How to Write a Composition Essay about Education

Education is a very comprehensive concept. If you get the task to write a composition essay on education, be prepared that it has every chance to be developed into a full-fledged scientific study, since you will have many topics to choose from, a diverse arsenal of scientific methods, and even more information to study, process and develop your own recommendations about how to improve this or that educational aspect.

However, it is easy to say, but not so easy to do. We have compiled this guide to take you on the right track when writing your composition essay on education. If you still do not know where to start, and in which direction to move, we will help you deal with this right now.

Five Always Up-To-Date Ideas for Composition Essays in Education

Psychological Aspects of Education

In order to get quality knowledge, psychological comfort is very important. It can be provided by knowledge of human psychology. Teachers should know more about the psychological aspect of education in order to ensure a high-quality and safe process of obtaining knowledge. In this context, various problems of education that are directly related to the process of obtaining knowledge or the behavior of students can be considered.

The basis of the concept of the educational process from a psychological point of view is due to the fact that students should receive only positive emotions from the educational process. The psychological process of education should be clear to parents, who should also relate to their child and his education accordingly. Pedagogical practice knows many problems with the fact that parents underestimate or overestimate the capabilities of their children, which will certainly affect their psychological state.

Ideas for Discussion on This Topic

As you already understood, the composition essay on this topic will be very closely connected with the psychology of education. This topic is very extensive and makes it possible to develop a number of unique and interesting theses and select the appropriate scientific evidence. Here are some examples of thesis statements:

• The psychological comfort of the student is the basis of his academic success.
• Positive emotions received from the educational process are the most powerful motivator for further scientific achievements.
• Reassessment of student abilities as a dual-factor. On the one hand, this obliges the student to study even harder to meet the requirements and expectations of teachers and parents, and on the other hand, it is a danger to his psychological health.

To substantiate these theses, we recommend that you use the experience of various foreign systems. For example, speaking about the basis of the last thesis, you can cite the Korean education system as an example (we will talk more about it in more detail), and describe how high demands and expectations affect, firstly, psychological comfort in the process of getting an education, and how it will affect relationships between students, teachers, and parents.

Comparative Characteristics of Education in Different Countries

For example, let’s find out a few facts about two fundamentally different education systems. These are the Korean and Finnish systems.

Today’s Korean children, who have to attend various courses in addition to school, are often ‘busier than adults.’ According to statistics, every nine out of ten students in Korea take extra private lessons. They manage to relax a bit only in the rare hours of leisure, sitting at the computer. In general, severe pressure on a child who must meet the requirements set for him from early childhood, to work hard and be responsible for his actions, is very characteristic of Korean pedagogy – both in family and in school. Unfortunately, the suppression of non-standard behavior has its own shadow sides, because the child is accustomed to conformism, and his ability to original decisions is noticeably weakened.
As a second example, here are a few principles of the Finnish education system:

• All students are equal. School is not a place for commercial relations. Students receive all necessary supplies for study free of charge, including transportation costs.
• The Finnish education system is not controlled by higher authorities – teachers have unlimited trust from students, their parents, and the state.
• The Finnish education system supports equal opportunities, including those students who have physical or psychological characteristics.
• The equality of students is manifested in the fact that they are not divided into groups depending on their abilities, success, and interests.

What Can You Do with This Information in Your Essay on This Topic?

First of all, you can make a small comparative description by pointing out the similarities and differences between the two systems.
Now, look at the basic principles of Finnish education. In fact, each of them is a topic for further scientific research. For example, you can analyze the effectiveness of dividing children into classes, or according to their talents.
In this context, you will need to develop your own unique thesis. For example, you can refute this approach in the Finnish education system and say something like ‘The Finnish education system does not apply the division of students into groups. However, if we analyze the underlying mechanisms and results of this approach, such a concept cannot show absolute effectiveness.’
Next, you should find and come up with at least three arguments for your thesis.

• For example, you can say that the division into classes depending on the talents and abilities of the students gives the teacher the opportunity to work with each of the students more individually.
• As a second reinforcement of the argument, you can say that it is easier for children to perceive information and also to do group tasks when they are all united by a common voluntary interest, and not forced to do certain work within the framework of a certain subject.
• As your third evidence for your argument, you can say that when students are united in a class according to their abilities, this contributes to a healthy atmosphere in the team, it virtually eliminates competition, and the possibility of bullying as a result, for example.

Online Education Efficiency

To gain knowledge and even a new profession without leaving home is a tempting prospect. Opportunities for distance learning are becoming more diverse, on the Internet you can even get a diploma in higher education. With regard to online learning, two questions are most relevant: how effective is it and how do employers relate to such students.

Many researchers consider distance learning to be ineffective due to the lack of control over its results. Tasks can be performed using the Internet, and sometimes certification is not carried out at all – the student is simply sent information that he understands on his own. Of course, it all depends on motivation: usually, those who are interested in gaining knowledge, not documents, take online courses, so they study actively and with interest.

What Can You Write about This Topic?

So, speaking about the effectiveness, or, conversely, the inefficiency of distance or online education, you have to use very powerful and reliable statistics. In this context, effectiveness measurable in real numbers will be the best evidence of your thesis.

In order to find this evidence, you will have to turn to scientific research and look for cases that evaluate the effectiveness of online compared to traditional formations in focus groups. It will be quite difficult to find and analyze such data, so now we will tell you another approach on how to make this topic interesting.

Of course, you know that online learning is trendy, therefore, as the main topic of your essay, we suggest discussing these trends, analyzing growth forecasts for the popularity of online education. Also, you may try to make a preliminary assessment of, for example, how much students who studied online will be more or less attractive to employers compared to those who received a traditional education.

The Importance of the Personality of a Teacher for the Academic Success of Students

The role of the teacher’s personality in the educational process is not just huge. This role is fundamental. The educational process is not only the transfer of the necessary scientific information but also the process of interaction between the teacher and students – their mutual influence on each other, the exchange of emotions, thoughts, experiences. The teacher must not only satisfy a person’s desire for knowledge but also maximize his motivation for this path.

As practice shows, students are more likely to study the subject, the teacher of which arouses respect and sympathy. A student of any age perceives a teacher primarily as a person. The system of knowledge that it forms, its educational opportunities are perceived by students in the refraction of the individuality of the teacher, as something personal, going from person to person. That is what has special meaning and significance.

The personality of the teacher acts as a kind of ‘living mirror’, in which the student is constantly ‘looking’. That is why the teacher’s worldview, his behavior, his life, his attitude to his work in one way or another affect all students. Therefore, it is important that the teacher also understands that his behavior and his actions are under the strongest control, which not a single person in the world is under.

How to Work out This Topic in More Detail

If you will write about the personality of the teacher in your essay, it is best to use real-life examples. In this case, this will be the best proof, since you can track and analyze the obvious relationships between the characteristics of the teacher as a person and the success of his students. For example, remember the best educators in human history, and choose, for example, Herbert Spencer or Maria Montessori.

Conduct research on the life and work of these people, study the main points and ideas of their approaches to education. This information will give you the opportunity to understand the teacher as a person, even if you get to know him through the prism of time. Your task will be to assess the influence of a particular person on the formation of new approaches to learning, the success of students, the perception of new ideas in other countries.

The Concept of Inclusive Education: How Effective Is It in Practice?

Social and educational conditions should be aimed at making the life of a person with disabilities as independent as possible, and the person, taking an active and responsible life position, become an equal member of society, realizing himself in it.

The concept of an independent lifestyle of people with disabilities today defines approaches to the formation of the goals and content of inclusive education. Phenomenology and existentialism have become the philosophical origins of humanistic psychology, which, in turn, has ensured the development of humanistic pedagogy and inclusive teaching technologies developed in its mainstream.

A Topic Rich in Problems: What Can You Research in an Essay?

The topic of inclusive education makes it possible to narrow the scope of scientific research to one aspect and study it deeply enough. For example, let’s figure out how to answer the question of the effectiveness or inefficiency of inclusive education.

In order to be able to evaluate the effectiveness of this approach, you first need to find countries where this approach works successfully, and analyze what factors and reasons contribute to this. These can be specialized legislative acts, as well as special work with teachers at the state level, improvement of their qualifications, educational work in society, the purpose of which is to convince that inclusive education is the right approach.

However, as you know, the rules of scientific ethics also oblige you to consider opposing opinions. Therefore, you have to analyze when inclusive education is ineffective and what makes it so. For example, now this concept has only just begun to be introduced in the countries of the post-Soviet space, and it already gives both positive and negative results and consequences. Your task is to find real-life examples that directly testify that in this case, inclusive education is ineffective.