Historical Foundations of Curriculum

1
Historical Foundations of Curriculum

• Session 3

2
What is your Personal Philosophy
3

• Three areas
• New England
• Mid Atlantic
• Southern

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Colonial Period

• New England- The first schools were linked to the
  Puritan church
• Their goals were
• For students to be able to read scripture to
  propagate the religion
• For students to be able to read notices relate to
  civil affairs, laws, doctrines,

5
Massachusetts

• Had same goals as the early New England colonies
• Passed a law called the Old Deluder Satan Act
• It required all towns of 50 or more families to a
  reading and writing teacher
• All towns of 100 or more had to have a Latin
  teacher as well
• Goal to prepare students to enter Harvard
• To make sure there was never an uneducated lower
  class like there was in Europe

6
Middle Atlantic Colonies

• Education was more difficult here because there
  were so many different languages
• German, English, Dutch
• As a result they ended up without one common
  system of education
• They ended up with many parochial Schools and
  independent schools related to the different
  ethnic groups
• Still in effect today to some extent

7
Southern Schools

• Did not have an formal system
• Wealthy landowners children had private tutors
• Later these same people were required to provide
  a basic education for poor children, orphans and
  illegitimate children
• But this system maintained the great inequity in
  the classes and remained that way long after the
  civil war

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Basics of all Colonial Schools

• Taught mostly Reading and Writing with some
  arithmetic
• Taught some religion
• Teachers were to be strict disciplinarians
• Believed that
• Children were born in sin
• Play was bad it was idleness
• Childrens talk was gibberish

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Types of Colonial Schools

• Town Schools
• Parochial Schools
• Private schools
• Latin Grammar Schools
• Academies
• Colleges

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Town Schools

• Locally controlled public elementary schools
• One room, with a teacher pulpit
• Both boys and girls attended school
• Attendance was irregular depending if the
  children were needed to support the family

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Parochial and Private schools

• Established by different religious groups for
  children of their own kind
• Focused on reading, writing and religion
• The south also had a version of these,
• In the south poorer children attended charity
  schools- less demanding and taught vocational
  skills

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Latin Grammar Schools

• In the early 1600's Puritan families were
  concerned with the thoughts that someday their
  trained and learned leaders would be no more.
• As a result they established the Latin Grammar
  Schools.
• For boys only at first
• Major goal was to prepare them for entrance into
  Harvard

13
Latin Grammar Schools

• In a further attempt to ease their fears of not
  having an educated ministry the Puritans founded
  Harvard College.
• In order to enter this college one has to pass an
  entrance exam which demanded that they knew how
  to read and speak Latin and Greek.
• The Latin Grammar school focused initially on
  English then on Latin and Greek

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Colleges

• Initially most colleges were for the preparation
  of ministers, Harvard, Yale, Cornell Based on the
  puritan view that ministers had to demonstrate a
  mastery in Latin, Greek and the classics
• Other course included , logic, astronomy and
  math, natural sciences and metaphysics
• Every religion had its own college
• PA has one of the most

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Academies

• Based on Ben Franklins Idea,
• Intended to offer a practical education for this
  not going to college
• Courses included- English, grammar, public
  speaking, classics, writing, Practical math,
  history as a study of ethics
• and many practical skills, including engraving,
  printing, painting, cabinet making, farming and
  bookkeeping

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Textbook

• Textbooks were first introduced around 1690
• One of the first was The Hornbook Primer,
  included Westminster Catechism and old testament
• The book was made from flattened cattle horns,
  hence the horn book
• Most books of this time taught alphabet
• Focused on rote and drill

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Textbook

• Textbooks later written by Thomas Dillworth
• he wrote a variety of books
• Initially one book for all subjects
• Then the books became specialized as they are now

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1176-1850

• With a new government came a new mission for
  schools
• At this time we saw the first laws to mandate the
  existences of schools in certain communities
• Did not mandate attendance
• Saw the beginning of removing religion from the
  schools a big push for secular ism

19
Benjamin Rush

• Was one of the first to begin a push to remove
  the classics from education.
• He equated learning the classics, two dead
  languages, ( Greek and Latin) To amusing
  ourselves catching Butterflies
• Wanted school to advance democracy and explore
  our natural resources

20
Benjamin Rush

• Was one of the first to outline a plan for PA to
  have a elementary school in every township of 100
  or more families
• He wanted free academies at the county level and
  free colleges at the university level
• He wanted Tax dollars to pay for it all
• His elementary curriculum emphasized reading,
  math and writing, his secondary curriculum had
  English, German, the arts, science

21
Thomas Jefferson

• Was a farmer at heart and had faith in the
  agrarian society and distrusted the urban
  proletariats
• He proposed a plan for VA that would educate the
  common man and the gentry at the expense of
  all- public taxes
• Curriculum very similar to rush
• Felt schools were needed to support the democracy

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Thomas Jefferson

• Was a farmer at heart and had faith in the
  agrarian society and distrusted the urban
  proletariats
• He proposed a plan for VA that would educate the
  common man and the gentry at the expense of
  all- public taxes
• Curriculum very similar to rush
• Felt schools were needed to support the democracy

23
Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Rush

• Both of their plans were never passed
• Although both concepts helped to shape the
  schools that would come

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Webster

• Creating schools in the new country and agreeing
  on a curriculum was more of a problem because we
  had so many diverse cultures
• Noah Webster felt we needed our own language as
  well as our own government- we needed our own
  cultural independence as well
• He wrote several books in this effort

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Webster

• Some of these books were grammar books spelling
  books
• The only book that lasted was his dictionary
• The American Dictionary- helped create a sense of
  a US language, identity and nationality

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McGuffey Readers

• McGuffey was also a patriot and felt that
  although the young country owed a lot of its
  culture to other parts of the world, That the
  United States had also made some contribution to
  humankind
• He developed a set of readers, the best selling
  textbook for decades
• Extolled the patriotism heroism, hard work,
  diligence and virtuous living

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European Influences

• Although there was a push from people like
  Webster and McGuffey to develop a nationalistic
  American way, education was highly influenced by
  people like
• Pestalozzi
• Froebel
• Herbart
• Spencer

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Pestalozzi

• Was a Swiss Educator
• Is credited for laying the basics for todays
  elementary school
• Wanted children to learn through their senses
• He deplored rote learning
• Proposed a general and special method
• General method- educators provided emotional
  security and affection for students
• Special method- dealt with dealing with senses
  like auditory and visual

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Froebel

• Had a strong belief that early education was
  important
• Designed the concept for kindergarten
• Believed that learning should be organized around
  play and the students interests- use
  manipulatives
• Provide a safe secure environment.

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Herbart

• Believed in a balance curriculum
• Traditional curriculum to rigid
• Believe that there was two bodies of knowledge
• Ethical knowledge
• Empirical data, facts and theories
• Needed to develop the morality
• Wanted history, English, science and math
  integrated into all levels of education

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Herbart

• Believed learning was a psychological process
  that teachers needed students needs and interest
  through
• Planning- considers students previous learning
• Presentation-introduce new lesson
• Association-tie new material to existing material
• Systemization- teach rules, principles or
  generalization
• Application-the new ideas are tested and applied
  to pertinent activities ( authentic assessment)

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Spencer

• Opposed religion- The beginning of many
• Believed that traditional schools were
  impractical and a luxury of the upper class
• Advocated for a scientific, practical curriculum
  that would support an industrial society
• believed that students should be taught how to
  think, not what to think

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Spencer

• Was a believer in Darwin and felt that a school
  curriculum should advanced a societies ability to
  survive and progress
• Believed in a form of discovery learning and was
  an influence on the followers of john Dewey

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In your groups

• What forces do you think was the greatest
  influence in changing the schools

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Universal schools

• Schools for everyone began to be adopted in all
  areas of the country
• The urban east, schools were always there for
  the upper class, but now available for the lower
  class as well and seen as an important
  opportunity
• Schools were also being established in the newly
  settled west
• Schools had many different looks and approaches

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Monitorial Schools

• Were run on the premise of keeping them efficient
  ( sound familiar)
• The teacher taught the bright students and then
  they taught the other students
• Taught the three Rs and religion

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Common Schools

• Forged by Horace Mann
• Was the precursor to our public schools
• Mann was a salesman- Sold each faction of society
  on how the common school would help everyone
• Told Puritans that it would promote a common
  culture
• Told business it would prepare workers
• Build a better society
• Told rich it was their obligation

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Elementary Schools

• Were in full gear by 1900
• Religion was dropped from the curriculum
• Added morals/ manners instead

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Secondary Schools

• Although many children attended elementary
  schools, the secondary schools were established
  were not well attended till the 1930s to 1970
  range

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Academies

• Replaced the Latin Grammar school
• Designed to provide a practical curriculum
• Similar to a secondary school, but had a much
  larger enrollment
• Prepared students for not just college ( but
  mostly), but also for vocational careers as well
• They eventually became High schools, what
  remained were mostly all girl schools

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Secondary Schools

• In 1870 courts ruled that taxes could be used to
  fund schools
• Then state after state mandated attendance
• Unlike the European models, it served all classes
  of students under one roof
• Offered a full range curriculum

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Secondary SchoolsThe curriculum offered

• Algebra
• Higher Arithmetic
• English Grammar
• Us History
• Latin
• Geometry
• Physiology
• natural philosophy

• Physical geography
• German
• General History
• Rhetoric
• Bookkeeping
• French
• Zoology
• Some vocational courses as well

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School Continued to Change

• As school evolved there were many unsettled
  questions- European philosophies versus new
  psychology
• In 1983- The NEA formed Three committees to
  develop a philosophy that would guide schools
• The Committee of Fifteen- Elementary School
• The committee of Ten- Secondary Schools
• Committee on College Entrance

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The Committee of FifteenElementary School

• This committee actually took a step back
• It did away with Kindergarten
• Thought that students needed strict discipline
  and strict teacher authority
• Made elementary schools k to 8

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The committee of TenSecondary Schools

• Curriculum stayed the same, but they added four
  tracks
• 1. Classical College bound tracks
• 2. Latin Scientific
• 3. Modern Languages Not college bound
• 4. English

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The committee of TenSecondary Schools

• The Committee was somewhat political, eight of
  the ten members were college representatives and
  stated what they wanted

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Committee on College Entrance

• Defined what they expected students to have in
  High School
• They strengthen the program in High School
• The credits the students accumulated were
  measured in Carnegie Units, still used today

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Harris and Eliot

• Were two conservative educational reformers
• Harris Had a major impact on the schools for
  decades
• Limited any vocational
• Focused on
• Focused on
• work versus any play
• Order versus any freedom
• Effort rather than interest

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Harris and Eliot

• Harris focused so much on the classic, it
  discouraged working class students from
  attending school

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Harris and Eliot

• Eliot
• Believed that elementary students could work on
  much higher subjects
• Also supported tracking , even in elementary
  school
• Wanted vocation al schools, but in a separate
  place
• Later this became a common belief

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The modern Curriculum

• Eventually educators could not ignore all of the
  information from Educational Psychologist and
  educators like Pestolozzi, Montessori, Froebel,
  Piaget, Dewey and Gestalt psychologist
• The end of the classical curriculum- they argued
  that there was no research that showed studying
  the classics hade greater benefit for developing
  mental capacity tan other curriculums.

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The Modern Curriculum

• Around 1917
• Had four basic areas
• Science
• Civics
• Industry- Trades
• Aesthetics

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Dewey

• Pushed to have schools be a neutral institution
• Democracy was a social institution that could be
  enhanced by schools
• Democracy in Education

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Judd

• Was the first to used statistical research to
  make decision about what was right to do in
  schools
• Looked at what was the best methods to use to
  teach children to solve problems
• Had two tracks of students
• Slower students
• Brighter and Average students

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Secondary schools change again

• NEA in 1918 recommended that High schools serve
  everyone
• College prep
• Vocational tract
• Began to assume the modern curriculum patterns
  we see today

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1920 to 1950

• Saw the first book written on curriculum by
  Charles and Bobbitt
• Many of the principles proposed are still used
  today
• First to propose evaluation of curriculum into
  process
• Written in the behaviorist approach we talked
  about last session
• Concerned with
• Objectives
• Efficiency

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Kilpatrick

• Evolved the curriculum further , a discipline of
  Dewey
• Try to merge the behaviorist approach with the
  progressive approach the new approach was the
  project approach or the purposeful activity
• He advocated giving children input into the
  curriculum ( selecting the project)

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Twenty-Sixth Year book

• Got together all of the power brokers in schools
  of the time ( 1930) from Bobbitt to Kilpatrick
  and they wrote two volumes on the direction
  schools should take
• Proposed and Ideal curriculum
• Later developed into four guiding principles

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Four Guiding principle Harold Rugg

• A statement of objectives
• Sequence of experiences-
• The subject matter that is best means for
  engaging the students
• Statement of outcomes
• Not bad for 1930

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The Eight Year Study

• Was Another influential work
• It compared different types of curriculum and
  measured how students did using these different
  approaches
• Developed basic principles a best practices of
  sort

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The Eight Year Study

• Also called for evaluation of the curriculum
• First to develop that a single topic could
  achieve multiple objectives
• Had three categories of objectives
• Knowledge acquisition
• Intellectual Skills
• Attitudes and feelings

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Goolad

• Although much had been written and research a
  study in 1969 found little had changed in
  schools, things like
• classrooms were teacher centered
• Emphasis on control ( not fair)
• No enthusiasm or excitement- teacher is flat
• Little media, little guest speakers
• Teachers had minimum expectations
• Good looking students and athletes were most
  popular kids in the schools