THE FOUR PILLARS OF EDUCATION

Learning Outcomes
 Identify the four pillars of education
 Internalize the importance of living in harmony with each other and with the environment
 Demonstrate solidarity of mankind regardless of race, skills, and culture in various
situations
 Apply the four pillars of education in different learning experiences

Introduction
“Learning the Treasure Within”, the report of the International Commission on Education for
the Twenty-first Century, chaired by Jacques Delors, and published by UNESCO in 1996
provides new insights into education for the 21 st Century. It stresses that each individual must be
equipped to seize learning opportunities throughout life, both to broaden her/his knowledge,
skills, and attitudes, and adopt to a changing, complex and inter-dependent world. This is
referred to as “lifelong learning.

What Are the Four Pillars of Education?

The International Commission on Education for the 21 st Century advocates four pillars of
education. The four pillars of education are proposed as a framework to understand what
students need to acquire and develop in themselves.
Figure 4 below shows the overview of the four pillars of education.

What do the Four Pillars mean to you?

The framework organized lifelong learning into
four pillars: learning to know, learning to do, learning
to live together, and learning to be which are
fundamental in reshaping 21st century education.
Learning to know
 Implies learning how to learn by developing one's concentration, memory skills and
ability to think
 Includes the development of the faculties of memory, imagination, reasoning, problem
solving, and the ability to think in a coherent and critical way
 Involves the development of knowledge and skills that are needed to function in the
world
 The skills include literacy, numeracy, critical thinking
 It also presupposes learning to learn (autonomous learning) so as to benefits from the
“opportunities education provides throughout life”.

To learn to know students need to develop learn-to-learn skills as:

 Learning to read with comprehension
 Listening
 Observing
 Asking questions
 Data Gathering
 Note Taking
 Accessing, Processing and Selecting Information

What then is the role of the 21st century teacher?

In the 21st century, the emphasis is not on “what there is to know” but on “learning to
know”. The teacher then becomes a facilitator, catalyst, monitor and evaluator.

The teacher helps the learner’s to:

 Develop values and skills for searching for knowledge and wisdom
 Learn to learn
 Acquire a taste for learning throughout life
 Develop critical thinking
 Acquire tools and processes for understanding
 Develop intellectual curiosity

As a result, the learner is transformed – more Enlightened, more Empowered, more

Enriched.
Learning to do
 Involves the acquisition of skills that would enable individuals to effectively participate
in the global economy and society (Zhou, 2006)
 Implies the application of what learner’s have learned or known into practice and is
closely related to vocational technical education and work skills training and how one's
knowledge can be applied or put into practice as one progresses through life – from
school to the world of work
 Demonstrates that in order to learn to live and work together productivity and
harmoniously, we must first find peace within ourselves, expand our acceptance and
understanding of others, and continually strive towards living the values which enable us
to contribute more fully to the development of a peaceful and just society
 In anchored within the context of lifelong learning and technical and vocational education
and training, in preparation for life and the world of work
 Involves not only as putting knowledge and learning into practice innovatively thorough
skills development and practical know-how, but also as the development of competence,
life skills, personal qualities, aptitudes and attitudes

Learning to Do can no longer have the simple meaning of preparing someone for a clearly
defined task and can no longer be regarded as the simple transmission of more or less routine
practice… the ascendancy of knowledge and information… is bringing personal competence
to the fore… employers are seeking competence, a mix, specific to each individual, or skills,
social behavior, of an aptitude for teamwork, and of initiative and a readiness to take risks.
It is clear that technical and vocational education and training needs to encompass all four
pillars of learning in order to prepare the individual with the knowledge, skills, qualities, values,
attitudes, and abilities to communicate effectively and work together productively with other.
The other three pillars are learning to know, learning to be, and learning to live together.
It has become increasingly clear, since Edgar Faure presented his report to UNESCO in
1972, entitled Learning To Be: the World of Education Today and Tomorrow that learning
throughout life is here to stay. At that time in 1972, Faure envisioned education as “reaching out
to embrace the whole of society and the entire lifespan of the individual” and imagined a world
in which every person has the opportunity to keep learning throughout life and which lifelong
education would be the keystone of the learning society.
What then should be the focus of education in relation to the pillar Learning to DO?

Education, incorporating general and vocational education should enable the learner

 To launch into a lifelong continuum of knowledge, values, attitudes, competencies ands

skills
 The changing work environment requires the development of new knowledge and skills
 The increasing globalization and free trade resulting to New economic pressures requires
both individuals and businesses to continually upgrade knowledge and skills to maintain
their competitive edge
 The need to remain competitive throughout life raises the obvious concern of equitable
access to learning opportunities and also to meaningful work for all, and the urgency for
maintaining and advancing human dignity and worth
 The need for values in education and training associates with life skills, developing the
ability to manage one's life and time effectively, sand the capacity for team work,
responsible corporates and global citizenship and democracy

The development and internalization of such values in practice is, of course, an ongoing
process which must be continually reinforced through both formal and non-formal education and
training throughout life.

To summarize, learning to do involves putting knowledge and learning into practice

innovatively through
 Skill Development
 Practical Know-how
 Development of Competence
 Life Skills Personal Qualities
 Aptitudes;
 Attitudes

Learning To Live Together

Of the four pillars of education, “learning to live together” is the one most vital to building a
genuine and lasting culture of peace in both the Asia-Pacific region and throughout the world.
The three other pillars – “learning to know”, “learning to do”, and “learning to be” – are the
bases for learning to live together.
Learning to Live Together

 Involves the development of social skills and values such as respect and concerns for
others, social and interpersonal skills and an appreciation of the diversity among people.
 Is a dynamic, holistic, and lifelong process through which mutual respect, understanding,
caring and sharing, compassion, social responsibility, solidarity, acceptance and tolerate
of diversity among individuals are groups (ethnic, social, cultural, religious, national and
regional) are internalized and practiced together to solve problems and to work towards a
just and free, peaceful, and democratic society
 Involves developing, broadening or changing perceptions of an attitude toward ourselves
and others and consequently, the way we behave in our daily encounters and interactions
with others.

Learning to live together is one of the major issues in education today, since the
contemporary world is too often a world of violence. Although there has been conflict
throughout history, new factors are accentuating the risk, particularly the extraordinary capacity
for self-destruction humanity has created in the course of the 20th century. Therefore, we believe
it is necessary to devise a form of education which will make it possible to avoid conflicts or
resolve them peacefully by promoting learning to live together with others, developing a spirit of
respect for the values of pluralism and the need for mutual understanding and peace.

What is the role of the teacher in relation to the third pillar?

 The teacher helps the students to develop an understanding of other people and
appreciation of interdependence since we live in a closet connected world
 The teacher helps students to realize the value of being able to live together in their
gradually enlarging world: home, school, community, town, city, province country, and
the world as a global village:
 The teacher provides a safe and accepting learning environment for learning
 The teacher helps students develop life and career skills as social and cross-cultural skills
and flexibility and adaptability

Learning To Be
Last, but far from at least, is the fourth pillar: learning to be which is the dominant theme of
the Edgar Faure report Learning To Be: The World of Education Today and Tomorrow,
published by UNESCO.
 The Learning to Be pillar, first used as the title of the 1972 Report to UNEXCO of the
International Commission on the Development of Education, refers to the role of education in
developing all the dimensions of the complete person: the physical, intellectual, emotional, and
ethical integration of the individual into a complete man, which is a broad definition of the
fundamental aims of educational (Delors, 1996, p. 156)
The International Commission in Education for the 21 st Century picks up on this theme and
clearly sets as a fundament principle that “education” must contribute to the all-around
development of each individual – mind and body, intelligence, sensitivity, aesthetic sense,
personal responsibility, and spiritual values. It describes Learning to Be S, “the complete
fulfillment of man, in all the richness of his personality, the complexity of his forms of
expression and his various commitments – as individual, member of a family and of a
community, citizen and producer, inventor of techniques and creative dreamer” (Delors,
1996, p. 95)
The Delors Commission further defines Learning to Be as a “dialectical process, which starts
with knowing oneself and then opens to relationships with others. In that sense, education is
above-all an inner journey whose stages correspond to those of the continuous maturing
personality… it is this a very individualized process and at the same time a process of
constructing social interaction” (Delors, 1996, p. 95)
APNIEVE's definitions of learning to be is founded in a humanistic philosophy of education
which aims at the overall development of the human person as an individual and as a member of
society. It takes account of all the powers, faculties and innate potentials within the human
person, respecting the dignity and worth of each individual. It underscores the humanistic
dimensions in quality of education, highlighting the role of values and attitudes towards a
holistic and integrated approach to education.
Faure' s report refers to the individual as “unfinished,” “divided,” and “incomplete.”
Education therefore must be directed towards the development of the “complete man”. The
physical, intellectual, emotional and ethical integration of the individual into a complete man is a
broad definition of the fundamental aim of education”.
According to Paulo Freire, an outstanding Brazilian educator, recipient of the UNESCO
International Award on Education, the Comenius Medal, “humanization is man's ultimate
vocation and destiny,” and this can be accomplished through conscientization. Conscientization
is the process of becoming aware of the contradictions existing within oneself and in society and
of gradually being able to bring about personal and social transformation. This begins when the
individual becomes fully conscious of his own creative potential and aims at becoming fully
human.
 The Faure Report, Learning to Be, summarizes the universal aims of education as follows:
1. Towards a scientific humanism, based on scientific and technological training.
Command of scientific thought and language has become indispensable in today's world.
Objective knowledge, however, must be directed towards action and primarily in the
service of humankind. Here one can speak of science at the service of development.
Citizens of the new millennium must learn to be scientific humanists.
2. Creativity means preserving each individual's originality and creative ingenuity, along the
individual: encouraging the use of one's gifts, aptitudes and personal forms of expression
without cultivating egoism, and paying attention to the individual's specific traits without
overlooking collective activity and welfare. This can be done when there is respect for
the creativity of others and other cultures. Perez de Cuellar refers to “creative diversity”
in his report of the World Commission of Culture to UNESCO, 1996.
3. Towards social commitment consists of preparing the individual for life in society,
moving him/her into a coherent moral, intellectual and affective universe composed of
sets of values, interpretations of the past and conceptions of the future; a fundamental
store of ideas and information; a common inheritance. An individual comes into a full
realization of his/her own social dimensions through active participation in the
functioning of social structures and a personal commitment to reform, when necessary.
This, in essence is the practice if democracy.
4. Towards the complete man respects the many-sidedness of personality as essential in
education of the individual is to develop for himself/herself as well as for others. This
calls for a search for balance among the various intellectual, ethical, emotional, physical
and spiritual components of personality.

Learning to Be believes in a holistic and integrated approach to educating the human person,
as an individual and as a member of society and focuses on the full development of the
dimensions and capacities of the human person: physical, intellectual, aesthetic, ethical,
economic, socio-cultural, political, and spiritual as he/she relates with others in the family,
community, nation, region and the world.
Learning To Be operated on the fundamental principle that education must contribute to the
total development of the whole person – body and soul, mind and spirit, intelligence and
emotion, creativity and sensitivity, personal autonomy and responsibility, social conscience and
commitment, human, ethical, cultural and spiritual values. A definition and explanation of these
fundamental and dominant values serve as basic guidelines for a holistic approach to learning,
utilizing a valuing process, which takes into consideration the cognitive, affective, and
behavioral powers of the learner.
 The teaching-learning cycle of the valuing process starts with knowing and understanding
oneself and others, leading to the formation of a wholesome concept, a sense of identity, self-
esteem, self-worth and self-confidence, as well as a genuine respect for others. It proceeds to
valuing, reflecting, choosing, accepting, appreciating, and acquiring needed skills such as
communication, decision-making, and finally results into action. It seeks an integration of the
learner’s knowledge, values, and attitudes, abilities and skills to bring about his/her full
development. (A UNESCO-APNIEVE Sourcebook 2, 2002).

Summary
The four pillars of education stressed in the report of the International Commission on
Education for the 21st century are: learning to know, learning to do, learning to live together,
and learning to be. These pillars are crucial to peace and mutual understanding by
emphasizing the value of education as a manifestation of the spirit of unity. This stems form
the will to live together as active members of a global village and contribute to attainment of
a culture of peace.