Which concept refers to the process by which individuals learn to become…

Concept: Educational sociology separates the planned machinery of schooling from the social process of learning to live within a group. Socialization is the name of that social process: the lifelong process through which an individual internalises the norms, values, customs, roles and language of a group and thereby comes to function as a member of it. Its principal agencies are the family, the peer group, the school, religion and the media.

Application: The stem asks for a process by which a person learns to become a member of a community, that is, the acquisition of a group’s norms and roles rather than the delivery of lesson content or the plan of study. The concept that names this process is socialization. Primary socialization takes place in the family during early childhood, while secondary socialization takes place later through the school, the peer group and wider society.

Contrast: The remaining three terms belong to different categories:

• Instruction is a teaching act — the planned delivery of a specific skill or body of content within a lesson. It is one means through which learning is arranged, not the overall process of becoming a member of a group.

• Curriculum is a plan — the prescribed set of subjects, learning experiences and objectives for a course or stage of schooling. It answers what is taught, not how a person acquires membership of a group.

• Education society is an organisation — a registered body that founds, funds and administers schools or colleges. It is a management structure, not a process of learning.

Result: The concept described in the stem is socialization.