A term with many definitions. As a general definition, take, for example, that provided by John Dewey (1859-1952) in his book Democracy and education (1966), which refers to it as that reconstruction or reorganization of experience adding to the meaning of experience, and which increases the ability to direct the course of subsequent experience. A somewhat similar definition was provided by Piaget in his Science of education and psychology of the child (1971). As a process of development and learning, it occurs in two contexts:
1. formal education in school, college and university that takes place on the basis of national policies setting out educational aims about instructional practices, and which are the means to their attainment, 2. informal education occurring as experience continuous with human life itself in sociocultural worlds. At every level from neophyte to savant, there is the potential for enrichment of the common culture. As a multidisciplinary field of enquiry, it consists of:
1. educational theory dealing with the nature, scope, limits and value of education, and for which perspectives in philosophy and history are especially relevant, 2. educational research dealing with empirical evidence and its interpretation, notably through observational, longitudinal, and experimental studies in classrooms, schools, work and settings, and for which perspectives in the social sciences (e.g., psychology, sociology) are especially relevant.
See Application, Command paper (education), Developmental epistemology, Developmental psychology, Developmental readiness, Experience, Externalism, Implication (education), Internalism, Pedagogy, Psychology, Sociology