Education, as an Institution, Moved

¶ … education, as an institution, moved toward a state of equilibrium?

The simple definition of institutions reveals that education has moved toward a state of equilibrium, and by this I mean that the definition of institution, and consequently the educational institution, has mutated along the years to include various and more complex features, such as the physical form of the institution, the rules and regulations that govern it or the generated outcomes. Their inclusion in a more comprehensive formulation suggests the achievement of equilibrium.

Then, the educational institutions tend to implement similar regulations, and the students, teachers and other players in the field have to obey these regulations. This then means that the expected outcome is similar to all students and teachers, meaning once again that a state of equilibrium could be achieved. "An equilibrium is a combination of actions (strategies) such that no agent has an incentive to deviate from her chosen actions unilaterally, that this under the condition that the other actors choose the equilibrium actions. The stability of an equilibrium is to the fact that no (rational) actor could gain by shifting to another strategy unilaterally" (Voss, 2001). Otherwise put, all students, teachers and other actors are governed by the same principles, they have similar goals and will retrieve similar outcomes -- this means that a state of equilibrium has been reached within the educational institutions.

Another point to be made relative to the equilibrium of the educational institutions revolves around the rules that are implemented. These are being constantly reconsidered and re-adapted to fit the emerging needs. This then means that however the educational institutions are close to reaching perfect equilibrium, they still strive to improve their status. In other words, the educational system is still moving towards equilibrium.

A final argument in supporting the recent efforts the educational system has done to move towards a state of equilibrium revolves around the idea of implementing the balanced thought into the minds of the actors. This will ensure that they increase their efforts and sustain the achievement of perfect equilibrium. In this order of ideas, teachers have developed and implemented numerous social games -- such as the coronation games or the iterated prisoner's dilemma games -- which are constantly being readjusted to better satisfy the growing the needs of the educational institutions.

2. What aspects of teaching might impact this equilibrium?

Achieving educational equilibrium depends directly on all actors playing by the same rules, sharing the same principles, values and following, if not the same, at least similar goals. And this rule is pivotal for equilibrium. Considering then that an actor, be this the teacher, decides to subject to different rules, have different principles and a different desiderate, the equilibrium of the educational institution will be threatened. Otherwise put, the professor can impact the institutional equilibrium by no longer subjecting to the rules that govern an institution.

Directly linked to modifying the rules of equilibrium, the teaching practices can impact the equilibrium by manifesting diverse human interactions. This basically translates into a breaking of the patterns of social interactions, which will perturb the institutional balance.

Then, an impact can also be achieved even if the players behave in accordance with the rules, but they do this at varying degrees or in different manners. To better understand, take the example of a professor implementing coronation games and another promoting iterated prisoner's dilemma games. Both teachers respect the rules of the educational institution, but implement different methodologies and will likely retrieve different results. Hence, even if they both respect the same rules, the fact that they retrieve different outcomes could materialize in a disturbance of the educational equilibrium.

To impact the equilibrium of the educational institutions, the teaching practice must be efficient. This does not necessarily imply the communication of large amounts of information, but rather the assurance that the most vital pieces of the information transmitted are well understood and applied by the students.

The personal skills and characteristics of the professors are extremely relevant to achieving and maintaining educational success. And their features are in turn determined by a mixture of social factors. For instance, a Muslim teacher might have a different approach of the war on terrorism than an American professor. Also, the equilibrium could be influenced based on the society where the teaching practices are implemented. The outcomes are expected to be different in societies divided by certain criteria, such as collectivism or individualism.