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Education Is Formative, Not Merely Informational
The Board of Educational Systems & Certification (BESC) uses the term education in a specific and intentional way.
Education is not limited to the transfer of information, the completion of lessons, or the delivery of instructional content. Those activities may be part of education, but they do not fully define it.
For BESC, education includes the structured development of a person’s knowledge, understanding, abilities, judgment, conduct, and capacity to function responsibly within real life, institutional, and responsibility-bearing settings.
This understanding of education shapes how BESC develops standards, authorizes frameworks, recognizes professional roles, and evaluates educational systems.
BESC Definition of Education
BESC defines education as:
"Education is the structured and intentional development of a person’s knowledge, understanding, abilities, judgment, conduct, and capacities to function, decide, act, and grow within life, societal, and responsibility-bearing contexts." (BESC-DEF-001)
This definition reflects a central principle of BESC’s work:
Education is formative, not merely informational.
A person may receive information without being meaningfully educated. A person may complete instructional tasks without developing judgment, responsibility, or applied ability. BESC’s standards therefore consider not only what is presented to a learner, but what the educational process is intended to develop.
What Education Includes
For purposes of BESC authority and standards development, education may include:
Knowledge acquisition and understanding
Formation of judgment and decision-making ability
Development of habits, conduct, and responsibility
Cultivation of competencies necessary for participation in life and institutional settings
Integration of knowledge into behavior, practice, and applied action
This does not mean that every educational setting must address every area in the same way. Different systems, frameworks, roles, and programs may have different educational purposes.
However, BESC treats education as broader than content delivery alone. Education concerns what a learner is becoming able to understand, do, decide, carry, and apply within a defined context.
Education and Knowledge
Knowledge is essential to education, but education is not identical to knowledge.
A learner may know facts, terms, procedures, or concepts without being able to apply them appropriately. BESC’s understanding of education includes knowledge, but also asks whether that knowledge is being developed into understanding, ability, judgment, responsibility, or competent practice.
This distinction is important for educational standards. A system that only measures information recall may not fully evaluate whether education has occurred in the broader formative sense.
BESC standards may therefore consider both knowledge-based outcomes and applied educational outcomes, depending on the scope of the framework, role, or certification involved.
Education, Learning, Teaching, and Instruction
BESC distinguishes between education, learning, teaching, and instruction. These terms are related, but they are not identical.
Learning
Learning refers to the acquisition and integration of knowledge or skills by a learner.
Learning may result from teaching, instruction, experience, guided practice, observation, or participation. It may be demonstrated through understanding, recall, application, performance, or other assessable outcomes.
Learning is a necessary part of education, but learning alone does not always equal full educational formation.
Instruction
Instruction is the structured delivery of predefined content, procedures, directions, or tasks.
Instruction may include demonstration, repetition, guided procedure, or accurate delivery of material. It is valuable and often necessary, but by itself it does not always include responsibility for deeper comprehension, judgment, transferability, or personal formation.
Instruction can support education, but it is not the full scope of education.
Teaching
Teaching is the deliberate transmission, explanation, and facilitation of knowledge, concepts, and skills.
Teaching includes responsibility for helping a learner understand, acquire, and appropriately apply information or skills. Teaching is broader than instruction because it involves learner comprehension and learning processes, not only delivery of content.
Teaching serves education, but it does not exhaust the full meaning of education.
Education
Education includes learning, and it may include teaching and instruction, but it reaches further.
Education concerns the development of the learner’s knowledge, understanding, ability, judgment, conduct, responsibility, and capacity for meaningful action within a defined context.
This is why BESC treats education as a formative process.
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