Educational Imbalance in the Study of Architecture

        There is a general consensus in the field of Architecture as an academic discipline that it should characterise both art and science, with an additional argument that it is also considered as practice, because society and clients requiring architectural services require several constraints and complexities which are all critical for architecture to stay vital. In terms of the education that aspiring architects get, an important question that should be asked is whether they are receiving adequate opportunity for education in all three aspects. The absence of lack of one or more of these components will result to an educational imbalance.

        In the United States, educational imbalance occurs because most of its schools of architecture, most of awards programs that draw sponsorship from architects and many professional journals all cultivate the perception that the artistic side of architecture alone is exciting, intellectually satisfying, and worthy to be recognised, while architecture as a science is generally perceived to be a burden, something that is only learned because of necessity and learned with the minimum amount of knowledge required. The idea that the scientific side of architecture involves imagination, creativity or design skills is interesting by its own merits. As for architecture and its practices, this is generally perceived to be the responsibility of the employer who will hire the student when he or she eventually graduates. However, many architectural firms have problems in stabilizing their work load and others cannot afford to do on-the-job training for new hires because of austerity measures. Another critical aspect of the completion of a project relies on the strong working relationship with clients, users, government agencies and other parties who all have a hand in the project.

        So how did an educational imbalance develop? It is because majority of an aspiring architect's education is through “the Studio” which uses a learning format that allows students to develop their own projects while they are guided and criticised by their teachers. Unfortunately, the faculty teaching students in the Studio setting subscribes to the school of thought of architecture as art. To remedy the educational imbalance, changes should be allowed in the Studio to allow students to further explore the aspects of architecture as science and practice and integrate this into the curriculum.

Educational Imbalances Occurring in Adult Education Programs

        The factors that can contribute to an educational imbalance in adult education programs include the environment, the variation of communication skills between students as well as the varying levels of aptitude among students. This is caused by continuing education serving as a vehicle drawing adult students from all backgrounds for reasons ranging from fulfillment of a curiosity or hobby to advancement in terms of employment. Let us discuss each of these factors one by one:

• Environmental 

        There is a tendency between different regions, localities and groups of people to accommodate the needs of their adult students in an equal manner. However, the effect of globalisation has made it possible for a small global village to be created through the use of technology, therefore having more and more older students from diverse backgrounds opting for continuing education. When a variety of viewpoints, cultures and ways of life clash in a classroom for adult students, the resulting environment will cause an educational imbalance which will hinder learning. Whether this will be a detriment or a source of strength depends on the educator, the program being followed and the school's overall attitude in dealing with this situation.

• Communication Skills 

         Each person has has own communication style and needs, which is also another factor for educational imbalance and will need to be addressed in the classroom. The learning style of adults is different from those of children because adult learning can only start once adults feel comfortable enough to communicate with their teachers and fellow students.

• Levels of Ability 

         Adults also have different levels of abilities and bring different kinds of talent into the classroom. When this is combined with communication issues and environmental factors, the resulting educational imbalances will become not only more pronounced, it will also create a tense atmosphere in activities such as classroom discussion or group projects.

Educational Imbalance in the Job Market

Educational imbalance can be present in the job market. The job market should be a place where educational qualifications and jobs are matched. However, we can observe that many jobs accept, welcome or encourage applicants who are not educationally suitable to them. Supply and demand for graduates can also be a form of imbalance in education. There are certain times in which graduates in in demand careers are few while graduates in saturated fields are many.

• The Job Market – The job market manifests a form of educational imbalance. There have been an increase in jobs which are lenient on the qualifications of graduates. There are job advertisements which indicate that they prefer graduates of the study field corresponding to the career field; they further indicate that they also will still greatly consider applicants who are not graduates in the study field corresponding to the career. To add, because of the dual and multi-training of graduates, students and drop outs, many companies do not specify study fields that they require of graduates or non-graduates in their job advertisements. They indicate that any graduate, for example, in any course can be considered for the position.

• Supply Of and Demand For Graduates – Supply and demand are factors and they can be factors in educational imbalance. Every now and then, certain career fields experience over or lack of supply of graduates. Correspondingly, certain study fields experience over or lack of demand for their graduates. For example, nursing graduates were in demand in previous years because there were still few graduates compared to vacant nursing jobs. In response to the demand, many students study nursing with the hope of landing jobs after they graduate. However, as time passed by the vacant positions were filled and the newer graduates arrive at the job market only to find out that the demand have been satisfied and there is now shortage of vacant positions.

The Educational Imbalance in Public Elementary Education in The U.S.

     

        As junior year high school students, some of our teachers would always tell us that we should be aware and conscious of the current problems and issues that face the public funded education system in the United States since we are studying in a publicly funded high school. One of our teachers gave us a research report assignment about the topic of current problems or issues currently facing the publicly funded high school system in the U.S. I focused my report on the educational imbalance that is facing various public high school systems in the country.

        In my research report topic, I focused on the educational imbalance of how our level of competitiveness and the rates of passing grades of examinations in science, mathematics and technology subjects are falling compared to the rates of passing grades in developed countries in Europe and Asia. Based on the books and reading materials that I read and studied in the library and from online materials in the Internet, I found out that in the last 25 years, many elementary school students in the fourth grade level have only moderately improved their skills in mathematics. But in the same period, the elementary school students in the 12th grade level have barely or not improved at all in their skills in mathematics, which means that many 12th grade students have a hard time in solving basic problems in mathematics.

        I also read educational studies by experts that this educational imbalance of barely or not improving level of skills in mathematics from the 8th grade to the 12th grade levels would affect the students when they graduate from high school. They would enter universities and colleges at a level of educational preparedness that would not equip them for the subjects in the sciences, mathematics and technology that is taken up in the higher education level.

Educational Imbalance and Unequal Distribution of Wealth

Educational imbalance can be related to the unequal distribution of wealth. In today's world, the disparity of the living conditions of the rich and the poor is glaring. Wealthy individuals multiply their wealth while poor people find their lives continually becoming more and more difficult as each day comes.

• Disparity and Discrepancy – The presence of educational imbalance can be seen in the form of the rich people being able to go to the best universities and making their lives better and their future much brighter. On the other hand, poor individuals even cannot afford the cheapest schools and are denied the chance to make their lives better through education. Education, specifically higher education, has become a luxury which only the well to do has the resources to enjoy while the least fortunate need to focus on thinking where to secure their next meal from and no longer have space in their brain to think about education. They even believe that nobody gets rich through education. Going back to the better off families, they do not need education to uplift their living but they are the ones who has the funds to access education.

• Despair – The world in general and the marginalised poor can only pin their hopes on the governmental and charitable educational programs which are not that progressive. We have no choice but to count on them as the poor people's desperate chance. The middle class is even slowly fading away and mostly assimilating to the lower class. There is a possibility that it will be extinct.

• Deluge – With the erosion of the middle class, the upper class which is comprised of the richest few could be the only ones remaining in education. This would happen if the government, charities and civil society will no longer be able to fund free education for the poor.

Wealth in Life and the Government's Role in Educational Imbalance

        Educational imbalance can be in the form of the gap between differing sections of society using education as a point of comparison. For example, children and students who come from higher earning families are compared to their counterparts who are from low income families. Statistics is used in doing the study and the presentation. For example, a study may come up with the resulting information showing that more children from well to do families are able to achieve more in the area of education that those who come from marginalised families.

• Wealth in Life – The results of educational imbalance can be gathered as data and reported as information. In gathering the data, students doing the research on this topic can use criteria like level of education achieved, rate of speed of accomplishment and quality of the educational resources. It is more likely that students who come from families with better income will reach higher levels of education. In other words, the families of these students can afford to send them to higher studies. On the other hand, families with less income are not able to send students to the university or college. There are many students from these families who are able to go to higher learning because of self support and sufficiency. Thus, there is an imbalance in education between those who have more in life and those who have less.

• Important Role of the Government – Topics about educational imbalance almost always involve the shortage of government funds for programs in education against the need of the citizenry for the programs. The news has featured, every now and then, students in government funded universities and colleges go on strikes or demonstrations because government is not financially able in sustaining and adapting financial matters to keep pace with the increasing need.

Human Capital Theory in Educational Imbalance

Educational Imbalance is discussed by putting to light the significance of education as a factor of economic development. To do so, several hypotheses should be considered. Studies prove that education's overall positive effect on the development of the economy is greatly decreased because of imbalance in the tertiary education. The social returns of the lower educational levels is reduced by economic inequality and repression of political rights.

• Educated labour Force – When we discuss educational imbalance, we can start with theories. Human capital theory elaborates that, rather than considered merely as a consumable good, education is an investment in future skills. Since the author Lucas released a seminal article in 1988, education has been considered as one of the main factors in generating endogenous growth in developing long-term growth models. The economic principle behind this proposition is that economies with labour forces which are better educated has the more potential to using in better ways the material elements of production and relevant technical knowledge.

• Critics – In discussing educational imbalance , we also talk about the criticism against the human capital approach. The human capital approach in education as a factor in labour force and economic development, however, is claimed to have unsound theoretical foundations according to its critics, among whom is Klees in 1991. According to them, the human capital theory's basic assumption that education raises productivity is just taken as given; that the proof is argued to be in the domain of sciences other than economics if it is to be discussed. Thus, economists often attribute the accumulation of human capital as a linear function of time devoted to education because of this claimed lack of deeper insights. The specification can be misleading because there may be different results of education at different ages, different levels of education and other structural breaks according to Helberger in 1988. Hence, the critical questions are how does education alter individuals and what effects it has overall.