Education, Aims of

Educational aims express the social and developmental outcomes that schools hope to achieve. Herbert Spencer approached educational aims through the question, What knowledge is of most worth? This and the following related questions have long been central to educational scholarship. Why are certain types of learning valued over others? Should schools strive for critical thinking or cultural literacy? Should they seek practical relevance or academic rigor? Should schools prepare students to accept social norms and the responsibilities of adult life? Should they prepare students to reform society through civic participation and activism? Or are all of these aims equally important?

[Page 282]Some educational writers treat the terms aims and objectives as synonymous. Objectives, however, are usually more specific than aims because the former are justified largely on the basis of how they contribute to a particular discipline or subject area. Knowledge of grammar, for example, might be justified as an objective of the English language arts if it contributes to literacy. In contrast, aims typically go beyond subject matter to ask, at a more general level, who benefits and how. To what use, for example, should literacy be put? Why is it valued, by whom, and in what contexts? Must everyone learn grammar? Why or why not? This entry examines educational aims as broad statements of intended outcomes and desires. It discusses how social and developmental needs serve as key sources of educational aims, and it addresses how these aims function within education to inform both its theory and practice.