Challenging Formalization in Education and Beyond

Challenging Formalization in Education and Beyond addresses the effects of today's attempts to organize knowledge, processes, and performance in education, particularly in its ever-growing digital environments. As on-site, blended, and fully online learning become deeply interdependent, secondary and higher education managers and instructors who seek to integrate, apply, and teach within these formats using standardized rules, assessments, algorithms, and accountability structures may be doing unintended harm to their students. Focusing on students' performance, health, cognition, behavior, and learning outcomes, this book analyses how current trends, methods, and policies in formalization can be challenged and corrected to ensure high-quality education. Scholars, educators, administrators, and designers of traditional, asynchronous, precision, automated, and micro-learning formats will come away with new insights and pragmatic solutions for engaging students in more active, participatory, and creative activities.

Peter Serdyukov is a Professor in the Department of Teacher Education at National University, USA.

Introduction Part 1. Formalization as a Social Phenomenon 1. Current State of Education 2. Origins of Formalization 3. Formalization in Education 4. Formalization features 5. Other Formalistic Issues 6. Social and Pedagogic Issues of Formalization Part 2: Formalization in Online Learning 7. Online Learning Formalization and Learners 8. Formalization and Teachers 9. Online Learning Formalization Part 3: Effects of the Formalization and Their Overcoming 10. Real and Potential Effects of Formalized Learning 11. The Role of Technology in Formalization 12. Possible Solutions Conclusion