1. Philosophy of Education
1.1. Describe the particular world view of one student centered philosophy of education (pragmatism or existentialism). Include the following information:generic notions, key researchers, goal of education, role of teacher, method of instruction, and curriculum.
1.1.1. Existentialism is more of the modern philosophy unlike pragmatism. Even though you can trace existentialism's roots back to the bible, as a philosophy that has relevance to education you can date existentialism back to the nineteenth century European philosopher Soren Kierkegaard. The more recent philosophers who worked in this school are Martin Buber, Karl Jaspers, Jean Paul Sartre, and the contemporary philosopher Maxine Greene.The Goal of education: Existentialists believe that education should focus on the needs of individuals, both cognitively and affectively. The Role of the Teacher: Teachers should understand their own lived worlds as well as that of their students in order to help their students achieve the best lived worlds they can. Methods of instruction: They view learning as intensely personal. They also believe that each child has a different learning style and it is up to the teacher to discover what works for each child. Curriculum: Existentialists would choose curriculum heavily biased toward the humanities. Literature especially has meaning for them since literature is able to evoke responses in readers that might move them to new levels of awareness, or, in Greene's words, "wide awkeness".
2. Schools as Organizations
2.1. Identify makor stek holders in Your district by name (state senators, House of representatives, state superintendent, representative on state school board, local superintendent, and local school board)
2.1.1. I live in district 17 and Shay Shelnutt is the senator. House of representative members are: Allen Farley, Allen Treadway, and Mary Moore. State Superintendent:Micheal Sentance. Representative on state school board: Stephanie Bell. Local Superintendent for Jefferson County: DR. Craig Pouncey. Local School Board: President-Jacqueline Smith, Vice President- Oscar Mann, Board members: Jennifer Parsons, Martha Bouyer, and Ronnie Dixon.
2.2. Identify and describe the elements of change within school processes and school cultures
2.2.1. There are four elements of change: Conflict is a necessary part of change. Efforts to democratize schools do not create conflicts, but they allow previously hidden problems, issues, and disagreements to surface. Staff involvement in school reconstructing must be prepared to elicit, manage and resolve conflict. New behaviors must be learned. Because changes requires new relationships and behaviors, the change process must include building communication and trust, enabling leadership and initiative to emerge, and learning techniques of communication, collaboration, and conflict resolution. Team building must extend to the entire school. Shared decision making must consciously work out and give on-going attention to relationships within the rest of the schools staff. Otherwise, issues of exclusiveness and imagined elitism may surface, and perceived "resistance to change" will persist. Process and content are interrelated. The process a team uses in going about its work is as important as the content of educational changes in attempts. The substance of a project often depends upon the degree of openness and trust built up within the team and between the team and the school. At the same time, the usefulness and the visibility of the project will influence future commitments from and the relationships among the staff and others involved.
3. Curriculum and Pedagogy
3.1. Explain a curriculum theory which you advocate( humanist, social efficiency, developmentalist,or social meliorist).
3.1.1. The developmentalist curriculum is based on the needs and interest of the student instead of the needs of society. Dewey explains that it is about the relationship between the student and the curriculum. It is also emphasized by the process of teaching and its content. This means it needs to be student centered, and it needs to relate to the curriculum, the needs and interests of the child at particular development stages. The teacher from this perspective is not a transmitter of knowledge but rather the facilitator of student growth.
3.2. Identify and describe the two dominant traditions of teaching
3.2.1. The two dominant traditions are the Mimetic and the Transformative Tradition. The Mimetic tradition is named "mimetic" because it gives a central place to the transmission of factual and procedural knowledge from one person to another, through an essentially imitative process. The transformative tradition is a transformation of one kind or another in the person being taught a qualitative change often of dramatic proportin, a metamorphosis, so to speak.
4. Equality of Opportunity
4.1. Describe how class, race, and gender each impact educational outcomes.
4.1.1. Class: there isnt any doubt that education is expensive, but the longer a student stays in school they are more likely need financial support from their parents. Families from the upper and middle class are more likely to expect their children to finish school, where as the working and lower class often have lower expectations for their children. Teachers think more highly of the upper and middle class children than they do of the working class because they do not speak middle class english. The children in the working and lower class are more likely to drop out and not go to college like the upper and middle class students.
4.1.1.1. Race: A students race has a direct impact on how much education he or she is likely to achieve. Students aging from 16-24 5.2, percent of white students drop out, whereas 9.3 percent of African American students drop out of school, and 17.6 percent of Hispanic Americans will drop out.
4.1.1.1.1. Gender: Women are rated as being better students than men,but in the past they were less likely to attain the same level of education. In today's times females are less likely to drop out of school, and have a higher reading proficiency. Males are better mathematically than females. Men are more likely to score higher on the SAT then women. More women are now attending post secondary institutes than men.
4.2. What were the two responses from the Coleman study in 1982?
4.2.1. The first response: What then of Colemen, Hoffer, Kilgore's claim that catholic schools are educationally superior to public schools? If trivial advantage is what they mean by such a claim, then we suppose we could have to agree. But judged against reasonable benchmarks, there is little basis for this conclusion.
4.2.1.1. The second response: Formal decomposition of the variance attributable to individual background and the social composition of the schools suggests that going to a high poverty school or a highly segregated African American school has a profound effect on a students achievement outcomes, above and beyond the effect of individual poverty or minority status, Specifically, both the racial/ethnic and social class composition of a students school are 1 3/4 times more important than a students individual race/ethnicity or social class for understanding educational outcomes.
5. Educational Inequality
5.1. Explain two types of cultural deprivation theory.
5.1.1. It 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 significant disadvantages.
5.1.1.1. Cultural deprivation theorists assert that the poor have a deprived culture - one that lacks the value system of middle class culture. According to this perspective, middle class culture value hard work and initiative, the delay of immediate gratification for future reward, and the importance of schooling as a means to future success.
5.2. Describe at least four school-centered explanations for educational inequality
5.2.1. 1. School financing: most schools get revenue from local, state, and federal sources
5.2.1.1. 2. Effective school research: In school resources and quality do not adequately explain between school differences in academic achievement.
5.2.1.1.1. 3. Between school differences: Pedagogic Practices and Curriculum - The effective school research points to how differences in what is often termed school climates affect academic performance.
6. Educational Reform
6.1. Describe two school-based reforms (school-based, school-business partnerships, privatization, school-to-work programs, teacher education or teacher quality)
6.1.1. School to work programs: School to work programs were started to extend what had been a vocational emphasis to non college bound students regarding skills necessary for successful employment and to stress the importance of work based learning.
6.1.1.1. Privatization: Private education companies increasingly became involved in public education in a variety of ways, first for profit, and second to help public schools who are failing to meet high student achievement.
6.2. Describe at two societal, economic, community, or political reforms.
6.2.1. It has included state certification of school personnel and school districts; statewide testing and assessment of pupils; state monitoring of local fiscal; management; and educational practices.
7. Politics of Education
7.1. Identify and describe the four purposes of education
7.1.1. Political
7.1.1.1. The political purposes of schooling are to inculcate allegiance to the existing political order; to prepare citizens who will participate in this political order,; to help assimilate diverse cultural groups into a common political order; and to teach children the basic laws of society.
7.1.2. Social
7.1.2.1. The social purposes of schooling are to help solve social problems; to work as one of many institutions, such as the family and the church to ensure social cohesion; and to socialize children into the various roles, behaviors, and values of the society.
7.1.3. Economic
7.1.3.1. The economic purposes of schooling are to prepare students for their later occupational roles and to select, train, and allocate individuals into the division of labor.
7.1.4. Intellectual
7.1.4.1. The intellectual purposes of schooling are to teach basic cognitive skills such as reading, writing, and mathematics; to transmit specific knowledge; and to help students acquire higher order thinking skills such as analysis, evaluation, and synthesis.
7.2. Choose and describe a perspective for the following: the role of the school, explanations of unequal performance, and definition of educational problems.
7.2.1. Role of the School
7.2.1.1. The liberal perspective believes in equal opportunity for all students to succeed. This perspective also teaches children to respect cultural diversity and citizenship.
7.2.2. Explanations of Unequal Performance
7.2.2.1. The liberal perspective argues that individual students or groups of students begin school with different life chances and so therefore some groups have significantly more advantages than others. Society must attempt through policies and programs to equalize the playing field so that students from disadvantaged backgrounds have a better chance.
7.2.3. Definition of Educational Problems
7.2.3.1. The liberal perspective argues four points: 1. Schools have too often limited the life chances of poor and minority children and so the problem of underachievement by these groups is a critical issue. 2. Schools place too much emphasis on discipline and authority, thus limiting their role in helping students develop as individuals. 3. The differences in quality and climate between urban and suburban schools and between schools with students of low socioeconomic backgrounds and high socioeconomic backgrounds is a central problem related to inequalities of results. 4. The traditional curriculum leaves out the diverse cultures of the groups that compise the pluralistic society.
8. History of U.S. Education
8.1. Choose and describe a reform movement that you think has had the most influence on education.
8.1.1. Education for Women and African Americans
8.1.1.1. By 1820, the movement for education for women in the US was making important inroads. In 1821, Emma Hart Willard opened Troy Female Seminary. They sought to deliver an education to females that was similar to that of their male counterparts. Mary Lyon was a pioneer in postsecondary education for women, and she founded Mount Holyoke Seminary in 1837.
8.1.1.2. Benjamin Roberts filed a legal suit in Boston in 1846. The court ruled that the local school committee had the right to establish separate educational facilities for whites and blacks. As a result of this, African Americans were encouraged to establish their own schools. These were usually administered by their churches and aided in part through funds from abolitionists.
8.2. Choose and describe one historical interpretation of U.S. Education.
8.2.1. Brown vs. Board of Education
8.2.1.1. In 1954 the advocates of the civil rights won their battle in the supreme court. The court ruled that segregation of schools was unconstitutional.
9. Sociological Perspectives
9.1. Define the theoretical perspective concerning the relationship between school and society: functionalism, conflict theory, and interactionalism.
9.1.1. Functionalism
9.1.1.1. Durkheim recognized that education had taken different forms at different times and places, he believed that education,in virtually all societies, was of critical importance in creating the moral unity necessary for social cohesion and harmony. Moral values were the foundation of society for Durkheim.
9.1.2. Conflict Theory
9.1.2.1. The achievement ideology convinces students and teachers that schools promote learning, and sort and select students according to their abilities and not according to their social status. In this view, the achievement ideology disguises the real power relations within the school, which in return, reflect and correspond to the power relations within the larger society.
9.1.3. Interactionalism
9.1.3.1. Interactional theories attempt to to make the commonplace strange y turning on their heads everyday taken-for-granted behaviors and interactions between students and students, and between students and teachers.
9.2. Identify and describe 5 effects of schooling on individuals that you think have the greatest impact on students as explained in the book.
9.2.1. Employment
9.2.1.1. Graduating from college will lead to greater employment opportunities. Research has shown that large organizations such as corporations require high levels of education for white collar, managerial, or administrative jobs. Schools act as gate keepers in determining who will get employed in high-status occupations, but schools do not provide significant job skills for their graduates. People learn how to do their jobs by doing them.
9.2.2. Student Peer Groups and Alienation
9.2.2.1. Students in vocational programs headed toward low status jobs were the students most likely to join a rebellious subculture. In fact, student violence continues to be a problem.
9.2.3. Teacher Behavior
9.2.3.1. Teachers have a huge impact on student learning and behavior. Jackson founded that teachers have as many as 1,000 interpersonal contacts each day with children in their classrooms. Teachers expectations of students were found to directly influence student achievement. When teachers demand more from their students and praised them more, students learned more and felt better about themselves.
9.2.4. Tracking
9.2.4.1. Tracking refers to the placement of students in curricular programs based on students abilities and inclinations. It has been found in many thorough studies that tracking decisions are often based on other criteria, such as students class or race. Studies have shown that students placed in "high -ability" tracks spend more time on actual teaching and learning activities. Track placement directly affects cognitive development.
9.2.5. Gender
9.2.5.1. Another way that schools reproduce inequalities is through gender discrimination. Men and women do not share equally in U.S. society. Men are frequently paid more than women for the same work, and women, in general, have fewer occupational opportunities than men.Although girls usually start school cognitively and socially ahead of boys, by the end of high school, girls have lower self esteem and lower aspirations than do boys. Somewhere during high school years, in particular, girls begin to show signs oeef not living up to their potential.Over the past two decades, however,, the gender gap in academic achievement has all but disappeared , with female students outperforming males in language arts and social studies and closing the gap significantly in mathematics, sciences, and having higher attendance rating.Thus schools are active organizational agents in recreating gender inequalities. However, schools alone should not be held accountable for gender discrimination.This form of social stratification is rooted in the values and organization of society;schools in some ways only reflect these societal problems.