Béla Kozéki: The Spirit and the Educational Goals of the School, in the Light of a Comparative Study

The paper describes a British - Hungarian experiment on the educational goals of the school, organized as a part of a larger international comparative study aiming at the exploration of the spirit manifest in schools. The investigation involved 1903 Hungarian and 364 British pupils and 247 teachers. To test his hypothesis, the author identified the basic educational goals accepted by every school, as representing the formation of a high quality personality, on the one hand, and the specific goals dominating a given school, showing its peculiar educational view, on the other hand. The author identifies 20 basic goals in five domains of education: affective, cognitive and moral domains, as well as the domains of life style, profession and civic life. The results are analyzed by nations, regions and schools. The comparison shows a strikingly marked spirit of the British schools, based on a clear system of values, with goals totally perceivable for pupils. The goals are equally distributed in the five domains, nevertheless with an emphasis on effectivity, identification with the spirit of the school, cohesion and the factors of morality and will. The British education is entirely characterized by a practical attitude. The spirit of Hungarian schools is less characteristic, the pupils perceive the goals as accidental and indistinct, which weakens the educational effectivity. As an undoubtedly valuable evidence, the investigation shows that the system of educational goals characterizing the schools is measurable, and being a part of the spirit of the school, it gives an indirect opportunity to its exact evaluation.

MAGYAR PEDAGÓGIA 91. Number 1. 63-77. (1991)

Levelezési cím / Address for correspondence: Kozéki Béla, MTA Pszichológiai Intézete, H-1067 Budapest, Teréz krt. 13.

 
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