My foundation of education
by Holly Stovall
1. GENERIC NOTATIONS: Dewey's form of pragmatism-instrumentalism and experimentalism- was founded on the new psychology, behaviorism, and the philosophy of pragmatism. Dewey wanted attainment of a better society through education. Dewey's progressive methodology rested on the notion that children were active, organic beings, growing and changing, and thus required a course of study that would reflect their particular stages of development.
2. Educational Inequality
2.1. Functionalists believe that the role of schools is to provide a fair and meritocratic selection process for sorting out the best and brightest individuals, regardless of family background
2.2. Functionalist vision of a just society is one where individual talent and hard work based on universal principles of evaluation are more important than ascriptive characteristics based on particularistic methods of evaluation.
2.3. Cultural Deprivation Theory - Critics argue that it removes the responsibility for school success and failure from schools and teachers, and places it on families. It also suggests that it blames the victims of poverty for the effects of poverty rather than placing the blame where it belongs.
2.4. School financing - public schools are financed through a combination of revenues from local, state, and federal funds. However, the majority of funds come from state and local taxes, with local property taxes a significant source. This means that the schools around the homes of poverty will have less funding.
2.5. Curriculum/Ability Grouping - Critics of tracking suggest that homogeneous grouping results in unequal education for different groups, with differences in academic outcomes often due to the differences in school climate, expectations, pedagogic practices, and curriculum between tracks. Some researchers argue that discrepancies in the amount of instruction are responsible for these differences.
2.6. Do schools reproduce inequality? Based on evidence, the conclusion is they do not, solely by themselves.
3. Sociology of Education
3.1. Functional Theory- support independence of social system; view society kind of like a machine (one part works off of another); has a moral values foundation
3.2. Effects of Schooling on Individuals - 1)teacher behavior - teachers are role models, instructional leaders and they set standards for students.
3.3. Effects of Schooling on Individuals - 2) Knowledge and attitudes - Research indicates that differences between schools in terms of their academic programs and policies do make differences in student learning.
3.4. The earliest sociologist to embrace the functional point of view about the relation of school and society was Emile Durkheim (1858-1917), who virtually invented sociology of education in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
3.5. Determinism (behaviorism)- where actions are determined by external forces
3.6. Voluntarism (existentialism)- individuals are capable of freely shaping the world
4. Politics of Education
4.1. Conservative - Social evolution is a process that enables the strongest individuals to survive and looks at human and social evolution as adaptation to changes in environment.
4.2. Conservative view of social problems - place emphasis on the individual and suggests that individuals have capacity to earn or not earn their place within a market economy; problems can be addressed at individual level.
4.3. Traditional Vision - view schools as necessary to the transmission of traditional values of U.S. society such as hard work, family unity, and individual initiative. They believe you need to work to earn what you get.
4.4. Educational Policy/Reform - Conservatives support the following: Return to basics, including strengthening of literacy skills, such as reading and writing, and other forms of traditional learning. Return to traditional academic curriculum, including history, literature, and the canons of Western Civilization. Introduce accountability measures for students, including minimum standards of performance and knowledge. Introduce free market mechanisms in the educational marketplace.
4.5. Conservatives definition of educational problems - 1. Decline of Standards; 2. Decline of Cultural Literacy; 3. Decline in values of civilization; 4. Decline of authority
4.6. Purposes of Schooling -1. Intellectual is to teach basic cognitive skills such as reading, writing, and math. 2. Political is to inculcate allegiance to existing political order; to prepare citizens who will participate in political order, etc; 3. Social is to help solve social problems; 4. Economic is to prepare students for their later occupational roles and to select, train, and allocate individuals into the division of labor.
5. Educational Reform
5.1. Educational reform approach - stresses that school level reform alone is necessary but insufficient, and that societal and community level reforms are necessary. This approach was founded by Pedro Noguera and Helen Ladd.
5.2. Vouchers - Voucher advocates argue that school choice will have 3 important educational impacts. 1- Provides low-income parents with the same choices as middle-class parents. 2. It will provide better learning environments for low-income students and will result in higher student achievement. 3. Urban public schools will be forced to improve or close their school doors.
5.3. School to Work Programs - There are 3 core elements. 1. school-based learning 2. work-based learning 3. connecting activities
5.4. Teacher Education - 1. Get serious about standards, for both students and teachers. 2. Reinvent teacher preparation and professional development. 3. Fix teacher recruitment and put qualified teachers in every classroom. 4. Encourage and reward teacher knowledge and skill. 5. Create schools that are organized for students and teacher success.
5.5. Effective School Movement founded by Ron Edmonds showed there were 5 key factors that define school success. - 1. high expectations for all students, and staff acceptance of responsibility for student learning 2. instructional leadership on the part of the principal 3. a safe and orderly environment 4. a clear and focused mission concerning instructional goals shared by the staff 5. frequent monitoring of student progress.
5.6. School Finance Reforms - Demonstrate potential to improve schools for low-income and minority children, but by themselves they are limited to what can be done.
6. Schools as Organizations
6.1. Who becomes a teacher? Anyone that is considered highly qualified. 1) A college degree 2) Full certification 3) Can demonstrate content knowledge.
6.2. Nature of teaching- According to Heck and Williams, a teacher assumes many roles such as colleague, friend, nurturer of learning, researcher, program developer, administrator, decision maker, professional leader, and community activist.
6.3. Underqualified Teachers - (out-of-field); Teachers are teaching subjects that do not match their training or education.
6.3.1. Included
6.3.2. Included
6.3.3. Excluded
6.4. Teacher Professionalization - Dan Lorite said that teachers receive their income from "one big client".
6.5. Goodland;s Research - 1) A debilitating lack of prestige in teacher education enterprise 2) Lack of program coherence 3) Separation of theory and practice 4) A stifling regulated conformity
6.6. Sociologist Dan Lorite argued that teaching, particularly elementary school teaching, is only partially professionalized.
7. History Of U.S. Education
7.1. Child-Centered Reform = Schools should tailor their curriculums to the stages of child development.
7.1.1. Define actions as necessary
7.2. G. Stanley Hall (1844-1924), referred to as "the Darwin of the mind" believed that children, in their development, reflected stages of development of civilization
7.3. Arguments by Hall - traditional schools stifled the child's natural impulses, and he suggested that schools should individualize instruction and attend to the needs and interests of the children they educate.
7.4. Democratic-Liberal School = believe that the history of U.S. education involves the progressive evolution, albeit flawed, of a school system committed to providing equality of opportunity for all.
7.5. Supporters of Democratic-Liberal School view were; Ellwood cubberly, Merle Curti, and Lawrence A. Cremin.
7.6. Democratic-Liberals's view schools optimistically. They also believe that the U.S. educational system must continue to move closer to each, without sacrificing one or the other too dramatically.
8. Philosophy of Education
8.1. KEY RESEARCHERS: Researchers to whom credit is given to for the founding of Pragmatism are George Sanders Peirce, William James, and John Dewey.
8.2. VISION: A pragmatist vision of schools is social order and student centered.
8.3. GOAL OF EDUCATION: Looks at schools as a place where ideas can be implemented, challenged, and restructured, with the goal of providing students with the knowledge of how to improve social order. Dewey's philosophy of education made a conscious attempt to balance the social role of the school with its effects on the social, intellectual, and personal development of individuals. "dialectic of freedom"
8.4. ROLE OF TEACHER: In the progressive setting, the teacher is no longer the authoritarian figure from which all knowledge flows; rather, the teacher assumes the peripheral position of facilitator. The teacher encourages, offers suggestions, questions, and helps plan and implement the courses of study.
8.5. CURRICULUM & METHOD OF INSTRUCTION: Dewey proposed that children learn both individually and in group settings. He believed children should pose questions about what they want to know. This method of instruction is known today as problem-solving or inquiry method. Progressives use core curriculum or an integrated curriculum. Progressive educators support starting with a contemporary problem and working from the known to the unknown. Curriculum changes as the social order changes and as children's interests and needs change.
9. Curriculum and Pedagogy
9.1. Stakeholders in district: Senator District 6- Larry Stutts; House of Rep (Education Committee) Terri Collins; State Superintendent- Tommy Bice; Local Superintendent- Dr. Keith Davis; Local school board- Winfield Board of Education
9.1.1. Materials
9.1.2. Personel
9.1.3. Services
9.1.4. Duration
9.2. Developmentalist Curriculum- Related to needs and interests of students rather than needs of society. Emphasizes process of teaching as well as content. It is student centered, and concerned with relating curriculum to needs and interests of child
9.3. Transformative tradition- believe that the purpose of education is to change the student in some meaningful way, including intellectually, creatively, spiritually, and emotionally.
9.4. Some of the main contributors to transformative tradition, were Socrates, Plato, and John Dewey.
9.5. Some of the main contributors to the developmentalist curriculum were John Dewey and Piaget.
9.6. Shaping of Curriculum- 2 Models- 1. Pluralist model argues that the political system in the United States is not controlled by any one group. 2. Political Elite model- argues that a small number of powerful groups dominate the political landscape and have disproportionate control over political decision-making.
10. Equality of Opportunity
10.1. The percent of African Americans that graduated high school was 84% compared to whites 92.1%.
10.1.1. Dependencies
10.1.2. Milestones
10.2. African Americans even lag behind on the SAT, which is the unofficial entrance college examination.
10.2.1. Schedule
10.2.2. Budget
10.3. Coleman Study (Round One) - Group of minority scholars, led by Ron Edmonds of Harvard University set out to define characteristics of schools that made them effective. Edmonds argued that all students could learn and that differences between schools had an impact on student learning. Coleman's findings were that where a student attends school has little effect on cognitive growth or educational mobility.
10.3.1. KPI's