My Foundations of Education
Plan your projects and define important tasks and actions
1. Politics of Education
1.1. Four Purposes of Education
1.1.1. Intellectual Purposes
1.1.2. Political Purposes
1.1.3. Social Purposes
1.1.4. Economic Purposes
1.2. Conservative Prospective: The Role of the School
1.3. Conservative Prospective: Unequal Educational Performance
1.4. Conservative Prospective: Educational Problems
2. History of U.S. Education
2.1. The Age of Reform: The Rise of the Common School
2.1.1. Horace Mann of Massachusetts
2.1.2. Common School
2.1.2.1. Opposition to Public education
2.1.2.2. Education for Women and African Americans
2.1.2.2.1. Educational Schools for women
2.2. Historical Interpretation: Democratic-Liberal School
2.2.1. Belief: History of U.S education involves the progressive evolution, albeit flawed, of a school system committed to providing equality for all.
2.2.2. Historians: Ellawood Cubberly, Merle Curti, Lawrence A. Cremin
2.2.2.1. Cremin portrays evolution of education in two processes: popularization and multitudinousness
2.2.3. Ideals involve the educational system must move closer to each without sacrificing one another.
3. Sociological Perspectives
3.1. Functionalism
3.1.1. View society as a machine: One part works with another to make society "work"
3.2. Conflict Theory
3.2.1. The glue of society is economic, political,cultural, and military power.
3.3. Interactionalism
3.3.1. Knowledge and Attitude: Individual social class determines academic ability. Research proves that if students are held accountable to higher academic standards, achievement levels go up.
3.3.2. Critiques and extensions of the functional and conflict perspectives. These theories are said to function at a "general" level of analysis.
3.4. Effects of Schooling on Individuals
3.4.1. Inside Schools: Large schools can offer students a larger facitlity but may restrain initiative. Small schools may lead to more teacher and student freedom, but may lack resources. Curriculum expresses culture
3.4.2. Teacher Behavior: Teachers are models for students. Teachers that demand more, receive more dedication from students.
3.4.3. Tracking: Critical impact of students mobility. Track placement directly affects cognitive development. Higher vs lower tracks differ and students on higher tracks tend to succeed often.
3.4.4. Gender: inequalities through gender discrimination. Females are statistically better academically than males, where as it is known also that majority of teacher are female. Schools should posses equal opportunity.
4. Philosophy of Education
4.1. Existentialism
4.1.1. Generic Notations: Individuals are placed on this earth alone and must make some sense of the chaos they encounter.
4.1.2. Goal of Education: Focus on needs of individuals cognitively and effectively. Education should stress individuality.
4.1.3. Role of the Teacher: Teacher should understand their own worlds and those of the students so they can help the students achieve the best lived worlds.
4.1.4. Methods of Instruction: Learning is intense and personal. Each child has a different learning style and teachers should discover what is best for the child.
4.1.5. Curriculum: humanities based. Literature is an important subject to introduce at an early age.
5. Curriculum and Pedagogy
5.1. Social Meliorist
5.2. Dominant Teaching Traditions
6. Equality of Opportunity
6.1. Class
6.2. Race
6.3. Gender
6.4. 1982 Coleman Study Resposes
7. Educational Inequality
7.1. Cultural Deprivation Theory
7.2. School Centered Explanations
7.2.1. School Financing: The attempt to decrease inequalities in school financing. The use of foundation state aid programs to close the gap between rich and poor school districts.
7.2.2. Effective School Research: Researches needed to compare schools with lower socioeconomic communities. This process and research explains the reasoning behind the unequal educational achievement by students.
7.2.3. Between School Differences: Culture and Climate differences in lower and higher socioeconomic schools. Examining how children respond to cultures that exist prior to school and within the school.
7.2.4. Within School Differences: School characteristics affecting outcomes of students. Grouping involves split sessions for reading that are grouped based on test scores and achievement.
8. Educational Reform
8.1. School-Based Reforms
8.2. Community Reform
8.3. School finance Reform
9. Schools as Organizations
9.1. Morgan County Stake Holders
9.1.1. State Senate: Arthur Orr
9.1.2. House of Reps: Terri Collins
9.1.3. State Superintendent: Dale Edwards
9.1.4. State School Board Representative: Cynthia McCarty
9.1.5. Local Superintendent: Bill W. Hopkins
9.1.6. Local School Board: Karen Duke