1. Philosophy of Education
1.1. Realism
1.1.1. Essentialism
1.1.1.1. Back to basics approach. Reading, Writing, and math for Elementary.
1.1.1.2. Teacher led classroom
1.1.1.3. Traditional
1.1.1.4. Theorists: E.D. Hirsh & William Bagley
1.2. Idealism
1.2.1. Perennialism
1.2.1.1. Teacher led classroom
1.2.1.2. Study the classics (such as the Iliad and the Odyssey) rather than use text books.
1.2.1.3. Theorists: Robert Hutchins and Mortimer Adler
1.3. Pragmatism
1.3.1. Progressivism
1.3.1.1. Learning by doing.
1.3.1.1.1. Based on experimentation and scientific inquiry.
1.3.1.1.2. Group work and collaborative learning activities.
1.3.1.2. Student centered classroom.
1.3.1.3. Progressivism in action
1.3.1.4. Theorists: John Dewey and Nel Noddings.
1.4. Neo-Marxism
1.4.1. Social reconstruction
1.4.1.1. Integrated study of academic subjects around socially meaningful actions
1.4.1.1.1. Instruction is based on authentic learning activities that help society and instruct the student.
1.4.1.1.2. Creates problem solvers that better society
1.4.1.2. Student led classroom.
1.4.1.3. Theorists: George S. Counts and Paulo Friere.
1.5. Existentialism
1.5.1. Student led classroom
1.5.1.1. Students determine their own pace and direction for learning.
1.5.1.2. Students choose their own subjects and evaluate/grade their own performance.
1.5.1.3. Based on learning more about oneself than traditional academic subjects.
1.5.2. Theorists: Maxine Greene and A.S. Neill.
1.5.3. Existentialism explained
2. Curriculum and Pedagogy
2.1. Traditional Approach
2.1.1. Views the curriculum as objective bodies of knowledge and examines ways that knowledge may be designed, taught, and evaluated.
2.1.2. Current approaches to curriculum focus on designing curriculum around goals and objectives, and to assess it in terms of student learning.
2.2. 4 Types of Curriculum
2.2.1. Social Efficiency Curriculum
2.2.1.1. Pragmatic/progressive in nature, with a belief that different groups of students have different needs, and should receive different types of education to meet those specific needs.
2.2.1.2. Based on idealism/perenialism philosophies of education.
2.2.2. Developmentalist Curriculum
2.2.2.1. Focuses on the needs and interest of each individual child at each particular developmental stage.
2.2.2.2. Based on progressive educational practices.
2.2.3. Social Meliorist Curriculum
2.2.3.1. Based on the social reconstructionist theory that schools should work to change society and help solve fundamental social problems.
2.2.3.2. Based on idealism/perennialism philosophies of education.
2.2.4. Humanist Curriculum
2.2.4.1. This view of curriculum believes the purpose of education is to present students the best of what have ever been thought or written.
2.2.4.2. Based from the idealist philosophy that knowledge of the traditional liberal arts as the basis of educated society.
2.3. Sociology of Curriculum
2.3.1. Functionalist Theory
2.3.1.1. The role of curriculum is to give students the knowledge, language, and values to ensure social stability, to further the common social order.
2.3.2. Functionalist vs. Conflict
2.3.3. Conflict Theory
2.3.3.1. Believes curriculum is a reflection of ideaology; they do not believe that schools teach liberal values such as tolerance and respect.
2.4. Curriculum includes:
2.4.1. Topics taught in schools.
2.4.2. Academic content.
2.4.3. A program of study.
2.4.4. A sequence of courses.
2.4.5. A series of experiences undergone by learners in a school.
2.4.6. Everything that goes on in the school, including extra activities, guidance, relationships.
2.5. Hidden Curriculum includes norms that are taught to students through implicit rules and messages, but is not written in the official curriculum. (ie. learning how to walk in line)
2.6. Null Curriculum is the curriculum that is specifically omitted from being taught in schools. (ie. not age appropriate, or not enough time to teach it.)
3. Politics of Education
3.1. Conservative
3.1.1. The conservative viewpoint has its origins in the 1800's and is base on the ideas of Social Darwinism.
3.1.1.1. Darwinism
3.1.2. Believe that individual achievement is determined by intelligence, hard work, and initiative
3.1.3. Believe there is a decline of standards, cultural literacy, values, and respect for authority.
3.1.4. Support a return to basics, traditional curriculum, and accountability.
3.1.5. Role of school
3.1.5.1. Provide educational training that ensures hard-working individuals to maximize economic and social productivity.
3.1.5.2. Socialize children into adult roles necessary to maintain social order.
3.1.5.3. Transmit cultural traditions through curriculum.
3.2. Liberal
3.2.1. The liberal perspective is based on the works of John Dewey and progressivism.
3.2.1.1. John Dewey
3.2.2. Concerned with equality of social and economic needs of the people.
3.2.3. Believe schools limit the chances of poor and minority children, while placing too much emphasis on authority and traditional curriculum.
3.2.4. Support quality with equality, effective research more culturally diverse curriculum, and a balance between standards and ensuring students can meet them.
3.2.5. Role of school
3.2.5.1. Ensure that all students have an equal opportunity to succeed in society.
3.2.5.2. Teach students to respect cultural diversity.
3.2.5.3. Enable the individual to develop talents, creativity, and sense of self.
3.3. Radical
3.3.1. Based on writings of German Economist and philosopher Karl Marx.
3.3.1.1. Karl Marx
3.3.2. Believes the capitalist system is the root of U.S. social problems.
3.3.3. Role of school
3.3.3.1. School should be used to eliminate inequalities in society. However, they believe equality in school is only an illusion.
3.4. Neo-Liberal
3.4.1. A combination of both conservative and liberal perspectives.
3.5. Purpose of Education
3.5.1. The political purpose of education is instill patriotism and each the basic laws of society.
3.5.2. The intellectual purpose of education is to teach the basic cognitive skills.
3.5.3. The social purpose of education is socialization.
3.5.4. The economic purpose of education is to produce productive members of society.
3.5.5. Noam Chomsky on the Purpose of Education
4. Schools as Organizations
4.1. Schools are powerful organizations that profoundly affect the lives of those children and adults who come in contact with them.
4.2. To understand education, one must look beyond the classroom itself and the interaction between teachers and student to the larger world where different interest groups compete with each other in terms of ideology, finances, and power.
4.2.1. Why do some schools have a more effective learning environment than others?
4.2.2. How do some schools create powerful organizational cultures and deeply influence a person's life and approach to learning?
4.3. School processes refer to the way in which school cultures are created and maintained.
4.3.1. Decentralized school system: each state maintains its autonomy, authority, and responsibility regarding education. (The federal government has little input.)
4.3.2. Consolidation and Centralization of Schools: during the past 80 years schools in the U.S. have consolidated so that education is more bureaucratic and less democratic.
4.4. What the sociologist have to say...
4.4.1. Sociologist Max Weber asserted that schools are social organizations that are bureaucratic in nature.
4.4.2. Willard Waller, and educational sociologist, asserted that schools are separate social organizations due to several reasons:
4.4.2.1. Schools have a definite population.
4.4.2.2. Schools have a clearly defined political structure.
4.4.2.3. Schools represent a central network of social relationships.
4.4.2.4. schools are permeated with a "WE" ideal, rather than a "ME" ideal.
4.4.2.5. Schools each have a definite culture that is specific to the individual school.
4.5. The No Child Left Behind Act mandates that teachers must be highly qualified by meeting these 3 qualifications:
4.5.1. Hold a college degree
4.5.2. Full certification in field of study.
4.5.3. Demonstrable knowledge of academic content in the field of study/certification.
4.5.4. Are you highly qualified?
5. Sociological Perspectives
5.1. The purpose of sociological inquiry is to focus on the influence of schooling on equity and opportunity for students.
5.2. Three Major Theories on Schools and Sociology
5.2.1. Functional Theory
5.2.1.1. Focuses on the ways that universal education serves the needs of society.
5.2.1.2. Functionalist Theory
5.2.1.3. When one part of the system is not working, it affects all other parts and creates social problems, which leads to social change.
5.2.2. Interactional Theory
5.2.2.1. Limits analysis of education to what is directly observed happening in the classroom. Focus is on how teacher expectations influence student performance, perceptions, and attitudes.
5.2.3. Conflict Theory
5.2.3.1. Conflict theorists see the educational system as perpetuating the status quo by dulling the lower classes into being obedient workers.
5.3. Effects of Schooling
5.3.1. The effects of schooling impact knowledge, employment, education and social mobility.
5.3.1.1. Knowledge
5.3.1.1.1. Develop problem solving skills and learn how to fit into society.
5.3.1.2. Employment
5.3.1.2.1. Job ready and prepared to be productive members of society.
5.3.1.3. Education
5.3.1.3.1. Able to add intellectual value to society.
5.3.1.4. Social Mobility
5.3.1.4.1. Gaining skills and knowledge that allows one to move from a lower socioeconomic status to a high socioeconomic status.
5.4. Inatiquate Schools.
5.4.1. Inadequate schools
5.4.2. Overcrowding
5.4.3. Poor condition of buildings
5.4.4. Lack of supplies and materials for teachers/students.
6. History of U.S. Education
6.1. 1635 the Boston Latin Grammer (secondary) school was established.
6.2. 1687-1890 The New England Primer was the first reading textbook.
6.2.1. It was designed for the American Colonies.
6.2.2. It became the most successful educational textbook published in the 18th century.
6.2.3. It was the foundation of most education in the 1890's.
6.3. 1779 Thomas Jefferson proposed the "Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge" which would provide free education to all children for the first three years of elementary school.
6.4. 1821 First public high school opens in Boston
6.5. 1837 Horace Mann became Secretary of the Board of Education.
6.5.1. Mann was a politician and educational reformer.
6.5.2. Argued that public education was the best way to turn children into responsible citizens.
6.5.3. Mann's reform is credited of the popularization of "normal schools" that trained professional teachers.
6.6. 1855 First Kindergarten in the U.S.
6.7. 1909 First junior high school opened in Ohio
6.8. 1919 Progressive Education Programs (promoted hands on, inquiry based learning).
6.9. Laws
6.9.1. 1874 Kalamazoo Case established the use of taxes to fun public schools.
6.9.2. 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson - landmark U. S. Supreme Court decision upholding laws requiring racial segregation in public facilities (such as schools) under principle of "separate but equal".
6.9.3. 1944 G.I. Bill of Rights - provided tuition and/or technical training to soldiers returning from WWII.
6.9.4. 1954 Brown v. Board of Education - overturned Plessy V. Ferguson
6.9.4.1. Determined that separate was NOT equal and that segregation in schools (and all other public forums) was unconstitutional.
6.9.4.2. Start of Civil Rights movement.
6.9.5. 1975 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act is passed.
6.9.5.1. Ensures that ALL students have equal access to a public education, despite their disabilities.
6.9.6. 2002 No Child Left Behind Act - law passed by George W. Bush. called for increased school accountability.
6.9.7. 1972 Title IX - Prohibited discrimination on the basis of sex in public education and federally assisted programs.
7. Equality of Opportunity
7.1. Stratification
7.1.1. Caste Stratification
7.1.1.1. Occurs in agrarian societies where social level is defined in terms of criteria such as race or religion.
7.1.2. Estate Stratification
7.1.2.1. Occurs in agrarian society where social level is defined in terms of hierarchy of family worth.
7.1.3. Class Stratification
7.1.3.1. Occurs in industrial societies that define social level in terms of a hierarchy of differential achievement by individuals, specially in economic prusuits.
7.1.4. Social Stratification in the U.S.
7.1.4.1. Upper Class 1-30%
7.1.4.2. Upper Middle Class 15%
7.1.4.3. Lower Middle Class 25%
7.1.4.4. Working Class 40%
7.1.4.5. Underclass/Lower Class 20%
7.2. The Coleman Report
7.2.1. An influential and controversial study, published by the US Government in 1966, under the title Equality of Educational Opportunity.
7.2.2. The co-authored report was based on an extensive survey of educational opportunity (the national sample included almost 650,000 students and teachers in more than 3,000 schools), was mandated in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and was directed by the sociologist James Coleman.
7.2.3. Coleman's work was often misinterpreted as "schools don't matter, only families matter".
7.2.4. Coleman's subsequent work was designed to help identify the characteristics of schools which did matter, so that the impact of school relative to that of family could be increased.
7.2.5. The Coleman Report
8. Educational Inequality
8.1. Explanations of Educational Inequality
8.1.1. Functionalist
8.1.1.1. The Functionalist vision of a "just society" is one where individual talent and hard work are based on universal principles of evaluation.
8.1.1.2. Functionalists expect that the process of schooling will produced unequal results, but that the results should be due to individual differences between students, not on group differences.
8.1.2. Conflict Theorists
8.1.2.1. Conflict theorists believe that the role of schooling is to reproduce instead of eliminate inequality (this assertion is consistent with data that shows educational outcomes that are strongly linked to family background).
8.1.3. Interactionist
8.1.3.1. Interactionist theory suggests that we must understand how people within institutions such as families or schools interact on a daily basis in order to comprehend the factors explaining academic success or failure.
8.2. Student Centered or Extra-School explanations of inequalities focus on factors outside of school such as family, the community, culture, peer groups, and the individual student.
8.3. School Centered or Within School explanations of inequalities focus on factors within the school such as the teachers, teaching methods, curriculum, ability grouping, school climate and teacher expectations.
8.4. Student Centered Explanations of Educational Inequality: 3 Controversial Perpsectives
8.4.1. Genetic or Biological Differences Theory
8.4.2. Cultural Deprivation Theories
8.4.2.1. A sociological theory that claims that the working class cannot easily gain cultural capital, hindering their access to education and upward social mobility.
8.4.3. Cultural Difference Theories
8.4.3.1. First theory asserts that African American children do less well in school because they adapt to their oppressed position in the class structure.
8.4.3.2. Second theory views working class and non-white students as resisting the dominant culture of schools.
8.4.3.3. Third Theory asserts that Asian American possess family values that place great emphasis on educational achievement along with high expectation for children.
8.5. School Centered Explanations of Educational Inequality
8.5.1. School Financing
8.5.2. School Climate
8.5.3. Pedagogic Practices
8.5.4. Effective vs. Ineffective Schools
8.5.4.1. Characteristics of Effective Schools
8.5.4.1.1. High expectation for students by teachers and administrators.
8.5.4.1.2. Strong, effective leadership by school administration.
8.5.4.1.3. Accountability processes for both students and teachers.
8.5.4.1.4. Close monitoring of student learning.
8.5.4.1.5. A high degree of instructional time on task.
8.5.4.1.6. Flexibility for teachers to adapt to new situations and solve problems.
9. Educational Reform
9.1. First Wave of Education Reform
9.1.1. The first wave of education reform in the United States stressed the need for in creased educational excellence though increased education standards.
9.1.2. The reformed focused on:
9.1.2.1. The need for excellence and equity in schools.
9.1.2.2. The need to clarify educational goals.
9.1.2.3. The need to develop a common core curriculum.
9.1.2.4. The need to eliminate tracking programs.
9.1.2.5. The need for major changes in major education.
9.1.2.6. The need for education to teach about technology.
9.1.2.7. The need to increase duration and intensity of academic learning.
9.1.2.8. The needs to recruit, train, and retain more academically able teachers.
9.2. Second Wave of Education Reform
9.2.1. The second wave of reform was based on the recommendation made at the State Governor's Conference.
9.2.2. The reformed focused on:
9.2.2.1. Teaching, leadership, and management.
9.2.2.2. Parental involvement and choice in schools.
9.2.2.3. Student readiness for School (for preschoolers).
9.2.2.4. School facilities being fully utilized.
9.2.2.5. Quality colleges and accountability for learning.
9.3. Goals 2000
9.3.1. Goal 1: All children will start school ready to learn.
9.3.2. Goal 2: High school graduation rates will increase to at least 90%.
9.3.3. Goal 3: American students will leave grades 4, 8, and 12, having demonstrated competency in challenging subject matter so that they would be prepared for responsible citizenship, further learning and productive employment in our modern economy.
9.3.4. Goal 4: U.S. students will be first in the world in math and science achievement.
9.3.5. Goal 5: Every adult American will be literate and will possess the skills necessary to compete in a global economy.
9.3.6. Goal 6: Every school in America will be free of drugs and violence and will offer a disciplined learning environment.
9.4. No Child Left Behind
9.4.1. Annual testing required in grades 3-8 in reading and math, plus at least one in grades 10-12 with science testing.
9.4.1.1. States and districts are required to report school by school data ion student test performance. This is broken down by race, special education, limited English proficiency, and/or low income.
9.4.2. States must set AYP (adequate yearly progress) goals for each school.
9.4.2.1. Schools not meeting AYP for 2 years are labeled "in need of improvement".
9.4.2.1.1. This means that schools must offer the students the option to go to another public school and/or receive federally funded tutoring.
9.4.2.1.2. Funds would also be made available for teacher professional development.
9.4.2.1.3. If school does not meet subsequent year's AYP, it would be subject to restructuring.
9.4.3. School must have "highly qualified teachers" for teachers in the core academic subjects.
9.4.4. No Child Left Behind
9.5. Race to the Top
9.5.1. Suggestions for education reform:
9.5.1.1. Adopting standards and assessments that prepare students to succeed in college, work place, and to compete in the global economy.
9.5.1.2. Building data systems that measure student growth and success and inform teachers and principals about how they can improve instruction.
9.5.1.3. Recruiting, developing, rewarding and retaining effective teachers and principals.
9.5.1.4. Turning around the lowest-achieving schools.