Your school english literay association has conducted essay writing competition. Write a report about your participation in either of them
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give an historic overview of education, competition, and competition within education, with an emphasis on computing science education. It appears that large-scale formalized competitions are a relatively recent phenomenon in the long history of education. I argue that in the future the role of competitions should be expanded, but that this requires more effort from all branches of society.
About the author. Tom Verhoeff was trained as a mathematician and holds a doctorate in computing science. Since 1987, he is assistant professor in computing science at Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands. His main research interest is in the specification and analysis of parallel computations, and their design and implementation as delay-insensitive VLSI circuits. He has directed the European Regional Finals of the ACM International Scholastic Programming Contest (ICPC) from 1988 to 1990. In 1995, he chaired the Scientific Committee of the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI). He will be 1999-Finals Director of the ICPC to be held in Eindhoven.
1 Introduction
Education and competition are two universal ingredients of all human cultures, in fact, of almost all animal life. Humans have always considered education and competition important issues, both in the past and in the present. Of course, there have been fluctuations in emphasis and much has changed throughout the centuries.
In this paper, I investigate the role of competitions in education, especially in modern education. I begin with a brief, historically inclined, overview of education and competition separately. Then I trace some developments in the role of competitions within education, in particular computing science education. I conclude with some recommendations.
2 Education
All life forms somehow possess knowledge and skills for survival and propagation. Such knowledge and skills are transmitted from generation to generation in various ways. On one hand, there is the direct path via inheritance. Properly expressed genes provide the offspring that carries them with built-in knowledge and skills, sometimes referred to as instincts and reflexes. On the other hand, there is the indirect path via education, where education is meant in a broad sense. The offspring learns by observing and imitating mature members of the species. The knowledge and skills transmitted by education are collectively known as the culture of a species.
For most species, inheritance is the dominant mode of transmission. The human species, however, relies very much on education, because for certain types of knowledge and skills, humans inherit only the ability to learn them. For example, the ability to learn language is inherited, but subsequent development of this ability through education is needed to learn any particular language. It is often not clear whether something, such as for example a desire to compete, is inherited or acquired (resulting in the nature-nurture controversies).
To summarize, a child is born without culture, and education can be viewed as the process of transmitting culture. Cultural knowledge and skills concern all aspects of human life. Long ago the list began to include such items as hunting, fighting, caring, healing, worshiping, farming, building, governing, judging, accounting, pleasing, competing, and educating.
The presence of education in human cultures can be inferred from the oldest historical records, dating back to about 3000 BC. These records indicate that education was at that time already formalized to some extent. That is, our early predecessors were aware of the educational process, which itself was a part of their culture, and certain members were specialized in dealing with educational matters. The knowledge and skills of formal teaching are, thus, in turn transmitted culturally. We do not know when education first appeared in this formalized way, but it is generally assumed that it is much older than the first references that have been preserved.
Formal education in more complex societies gave rise to teachers, schools, and out-of-context learning in classes, because this specialization allows a more efficient transmission of culture. Over the centuries entire school systems have been developed with their own educational philosophies. Today, the partition into primary, secondary, and optional tertiary (university or vocational) education is predominant, and the educational duties of schools are clearly prescribed by law. Note, however, that informal education, such as happens within the family, still plays an important role. Oscar Wilde once said: ``Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.''
As the demands on a society change, its culture changes, and consequently also its educational practices must change. Though difficult to understand in detail, this process of change appears to be a never-ending, self-propelling cycle.
About the author. Tom Verhoeff was trained as a mathematician and holds a doctorate in computing science. Since 1987, he is assistant professor in computing science at Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands. His main research interest is in the specification and analysis of parallel computations, and their design and implementation as delay-insensitive VLSI circuits. He has directed the European Regional Finals of the ACM International Scholastic Programming Contest (ICPC) from 1988 to 1990. In 1995, he chaired the Scientific Committee of the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI). He will be 1999-Finals Director of the ICPC to be held in Eindhoven.
1 Introduction
Education and competition are two universal ingredients of all human cultures, in fact, of almost all animal life. Humans have always considered education and competition important issues, both in the past and in the present. Of course, there have been fluctuations in emphasis and much has changed throughout the centuries.
In this paper, I investigate the role of competitions in education, especially in modern education. I begin with a brief, historically inclined, overview of education and competition separately. Then I trace some developments in the role of competitions within education, in particular computing science education. I conclude with some recommendations.
2 Education
All life forms somehow possess knowledge and skills for survival and propagation. Such knowledge and skills are transmitted from generation to generation in various ways. On one hand, there is the direct path via inheritance. Properly expressed genes provide the offspring that carries them with built-in knowledge and skills, sometimes referred to as instincts and reflexes. On the other hand, there is the indirect path via education, where education is meant in a broad sense. The offspring learns by observing and imitating mature members of the species. The knowledge and skills transmitted by education are collectively known as the culture of a species.
For most species, inheritance is the dominant mode of transmission. The human species, however, relies very much on education, because for certain types of knowledge and skills, humans inherit only the ability to learn them. For example, the ability to learn language is inherited, but subsequent development of this ability through education is needed to learn any particular language. It is often not clear whether something, such as for example a desire to compete, is inherited or acquired (resulting in the nature-nurture controversies).
To summarize, a child is born without culture, and education can be viewed as the process of transmitting culture. Cultural knowledge and skills concern all aspects of human life. Long ago the list began to include such items as hunting, fighting, caring, healing, worshiping, farming, building, governing, judging, accounting, pleasing, competing, and educating.
The presence of education in human cultures can be inferred from the oldest historical records, dating back to about 3000 BC. These records indicate that education was at that time already formalized to some extent. That is, our early predecessors were aware of the educational process, which itself was a part of their culture, and certain members were specialized in dealing with educational matters. The knowledge and skills of formal teaching are, thus, in turn transmitted culturally. We do not know when education first appeared in this formalized way, but it is generally assumed that it is much older than the first references that have been preserved.
Formal education in more complex societies gave rise to teachers, schools, and out-of-context learning in classes, because this specialization allows a more efficient transmission of culture. Over the centuries entire school systems have been developed with their own educational philosophies. Today, the partition into primary, secondary, and optional tertiary (university or vocational) education is predominant, and the educational duties of schools are clearly prescribed by law. Note, however, that informal education, such as happens within the family, still plays an important role. Oscar Wilde once said: ``Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.''
As the demands on a society change, its culture changes, and consequently also its educational practices must change. Though difficult to understand in detail, this process of change appears to be a never-ending, self-propelling cycle.
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