Biography:
Dr. H. Blok (Henk) is educated as a psychologist. He works at the University of Amsterdam, Faculty for Social and Behavioural Sciences, Division Pedagogy and Educational Studies. He performs research in the educational domain. His speciality is research in primary education. From 1992 till 2000 he also acted as a teacher at a primary school, first at a regular primary school, later on at a school for special education.
In 1997 he published an article in the NRC (a leading Dutch newspaper) where he stood tall for home-education.
Some years later he published a review of research on the effectiveness of home education in comparison to school education. (Blok, H. (2004). Performance in home schooling: an argument against compulsory schooling in the Netherlands. International Review of Education, 50(1), 39-52.).
Topic:
Educational objectives in school and home education
Parents and their children who prefer education at school have, in some respect, an easy task. They don’t have to bother about educational objectives. Schools offer ready-made programs in which curricular goals are prescribed by law. However, if you choose to homeschool, you do have to think about the educational goals you want your children to strive for. Parents can take the lead by deciding about goals and curricular content. This option may be called subject-centred education. Otherwise the child may take the lead by deciding about goals, learning materials, etc. This approach is known as child-centred education or unschooling.
Whatever choice the homeschooling parents make, it is valuable that they have knowledge of the educational goals that are applicable in school education. These goals could be an inspiration. They also can be useful to parents to register (afterwards) the progress of their child.
