Traditional education or back-to-basics refers to long-established customs found in schools that society has traditionally deemed appropriate. Some forms of education reform

Education reform

Education reform is the process of improving public education. Small improvements in education theoretically have large social returns, in health, wealth and well-being. Historically, reforms have taken different forms because the motivations of reformers have differed.A continuing motivation has...

 promote the adoption of progressive education practices, a more holistic approach which focuses on individual students' needs and self-expression. In the eyes of reformers, traditional teacher-centered methods focused on rote learning and memorization must be abandoned in favor of student-centered and task-based approaches to learning. However, many parents and conservative citizens are concerned with the maintenance of objective educational standards based on testing, which favors a more traditional approach.

Depending on the context, the opposite of traditional education may be progressive education, modern education (the education approaches based on developmental psychology), or alternative education

Alternative education

Alternative education, also known as non-traditional education or educational alternative, includes a number of approaches to teaching and learning other than mainstream or traditional education. Educational alternatives are often rooted in various philosophies that are fundamentally different...

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Definition

The definition of traditional education varies greatly with geography and by historical period.

The chief business of traditional education is to transmit to a next generation those skills, facts, and standards of moral and social conduct that adults deem to be necessary for the next generation's material and social success. As beneficiaries of this scheme, which educational progressivist John Dewey

John Dewey

John Dewey was an American philosopher, psychologist and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. Dewey was an important early developer of the philosophy of pragmatism and one of the founders of functional psychology...

 described as being "imposed from above and from outside", the students are expected to docilely and obediently receive and believe these fixed answers. Teachers are the instruments by which this knowledge is communicated and these standards of behavior are enforced.

Historically, the primary educational technique of traditional education was simple oral recitation: In a typical approach, students sat quietly at their places and listened to one individual after another recite his or her lesson, until each had been called upon. The teacher's primary activity was assigning and listening to these recitations; students studied at home. A test might be given at the end of a unit, and the process, which was called "assignment-study-recitation-test", was repeated. In addition to its overemphasis on verbal answers, reliance on rote memorization (memorization with no effort at understanding the meaning), and disconnected, unrelated assignments, it was also an extremely inefficient use of students' and teachers' time. It also insisted that all students be taught the same materials at the same point; students that did not learn quickly enough failed, rather than being allowed to succeed at their natural speeds. This approach, which had been imported from Europe, dominated American education until the end of the 19th century, when the reform movement imported progressive education techniques from Europe.

Traditional education is associated with much stronger elements of coercion than seems acceptable now in most cultures. It has sometimes included: the use of corporal punishment

Corporal punishment

Corporal punishment is a form of physical punishment that involves the deliberate infliction of pain as retribution for an offence, or for the purpose of disciplining or reforming a wrongdoer, or to deter attitudes or behaviour deemed unacceptable...

 to maintain classroom discipline or punish errors; inculcating the dominant religion and language; separating students according to gender, race, and social class, as well as teaching different subjects to girls and boys. In terms of curriculum there was and still is a high level of attention paid to time-honoured academic knowledge.

In the present it varies enormously from culture to culture, but still tends to be characterised by a much higher level of coercion than alternative education

Alternative education

Alternative education, also known as non-traditional education or educational alternative, includes a number of approaches to teaching and learning other than mainstream or traditional education. Educational alternatives are often rooted in various philosophies that are fundamentally different...

. Traditional schooling in Britain and its possessions and former colonies tends to follow the English Public School style of strictly enforced uniforms and a militaristic style of discipline. This can be contrasted with South African, USA and Australian schools, which can have a much higher tolerance for spontaneous student-to-teacher communication.

Instruction Centre

Topic	Traditional approach	Alternate approaches
Person	Teacher-centred instruction: Educational essentialism Educational essentialism Educational essentialism is an educational philosophy whose adherents believe that children should learn the traditional basic subjects thoroughly and rigorously. In this philosophical school of thought, the aim is to instill students with the "essentials" of academic knowledge, enacting a... Educational perennialism Educational perennialism Perennialists believe that one should teach the things that one deems to be of everlasting importance to all people everywhere. They believe that the most important topics develop a person. Since details of fact change constantly, these cannot be the most important. Therefore, one should teach...	Student-centred instruction: Educational progressivism Educational progressivism Progressive education is a pedagogical movement that began in the late nineteenth century and has persisted in various forms to the present. More recently, it has been viewed as an alternative to the test-oriented instruction legislated by the No Child Left Behind educational funding act...
Classroom	Students matched by age, and possibly also by ability. All students in a classroom are taught the same material.	Students dynamically grouped by interest or ability for each project or subject, with the possibility of different groups each hour of the day. Multi-age classrooms or open classrooms.
Teaching methods	Traditional education emphasizes: Direct instruction Direct instruction Direct Instruction is an instructional method that is focused on systematic curriculum design and skillful implementation of a prescribed behavioral script....  and lectures Seatwork Students learn through listening and observation	Progressive education emphasizes: Hands-on activities Student-led discovery Group activities
Materials	Instruction based on textbooks, lectures, and individual written assignments	Project-based instruction using any available resource including Internet, library and outside experts
Subjects	Individual, independent subjects. Little connection between topics	Integrated, interdisciplinary subjects or theme-based units, such as reading a story about cooking a meal and calculating the cost of the food.
Social aspects	Little or no attention to social development. Focus on independent learning. Socializing largely discouraged except for extracurricular activities and teamwork-based projects.	Significant attention to social development, including teamwork, interpersonal relationships, and self-awareness.
Multiple tracks	* A single, unified curriculum for all students, regardless of ability or interest. Diverse class offerings without tracking, so that students receive a custom-tailored education. With School to work, academically weak students must take some advanced classes, while the college bound may have to spend half-days job shadowing at local businesses.	Students choose (or are steered towards) different kinds of classes according to their perceived abilities or career plans. Decisions made early in education may preclude changes later, as a student on a vo-tech track may not have completed necessary prerequisite classes to switch to a university-preparation program.
Student and teacher relationship	Students often address teachers formally by their last names. The teacher is considered a respected role model in the community. Students should obey the teacher. Proper behavior for the university or professional work community is emphasized.	In alternative school Alternative school Alternative school is the name used in some parts of the world to describe an institution which provides part of alternative education. It is an educational establishment with a curriculum and methods that are nontraditional... s, students may be allowed to call teachers by their first names. Students and teachers may work together as collaborators.

Marking

Topic	Traditional approach	Alternate approaches
Communicating with parents	A few numbers, letters, or words are used to summarize overall achievement in each class. Marks may be assigned according to objective individual performance Criterion-referenced test A criterion-referenced test is one that provides for translating test scores into a statement about the behavior to be expected of a person with that score or their relationship to a specified subject matter. Most tests and quizzes written by school teachers are criterion-referenced tests. The...  (usually the number of correct answers) or compared to other students Norm-referenced test A norm-referenced test is a type of test, assessment, or evaluation which yields an estimate of the position of the tested individual in a predefined population, with respect to the trait being measured. This estimate is derived from the analysis of test scores and possibly other relevant data...  (best students get the best grades, worst students get poor grades). A passing grade may or may not signify mastery: a failing student may know the material but not complete homework assignments, and a passing student may turn in all homework but still not understand the material.	Many possible forms of communicating achievements: Teachers may be required to write personalized narrative evaluations about student achievement and abilities. Under standards-based education Outcome-based education Outcome-based education is a recurring education reform model. It is a student-centered learning philosophy that focuses on empirically measuring student performance, which are called outcomes. OBE contrasts with traditional education, which primarily focuses on the resources that are available... , a government agency may require all students to pass a test; students who fail to perform adequately on the test may not be promoted.
Expectations	Students will graduate with different grades. Some students will fail due to poor performance based on a lack of understanding or incomplete assignments.	All students need to achieve a basic level of education, even if this means spending extra years in school.
Grade inflation/deflation	Achievement based on performance compared to a reasonably stable, probably informal standard which is highly similar to what previous students experienced.	The value of any given mark is often hard to standardize in alternative grading schemes. Comparison of students in different classes may be difficult or impossible.

Subject Areas

Topic	Traditional approach	Alternate approaches
Mathematics	Traditional mathematics Traditional mathematics Traditional mathematics is a term used to describe the predominant methods of Mathematics education in the United States in the early-to-mid 20th century. The term is often used to contrast historically predominant methods with non-traditional approaches to math education... : Emphasis is on memorization of basic facts such as the multiplication table Multiplication table In mathematics, a multiplication table is a mathematical table used to define a multiplication operation for an algebraic system....  and mastering step-by-step arithmetic algorithms by studying examples and much practice. One correct answer is sought, using one "standard" method. Mathematics after elementary grades is tracked with different students covering different levels of material. Mathematics is taught as its own discipline without emphasis on social, political or global issues. There may be some emphasis on practical applications in science and technology.	Curriculum de-emphasizes procedural knowledge drills in favor of technology (calculators, computers) and an emphasis on conceptual understanding. Lessons may include more exploratory material supportive of conceptual understanding, rather than direct presentation of facts and methods. Emphasis may be on practical applications and greater issues such as the environment, gender and racial diversity, and social justice. Mathematics lessons may include writing, drawing, games, and instruction with manipulatives rather than filling out worksheets. Lessons may include exploration of concepts allowing students to invent their own procedures before teaching standard algorithms. Grading may be based on demonstration of conceptual understanding rather than entirely on whether the final answer is correct. In some countries (e.g. the United States), there may be expectations of high achievement and mastering algebra for all students rather than tracking some students into business math and others into mathematics for math and science careers.
Science	Fact-based science: Science class is an opportunity to transmit concrete knowledge and specific vocabulary from the teacher (or textbook) to the students. Students focus on memorizing what they are told. "Experiments" follow cookbook-style procedures to produce the expected results.	With Inquiry-based Science a student might be asked to devise an experiment to demonstrate that the earth orbits the sun. The emphasis changes from memorizing information that was learned through a scientific method to actually using the scientific method of discovery.
Language learning	Phonics Phonics Phonics refers to a method for teaching speakers of English to read and write that language. Phonics involves teaching how to connect the sounds of spoken English with letters or groups of letters and teaching them to blend the sounds of letters together to produce approximate pronunciations... : The focus is on explicit training in sound to letter correspondence rules and the mechanics of decoding individual words. Students initially focus on phonics subskills and reading simplified decodable text Decodable text Decodable text is a type of text often used in beginning reading instruction. With this type of text, new readers can decipher words using the phonics skills they have been taught... s. When they have mastered a sufficient number of rules, they are allowed to read freely and extensively. (In many languages, such as French, Spanish and Greek, phonics is taught in the context of reading simple open syllables.)	With whole language Whole language Whole language describes a literacy philosophy which emphasizes that children should focus on meaning and strategy instruction. It is often contrasted with phonics-based methods of teaching reading and writing which emphasize instruction for decoding and spelling. However, from whole language...  the child is exposed to rich, relevant language that can heighten motivation to read. Learning to read is assumed to be as natural as learning to speak, so students are not formally taught sound to letter correspondences, but assumed to infer them on their own. (Note that this issue is limited to languages such as English and French with complex phonetics and spelling rules. Instruction in countries with languages such as Spanish and Greek, which have relatively simple phonetic spelling, still depends mainly on phonics.)

Criticism of the concept of teaching in traditional education

Traditional education focuses on teaching, not learning. It incorrectly assumes that for every ounce of teaching there is an ounce of learning by those who are taught. However, most of what we learn before, during, and after attending schools is learned without it being taught to us. A child learns such fundamental things as how to walk, talk, eat, dress, and so on without being taught these things. Adults learn most of what they use at work or at leisure while at work or leisure. Most of what is taught in classroom settings is forgotten, and much or what is remembered is irrelevant.

See also

• Classical education movement
  Classical education movement
  The Classical education movement advocates a form of education based in the traditions of Western culture, with a particular focus on education as understood and taught in the Middle Ages. The curricula and pedagogy of classical education was first developed during the Middle Ages by Martianus...
  
  , which emphasizes Western Civilization
• List of abandoned education methods