Chapter 7 Education Theory in American Schools: Philosophy in Action

1
Chapter 7Education Theory in American Schools
Philosophy in Action
-Authoritarian/non-authoritarian approaches to
education -Mastery learning v. individual
development -Convergent v. divergent
thinking -Application of philosophy to the
classroom -organization of curriculum -delivery
-character of school environments -processes
used in testing/grading
2
-See table 7.1 -Mastery learning - suggests that
except for Special Ed., every child can master
the entire curriculum, of the school when
adequate time and resources are provided -John
Deweys view - the mind is not just a muscle to
be developed - human beings are problem solvers
who profit from experience - importance of the
individual and of personal awareness
(nonauthoritarian existential position)
3
Authoritarian Educational Theories Perennialism

• principals of knowledge are enduring
• - seeks everlasting truths
• importance of time-honored ideas
• great works of present and past
• ability to reason
• Focus of learning
• Subject matter of disciplinary spiritual nature
• Math, logic, great books
• Learner is assumed to be a rational and spiritual
  person
• Learning to reason is important

4
Perennialism (continued)
-See p. 277 for example of a perennialist
classroom -Curriculum - emphasize the 3 rs in
elementary levels - educating the intellectually
elite at secondary levels -Great Books Program -
associated with Robert M. Hutchins, Mortimer
Adler - maintains that studying the works of the
leading scholars of history is the best way to
a general education
5
Authoritarian Educational Theories Essentialism

• there is a common core of information and skills
  that an educated person in a given culture must
  have
• 3 basic principles
• Core of information
• Hard work and mental discipline
• Teacher-centered instruction
• Back-to-basics
• Focuses on 3 rs
• Draws equally from both idealism and relaism
• Advocate the teaching of a basic core of
  information that will change

6
Essentialism (continued)
-Focus of learning -transmit cultural heritage
and develop good citizens -Curriculum -literature
, history, foreign languages, religion -formal
discipline -reading, lecture, memorization,
repetition, examinations -teaching laws of
nature and universal truths of the physical
world -subject matter is the core of
education -Criticized as obsolete in its
authoritarian tendencies
7
Essential Schools Movement
-Dr. Theodore Sizer -need for students to master
a common core of info and skills -encourages
schools to strip away nonessentials and focus on
having students use their minds well
8
Authoritarian Educational Theories Behaviorism
-B.F. Skinner -Behaviorism -Focus on careful
examination of the environment , behaviors,
responses -Closely linked to realism -Common
belief amongst behaviorist that a students
behavior can be changed -Believes students are
motivated by the factor that all people will
attempt -to avoid experiences and stimuli that
are not pleasing and will seek experiences that
are pleasing and rewarding -See p. 282 for
behaviorist class activity
9
Behaviorism (contd)
-Focus of learning -highly organized school
environment -curriculum based on behavioral
objectives -Reinforcement -used to foster
desired behaviors using both positive and
negative -the theory is that behavior is not
reinforced will eventually be extinguishedwill
cease to occur -Behaviorists do not attempt to
learn about the causes of students earlier
problems
10
Authoritarian Educational Theories Positivism
-Not often considered as a teaching
philosophy -Auguste Comte positive
knowledge -divided the thinking of humankind
into 3 historical periods 1. Theological era-
people explained things by reference to spirits
and gods 2. Metaphysical era- people explained
phenomena in terms of causes, essences, and
inner principles 3. Positive period- thinkers
did not attempt to go beyond observable,
measurable fact -Rejects beliefs about mind,
spirit, and consciousness -holds that all
reality can be explained by laws of matter
and motion
11
Positivism
-Focus of Learning -the acquisition of facts
based on careful empirical observation and
measurement of the world -requires schools to
develop content standards that represent the
best understandings of experts who have already
uncovered important ideas based on their own
observation and measurement -Students to
master expert understandings and to develop their
own skills of observation, classification, and
logical analysis -Objective testing -free from
bias -demonstrates student has mastered and
understood according to a clear set of criteria
12
Non-authoritarian Educational Theories
Progressivism
-Pragmatism -Charles S. Pierce -the meaning and
value of ideas could be found only in the ideas
practical results -William James -extended
Pierces idea into a theory of truth -John
Dewey -insisted that ideas must always be tested
by experiment -gave rise to progressive education
13
Progressivism (contd)
-Definition of progressivism -an educational
theory that emphasizes that ideas should be
tested by experimentation and that learning is
rooted in questions developed by
learners -favors human experience as a basis for
knowledge -stresses programs of student
involvement -emphasis on how to
think -flexibility -encourages divergent
thinking moving beyond conventional ideas to
come up with novel interpretations -curriculum
is student-centered experience-centered
14
Progressivism
-Progressivism Democracy -school must take on
the task of improving the US way of
life -progressivism is deemed a working model of
democracy -freedom is explicit -See p. 286 for
Progressivist Class Activity -Progressivism
Socialization -helps students learn how to
manage change -criticized for putting so much
stress on the processes of education that the
ends are neglected -criticized that progressive
educators have little personal commitment to
anything
15
Nonauthoritarian Educational Theories
Reconstructionism
-It was recognized that progressivism had made
advance beyond essentialism in teacher-pupil
relations and teaching methodology -Reconstruction
ist Curriculum -requires that students be taught
to analyze world events -explore controversial
issues -develop a vision for a new and better
world -teachers examine cultural heritages,
encourage students to promote programs of
cultural renewal -Henry Giroux -contemporary
reconstructionism -views schools as vehicles for
social change
16
Reconstructionism (contd)
-Giroux -calls teachers to be transformative
intellectuals and wants them to participate in
created a new society -schools should practice
critical pedagogy unites theory and practice as
it provides students with critical thinking
tools -See p. 288 for Reconstructionist Class
Activity -Reconstructionism and World
Reformation -public education should be the
direct instrument of world reformation -the
essence of learning is the actual experience of
learning
17
Reconstructionism
-Prepares learners to deal with world
crises -war, inflation, rapid technological
changes, depression -Urge that individuals, as
entities within a social context engage in
specific reform activity -Paul
Freire -contemporary social reconstructionist -w
orked to free society from an educational system
that he saw as devised by the dominant
class -for the purposes of keeping the masses
submerged and contained in a culture of
science
18
Reconstructionism
-Freire -worked among poor -proposed a
problem-posing approach to education to replace
banking method
19
Nonauthoritarian Educational Theories Humanism
-Jean Jacques Rousseau -ideas of
existentialism -believed that the child entered
the world not as a blank slate, but with
certain innate qualities and tendencies -Humanism
is concerned with enhancing the innate goodness
of the individual -rejects a group-oriented
educational system -seeks ways to enhance the
individual development of the student -believe
that most schools de-emphasize the individual and
the relationship between teacher and
student -Education should be a process of
developing a free, self-actualizing person
20
Humanistic School Environments

• -Martin Buber describes the heart of humanistic
  environments
• Many students today feel that teachers treat
  them as SS s
• Buber contends that a relationship btw a
  student and teacher should have a mutual
  sensibility feeling
• -Nel Noddings describes the environment for
  caring
• Humanistic school environment is one in which
  people (both teacher student) share their
  thoughts, feelings, beliefs, fears, and
  aspirations with one another
• -Examples of teacher techniques that enhance
  humanism
• Service-learning, individualizing instruction,
  open-access curriculum, nongraded instruction,
  multiage grouping

21
Constructivist Curriculum

• Constructivism An educational theory that
  emphasizes hand-on, activity based teaching
  learning during which students develop their own
  frames of thought (closely related to
  existentialism)
• APA contends that students are active learners
  who should be given opportunities to construct
  their own frames of thought
• Teaching techniques should include a variety of
  different, where students are free to infer
  discover their own answers
• Constructivist Curriculum Constructivist ideas
  about curriculum stand in sharp contrast to
  authoritarian approaches. Learning occurs
  through the construction of new, personalized
  understanding that results from the emergence of
  new cognitive structures.

22
Nel Noddings(quote)

• Having accepted the basic constructivist
  premise, there is no point in looking for
  foundations or using the language of absolute
  truth. The constructivist position is really
  post-epistemological and that is why it can be so
  powerful in inducing new methods of research and
  teaching. It recognizes the power of the
  environment to press for adaptation, the
  temporality of knowledge, the existence of
  multiple selves behaving in consonance with the
  rules of various subcultures.

23
Problem-Based Learning A Constructivist Pedagogy

• Problem-based learning this educational
  methodology centers student activity on tackling
  authentic contemporary problems.
• Challenges educators to focus curriculum on
  student-centered problems
• This educational methodology centers student
  activities on tackling authentic contemporary
  problems