1. Curriculum and Pedagogy
1.1. The developmentalist curriculum focuses on the needs and interests of the student rather than the needs of society. This is a student centered approach of teaching. It is concerned with the developmental stage of each student.
1.2. Mimetic tradition is a form of teaching that involves someone passing down knowledge to someone else. This would be a teacher presenting their knowledge to a student. A different form of teaching is transformation tradition. This method invovoles a complete transformation of a student.
2. History of U.S Education
2.1. A major educational reform was led by Horace Mann from Massachusetts. Because of his efforts, education was made more accessible to all. This took place around 1850. Mann helped people to see that if they educated their young children, it would help them to escape poverty in the future. They decided children would attend for 6 months instead of 10 weeks/year, and that the school and teachers pay would come from paying taxes. Education still has a along way to go, but Mann started the improvements.
2.2. The democratic-Liberal School- Believe that U.S history education involves the progressive evolution, albeit flawed, of a school system committed to providing equality of opportunity for all. Believe that history shows that they have expanded educational opportunities to larger segments of the population.
3. Schools as Organizations
3.1. Alabama's current state senator is Richard Shelby. Michael Sentance was appointed Alabama State Superintendent. Kay Ivey is a representative on the state school board. Our local superintendent is Kevin Dukes.
3.2. The elements of change within school processes and cultures include conflict, new behaviors to be learned, team building, and shared decision making.
4. Sociological Perspectives
4.1. Theories about the relationship between school and society
4.1.1. Functional Theories- Believe that society is held together by shard values. Begin with a picture of society with interdependence of social system, and ask how well the parts are integrated with each other. Society is a machine, it articulates together to make energy required to make society work.
4.1.2. Conflict Theories- Believe that social order is based on the ability of dominant groups to impose their will on subordinate groups through force, cooptation, and manipulation. In this view, society is held together with economic, political, cultural and military power.
4.1.3. Interactional Theories- Includes primarily critiques and extensions of the functional and conflict perspectives. Those theories are "too abstract", and emphasize structure and process at a very general level of analysis.
4.2. Effects of schooling on individuals
4.2.1. Knowledge and Attitudes- Students social class background is majorly effected by school. Generally, the higher the social class background of the student, the higher his or her achievement level. Studies show that differences in schools in terms of academic programs do make a difference in student learning.
4.2.2. Employment- About 54% of the 8 million college graduates in the U.S entered professional and technical jobs. Corporations require higher levels of education. Credential inflation has led to the expectation that employees will have an ever increasing amount of formal education.
4.2.3. Teacher Behavior- Teachers have a very big impact on students learning and behavior. Researchers believe that role strain has been placed on teachers. They must play so many roles because of conflicting demands placed on them. Although findings do indicate that the attitudes of teachers toward their students many have significant influence on student achievement and perceptions of self.
4.2.4. Student Peer Groups and Alienation- The adult culture of the teachers and administrators is in conflict with the student culture. This conflict can lead to alienation and even violence. Studies even show that students headed toward low-status jobs were the ones most likely to join a rebellious subculture. Student violence is a major problem with attacks on each other and teachers. Student cultures play an important role in shaping student experiences.
4.2.5. Inadequate Schools- Students taught in these schools are educated in a way that will not prepare them for productive and fulfilling lives in the future. Urban schools fail to educate poor children and those in minorities for example.
5. The Politics of Education
5.1. The Four Purposes of Education
5.1.1. The intellectual purposes of school are to teach basic cognitive skills such as reading, writing and mathematics. To teach specific knowledge and help students gain higher order thinking.
5.1.2. The political purposes of education are to inculcate allegiance to the existing political order, to prepare citizens who will participate in this political order.
5.1.3. The social purpose 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.
5.1.4. 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.
5.2. The Role of School
5.2.1. The role of the school is a central focus of each of the different perspectives and is at the heart of their differing analyses. The school's role in the broadest sense is directly concerned with the aims, purposes, and functions of education in a society.
5.3. Explanations of Unequal Educational Preformance
5.3.1. If schooling has not sufficiently provided a reduction in inequality of results, and as educational achievement is closely related to student socioeconomic backgrounds, then the explanation of why certain groups from lower backgrounds perform less well in school is a crucial one.
5.4. Definition of Educational Problems
5.4.1. Liberal- School's have limited the life changes of poor and minority children, focused too much on discipline and authority, has a difference in quality between urban and suburban schools.
5.4.2. Conservative- schools lowered standards and reduced educational quality. School's watered down curriculum, lost their traditional role of teaching moral standards and values, lost disciplinary function and became chaotic.
5.4.3. Radical- School's have failed the poor, minorities and women, have stifled critical understanding of problems of American society. School's need updated curriculum.
6. Philosophy of Education
6.1. Student Centered Philosophy of Education
6.1.1. Pragmatism- A philosophy that encourages people to find processes that work in order to achieve their desired ends. They are most interested in contemporary issues and in discovering solutions to problems in present day terms.
6.1.1.1. Generic Notions- Dewey's form of pragmatism is instrumentalism and experimentalism. it was founded on philosophy, behaviorism, and the philosophy of pragmatism. Influenced by the theory of evolution and an optimistic belief in progress. He believed in a better society through education.
6.1.1.2. Goal of Education- Dewey vision of school focused on the social order. He believed that school needed to be a place where ideas can be implemented, challenged, and restructured. The goal was to provide students with the knowledge of how to improve the social order.
6.1.1.3. Role of Teacher- In this progressive setting, the teacher is no longer the authoritarian figure that provides all the knowledge. Instead, the teacher assumes the position of facilitator. They encourage, offer suggestions, answer questions, and help plan the courses of study.
6.1.1.4. Method of Instruction- Dewey believed in children learning both individually and in groups, problem solving, and in field trips and projects that reconstructed some aspect of the child's course of study.
6.1.1.5. Curriculum- Progressive schools follow Dewey's curriculum. A subject under investigation by students, such as whales, would yield problems to be solved using math, science, history, reading, writing music, art, wood/metal working, cooking and sewing. All academic and vocational disciplines in an integrated, interconnected way.