Primary education
Primary education or elementary education is typically the first stage of formal education, coming after preschool/kindergarten and before secondary school.[2] Primary education takes place in primary schools, elementary schools, or first schools and middle schools, depending on the location. Hence, in the United Kingdom and some other countries, the term primary is used instead of elementary.[3]
For descriptions of different implementations, see List of primary education systems by country.
There is no commonly agreed on duration of primary education, but often three-six years of elementary school, and in some countries (like the US) the first seven-nine years are considered primary education.
The International Standard Classification of Education considers primary education as a single-phase where programs are typically designed to provide fundamental reading, writing, and mathematics skills and establish a solid foundation for learning. This is ISCED Level 1: Primary education or the first stage of basic education.[a][4]
The ISCED definition in 1997 posited that primary education normally started between the ages of 5 – 8 and was designed to give a sound basic education in reading, writing, and mathematics along with an elementary understanding of other subjects. By 2011 the philosophy had changed, the elementary understanding of other subjects had been dropped in favour of "to establish a solid foundation for learning".[4]
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), believes that providing children with primary education has many positive effects. It:
The ages cited cover a rapidly developing phase of child development. This is studied in the discipline of developmental psychology, which attempts to describe how children learn.
In the United Kingdom, reception, the first year of primary school, is part of the Early Years Foundation Stage.
The philosophy of education—teaching and learning—has, over the millennia, occupied many great minds. It attempts to say what children should be taught.
Jean Piaget was responsible for establishing the framework that describes the intellectual, moral and emotional development of children.[16] He received a doctorate in 1918 and did post-doctoral research in Zürich and Paris.
[17] His thoughts developed in four phases:
Using this framework, the child's staged development can be examined. His theory included four stages: the sensorimotor period, the pre operational period, the concrete operational period, and the formal operational period.[19]
Lev Vygotsky's theory[20] is based on social learning, where a more knowledgeable other (MKO) helps a child progress within their zone of proximal development (ZPD). Within the ZPD, there are skills that the child could do but needs to be shown to move from yearning to independent proficiency.[20] The assistance or instruction becomes a form of Instructional scaffolding; this term and idea was developed by Jerome Bruner, David Wood, and Gail Ross.[21] These are in the realms of the:[22][23]
This article incorporates text from a free content work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO. Text taken from Empowering students for just societies: a handbook for primary school teachers, UNESCO, UNESCO. UNESCO.
