1. Key Researchers: The founders of pragmatism include George Peirce, William James, and the main proponent, John Dewey. Dewey introduced instrumentalism, which refers to the realistic relationship between school and society as well as experimentalism, which is applying ideas to education on an experimental basis. Modern researchers disagree as to the meaning of Dewey's philosophies. Historian Diane Ravitch demonstrates how Dewey's philosophy was often misapplied to teach "class education." For example, educators give a vocational to the poor. Other researchers like Howard Gardner believed Dewey called for a balance between traditional and necessary, interest-based education.
2. Democratic-Liberal: Historical Interpretation of U.S. Education
3. Four Purposes of Education
4. Political Purpose-Encourage patriotism, and prepare students to become politically responsible citizens and understand the laws governing them
5. Social Purpose-help solve social problems and ensure students can function with other members of their society and adhere to the acceptable values and behaviors of that society
6. Economic Purpose-prepare students for their later entrance into the workforce through training and education
7. Political Perspective
8. Neo-liberal Perspective-
9. Explanations of Unequal Performance-funding on education is not the issue, success in education is the result of individual effort, however, race and social class are important factors in the achievement gap, but it is not poverty, rather failing schools and ineffective teachers are the root cause of student failure
10. Reform Movement that has most influenced U.S. Education
11. It is difficult for me to pinpoint the reform movement that I believe to be the most influential. The Common School reform lead by Horace Mann in the early and mid 1800s was instrumental in establishing free public education. As money was established creating public schooling, by 1900 the majority of states had established laws requiring students to go to school. The common school reformation was instrumental in building the foundation for free public schools. However, as an aspiring secondary teacher, the Progressive Movement for me is the most influential in establishing schools as we think of them today. John Dewey lead the reform movement that gave an education a broader interpretation and established schools as a place to learn socializations skills, experience, a complete education. Teachers were facilitator of learning. Progressive reformers paved the way for high school public schools and by 1918 all states had compulsory school laws. The meaning and purpose of education has been a debate and will continue to be debated, however, without the establishment of free public schools, and compulsory school laws, education would not be what it is today.
12. A optimistic interpretation of the history of U.S. education, democratic-liberals believe that as education evolved over time reformers attempted to popularize education and expand opportunities for everyone to receive an education. Democratic-liberals do not deny that the school system has its conflicts and flaws, but the goals over the history of education must remain the same of trying to achieve excellence yet maintaining equality; education for all, and the most educated of all.
13. Role of School-education is critical for America to remain competitive globally, schools are responsible for providing necessary training but success or failure of students is based upon individual effort, however sometimes it is necessary for states to intervene to ensure that students are given equal education opportunities.
14. Definition of Education Problems-inefficient schools and unproductive teachers, not lack of funding is to blame for school and student lack of success. State intervention is sometimes necessary; failing school systems and districts must be punished by closing schools or placing negative sanctions against them, while rewarding charter schools, privatized schools, successful schools. Vouchers should be provided for students, especially low-income students, to receive equality in education. All students have the right to attend successful schools.
15. Intellectual Purpose-Teach foundational knowledge, particular knowledge in specific subjects, and impart critical thinking skills.
16. Chapter 2 - Politics of Education
17. Chapter 3- History of U.S. Education
18. Chapter 4 - Sociological Perspectives
18.1. Theoretical Perspectives
18.1.1. Functionalism-theory that education is crucial in creating social unity and teaching students the accepted value system in that society
18.1.2. Conflict theory-emphasizes struggle and schools are comparable to social battlefields where powerful groups assert their influence over powerless groups, aka the bully syndrome
18.1.3. Interactionalism-critiques both functionalism and conflict theory as too abstract and "big picture" views, this theory looks at the microsociological aspects of school, what is school really like on a day to day basis
18.2. Five Effects of Schooling with the Greatest Impact on Students
18.3. Inside the Schools-large schools can offer greater resources and facilities, however they must also be more uniform and students individual needs can be lost, small schools often cannot offer the same resources but allow more student/teacher freedom and students gain more one-on-one attention. Curriculum is often influenced by different cultures and not all students will be provided the same education or curriculum.
18.3.1. Student Peer Groups and Alienation-student culture and peers greatly influence students' educational experience. Students who are alienated or apart of violent peer groups often head to low-status jobs. Students' background and peer influence can shape their future and the course of education or lack thereof.
18.4. Knowledge and Attitude-promote academics promote students, effective schools encourage academically minded students, more schooling is directly related to greater knowledge and socially concerned citizens in the future
18.5. Teacher Behavior-teachers significantly influence students' level of achievement as well as their self-image and expectations. Teachers should raise the bar and praise students. Teachers make a difference!
18.6. Education and Inequality-America is a society in which mobility is often blocked by inequality and not because of merit or ability. America is stratified by income, gender, race, and beliefs. Can education help bridge the gap between the haves and have-nots? Educate students, create opportunities and find out.
19. Chapter 5 -Philosophy of Education
19.1. Pragmatism
19.1.1. Generic Notions: Children are ever-growing and changing and their course of study needs to be perpetuated by freedom and responsibility of the students to have choices in their courses and rely on group work and learning through experience.
19.1.2. Goal of Education: The goal of pragmatism is to achieve balance. Education has a responsibility to society, school should be a place where students can challenge ideas and receive knowledge on how to best improve society and order. However, students individual needs should not be compromised. Balance the education of the individual with the purposeful attempt at preparing to make a difference in a democratic society.
19.1.3. Role of the Teacher: Teacher is a facilitator of education. The teacher encourages and helps plan courses of study, but is no longer the lecturer and student merely listener.
19.1.4. Methods of Instruction: The structure of the classroom was to facilitate group learning, problem-solving and inquiry method of education. Formal instruction was abandoned and was replaced with individual study plans. Students study at their own pace and participate in group work.
19.1.5. Curriculum: Progressive schools follow an integrated curriculum. For example, if a student is interested in cars, curriculum would yield problems being solve problems related to cars by using math, science, history, art, reading, etc. Education integrates interest with academics. Students are provided a balanced education with a child-centered basis for the curriculum, in other words, teaching traditional disciplines but doing so through the needs and interests of the child.
20. Chapter 6 - Schools as Organizations
20.1. Major Stakeholders in My District
20.1.1. At the state level: Senators: Richard Shelby and Jeff Sessions. House of Representative for my district. (District 6) Gary J. Palmer. State Superintendent: Michael Sentence. Local representative of the State Board of Education: Cynthia Sanders McCarty, Ph.D.
20.1.2. At the local level: Jefferson County School Board. Members: President: Ms. Jacqueline A. Smith, Vice President: Mr. Oscar S. Mann, Members: Mrs. Jennifer H. Parsons, Dr. Martha V.J. Bouyer, and Mr. Ronnie Dixon. Jefferson County Superintendent: Dr. Warren Craig Pouncey
20.2. Elements of change within school processes and school cultures
20.2.1. Conflict is one necessary element of change. The process of democratizing schools often invoke conflict because hidden problems, issues, and disagreements often arise. Learning new behaviors is another key element of change. Restructuring schools requires conflict resolution and reconstructing relationships and behaviors. Team building is yet another essential element to change and must span the entire school. Collaboration and communication must extend from the staff and leaders to include everyone in the on-going effort to foster change for the betterment of process and cultures. The process and content that are key to change go hand in hand. The process in which schools implement change are just as important as the content it attempts to change. Changing the culture of a school in order to make it more learner-centered requires time, effort, and a trusting relationship between school leaders and staff.
21. Chapter 7 - Curriculum and Pedagogy
21.1. Developmentalist Curriculum
21.1.1. This curriculum stems from the progressive ideas of Dewey. It emphasizes the process as well as the content of the teaching material. Rather than traditional subject-based curriculum, it calls for a flexible curriculum in which the facilitator, or teacher guides students' growth. This curriculum is tailored to the individual, in other words student-centered rather than subject-centered. It emphasizes the development of students' abilities at different stages. The basis of the curriculum is the students' needs and interests and utilizes life experiences in order to create a meaningful educational experience.
21.2. Two dominant traditions of teaching
21.2.1. Mimetic- this tradition is based on the thought that the purpose of education is to transmit knowledge from teacher to students through the didactic method or lecture method. The mimetic model relies on the sequencing of teaching process and traditional assessment. Teachers must have clear measurable goals and objectives, it is this science of teaching that is the key to students' educational success.
21.2.2. Transformative-this tradition holds that the purpose of education is to change the student in a meaningful way, not only intellectually, but creatively, spiritually and emotionally. The transmission of knowledge is not the only purpose of education, but an integrated method in which teacher and student converse and students are an integral part of their own learning process. Teaching is an art and teaching and learning are inseparable.
22. Chapter 8 - Equatlity of Opportunity
22.1. Class, Race, Gender Affect Educational Outcomes
22.1.1. Class-Numerous studies have proven that class is directly related to achievement and educational performance. Students from upper and middle class families are expected to finish school and parents place more emphasis on high academic achievement. Students from working-class and underclass families are not as well spoken and often treated differently in the classroom. The expectations for these students is not as high and students are often locked into a tracking system. These students are more likely to underachieve, drop out, or resist the standard curriculum.
22.1.2. Race-It is difficult to separate race from class. An individual's race is often related to his/her class. Minorities compose much of the working and underclass. They receive fewer and inferior educational opportunities. Drop out rates for African-American and Hispanic-American students is significantly higher than drop out rates for their white counterparts. Minorities reading proficiency and SAT scores are lower and therefore they are not availed to scholarships and higher educational opportunities.
22.1.3. Gender-Over the past two decades differences in educational outcomes for males and females has significantly decreased and in some cases actually flipped from outcomes years ago. Historically, males have been afforded more opportunities and pursued higher academic achievement. And still today males score higher on their SATs and outperform females in mathematics and have advantages for the most prestigious academic prizes. However, more females than males are finishing school and attending college. Also, females have surpassed males in several academic achievements such as reading and writing proficiency.
22.2. Two responses to the 1982 Coleman Study
22.2.1. The Coleman Study of 1982 compared test scores from private and public schools and found that private school students scored higher than public school students in every subject . Coleman came to the conclusion that differences among schools do make a difference. Researcher Jencks found that the difference between Catholic and public schools is statistically significant, but in terms of differences of learning, or as Alexandar and Pallas would say, "reasonable benchmarks," they are negligible. Also, studies have shown that Catholic schools seem to help low-income minority students and others argue they have become more elitist schools.
22.2.2. Geoffrey Borman and Maritza Dowling partially confirmed Coleman's study. They concluded that where a student goes to school does matter. However, they sight the biggest gap in student achievement is found in the racial and economic composition of the school. Segregation, tracking systems, and biases for white and middle-class students must be eliminated from our schools.
23. Chapter 9 - Educational Inequality
23.1. Two types of cultural deprivation theories
23.1.1. Cultural deprivation theory suggests that minority families as well as working-class are at an educational disadvantage not due to differences in schools but rather that the roots to this underperformance begins as a result of lack of resources in the home before a student ever enters the classroom. Students from underprivileged families often lack books and educational materials as well as the values of hard work and initiative. Schooling is not valued as a means to social and cultural advancement.
23.1.2. Cultural difference theorists concur that differences between white, middle-class families and poorer minority or working-class families do exist, however, this is not due to their home life but rather being apart of an oppressed culture. These minorities are due to social differences such as poverty, racism and discrimination rather than cultural values.
23.2. Four school-centered explanantions for educational inequality
23.2.1. 1. School financing-Public schools are funded through a combination of federal, state, and local taxes and a majority of that funding coming from property tax. Because property tax is based upon the value of the property public schools in suburban areas generally have greater value allowing for greater revenue and greater per-student spending. Jonathan Kozol documented vast differences between funding in wealthy and poor school districts. 2.Gender-Schooling often limits educational opportunities for women and often reproduces sexual stereotypes that men are competitive and intellectual while women assume the domestic role of caring. School organization, curriculum, and pedagogical practices simply reinforce gender roles and gender inequality. 3.School climates-The differences between schools, differences in curriculum and pedagogical practices affect educational outcomes. Schools in working-class neighborhoods are far more likely to have a traditional authoritarian classroom while middle-class school systems tend toward more progressive student-centered programs. 4. Curriculum and ability grouping-This is often referred to as curriculum tracking. It is an important component of educational organization that further perpetuates educational inequality. Students are divided into separate classes and groups according to teacher recommendations, test scores, and sometimes social or cultural and even gender. Students are divided by ability and often forced to stay in these tracks no matter or improvement or academic achievement. Different groups of students receive different types of education within the same school.
24. Chapter 10 - Educational Reform
24.1. Describe 2 School-based reforms
24.1.1. 1. School-Business Partnerships-Over the years foundations and other businesses have partnered with school systems by donating significant amounts of money in order to provide college scholarships or vouchers for poor students to attend better schools. Entrepreneurs have donated significant amounts to school reform efforts in hopes of producing better educated and better prepared students for the future. There is little evidence to prove that this reform effort has improved education, but perhaps funding will have more effect in the future. 2. School-to-Work Programs-In the 1990s federal seed money was given to states to school system to create school-to-work programs. Every system was to implement school-based and work-based learning and then engage in connecting activities. These systems were designed to provide students with the necessary education and skills needed to successfully enter the work force. However, research has shown that this system is often a "second class" educational track in which vocational students are often not afforded the same high-quality education as college-bound students.
24.2. Describe 2 Societal, Community, Economic, and Political Reforms
24.2.1. 1. Political Reform-School accountability is a significant issue in educational reform. These reforms include allowing state policy makers to implement a reward/sanction program by rewarding school systems that perform well and sanctioning those who do not. Some states have allowed the state controlled agencies to take control of school districts from local agencies as a last resort from severely underperforming districts. Some states have looked to mayoral control of certain districts. 2. Community Reform-Full-service schools are a way to educate not just the whole child, but the whole community. Full-service schools serve as a community center with extended hours for adult education, after-school programs, job training, and even recreational and health services. This reform seeks to mend social, economic, and education problems in the entire community.