1. Philosophy of Education
1.1. Pragmatism: An American philosophy that developed in the 19th century. This philosophy is designed to encourage people to find the process that works for them to achieve their end result.
1.2. Generic Notions- Dewey had 2 forms of pragmatism, instrumentalism and experimentalism. Through these children were able to learn through experience and as well from books.
1.3. Goal of Education-Dewey saw school as a place where ideas were implemented, challenged, and restructured with the goal of providing students information on how to interact socially. Dewey's belief was that social, intellectual and personal development should be focused on in a school setting,
1.4. Role of the Teacher- The teachers role is not so much the authoritative figure, but yet the teacher encourages, suggests, questions, and helps plan the course of study. The teacher also writes the curriculum and must know how to create and implement the curriculum for each student to understand.
1.5. Methods of Instruction- Dewey proposed that students learn best individually and in group settings. instead of the formal instructions of doing work, students are aloud to converse quietly with other students and work with one another. Through this, students learn problem solving, social interaction, and individualized study.
1.6. Curriculum- Dewey's belief of curriculum is that the curriculum changes as students interests and social order changes. There is no set curriculum. When studying a particular subject, you include all of the following: math, reading, writing, history, music, art, and science.
1.7. Key Researches- The key researchers were Jean-Jacques Rousseau and John Dewey. Rousseau put and important emphasis on student environment and experience. Dewey believed in several different approaches, but his two most important were experimentalism and instrumentalism.
2. Schools as Organizations
2.1. Major Stakeholders for Madison City Alabama
2.2. State Senator: Richard Shelby
2.3. House of Representaives: Compossed of 105 members
2.4. State Superintendent: Michael Sentence
2.5. Representative for State Board of Education: Governor Kay Ivey
2.6. Local Superintendent: Robby Parker
2.7. Local Board of Education Representative: Terri Johnson
2.8. School Processes and School Cultures: The culture of schools is understood as the interacting of several different personalities. These different personalities come together in a school setting and form a whole. But a whole cannot exist without its parts, meaning the different cultures of a school make up a whole. The school process is the things that organize the school such as the teachers, students, particular incidents, extra curricular activities, or places throughout the school; such as the cafeteria or library.
3. Curriculum and Pedagogy
3.1. Humanist Curriculum- reflects the idealistic philosophy and explains the purpose of education, which is to teach children the best of what has been written.
3.1.1. Two Dominant Traditions of Teaching:
3.1.2. The Mimetic Tradition is centered around the belief that the purpose of education is to transmit specific knowledge to students. This is commonly seen through the didactic method which is commonly relies on lectures or presentations as the main form of communication.
3.1.3. The Transformative Tradition is a little different, it believes the meaning of education is to change the student in some meaningful way. Unlike the Mimetic Traditional way of teaching transformative teachers don't see the transmission of knowledge as the only way of education.
3.2. Social Efficiency Curriculum: was a philosophically pragmatist approach developed as a response to the developmental mass public of secondary education. This was related to the scientific management of schools.
3.3. Developmentalist Curriculum: is centered around the needs and interests of the students rather than society,
3.4. Social Meliorist Curriculum: was philosophically reconstructionist; the radical wing of progressive education.
4. Equality of Opprotunity
4.1. Class, Race and Gender each impact educational outcomes in a significant way.
4.2. Class- Students of different social classes have different experiences throughout their educational career. The more the children are able to afford, the longer they are likely to stay In school, and afford the proper materials to learn. Study after study show that class is related to achievement on reading and skills tests. Children from working class or underclass families are more likely to drop out, and resist the curriculum from school. Along with going to college it is shown the higher a personals social class is the more likely they ate to attend college.
4.2.1. The Coleman Study (1982) Responses:
4.2.2. Response One: The findings of private schools doing better than public schools is because of the impact of class. Higher class children are more likely to attend private school, whereas public school contains low class children, likely to drop out or not retain the curriculum being taught.
4.2.3. Response Two: The place a child attends school is often centered around their race or social class. There for schools that dominate in lower class students will show an academic gap between schools that dominate in higher class.
4.3. Race- An individuals race has a direct impact on how much education he or she is likely to achieve. The percentage of drop outs among whites, African Americans, and Hispanics the drop out rate was higher among African Americans and Hispanics. Reading levels vary drastically as well.
4.4. Gender- Today, females are less likely to drop out of school than males and are likely to obtain a higher level of education than males. Females have higher reading levels, and writing levels. The one thing that males turn out to be better at is mathematics. Although in the last 20 years differences between male and female in terms of education have reduced.
5. Educational Inequality
5.1. Cultural Deprivation Theories: suggest that working class and non white families often lack the cultural resources, such as books, and other essentials; so they start school with a significant disadvantage.
5.1.1. It's Not a Black Thing- analyzes the affects of tracking African American students in integrated schools, which are burdened of "acting white".
5.1.2. Gender Inequalities in Education- shows an overview of social science evidence on gender inequalities in education.
5.1.3. From Social Ties to Social Capital- Analyzes the relationship between family and school. Exploration of how each group interacts and conclude that family differences between working class and middle class is part of the reason middle class children are more successful.
5.1.4. A Black Students Reflection on Public and Private Schools- Shows the struggle of an African American student with issues of race in schooling. The difference between experiences at public school and private school are discussed.
5.2. Cultural Difference Theories: These theories agree that there are cultural and family differences between working class, non white students and middle class students. However they do not blame the problems on cultural and class differences, rather discrimination and unequal life chances.
6. Educational Reform
6.1. School-to- Work Programs- Was intended to extend vocational emphasis to non college bound students regarding certain skills that are necessary for successful employment, and to stress the importance of work-based learning. These programs would allow students to explore different careers and the skills required, obtain certain training and work-based learning experiences, and educational training standards.
6.1.1. Full Service and Community Schools- A way to attack education inequality is to examine the plan and educate not only the child, but the whole community. There are more community centers within neighborhoods that are at high risk. Within these community centers they are open extended hours, and offer school programs, mental health programs, alcohol programs, job placement programs, ect.
6.1.2. Connecting School, Community, and Societal Reforms- These are most needed, but most difficult to implement in highest poverty schools. meaningful learning goals, equitable resources, strong professional standards and support, schools organized for both student and teacher learning.
6.2. Teacher Quality- Recruiting and keeping high quality teachers is among the most important problems in American education. Out-of-Field teachers are being hired over qualified teachers, which is causing disorganization in the school. Causing the qualified teachers to not want to stay.
7. Politics of Education
7.1. Intellectual Purpose- This is to teach basic skills such as reading, writing, math, ect, and to help children develop higher thinking skills such as problem solving, analysis, and evaluation.
7.1.1. The Role of the School- The liberal perspective aim at giving the students equal opportunities. It stresses the schools role in providing the necessary education for the students but also focuses on students role of socializing and functioning in society.
7.2. Political Purpose-This is to introduce and educate children about diversity and different cultures. It is to prepare children and to teach them the basic laws of society.
7.2.1. Explanation of Unequal Educational Performance- The liberal perspective explains that students of different groups begin school and some have more advantages than others. Society must attempt to equalize the opportunities so that student from a disadvantage background have a better chance of success.
7.3. Social Purpose-This is were students learn to socialize, and learn various roles, behavior, and values of socializing in society. Scientist refer to socialization as a key to society.
7.3.1. Definition of Educational Problems- The liberal perspective describes that through schools there is too much emphasis on discipline, diversity is not being taught, and students need to be help individually on how to develop and function in society.
7.4. Economic Purpose- This is to prepare children for their occupational roles later in life.
8. History of U.S. Education
8.1. The Democratic-Liberal School: believed that the history of the U.S. education involves the commitment of schools systems to provide equal opportunities among all students. Through this movement the expansion of opportunities and purpose were expanding through the U.S.
8.2. Equality of opportunities probably had the most impact on education. Through this movement it focused on race, desegregation and the equality to each child no matter culture or race. Children were not receive equality and through this they were not given the same opportunities to succeed in their education. Such as African Americans, they were segregated and were not given as good of education and school conditions an the Caucasians.
9. Sociological Perspective
9.1. 5 Effects of Schooling on Individuals
9.1.1. Student Peer Groups and Alienation- Everybody had different groups throughout high school; the cool kids, the nerds, the athletes, ect. But through these groups, children would feel alienated and left out if they weren't in a group. Which could also lead to violence or conflict.
9.1.2. Gender- Schools reproduce inequalities by showing gender discrimination. Girls originally start school cognitively and socially ahead of boys, but by the end of high school studies are showing lower self esteem and lower aspirations than boys. We wonder why is that? Why Is it that most teacher are females but more administrators are males? Could that be sending a message about male and female roles? Textbooks in the classroom have also been found to be bias against woman, by ignoring their accomplishments and contributions.
9.1.3. Teacher Behavior-Teachers are models for students, and as these models teachers set standards and expectations for each student. This causes an influence on their self esteem and sense of efficiency. It is found that teacher expectations of students were found to influence student achievement. Teacher behavior is important because if teachers do not model behavior or do not influence their students positively, they will not want to achieve.
9.1.4. Knowledge and Attitudes-It has been found that the higher the social class of a student is, the higher his or her achievement level is. Another different in achievement levels could be schools. It has shown that the differences in academic program and school policies plays a role in students learning.
9.1.5. Inside the Schools-School structures have an impact on students learning and achievement as well. It has been studied that larger schools have more opportunities than smaller schools. Although smaller schools do not have as big of the classrooms, they often lack some of the resources that the larger schools have.