1. Philosophy of Education
1.1. Existentialism and Phenomenology
1.2. Goal of Education
1.2.1. The philosophy of existentialism and phenomenology’s main viewpoint is “to help students understand and appreciate themselves as unique individuals who accept complete responsibility for their thoughts, feelings, and actions. To educate the whole person, not just the mind, since feeling is not divorced from reason in decision making. To help the learner become fully his authentic self” (Balangatan, I)
1.2.2. Balangatan, I. (2014, July 24). Philosophy of Education: Existentialism. Retrieved March 7, 2015.
1.3. Role of the Teacher
1.3.1. Believes that the teacher needs to have understanding of their own life and their students’ lives so that they can help their students achieve their best in this world.
1.3.2. the role of the teacher is to provide diversity within the curriculum for individual learners because every child learns differently. Each student has their own unique way of learning. Teachers know that when it comes to learning not one size fits all so they are going to have to change their lessons to best fit the needs of their students.
1.4. Methods and Instructions
1.4.1. Use the instruction that their students learn best through. They view learning as very personal. They believe each child has a different learning style and that it is up to the teacher to figure it out. After the teacher has started figuring out how each child learns then they need to respect each method of instruction.
1.4.2. In the textbook, Exploring Education: An Introduction to the Foundations of Education, it says that “the teacher constantly rediscovers knowledge, the student discovers knowledge, and together they come to an understanding of the past, present, and future.”
1.5. Curriculum and Assessment
1.5.1. Their curriculum that is heavily biased toward humanities. Art, drama, music, and literature encourage personal interactions. They believe that literature is the most important because it can evoke responses in readers that can make them feel new levels of awareness.
1.5.2. There are no definite rules for the curriculum in this philosophy because it should be centered on the student’s needs. It should revolve around the children and not on the discrete subjects.
2. Schools as Organizations
2.1. School Process and School Cultures
2.1.1. According to Waller (p. 147), schools are separate social organizations because:
2.1.2. 1. They have a definite populations
2.1.3. 2. They have a clearly defined political structure, arising from the mode of social interactions characteristics of the school, and influenced by numerous minor processes of interaction
2.1.4. 3. They represent the nexus of a compact network of social relationships
2.1.5. 4. They are pervaded by a "we feeling"
2.1.6. 5. They have a culture that is definitely their own
2.2. Teachers, Teaching, and Professionalization
2.2.1. Teachers are expected to perform miracles with children but are not given the respect that they deserve.
2.2.2. Teachers will be key players in educational reform in the future.
2.3. Who Becomes a Teacher?
2.3.1. According to NCLB, teacher are "highly qualified" when they meet these three conditions
2.3.2. 1. A college degree
2.3.3. 2. Full certification or license
2.3.4. 3. Demonstrable content knowledge in the subject that they are teaching.
2.3.5. New elementary teachers must pass a state test of literacy and numeracy
2.4. The Nature of Teaching
2.4.1. Teaching is one of the must demanding professions
2.4.2. Teachers must be skilled in so many areas.
2.4.3. They take the role of many different people in a single child's life. These roles include: friend, nurturer, facilitator of learning, social worker, and many more
2.5. Underqualified Teachers
2.5.1. The No Child Left Behind Act gave light to the fact that there were many teachers that were unqualified
2.5.2. Most teachers meet the highly qualified standards of NCLB
2.5.3. One of the reasons a teacher can be underqualified is because a teacher went to school for one subject but teach a different subject
2.6. Teacher Professionalization
2.6.1. Many people say that teachers aren't or don't have to be professional because they don't see clients they have to impress. They have "one big client"
2.6.2. This is not true though. Teachers need to be very professional to keep their job, to impress their students and parents, because they are role models, and because it is the right thing to do.
3. Curriculum and Pedagogy
3.1. Social Efficiency
3.2. Believes that different groups of students, with different sets of needs and aspirations, should receive different types of schooling
3.3. Major Stakeholders
3.3.1. State Senator- Jefferson Sessions and Richard Shelby
3.3.2. House of Representatives- Bradley Byrne,Martha Roby, Mike D. Rogers, Robert Aderholt, Mo Brooks, Spencer Bachus, Terri Sewell
3.3.3. State Superintendent- Tommy Bice
3.3.4. Representative on State School Board- Mary Louise Stowe
3.3.5. Local Superintendent- Matt Massey (My math teacher in high school! He is doing a great job!)
3.3.6. Local School Board- Madison County
3.4. I love the Social Efficiency Curriculum because it is the one that looks at the difference in students. It knows that no two kids learn the same way so it tries to adapt lesson plans in a way that the teacher can reach everyone
3.5. Transformative Method
3.6. The purpose of education is to change the student in some meaningful way: Intellectually, creatively, spiritually, and emotionally
3.7. They reject the authoritarian relationship between teacher and student
3.8. They believe that teaching and learning are inextricably linked
4. Equality of Opportunity
4.1. Class
4.1.1. Students from different social classes have different learning experience. There are a few different reasons for this.
4.1.2. One reason is that education is extremely expensive. Children from high income families can go to private schools and then later go to nice or Ivy league colleges. Those from lower and middle income can go to public school but have an issue with affording college (Everyone needs to look into Pell Grants and Financial Aid though!)
4.2. Race
4.2.1. Despite the Civil Rights legislation of the 1960's minorities still have a more difficult time in school
4.2.2. They have worse grades, lower ACT and SAT scores, higher drop out rates, and are more likely to not continue with their schooling after highschool
4.3. Gender
4.3.1. Historically women weren't even allowed to go to school. Woman stayed at home with the children and did household chores.
4.3.2. Now woman are less likely to drop out of school, have higher reading and writing scores, and are equal to men in other subjects
4.4. Special Needs
4.4.1. In the late 1960s parents started pushing for schools to allow children with special needs to attend. They may earn differently, and not as fast, and have other problems but that does not mean they should be discriminated against in the school setting.
4.4.2. There is still conflict going on about Special Needs students in school but many things have changed. Schools have to allow special needs children. There are classrooms and teachers that specifically teach them. They are allowed in regular classrooms if their school and parents think that they are able to perform successfully in said class.
5. Educational Inequality
5.1. Cultural Deprivation Theories
5.2. Suggests that working-class and nonwhite families often lack the cultural resources, such as books and other educational stimuli, and thus arrive at school at a significant disadvantage
5.3. Students who achieve poorly because they have not been raised to acquire the skills and dispositions required for satisfactory academic achievement
5.4. A great article on the effect of cultural deprivation on education: http://revisesociology.com/2014/02/15/the-effect-of-cultural-deprivation-on-education/
5.5. Because of this Theory policy makers sought to develop programs aimed not at schools but rather the environment of these people
5.6. Many public pre-schools have been opening around the world because of this theory. It is being said that if young children can not get these materials at home or from their parents then they should get them at school.
5.7. People attack this theory and say that it is taking pressure off of teachers and blaming parents instead. But the facts remain that most children from working-class and nonwhite families enter Kindergarten at a disadvantage and this is one of the best theories that explain why. Policy makers should be looking into ways to make this better.
6. Educational Reform
6.1. School Based Reforms
6.2. School Choice, Charter Schools, and Tuition Vouchers
6.2.1. Charter schools are public schools that are exempt from the many regulations that traditional private schools have
6.2.2. Tuition Vouchers give children from low income families the ability to go to school and learn like those from high income families. It also makes urban schools better themselves or they will be closed down.
6.2.3. Many educational researchers and policy analysts indicated that must public schools were failing in terms of student achievement, discipline, and morality
6.3. School-Business Partnership
6.3.1. Business leaders became concerned in the 1980's that schools were not teacher kids to be "career ready" so many business leaders started teaming up with schools to lay out plans that would make sure they were
6.4. Privatization
6.4.1. The traditional distinction between public and private education became a blurred, because private education companies were becoming increasingly involved in public education in many ways
6.5. School-to-Work Programs
6.5.1. School-Business soon morphed into a School-to-Work program. This program is for those student that do not want to go to college or college just isn't for them. This program gets them ready for working in a career where they don't need to go to college but still need specific knowledge
6.6. Teacher Education
6.6.1. When schools were failing it was made obvious that the teaching program needed to change so that there would be more competent teachers. These were the three major points:
6.6.2. 1. The previous lack of rigor and intellectual demands in the teacher education programs
6.6.3. 2. The need to attract and retain competent teachers
6.6.4. 3. The necessity to reorganize the academic and professional components of teacher education programs at both the baccalaureate and post- baccalaureate levels
6.7. Teacher Quality
6.7.1. How to recuit and retain high qualified teacher is a huge probelm that schools are having
6.7.2. A study shows that laying off and pink slipping teachers before they reach tenor is a big reason why.
6.8. The Effective- School Movement
6.8.1. A school effective movement was passed that says we need to look at good schools and try to copy what they are doing to make the every school just as good.