fundamental purpose of education. Which of the following do you actually include in your planning?

Acquisition of information about the past and present: includes traditional disciplines such as literature, history, science, mathematics Formation of healthy social and/or formal relationships among and between students, teachers, others
Capacity/ability to evaluate information and to predict future outcomes (decision-making) Capacity/ability to seek out alternative solutions and evaluate them (problem solving)
Development of mental and physical skills: motor, thinking, communication, social, aesthetic Knowledge of moral practices and ethical standards acceptable by society/culture
Capacity/ability to recognize and evaluate different points of view Respect: giving and receiving recognition as human beings
Indoctrination into the culture Capacity/ability to live a fulfilling life
Capacity/ability to earn a living: career education Sense of well-being: mental and physical health
Capacity/ability to be a good citizen Capacity/ability to think creatively
Cultural appreciation: art, music, humanities Understanding of human relations and motivations
Acquisition/clarification of values related to the physical environment Acquisition/clarification of personal values
Self-realization/self-reflection: awareness of one's abilities and goals Self-esteem/self-efficacy
The list could, of course, be longer. This is but a first step in recognizing what you as an educator believe you are, or should be, accomplishing. As Tom Peters reminds us, "What gets measured, gets done." Regardless of high-sounding rhetoric about the development of the total child, it is the content of assessments that largely drives education. How is the capacity/ability to think creatively assessed in today's schools? To what extent is the typical student recognized and given respect? How often are students given the opportunity to recognize and evaluate different points of view when multiple choice tests require a single 'correct' answer? What is a "good citizen" and how does one acquire the ability to be one?
Teachers who hold a more humanistic view of the purpose of education often experience stress because the meaning they assign to education differs greatly from the meaning assigned by their institution or policy makers. It is clear in listening to the language of education that its current primary focus is on knowledge and teaching rather than on the learner. In short, students are expected to conform to schools rather than schools serving the needs of students.
Taking time to identify and agree upon a fundamental purpose or purposes of education is rare. One sees nebulous statements in school mission statements, but they are often of the "Mom, baseball, and apple pie" variety—glittering generalities that offer little substance on which to build a school culture. Creating meaningful and lasting change in education is unlikely without revisiting and evaluating this basic definition of education in light of research and changing priorities. At the very least, educators must be challenged to identify and examine their beliefs.
It is time for the focus of education to shift from what's "out there—the curriculum, assessments, classroom arrangement, books, computers—to the fundamental assumptions about and definitions of education held by educators and policymakers. NASA did not send men to the moon by building on the chassis of a model T. In the same way, education cannot hope to move beyond its present state on the chassis of 18th century education.
A much more extensive discussion of this topic can be found in Teaching in Mind: How Teacher Thinking Shapes Education.

References

1 Hirsch, E. D. Jr. (1987). Cultural Literacy. Houghton Mifflin
2 Callaway, R. (1979) Teachers' Beliefs Concerning Values and the Functions and Purposes of Schooling, Eric Document Reproduction Service No. ED 177 110

The Three Types Of Education

As a nation, we have adopted a model of judging people quickly and immediately as to how successful they are. That model is education, or lack there of. Very often in business or dinner parties, conversation can quickly turn to level of education.
"Where did you go to school?" one person may ask. "I am a Harvard/Yale/Princeton/Stanford/Oxford 1997 alumni" responds the individual.
Immediately, as if that person has said the magic words, he is immediately given an immense amount of credibility. People automatically assume that he is successful, regardless of the field he is in. Now, if he mentions that he works for an investment bank such as Goldman Sachs in New York City, people's eyes begin to widen. He is the definition of success in the Western world. Well educated, established in a world class city and has a well paying job is the perfect combination. That individual at the dinner party will have to work really hard to ruin his reputation.
Let's compare that to another individual. A person may ask the same question, "Where did you go to school?" Except this time, the second individual answers, "I didn't go to university, I actually moved to Paris to become an artist" The immediate reaction now will be "Uh huh", and the conversation will move on. That second individual at the dinner party will have to work really hard to improve his reputation.
Why is this? Why do we measure people's level of success on where they went to school? Isn't it about the person and their unique happiness? While it may seem not, that is because most people assume that there is only one type of education in the world. We begin to believe that intelligence is defined by education. Of course, this is not true.
In fact, we believe that there are three levels of education: 1. Formal Education 2. Self-Taught Education 3. "The School of Hard Knocks" By separating education into three types, we can directly define what each of them represent and how people fit into each one. Let's take a look at each in more depth and try to understand where people go wrong in judging people's intelligence based on level of education.
1. Formal Education The most common form of education in the Western world, formal education is the process of going from elementary school --> high school --> bachelor degree program --> and possibly a graduate degree. While going through this process, the students make connections, join extra-curricular activities and prepare themselves for the workforce. After going through high school, students can choose to go to college (usually for more hands-on education) or a formal university (usually more theory and academic work), depending on the career path that they have chosen.
Formal education is perfect for students that want a professional career, whether wanting to become a lawyer, accountant, doctor, psychologist, project manager or something similar. In order to become one of these professionals, very often a bachelors degree is not enough, a graduate or doctorate degree is needed. At the top of the mountain of formal education is university professors, who almost always require a PhD and teaching experience. What about the rest of the students? What about those students that want to become entrepreneurs, athletes, musicians, artists, dancers and other things that are not traditionally taught by formal education? Should they still go through formal education just because the system says to? This comes down to what is known as the "hierarchy of subjects".
As a culture, we have a predetermined list of subjects that are deemed more important than others. At the top are math and science. In the middle are the languages and social sciences, and at the bottom are the arts. Dance is hardly ever included in a list of academic subjects, and visual arts and music are just above that. Why is this? Why, in formal education, do we treat math and science as the be-all-end-all? The system was built in the Industrial Revolution in order to produce educated individuals for the workforce. Today, those who want to be educated into a formal professional can get their degree, but what about the rest of the professions?
2. Self-Taught Education The second kind of education is not that well known. I believe that in the coming years, self-education will become ever more important as more and more people get generalized degrees, and inflationary education sets in. Self-taught education is simply learning from books, seminars, mentors and the internet under one's schedule and time. Most great musicians, artists, athletes and entrepreneurs go through this method in order to become the best in their field. That painter that I referred to at the beginning of this article would have been self-taught through books, the internet and mentors she may have met in Paris. She is learning more than the majority of people do in a lifetime.
What are the downsides to going with this method? Well, unless you are quite structured and have a love for learning, it can be difficult at times. In formal education, we are used to the structure of predetermined classes, bells to signal the end of periods and set timelines for each day. With self-taught education, we must set our own schedules, be motivated to learn and discipline ourselves to put in the necessary amount of time to make it work. This becomes very easy if you love what you do. Basketball players that want to improve will gladly go out to the court and shoot hoops for three hours. If we analyze this activity, it is self-teaching because it is improving their muscle memory, abilities and intelligence about the game. To the basketball player, it's just fun. It doesn't feel like learning.
To the up-and-coming musician, playing the drums when he gets home is not a chore, it's a gift. He loves playing his drums day and night. (mind you his family may not like these drums day and night). To the drum player, self-education is something he loves to do. The same thing can go for entrepreneurs. How many stories have you heard of entrepreneurs choosing to forgo formal education in favor of self-teaching? With the power of the internet, we literally have any piece of information that we need at our fingertips. And if you don't like the way that it is presented online, there are millions of books, magazines and audio files available to purchase. Some great websites for online video learning include:

Academic Earth actually includes some full courses at some of the top universities in the world (Havard, Yale, Stanford) that you can listen to online. I am currently going through the psychology course at Yale right now, all for free. There is no better time in history to get a self-taught education. However, there is still another class of education that we sometimes refer to as "the school of hard knocks".
3. "The School of Hard Knocks" Many times we read stories of businesspeople or actors that don't go to college, don't self-educate continuously and yet still become successful. Why is this? Those people have been through the school of hard knocks. Another way of putting this is education on the fly, or building a plane after jumping off a cliff. No matter what you call it, usually it's a long journey. Many people that are successful did not start out with this burning vision of success in their minds. In most cases, they just started working at a job and began to grow.
I like to use the example of the restaurant owner that started as a dishwasher 20 years ago. When he was just a kid, fresh out of high school (sometimes not even) he simply needed a job. So he got one as a dishwasher at the local restaurant. Unlike most kids that get a job, however, he began to notice the inner workings of the restaurant. He began to observe how the the food was ordered, all of the prep work that went into dinner service and how the waiters and managers interacted. What started out as a job soon became a free education (that he was actually getting paid for!). Soon, he moved up to bussing tables, working late into the night. Keep in mind, however, that he made plenty of mistakes along the way, and this is a lengthy process. However, fast forward 20 years, and that same individual now owns his own restaurant. By graduating from the school of hard knocks, he knows what to do, what not do to, and how to run a restaurant properly.
The same story is applied over and over again in business. An entrepreneur one day has a brilliant idea that pops into her head. She decides to quit her job and dive full bore into this venture. She has no previous business experience, no contacts and no capital to get started. But she is an entrepreneur, and she will do whatever it takes to succeed. She will go through the school of hard knocks for years before she finally has a company that is profitable, successful and creating jobs around the world. A great story that outlines this is the story of Five Guys Burgers And Fries.
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So what have we learned from examining the three different types of education? Well for one, we must observe that one is not better than another. Just because someone decides to go through the formal education system does not make them any more intelligent than someone that decides to open up their own art studio. There are millions of different ways to learn a plethora of activities, and there is no set path to success. Education is completely personalized to the career that you want to achieve.
Here is a great quote to illustrate learning: "For learning to take place with any kind of efficiency students must be motivated. To be motivated, they must become interested. And they become interested when they are actively working on projects which they can relate to their values and goals in life" - Gus Tuberville, President, William Penn College
When you become interested in what you are working on, it no longer becomes work. It becomes something you love to do. Learning should not be a chore, and neither should education. You should learn because you want to, not because you have to. Finding your passion is the key to doing this successfully. Intelligence is not determined by education, because as we have learned, there is more than one type of education. Each type is unique to the career path and the individual taking it. In the end, education is just a means to an end, with that end being success. Success in any field, in whatever way you define it. Remember, success is just another word for happiness.

Definition of Education

Definition of Education

by Don Berg, Founder
Attitutor Services
The definition of education in common usage, that education is merely the delivery of knowledge, skills and information from teachers to students, is inadequate to capture what is really important about being and becoming educated.
The proper definition of education is the process of becoming an educated person.
Being an educated person means you have access to optimal states of mind regardless of the situation you are in.
You are able to perceive accurately, think clearly and act effectively to achieve self-selected goals and aspirations.
Education is a process of cognitive cartography, mapping your experiences and finding a variety of reliable routes to optimal states when you find yourself in non-optimal states.


The idea that the definition of education is the delivery of knowledge, skills and information from teachers to students is misguided.
Check out my video Education Movie Reviews on “Waiting For Superman” to see how this misguided idea shows up in that movie.
While this definition of education is partly true it is grossly inadequate and is probably the fundamental source of the vast tragedy of “accountability” which treats arbitrarily inadequate results on irrelevant tests as proof that some school communities need to be punished.


The logic of “accountability” in this instance is taken to be a literal “accounting” of units of knowledge and information through highly orchestrated student performances of test taking skills.
This is the same kind of literalism that causes absurd behavior in religious communities, too. (At least, in education the fundamentalists are only fiscally killing their enemies and not literally.)


Two Problems With the Traditional Definition of Education as Delivery
There are two problems with this definition of education.


First, the definition of education using the delivery metaphor is too often taken to be literally true.
Knowledge, skills, and information, as we mean these terms in the field of education, are not literal units.
In computer science and telecommunications they deal with literal units of information in the form of electrical pulses that can be observed in a variety of ways.


In education we are dealing with entire realms and fields of both worldly phenomena and uniquely human narratives that have no literal, physical existence.
We use the term “unit” as a convenient way to organize our thoughts about a complex set of phenomena that is utterly incomprehensible without this metaphor.
What we know from the findings of cognitive and neuro-sciences is that even science and mathematics use metaphors to develop ideas about complex and otherwise incomprehensible phenomena.
If even our deepest scientific and mathematical understandings of the physical, literal world are based on metaphors, then it is neither surprising nor unusual to use metaphors in our defintion of education. (see Philosophy in the Flesh, Lakoff & Johnson, Basic Books 1999, and Lakoff & Nunez, Where Mathematics Comes From, Basic Books 2000)


But it is a problem to take a metaphor literally.
What we learn from this insight into how we understand the world is that our understandings of anything complex, especially something as vastly complex as education, are based on metaphors and the challenge is to figure out which of the metaphors are most useful for creating the right outcomes.


The second problem with this definition of education is that it is pathetically inadequate for describing what is most important about both the process of becoming, and the results of being, an educated person.


Whenever I have pushed people to really delve into what they mean when they talk about a person being educated they quickly abandon the notion that educated people have a greater quantity of information or that they have the traditional evidence of instructional bookkeeping like diplomas, degrees, certificates, etc.


An Educated Person

What truly makes a person educated is that they are able to perceive accurately, think clearly, and act effectively according to self-defined goals and aspirations.
An educated person is also respectful of others regardless of their power and status, responsible for the results of their actions, and resourceful at getting what they need, both, personally and for their family, organization, and /or society.


It is true that the educated person needs information, but an educated person is not dependent on the information they have stored in their heads, because they have the ability to find information, create knowledge, and develop skills when necessary.
The delivery model inherently defines education as an interaction between a teacher and a student, since delivery requires both a person who delivers and a person who accepts delivery.
Achieving the status of being educated does not require a teacher.
The delivery model does not make any meaningful reference to the qualities of an educated person and the resulting system of schooling based on this definition of education has proven to be a highly unreliable producer of educated people.


A Proper Definition of Education

The common definition of education is simply wrong when you consider how education actually occurs.
A proper definition of education will have to cover these four important aspects of how we become educated:
  1. The necessity of having and manipulating knowledge, skills and information
  2. The helpfulness of teachers, without requiring them
  3. The constant need to see through the inherent illusions that arise from our unconscious thought processes, and
  4. Our ability to influence our states of mind
Based on these four criteria I define education as a process of cognitive cartography.


Cognitive Cartography Definition of Education
What all learners are doing is developing a map of reliable methods of getting from negative states of mind to positive states of mind.
The units of knowledge skills and information are points on the map, but what makes the map useful are accurate portrayals of the relationships between the points and how those points can be used to arrive at the desired states of mind.


Let’s pretend you want to get to Los Angeles from Seattle.
I make two points on a piece of paper then label them Seattle and Los Angeles, but, having given you two points of information is totally useless, so far.


The two points can only become a map after I depict actual relationships between the two points, such as indicating which way is North and then adding a connection between the points, such as highways, trail systems, or public transportation options like buses, trains or airplanes.
But even that is of limited use because if you do not know how you relate to the places I have already drawn, then the information is still useless.
In order for the map to become useful, you have to know where you are and how your position relates to the points and lines on the map.


All of this is true in education.
"Units" are useless until they are effectively related to each other and even connected units are useless until the person with the original intention to travel can fit themselves into that particular picture of the world in a way the gets them where they want to be.
The key quality of an educated person is the ability to move from negative states of mind to positive states of mind and assist others to do the same.
This covers all situations where there are problems such as poverty, conflict, and pollution as well as problems like depression, ignorance, or ambition.


Navigating the Human Mind
The world that we are concerned with in elementary education is the human mind.
Children need to learn to navigate the terrain of their own minds so that they can effectively navigate the real world that confronts that mind with all the challenges of earthly human existence.
Therefore, what is elementary in elementary school is gaining control over your own behavior and learning to coordinate your behavior with others.
The most fundamental lesson of elementary school is governance of behavior, our own and other people’s.
The mastery of our own individual behavior requires us to realize that just because we think something does not make it so.
Our minds, especially when we are children, are highly productive illusion machines.


Young children live in a magical realm in which thinking makes things happen.
The popular success of The Secret, a motion picture length infomercial on the power of positive thinking, shows that magical thinking is not limited to children.
The task of becoming an adult is mastering the process of disillusionment.
By the time children are of school age they have a lot of ideas based on a combination of the way their brains are built and how their experiences have shaped that building process.
We build up a vast repertoire of concepts, mostly unconscious concepts, about the world and our own minds.


Unfortunately most of those concepts are basically wrong except for accomplishing the simplest childish intentions.
The eternal moral challenge of living as a responsible adult is to persistently inquire into how our concepts of the world and our own minds mislead us into causing our own and other people’s suffering.
The way that we rise to meet this moral challenge is by examining how our own mind deceives us, through practicing empathy for the states of mind we cause in other people by our actions, and actively taking responsibility for preventing and alleviating suffering in every way we can.
We all know from first hand experience that positive states of mind are both the most enjoyable states and the most productive.


If we can ensure that everyone is capable of optimizing their own state of mind and assisting other’s to optimize theirs, then everyone will have maximum opportunity for enjoying life and being productive.
Consistent attainment of positive states of mind is better known as having a good attitude (you were probably wondering when attitude would come in.)
Thus if everyone can achieve a good attitude and help others do the same then the world will be a better place.
Thus education, the process of attaining and assisting others to attain a good attitude that enables a person to perceive accurately, think clearly, and act effectively according to self-selected goals, is fundamentally about attitude no matter what age or level of schooling you are concerned with.


A Three Role Circus

There are three roles that must be fulfilled in becoming educated, but only one of them requires a person, the other two can sometimes be fulfilled by inanimate objects.
The roles are a learning agent, a learning catalyst, and the learning context.


The learning agent is the active map-maker.
The learning agent is obviously the student as that role is normally thought of in schools.


The learning catalyst is someone or something that the agent engages in a deep relationship with and attempts to understand how the catalyst fits into the agent’s world.
In goal directed activity the agent will engage with people or things that s/he assumes will be instrumental in the process of attaining the goal until the agent concludes otherwise and then may attempt to disengage.
A catalyst can be a person fulfilling the school role of teacher, but it can also be a book, a tree or a rock.
What causes learning in the learner is the development of a particularly deep relationship in which the learner opens him/herself to internal transformation under the influence of the catalyst.


The learning context is everything else around the learner and catalyst that influences their relationship.
The learning context is all the biological, psychological, cultural, social, and ecological factors that shape how the agent relates to the catalyst.
There are a myriad of variations that will occur based on differences of physical health, the presence of coercion, what particular slang or jargon is used, what language(s) are being used, and what the climactic conditions are in the learning situation.
In the school setting the context is the classroom, the school, the community, the society, and if we want a person to fulfill the role then the best icon is the school principal, who is supposed to be responsible for facilitating the educational aspects of the relationship between students and teachers.


The Classroom
Consider the classroom using the cognitive cartography metaphor.
The student is generally assumed to be the learning agent, but as Paulo Friere emphasized, the teacher who is not also learning is not really teaching.
The teacher is generally assumed to be the learning catalyst, but once again, there are many more opportunities for other students to be learning catalysts than the teacher given the usual ratio.
Finally the classroom itself is assumed to be the learning context, but there is an entire world beyond the classroom that impinges upon what happens there.
The No Child Left A Dime Act is a great example of the nefarious influence of a factor far removed from actual learning situations based on creating public policy using an inadequate definition of education.


Capturing The Complex Dynamics of Real Learning in a Definition of Education
The beauty of using the cognitive cartography metaphor as a definition of education is that it implies the actual dynamics and complexity of real life learning situations.
At any given moment in a solid well-led group of kids there may be a multitude of simultaneous catalysts and agents and the adult leadership will have plenty of opportunities to be both catalyst and agent, too.
What really counts is the creation of a high level of trust in and respect for each individual’s capacity for both learning and teaching.
When we, as teachers, create an intimate group that develops the love and trust to pay attention to each others needs, then we are immersing the children in the ultimate learning experience.
The inadequacy of the delivery of knowledge, skills and information as a definition of education is that it gives absolutely no account of the love and respect that are necessary for real education to emerge.
For instance, because of the nature of testing today, it cannot account for love and respect.
And until they can account for the quality of relationships in the educational setting, then testing is irrelevant to what really matters in education.


Another way to state my definition of education is the cognitive mapping of the world by agents who have intentions to move themselves from where they are to where they want to be.
For a more comprehensive definition of education this links to the Wikipedia article on education.


Three Recommendations Based on My Definition of Education

There are three practical recommendations for teachers (meaning everyone who is interested in catalyzing learning in their students or children and not just delivering units) on this site.
First, teach kids attitude first.
Second, use an adaptive curriculum to make sure that whatever situation you find yourself in will anticipate the needs of your students.
Third, utilize every resource you have to immerse your students in being respectful of each other as they learn to govern their own and other people’s behavior.
The first and the third are actually unavoidable.
You are teaching attitude first and immersing your students in some form of governance, even if you don’t think you are.
What I am suggesting is that you stop doing it on accident and start doing it on purpose.


If you happen to be a classroom teacher in a mainstream school then you may be reluctant to acknowledge out loud the nearly absolute power over students that you are supposed to have.
I know that I was immersed as a student in public school classroom cultures of just this kind.
I was well schooled for 18 years, with 13 of those years in five different K-12 public schools.
The attitude I learned from it is a revulsion of the tyranny combined with a heavy dose of resignation that it is inevitable and therefore a shameful thing to point out.
For those in traditional classroom settings it is this necessary shift towards the transparency of power relations that I expect to be most uncomfortable.


The second recommendation for the adaptive curriculum may be the key to making that transition easier.
The adaptive curriculum can be used as a tool for collectively examining the reality of your situation.
If you can be honest enough to acknowledge that your concepts about reality are not reality, then the adaptive curriculum is an ideal method for working with others to truly discover what is really going on.


Education is Free With This Definition
The wonderful irony of real education is that it is essentially free.
My definition of education is the mapping of access to optimal states of mind.
The result is an educated person, a person who is able to perceive accurately, think clearly, and act effectively on self-selected goals and aspirations.
The process of becoming educated requires a practice of persistent disillusionment, a consistent method for having an on-going dialog between the world and your mind to constantly revise your concepts of what is really going on.
There are three roles that we all play in our own and other people’s education, the learning agent, the learning catalyst, and the learning context.
Our moral responsibility as educators is to align the bio-, psycho-, communo-, socio- and eco-spheres as best we can to assist our students (and ourselves) with this on-going mapping project.


Everything about this process has been available to human kind as long as we have been human.
Only recently have we become aware that this is true.
There is not a single technology high or low that is necessary to accomplish this, but just about every technology both high and low can help us educate ourselves and everyone of our students, if we use them with the right attitude.


Other Definitions of Education
There are other definitions of education that use other metaphors.
The core values that are important to me in defining education are providing a safe and empowering environment for children that nurtures them with opportunities for fulfillment. (See my curriculum page for the difference between opportunities for fulfillment versus judgment.)
The result of this set of priorities is the development of strong kids who are optimally capable of living a life that contributes to their family and community as well as being very resilient in the face of adversity.
This is a contrast with the values of some who believe that while an educational environment obviously needs to be safe the environment should make strengthening children's will and ability to withstand adversity a higher priority than nurturance.


The important test of whether a definition of education is one that is acceptable to me is how it is used to express the core values of safety and nurturance.
There are a variety of metaphors, such as education as gardening or a factory, and the test of their appropriateness is whether they can express the values I hold dear.
The factory metaphor definition of education inherently undermines the nurturance that is so important.
Education defined using a gardening metaphor is ambiguous since the majority of the cultivation of plants today occurs on factory farms, but if the metaphor is painted as a personal relationship between the gardener and the plant, then it might work.
My definition of education reflects my values and my particular way of understanding education from the experiences I have had with both learning and teaching.

Sabtu, 03 Maret 2012

introducing informal education

Here we focus on informal education as a spontaneous process of helping people to learn. Informal education works through conversation and dialogue, and the exploration and enlargement of experience. It's purpose, we suggest, is to cultivate communities, associations and relationships that make for human flourishing.

contents: · introducing informal education · what is informal education? · what is the purpose of informal education? · why have specialist informal educators? ·  what is its relationship to other forms? · the promise of informal education
Some see informal education as the learning that goes on in daily life. As friends, for example, we may well encourage others to talk about things that have happened in their lives so that they can handle their feelings and to think about what to do next. As parents or carers we may show children how to write different words or tie their laces. As situations arise we respond.
Others may view informal education as the learning projects that we undertake for ourselves. We may take up quilting, for example, and then start reading around the subject, buying magazines and searching out other quilters (perhaps through joining a Quilters Guild).
Many view informal education as the learning that comes as part of being involved in youth and community organizations. In these settings there are specialist workers / educators whose job it is to encourage people to think about experiences and situations. Like friends or parents they may respond to what is going on but, as professionals, these workers are able to bring special insights and ways of working.
Informal education can be all of these things. However, here we focus on informal education as a spontaneous process of helping people to learn. It works through conversation and dialogue, and the exploration and enlargement of experience. It's purpose, we suggest, is to cultivate communities, associations and relationships that make for human flourishing.

So what is informal education?

In the examples above we can see that whether we are parents or specialist educators, we teach. When we are engaged in learning projects we teach ourselves. In all of these roles we are also likely to talk and join in activities with others (children, young people and adults). Some of the time we work with a clear objective in mind - perhaps linked to some broader plan e.g. around the development of reading. At other times we may go with the flow - adding to the conversation when it seems right or picking up on an interest.
These ways of working all entail learning - but informal education tends to be unpredictable - we do not know where it might lead - and spontaneous. In conversation we have to catch the moment where we can say or do something to deepen people's thinking or to put themselves in touch with their feelings. 
'Going with the flow' opens up all sorts of possibilities for us as educators. On one hand we may not be prepared for what comes, on the other we may get into rewarding areas. There is the chance, for example, to connect with the questions, issues and feelings that are important to people, rather than what we think might be significant.
Picking our moment in the flow is also likely to take us into the world of people's feelings, experiences and relationships. While all educators should attend to experience and encourage people to reflect, informal educators are thrown into this. For the most part, we do not have lesson plans to follow; we respond to situations, to experiences.
Such conversations and activities can take place anywhere. This contrasts with formal education which tends to take place in special settings such as schools. However, we should not get too tied up with the physical setting for the work. Formal education can also take place in almost any other location - such as teaching someone to add up while shopping in the market. Here it is the special sort of social setting we have to create that is important. We build an atmosphere or grab an opportunity, so that we may teach.
Obviously, informal educators work informally - but we also do more formal things. We spend time with people in everyday settings - but we also create opportunities for people to study experiences and questions in a more focused way. This could mean picking up on something that is said in a conversation and inviting those involved to take it further. For example, we may be drinking tea with a couple of women in a family or health centre who are asking questions about cervical cancer. We may suggest they look at some materials that we have and talk about they see. Alternatively, it could mean we set up a special session, or organize a course. We may also do some individual tutoring, for example, around reading and writing. Just as school teachers may work informally for part of their time, so informal educators may run classes or teach subjects. The difference between them lies in the emphasis they put on each.
So what is informal education? From what we have looked at so far we can say the following. Informal education:
  • works through, and is driven by, conversation.
  • involves exploring and enlarging experience.
  • is spontaneous and can take place in any setting.
However, there is more - purpose.

... and the purpose of informal education?

At one level, the purpose of informal education is no different to any other form of education. In one situation we may focus on, say, healthy eating, in another family relationships. However, running through all this is a concern to build the sorts of communities and relationships in which people can be happy and fulfilled. John Dewey once described this as educating so that people may share in a common life. Those working as informal educators have a special contribution to make here.
A focus on conversation is central to building communities. The sorts of values and behaviours needed for conversation to take place are exactly what are required if neighbourliness and democracy are to flourish. What is more, the sorts of groups informal educators such as youth and social action workers work with - voluntary, community-based, and often concerned with mutual aid - are the bedrock of democratic societies./p>
It comes as no surprise then, that those working as informal educators tend to emphasize certain values. These include commitments to:
  • work for the well-being of all.
  • respect the unique value and dignity of each human being.
  • dialogue.
  • equality and justice.
  • democracy and the active involvement of people in the issues that affect their lives.
As informal educators we have to spend a lot of time thinking about the values that run through our work. We do not have a curriculum or guiding plan for a lot of the work, so we have to consider how we should respond to situations. This involves going back to core values. Reflecting on these allows us to make judgements about what might best help people to share in a common life.

Why have specialist informal educators, what sets them apart?

As we have seen, everyone is an educator - but some people are recognized or appointed to teach and to foster learning. There are three main reasons why specialist informal educators may be needed. First, it may be that some situations demand a deeper understanding or wider range of skills than many of us develop in our day to day lives. Through reflection and training specialists can become sophisticated facilitators of groups and of conversations with individuals. They can also develop a certain wisdom about people and situations because of the opportunities they have. In many communities the role may be fulfilled and developed by 'elders' or by those who are recognized to be wise. In other situations, often linked to the development of capitalism, there has been an increased division of labour. Additional or alternative forms of learning and teaching are needed.
Second, it may be that people do not have the time to spend exchanging and learning with others in the ways they wish or need. Because of their situation, they may not have a chance to engage in the sorts of conversations they find fulfilling. Where we, for example, have to work some distance from home, deal with complex systems or have so much to do simply to get by, the amount of time we can spend in open talk can shrink. In addition, we may choose not to spend time in conversation or doing things with others. With our increased use of different (and often individualized) entertainment media such as television, the amount of time we spend directly engaging with others may well be lessened.
Third, a good deal of the work that informal educators engage in is with other professionals. For example, an informal educator working in a school will have to spend a lot of their time deepening and extending the understanding and orientation of teachers and other staff. With the pressure to produce results and to achieve good test scores, relationships and processes can be easily neglected. Furthermore, there can be a narrowing of educational focus. In these situations, while informal educators may be appointed to work with students, they have to encourage and educate staff so that the needs of students can be recognized and, hopefully, met. To do this informal educators will often need both to develop a detailed understanding of the situation, and (in that status-conscious world) have some sort of professional qualification. 
So what sets informal educators apart? If we examine what they are doing, a number of characteristics emerge. They:
  • place conversation at the centre of their activities.
  • operate in a wide range of settings - often within the same day. These include centres, schools and colleges, streets and shopping malls, people's homes, workplaces, and social, cultural and sporting settings.
  • look to explore and enlarge experience.
  • put a special emphasis on building just and democratic relationships and organizations.
  • use a variety of methods including groupwork, casual conversation, play, activities, work with individuals and casework. While their work for much of the time is informal - they also make use of more formal approaches to facilitate learning.
  • work with people of all ages although many will specialize around a special age range e.g. children, young people or with adults. In other words informal education is lifelong education.
  • develop particular special interests such as in children's play and development; community development and community action; literacy and basic education; advice; outdoor and adventure activities; arts and cultural work; and youth work.

Informal education and other forms

What we are talking about as 'informal education' may well be described in Scotland as community education or community learning, in Germany as social pedagogy, and in France as animation. Similarly, informal educators' concern for justice and democracy may well bring them close to popular educators in South America. Another possible way of describing this way of working is as 'non-formal education'.
We can get into all sorts of side alleys if we spend too much time arguing for our own way of naming the work. We can focus too much on difference and not enough of what is common. However, there is a serious point in thinking about these things. Naming the work in this way or that brings out different qualities, emphasizes different things.

Looking forward

Here, then, is something of the promise of informal education. Hopefully, informal educators: attend to the vast range of opportunities that arise in everyday settings for learning. look to relationships and processes - and how these can be made more fulfilling. express certain, compelling, concerns - for democracy, justice and respect for others. Informal education's central form - conversation - carries these. value people's experiences and feelings work in ways that help people to deepen their understandings and commitments and to act on them.
In daily life we all act as educators from time to time. But there is also a need for specialists - educators who are skilled in, and committed to, working with people in everyday situations so that life can be more fulfilling and all can share in its fruits.

Further reading

Jeffs, T. and Smith, M. K. (2005) Informal Education. Conversation, democracy and learning, Ticknall: Education Now.
For more on infed.org on informal education go to exploring informal education.
Acknowledgement: Picture - conversation by Jason Schultz. Reproduced here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic licence. http://www.flickr.com/photos/jdawg/484678361/
© Mark K. Smith 1997, 2005, 2011
How to cite this piece: Smith, M. L. (1997, 2005, 2011). 'Introducing informal education', the encyclopaedia of informal education. [http://www.infed.org/i-intro.htm. Retrieved: Enter date].http://www.infed.org/i-intro.htm

 

Austin SEO & Small Business Marketing

I hear the ques­tion all the time… "How can I get more sales or cus­tomers from the inter­net?"  In fact,most Austin small busi­nesses I run across have a web­site but get almost noth­ing from it!  THIS SHOULD NOT BE!  What's worse is that many busi­ness own­ers I've talked to have real­ized they need to do some­thing about it and have hired out work at huge prices that are still get­ting them NOWHERE!
You might even think that by pay­ing for place­ment on the search engines via "Pay Per Click" that it would turn things around.  Then after spend­ing per­haps thou­sands of dol­lars you find that while a few more peo­ple found your web­site,it didn't do for your busi­ness what you thought it would do… namely increase it.
Why is that?
To under­stand why this hap­pens you really have to step back and look at your site as if you were some­one who is not famil­iar with you or your busi­ness.  Look at your web­site and ask the ques­tion…
"What is there about my web­site,the pre­sen­ta­tion of my busi­ness (my ser­vice,my prod­uct) that would "make" a vis­i­tor want to call me instead of any other Joe they find on the web or the Yellow Pages?"
If your web­site is sim­ply a pre­sen­ta­tion of your wares,then the hon­est answer to that ques­tion is "Absolutely Nothing."
Before you ask the ques­tion,"How can I get more peo­ple to my web­site?" You really need to ask,"So what if more peo­ple do find me?"
Take a look at almost every web­site you can find for busi­nesses in your city and you will find that almost all of them tell more than you want to know about how to find their place,out­line the prod­ucts or ser­vice they offer and many will have pic­tures of their kind and won­der­ful staff. If you are a searcher and find this site,your thought process might go some­thing like this:"Great,they have what I'm look­ing for,they promise great ser­vice (like every­one else) and who cares who's on their staff,I don't know any of them any­way. Gee,their web­site would look bet­ter if it was more bluish-green (ran­dom thought other than "Should I call"). I won­der who else has this stuff in Austin?"
In other words,if noth­ing makes your store,your prod­uct or your ser­vice stand out from the rest,you might as well have never had them come to your website.
But isn't this blog about Austin SEO and here I am talk­ing a whole lot of "Marketing?"    
Yes it is,but I think it would be a dis­ser­vice to you to think that just by get­ting more peo­ple to your web­site will auto­mat­i­cally result in gobbs more sales. My point is,if you are going to invest your time and money in get­ting your site found on the web,you also need to include mar­ket­ing in the equa­tion. For instance,it is easy for you to under­stand that you could have the best con­vert­ing web­site in the entire world but if no one finds it,you won't sell a thing. By the same token,if you have every­one in the world find your site but it does lit­tle to help con­vince peo­ple that YOU are the go-to place for this prod­uct or ser­vice,sure you will make more sales. The law of aver­ages will give you that. But you will not reach any­where near the level of increase that you were expect­ing. (More on this later.)
Here's an exam­ple of what I mean. Here is a busi­ness that used to worry about not being able to sell their stock fast enough. (It's live exotic ani­mals,so not sell­ing their new crop could be a "lit­tle prob­lem.") By chang­ing her main page up a bit and in this case adding video (in the mid­dle and bot­tom of the main page),she now has a wait­ing list for her yet unborn crit­ters. (See:Exotic Pets For Sale) In Castleberry Safari's case,the addi­tion of video made her site dif­fer­ent than most of her com­peti­tors in that her vis­i­tors learn more than "Just the Facts" about her busi­ness via the web. They also get to know more about the owner and her prod­uct. Because of that,she now sells out before she has product!
The added ben­e­fit of her videos too is that as far as Austin SEO is con­cerned,Google loves video! Between hav­ing her videos posted on sev­eral video social net­works and pub­lish­ing some con­tent about her ani­mals,her traf­fic has increased from 200 vis­i­tors per month to over 2,200 per month in less than 3 months time! Check out her site and com­pare it to other exotic breeder's sites that you find on the web. Then ask,"Who would you rather buy from?" "Who's site would you remem­ber?" "Who's site would you be more likely to bookmark?"
I wish I could show you what her site looked like before she took a "mar­ket­ing" approach to it. Suffice it to say that it looked pretty much like 8 out of 10 of the other breeder's sites that you'll find via a quick search for "exotic pets."
So the ques­tion comes,"How can I apply this to my Austin hair salon or Austin law prac­tice or my sport­ing goods store or my nation­wide per­sonal defense gad­get site or my (insert descrip­tion of your busi­ness here) site?"
Austin SEO Academy
Well that's what Austin SEO Academy is here to address. I encour­age you to make com­ments to post and arti­cles that you read on this site. I'll do my best to answer ques­tions or com­ment on obser­va­tions made. I would also encour­age you to attend my Austin Meetup meet­ings where we can go over these kinds of things face to face to help you mar­ket your busi­ness on the web bet­ter and help you get your busi­ness found by peo­ple who are look­ing for "your kind of stuff."Be sure to sub­scribe to Austin SEO Academy on the form that you find on this page. I am very con­fi­dent that you will find it worth your while. Just enter your name and email address to start receiv­ing thought pro­vok­ing mate­r­ial that may very well help you to do with your busi­ness what I did with mine. (5 time increase over 3 years — $250,000 to $1,300,000) So sub­scribe Now! In this blog I will be divulging all the things that I used to make this hap­pen and show you exactly how you can do it your­self. Use it to help pro­mote and increase your own busi­ness. This blog and newslet­ter right now are com­pletely free. That will change at some point in the not too dis­tant future,but cur­rent sub­scribers will receive a hefty dis­count over new sub­scriber fees. So be sure and sub­scribe to Austin SEO Academy right now!
You may have noticed the big pic below.
This shows the results of the most recent study of how peo­ple look at search results in their browser. The rea­son this is impor­tant is because if you are cur­rently spend­ing money on PPC,you might seri­ously con­sider get­ting your site found in the nat­ural search results. Simply put,you can keep your money and get more vis­i­tors by doing so. Contrary to what you may have heard before,it's not an insur­mount­able job to get there and it can be done fairly quickly. Did I men­tion it saves you money. You can even do it all by your­self! I'll have more on this in the newslet­ter and on this site.
Of course,as men­tioned ear­lier,  you really need to have some­thing on your site that makes prospects want to buy from you rather than the "other guy."
http://www.austinseoacademy.com/


Ava Host Review

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5 tips trik memotifasi belajar sang anak

Motivasi adalah proses yang menjelaskan intensitas, arah, dan ketekunan seorang individu untuk mencapai tujuannya Dalam setiap pribadi diri seseorang. karena dengan motivasi inilah sebagai pendorong semangat dan tenaga untuk bergerak.
Anak adalah sebuah amanat dari sang pencipta kepada hambah yang telah teranugrahi maka selayaknya sebgai seorang ayah mestinya harus menjaga serta memelihara amanat itu dalam hal ini yang dimaksud adalah (anak)
dalam setiap harinya penting bagi seorang ayah untuk memperhatikan setiap kegiatan anak. disini maka diperlukan sebuah motifasi untuk anak agar lebih giat baik dalam belajar maupun kegiatan yang lainnya.
berikut adalah 5 tips serta trik motifasi bagi anak untuk menjadi lebih giat dalam belajar dan berinovasi untuk menghasilkan karya yang positif sesuai dengan cita-cita yang diharapkan sejak kecil.
Tips motivasi anak dalam belajar sebagai berikut, diantaranya adalah:
1. Menetapkan Visi dan Misi
Bahwa setiap anak diwajibkan memiliki visi yang jelas terhadap apa yang ingin diraihnya seperti, Tujuan belajar? Harapan pada jenjang pendidikan selanjutnya? Dan seterusnya pada sampai kesimpulan bahwa proses pendidikan yang dijalani sangatlah penting bagi dirinya dan dilaksanakan dan diselesaikan dengan sungguh-sungguh.
2. Belajar Menjadi Kebutuhan
Menjadikan belajar sebagai kebutuhan pokok sebagai aktivitas yang menyenangkan untuk dinikmati dilakukan dengan ikhlas tanpa paksaan karena sudah menjadi kebutuhan diri sebagai jembatan dalam menggapai cita-cita dan prestasi yang telah diharapkan.
3. Fokus Dalam Belajar
Bahwa hanya dengan focus konsesntrasi akan menjadikan anak lebih tajam dalam menyelesaikan setiap materi pelajaran yang dipelajari bahkan dalam menyelesaikan semua soal materi ujian setiap materi pelajaran, tentunya dengan disiplin dan dedikasi yang tinggi.
4. Tidak Ada Kata Menyerah
Keberhasilan dan kesuksesan akan datang pada siapa saja yang tidak takut akan kegagalan. Walaupun terkadang setiap orang pastinya pernah mengalami kegagalan, dan tetap semangat untuk bangkit meraih kesuksesan yang diharapkan.
5. Waktu dan Kesabaran
Adalah keteguhan hati, jujur, kesabaran dan tentunya kerja keras berusaha dengan sungguh-sungguh tanpa ada kata menyerah merupakan jurus menuju kesuksesan. Karena semua yang telah dan akan diraih pastinya tidak sekejap dan perlu proses yang panjang untuk meraihnya bahkan terkadang harus mengulang berkali-kali baru bisa berhasil. Kunci jawaban dari segala proses motivasi pendidikan anak adalah memberikan pengulangan belajar dibarengi dengan dorongan motivasi pada anak, karena motivasi belajar sangatlah penting dalam mendukung kesuksesan anak.

Pendidikan Karakter dan Pengertian Pendidikan Berkarakter

Pendidikan Karakter dan Pengertian Pendidikan Berkarakter - Negara Indonesia memiliki jumlah penduduk yang besar. Dalam kaitannya dengan pendidikan karakter Indonesia sangat memerlukan SDM (Sumber Daya Manusia) yang besar pula dan harus bermutu untuk mendukung program pembangunan. Untuk menghasilkan SDM yang berkualitas peran pendidikan di Indonesia sangat penting, sama pentingnya dengan Sistem Pendidikan Di Indonesia


Apa sebetulnya arti dan pengertian pendidikan karakter itu Lihat topik Pengertian Pendidikan. Pendidikan karakter adalah sebuah sistem yang menamamkan nilai-nilai karakter kepada anak usia sekolah yang dimana nilai-nilai tersebut memiliki komponen pengetahuan, kesadaran individu, tekad, serta adanya kemauan dan tindakan untuk melaksanakan nilai-nilai baik terhadap Tuhan Yang Maha Esa (YME) baca( Artikel Ilmu Pendidikan Islam atau artikel pendidikan  ), diri sendiri, sesama manusia, dengan lingkungan, maupun kepada bangsa sehingga akan terwujud menjadi manusia insan kamil.

Dan program pendidikan karakter terus digencarkan oleh Kementerian Pendidikan nasional (Kemendiknas). Pada bulan Juni tahun 2011 paling tidak ada 650.000 guru serta kepala sekolah dijenjang pendidikan tingkat SMP akan ditatar berkenaan dengan konsep pendidikan karakter. Harapan kedepannya mereka akan faham dan mengerti bagimana cara menerapkan pendidikan karakter kepada siswa yang di didiknya.

"Kementerian Republik Indonesia akan melatih sebanyak 650.000 guru dan kepala sekolah, pada bulan Juni 2011. Tujuan pelaksanaan penataran terhadap guru dan kepala sekolah tersebut agar ada kesamaan mengenai pendidikan karakter," Hal ini dikatakan oleh Dirjen Pendidikan Dasar Kemendiknas, Prof Suyanto PhD dalam seminar pendidikan karakter di Universitas Muhamamdiyah Surakarta (UMS), Sabtu (28/5/2011).