My Foundations of Education

1. Chapter 5: Philosophy of Education

1.1. Pragmatism: A philosophy that encourages people to find a process that works in order to achieve their desired results. Pragmatist are generally more concerned with present-day issues, and focus their attention on solving the contemporary issues rather than those from the past.

1.1.1. Generic Notions: The progressive viewpoint states that educators should start with the needs and interests of the child in the classroom, allow the child to participate in the planning of their course of study, employ group learning activities, and depend upon experiential learning. Focusing on a democratic method, students would maintain a course of study that reflected their stage of development and provided freedom and responsibility.

1.1.2. Key Researchers: George Sander Pierce, William James, John Dewey, Frances Bacon, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

1.1.3. Goal of Education: The school was focused as a place where ideas can be implemented, challenged, and restructured. The goal of providing students with the knowledge of how to improve the social order was stressed by Dewey. School was also centered as a place to help students prepare for life in a democratic society. Another goal of education was to balance the needs of society and community on one hand, and the needs of the individual on the other. Dewey believed that the primary role of education was growth, along with creating a form of cohesion by socializing diverse groups into a democratic society.

1.1.4. Role of Teacher: The teacher is no longer viewed upon as an authoritative figure of all knowledge, rather now assuming the role of facilitator. The teacher is more of an instructor, who write curriculums and helps implement the courses of study.

1.1.5. Method of Instruction: Children learn individually and in groups, now referred to as the problem-solving or inquiry method in todays time. Formal instruction and traditional time for specific discipline was eliminated, resulting in individualized study, problem solving, and the project method.

1.1.6. Curriculum: The academic and vocational disciplines begin with an integrated curriculum, working from the known to the unknown, also known as "the curriculum of expanding environments". The curriculum is not fixed, however it changes as the social order changes and as the students interests and needs change.

2. Chapter 4: Sociological Perspectives

2.1. Theoretical Perspectives

2.1.1. Functionalism: Functionalist view society as a machine, each part has to work together to make society work. The thought that education was of critical importance is at the center of the functionalist viewpoint. It is important in that education helps create moral unity and social interactions and harmony. Sociologist believe that moral values are the foundation for society. This viewpoint helps present-day functionalist approach the study of education. In a well functioning society, schools place students with others of likewise values and abilities.

2.1.2. Conflict Theory: The idea that dominant groups will impose their will on less dominant groups through force, cooptation, and manipulation. Not all sociologist believe that society is held together by similar values alone, which is where the conflict theory comes in. The belief behind this theory is that the "glue" that holds together a society is their economic, political, cultural, and military power. Another factor is believed to be status cultures and class position; saying that people identify their group by what they consume and who they socialize with.

2.1.3. Interactionalism: This theory emphasizes structure and process at a macro sociological level of analysis, providing an idea of what schools are actually like on an everyday level. The everyday taken-for-granted behaviors, along with an outlook on the "big-picture" are the main viewpoints behind this theory. Viewing the educational system wholistically helps reflect on students backgrounds, and how much of an impact they have on their place within the school system.

2.2. 5 Effects of Schooling

2.2.1. Knowledge and Attitudes: Differences between schools in regards to their academic programs and policies impact a students learning outcomes. Schools that are more academically oriented tend to produce higher rates of learning. A student in a higher social class background usually has a higher achievement level than a student in an underfinanced, overcrowded school.

2.2.2. Teacher Behavior: Teachers play a huge role in a students learning and behavioral outcomes. Studies have show that a teacher having high expectations of their students directly influences their students achievements. The impact a teacher can have on their students education is huge. Another impact a teacher has is based on the "label" applied to children, and how it can influence their performance. The self-fulfilling prophecy indicates that teachers' expectations play a great role in encouraging/discouraging students to work to their full potential.

2.2.3. Student Peer Groups and Alienation: Student cultures idealizes athletic ability, looks, and detached styles that indicate "cool" or "nerdy". Social groups created impact how a student perceives their "place" in the school setting. When there is a conflict between the adult culture of teachers and the student culture, the end result is alienation. Alienation can result in violence, gang relations, along with assaulting classmates or teachers. The "cliché" that a student classifies with has an impact on how they feel they should behave, and how much attention should be given to their education.

2.2.4. Inadequate Schools: Differences between schools and school systems reinforce existing inequalities. The type of school a student attends impacts the amount of education they receive.

2.2.5. Gender: Schools are active organizational agents in recreating gender inequalities. Gender discrimination begins long before a student is out of high school. Even though girls begin school a step ahead of boys, it is said that by the time they reach high school the girls are not performing to their capable standards. The belief that women are subordinate to men, as in a principal being a male and all teachers being females, only makes this separation worse. In the past few decades, however, female students are beginning to close the educational gap between men and women, resulting in the gender gap in academic achievement disappearing.

3. Chapter 2: Politics of Education

3.1. The 4 Purposes of Education

3.1.1. Intellectual Purpose -Teaching basic skills (reading, writing, math) to transmit knowledge to help students gain better skills in analysis, evaluation, and synthesis.

3.1.2. Political Purpose - To teach children the basic laws of a society, to instill allegiance to the existing political order, help prepare citizens that will participate in political democracies, and help assimilate different cultural groups into a common political order.

3.1.3. Social Purpose - to help solve social problems, to work as one of many institutions (family/church) to ensure social cohesion, and to socialize children into the various roles, behaviors, and values of the society. (referred to as socialization - a key ingredient to the stability of any society)

3.1.4. Economic Purpose - to prepare students for their later occupational roles and to select, train, and allocate individuals into the division of labor.

3.2. The Liberal Perspective

3.2.1. The Role of the School - Seen as balancing the needs of society and the individual in a manner that is consistent with a democratic and meritocratic society. It stresses the role in providing the necessary education to ensure that all students have an equal opportunity to succeed in society, and inequality of results be minimized. Liberals point to the schools role in socializing children into societal roles as well as teaching children to respect cultural diversity so they will understand and fit into a diverse society.

3.2.2. Explanation of Unequal Performance - Liberals argue that individual students or groups of students begin school with different life chances, resulting in some students having more advantages than others. Therefore, society must attempt to equalize the playing field so students from disadvantaged backgrounds have a better chance.

3.2.3. Definition of Educational Problems - The liberal perspective believes the free market is subject to abuse, especially towards citizens that are disadvantaged economically and politically. It also believes that the market economy will face repeated cycles of recession if government intervention is not present.

4. Chapter 3: History of U.S. Education

4.1. Educational Reaction and Reform and the Standards Era: 1980s-2012 - I believe this movement has had the most impact on education. This is the era when critics realized the educational system needed a complete overhaul. Students test scores were declining, adult illiteracy was increasing, and it was very evident that change needed to be made. This era resulted in improvement to educational curriculums, tightening of standards, and a move towards the setting of academic goals and their assessment. This era has turned education around, and put more emphasis on increasing a students knowledge rather than continuing down the same path as before.

4.1.1. New vocabulary

4.2. The Democratic-Liberal Interpretation: Democratic-Liberals think that the history of education should be committed to providing equal opportunities to all. Historians believe that all previous educational expansions were done in regards to including a larger population of citizens, rather than focusing on the privileged. Democratic-Liberals also state that educational history involves both the expansion of opportunity and purpose. The focus being on the diversity of education, along with social goals becoming just as important as intellectual ones.

5. Chapter 6: Schools as Organizations

5.1. Federal AL Senator: Richard Shelby & Luther Strange

5.2. State House of Representative: Mike Hammom

5.3. Federal House of Representative: Robert Aderholt

5.4. State Senator: Paul Bussman

5.5. State Superintendent: Ed Richardson

5.6. Rep. on state school board: Cynthia McCarty

5.7. Local Superintendent: Dr. Shannon H. Stanley

5.8. Local school board: Rhonda Smith, Tim Whitt, Rick Thompson, Jeff Roberts, and Chad Cofield

5.9. Elements of Change: Conflict- bringing all previous issues and disagreements to the surface for resolution, new behaviors - change requires new relationships and behaviors, therefore the change process must include building communication and trust, enabling leadership and initiative to emerge, along with learning techniques of communication, collaboration, and conflict resolution. Team building - constant mutual agreements on decision making & ongoing attention to relationships. Process & Content - the process being used in going about its work is just as important ans the content of educational changes it attempts. The substance of a project is closely related to the trust between the team and the school system.

6. Chapter 8: Equality of Opportunity

6.1. Class: The cost of education plays a large role in how far a student goes with their schooling. Students from wealthier or middle class are able to afford the financial cost, therefore students from those two classes are more likely to further their education. Students from the working class and underclass families do not have the same expectations or financial capabilities to further their child's education.

6.2. Race: Race has direct impact on how much education a student is likely to obtain. Minorities have been proven to have lower tests scores and ACT scores. Those scores are influential when it comes to scholarships or acceptance into colleges, therefore their opportunities are very limited due to their test scores.

6.3. Gender: In historical times, gender played a large role in one's educational knowledge. It was common for women to not have the same level of education as men. However, over time, that has changed drastically. Women are more likely now to further their education than men, and fewer women tend to drop out of school. Gender differences have decreased in terms of educational attainment.

6.4. Coleman Study (1982): 1. Coleman's finding were not all that fantastic to others. What Coleman saw as significant, others saw as insignificant. Jencks decided to use Coleman's findings to compute the yearly average achievement gain by public students, resulting in evidence that statistically the differences are significant, but when you look at it in terms of learning, the results are negligible. 2. Chubb and Moe agree with Coleman's findings. They, too, believe that when comparing private and public schools, the private schools are much more advanced.

7. Chapter 9: Educational Inequality

7.1. Cultural Difference theory #1: one type of cultural difference theory is that of African-American students doing less well in school due to their adaptation of the dominant culture. Ogby states that African American students deny their own cultural identities and begin to conform to what they are surrounded by, which is mostly white middle-class students. Effects of this theory have resulted in changes made to school curriculum and pedagogy to help increase recognition of cultural backgrounds of the minority students.

7.2. Cultural Difference theory #2: Another type of cultural difference theory is the complete opposite of the first one. This theory sees the working class and nonwhite students rejecting the dominant culture of the school system Rather than adapting to the white middle class culture, these students instead conform to a more antischool culture and begin to oppose the idea of schooling. These students choose to embrace a working class culture rather than the middle class. By doing so, they reject academic success and end up dropping out of school to join the workforce.

8. Chapter 10: Educational Reform

8.1. School-business partnerships: In this reform, businesses choose to help support a school financially to help improve their schooling and test scores. It can be described as a business taking the school "under their wing" so to speak. Many groups and businesses have chosen to make monetary donations to schools to help provide improvements.

8.2. Teacher Quality Reform: One of the most important problems in American education is the process of obtaining highly qualified teachers that are trained and educated in the area they will be teaching. It is proven that urban school systems have more out-of-field teaching than others; with one-fifth of teachers in American teaching a subject that they do not have a certificate for. School improvement reformers have recently stated that the existence of teacher tenure and seniority are a primary factor in preventing an improvement of teacher quality.

8.3. Full Service & Community Schools: Within this reform, an attempt to educate a community as a whole is established. A school or community center is deemed an area for a wide range of services such as adult education, health clinics, recreation facilities, after school programs, drug and alcohol programs, job placement and training programs, and tutoring services are just a few of the multiple different scenarios. This is targeted more towards high-risk neighborhoods to help prevent problems along with provide support to the community.

8.4. Connecting School, Community, & Societal Reforms: These reforms are necessary to help reduce the achievement gap. However, these supports are most difficult to implement in the highest poverty schools. Although improvement has been visible, the real problem lies within the criteria that the education system works exceptionally well for students from higher socioeconomic backgrounds, and exceptionally poorly for those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.

9. Chapter 7: Curriculum & Pedagogy

9.1. The Mimetic tradition: The mimetic tradition can be described as knowledge that is presented to a learner rather than discovered by him or her Mimetic derives from the Greek word mimesis, where the words mime and mimic also come from. The tradition is named mimetic due to the process of transmission of knowledge from one person to another through an imitative process.

9.2. The Transformative tradition: The transformative tradition is composed of a transformation of one kind or another in the person being taught. Of this transformation, changes not only take place within traits of character and personality, but also in those traits that are undesirable. The transformative tradition is typically taken as more deeply integrated within the psychological makeup of students, unlike the mimetic tradition.

9.3. The Developmental Curriculum: This approach is geared more towards students needs rather than societies needs. Teaching was more student centered and related the curriculum to the interests and needs of the students at different developmental stages. Teaching and the process of teaching was composed of major flexibility, with the majority of focus being on the development of each student's individual capacities.