My Foundations of Education
Plan your projects and define important tasks and actions
1. Politics of Education
1.1. 1. Purposes of education include the following: - Intellectual purposes: to teach basic cognitive skills. To help students acquire better thinking skills like analysis, evaluation, and synthesis.
1.1.1. - Political purpose: to prepare prepare students to participate in political order. To help assimilate diverse cultural groups into a common order. To ensure that students know the basic laws of society.
1.2. - Social purposes: to help solve social problems. To make sure students know how to work as a union. To familiarize students with the roles of society.
1.2.1. - Economic purposes: To prepare students for their occupational roles and to give them an idea of the different divisions of labor.
1.3. 2. - Role of the school: the liberal perspective stresses individual as well as societal needs. Schools role is to enable the individual to develop his or her talents, creativity and sense of self.
1.3.1. - Explanations of unequal educational performance: individual students or groups of students begin school with different life chances, making some groups have more advantages than others. So it is societies job to use policies and programs to help equalize the playing fields so that the students that have disadvantages have a better chance.
1.3.2. -Definition of educational problems: liberals believe that schools limit the life chances of poor minority children, making the problem of underachievement by both of these groups is a huge issue. The traditional curriculum leaves out the diverse cultures of the groups that compromise the society.
2. Philosophy of Education
2.1. Existentialism: Aims to help students understand and appreciate themselves as unique individuals who accept responsibility for their thoughts, feelings, and actions. Some of the key researchers include Sartre, Heidegger, Kirkegaard, Marcel and Jaspers. The teacher helps students discover themselves, improve their interactions with others, and increase freedom with students. The curriculum promotes discussion so that everyone in the class is included. It also includes activities that will help learners express each of their own identities.
3. Schools as Organizations
3.1. 1. State Senator: Tim Melson
3.1.1. House of Representatives: Philip Peetus
3.1.1.1. Superintendent : Michael Sentance
3.1.1.1.1. School Board Representative: Jackie Zeigler
3.2. 2. Elements of change within school processes and school cultures include the following: new behaviors, building of trust and commitment, team building, enabling leadership, and accepting conflict as it comes because it is inevitable when promoting change in stagnant environments.
4. History of U.S. Education
4.1. 1. Progressives believed in experimental education, a curriculum that responded to both the needs of students and the times, child-centered education , freedom and individualism, and the relativism of academic standards in the name of equity.
4.2. 2. The Democratic Liberal school: Lawrence A. Cremin said that education in the U.S. involved both the expansion of opportunity and purpose. The goals of education became more important than intellectual ones.
5. Curriculum and Pedagogy
5.1. 1. Develop-mentalist Curriculum- this curriculum involves focusing on the needs of the students instead of focusing on society. It is organized to change and expand as the students change and expand, catering to the student at every learning milestone. The teacher incorporates the life experiences of each child into the curriculum. I like this approach because it teaches students life long lessons as well as academic information.
5.2. 2. The 2 dominant traditions of teaching: the mimetic and the transformative.
5.2.1. Mimetic- based on the viewpoint that the purpose of education is to transmit specific knowledge to students. Knowledge is being transferred from the know-er to the learner.
5.2.1.1. Transformative- believes that the purpose of education is to change the student in some meaningful way, including intellectually, spiritually, emotionally and creatively.
6. Equality of Opportunity
6.1. 1. Class- Class is closely related to academic achievement. Studies show that children from working class and underclass families are more likely to underachieve, drop out, and resist the curriculum of the school.
6.1.1. Race- An individuals race has a direct impact on how much education he or she is likely to achieve. Minorities do not receive the same educational opportunities as whites, and their rewards for educational attainment are significanly less.
6.1.1.1. Gender- Females are less likely to drop out of school than males. The one area that males outperform females is is mathematics. Females are more likely to have a higher reading level.
6.2. 2. 1st response- Other sociologists examined and reexamined Coleman's data.
6.2.1. 2nd response- A group of minority scholars, led by Ron Edmonds of Harvard University, set about the task of defining those characteristics of schools that made them effective.
7. Educational Inequality
7.1. 1. Cultural Deprivation Theory 1- Suggests that working class and non white families often lack the cultural resources needed to be successful in school, so once they arrive at school they are already at a significance disadvantage compared to other students.
7.1.1. Cultural Deprivation Theory 2- Insists that the poor have a deprived culture. One that lacks the value system of middle class culture.
7.2. 2. 4 School centered explanations for educational inequality:
7.2.1. 1. School Financing- There is a vast difference in funding between affluent and poor districts. This sets the poorer schools up for underachievement. They do not have the funding to support the students like they should be supported.
7.2.1.1. 2. School Research- Research is being conducted about students from working and lower class families, creating false information in teachers minds. This automatically sets a student up for failure if the teacher already feels that a student will not do well in the class.
7.2.1.1.1. 3. Gender- Schools can implement gender roles in to students. Most of the teachers in elementary school are women and students notice this and automatically place women in the role as an kind individual or caretaker.
8. Educational Reform
8.1. 1. School to Work Programs- Intent was to extend what had been a vocational emphasis to non college bound students regarding their skills necessary for successful employment and to stress the importance of work based learning.
8.1.1. School Business Partnerships- This is when business leaders partner with school systems to help produce the kind of graduates necessary for a revitalization of the U.S. economy. Some include scholarships for poor students to attend college and programs where businesses adopt a school. There is no evidence that these partnerships have significantly improved schools.
8.2. 2. Full Service and Community Schools- aim to meet the students and their families needs. They meet their educational, physical, psychological, and social needs. These type of schools serve as community centers within neighborhoods that open extended hours to provide a variety of services. These services include adult education, health clinics, recreation facilities, after school programs and tutoring. There is no evidence that these type of schools affect student achievement.
8.2.1. School Finance Reforms- These programs include social services, increased security, a technology alternative education, after school programs and summer programs.
9. Sociological Perspectives
9.1. 1. - Functionalism- view society as one big machine and every part works together to form a successful society. Education should create structures, programs, and curricula that are technically advanced and encourage social unity.
9.1.1. - Conflict theories- believe that social order is based on the ability of dominant groups to impose their will on subordinate groups through force and manipulation. Believed that education is increasingly used by dominant groups to secure more advantageous places for themselves and their children within occupations and social structure.
9.1.1.1. - Interactionlal theories- the relation of school and society are critques and extensions of the functional and conflict perspectives. Beleives that in school, individuals choose how they want to behave based on their interactions with others.