10 Pillars: Tree of Human Knowledge

Goals. Education is aimed at achieving two major goals: socialization and self-fulfillment.

Socialization. Education is the process by which society intentionally transmits its accumulated knowledge, skills and values from one generation to the next.

Self-fulfillment. The concept of human dignity implies that everyone has the right to live a meaningful life. Education is aimed at providing the knowledge and developing the skills needed for preparing the individual to live a meaningful life.

Subdivision. The field of education is divided into seven parts. One is foundations, the remaining six are building blocks: educator, environment, organization, content, educational method, and student.

Foundations is the metaknowledge of education. It includes the fields of philosophy of education, history of education, sociology of education, psychology of education, economics and education, and educational research and evaluation.

Building blocks. The six building blocks center on the educational activity. An educational activity is an interaction between the educator and the student through four media: the milieu (environment), the organization, the content, and the method. In the case of self-education the educator and the student are the same person.

Educator includes the field of teacher education. Environment includes knowledge on national educational systems worldwide. Organization includes the fields of preschool education, primary education, secondary education, and higher education. Content includes the field of curriculum development (the theory and practice of developing educational programs), and subject-based fields (e.g., art education, moral education, religious education). Educational method includes the fields of educational technology and informal education. Student includes age-based fields (e.g., childhood education, adult education), and need-based fields (e.g., special education, gifted education). (C. Zins, 2011).