Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi 17461827)
FIRST to recognize special needs of disadvantaged
TWO levels of teaching:
1. Teachers alleviate psychological, physical
and emotional problems of poor students
before focusing on teaching to use their
senses (concrete to abstract).
2. Learning through progression: Start w/ immediate surroundings
a. Family
b. Community
c. State
d. Nation
e. World
His ideas lead to today’s focus on special needs of the disadvantaged
Prudence Crandall (1803-1889)
Interest in Bringing education to AFRICAN AMERICAN
GIRLS
Started School for girls in Canterbury, CT. Admitted black girl,
Sarah Harris. White parents withdrew their daughters.
Prudence advertised and got 15 Black girls to attend. Pubic did
not like it – Legislature passed the Black Law forbidding
schools to educate blacks from other states. Prudence was
arrested, tried and convicted . Conviction overturned but her
school was vandalized. And she closed it.
Maria Montessori (1870-1952)
FIRST female doctor in Italy.
Identified educational potential of young children through her
work with mentally handicapped/retarded children. She
discovered they were more capable than many believed.
Started a school for disadvantaged children in slums of Rome.
Her Theory: Children:
1. Have an inner need to work on tasks that interest them
2. did not need to be rewarded or punished by teacher
3. preferred work to play
4. were capable of sustained periods of concentration
5. Need a carefully prepared environment in order to learn.
Friedrich Froebel (1782 – 1852)
Established Kindergarten in 1837
Deep sense of importance of early childhood and critical role teachers
play
Saw teachers as moral & cultural role models –vs- disciplinarians
Saw NATURE as prime source of learning.
Schools need to provide warm and supportive environment.
Johann Friedrich Herbart (1776–1841)
German
Philosopher
One of the founders of modern scientific pedagogy.
Believed primary goal of education is moral education –
development of GOOD PEOPLE.
Development of cognitive powers/knowledge would lead to:
 Values based on personal conviction
 Concern for the social welfare of others
 Positive & negative consequences associated with one’s
behavior
Believe in coordinated and logical development of curriculum (history to geography to
literature)
STRUCTURE TEACHING –
1. prepare students for learning (readiness)
2. Helping students form connections by relating new material to previously learned
3. Using examples to increase understanding
4. teaching students how to apply information
His concern for moral education paved the way for contemporary educators to explore
the relationship between values and knowledge.
Jean Jacque Rousseau
(1712 – 1778)
French/Swiss
 Distinguished schooling from education.
 Concern with stages of development
 Viewed humans as fundamentally good and corrupted by
societal influences like schools.
 Believe Children could learn better by using senses &
nature
 Believed children developed through stages & their own
interests and needs should be the focus of curriculum
 Wrote “Emile”
 Senses as the first teachers
o Nature over Society
o Learner Instincts over adult-developed school curriculum.
His work led to Child Study movement – and to Progressive Education.
COMENIUS
(Jan Komensky) 1592-1670
 Supported Universal Education
 Education Ideas revolutionary for his time
 Abandoned notion that children were inherently bad
and needed punishment to learn.
 Identified developmental stages of learned and match
instruction to those stages
o Teach general principals before details
o Concrete examples before abstract ideas
o Sequencing ideas in logical progressing
o Include practical applications
Emma Hart Willard
1787 – 1870 Connecticut
16th of 17 children
Self Taught as girls were not allowed in higher education
1814 – Opened Middlebury Female Seminary
Wrote pamphlet, An Address to the Public; Particularly to
Members of Legislature of NY, Proposing a Plan for Improving
Female Education. (got attention of Tom Jefferson, John Adams
& James Monroe) but no money.
 Opened Troy Female Seminary – School to prepare
professional teachers long before first normal teacher
training school founded.
 1837 Formed Willard Asso. For Mutual Improvement of Female Teachers, 1st
organization to focus public attention on need for well-prepared and trained teachers.
 A Pioneer in the struggle for women’s intellectual and legal rights
o Supported property rights for married women and other financial reforms
o Dedicated her life to promoting the intellectual and education freedom of women
o Her ideas promoted recognition of teachers as a profession
Her commitment to providing education opportunities for women has shaped the past 2
centuries of progress, not only for women but for all Americans.
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Thomas Jefferson
 Wanted to go beyond educating the small group of elite
 Education for all WHITE children regardless of economic or
social class
 Education to be paid for by government
 Started University of Virginia
Benjamin Franklin
 Wanted to replace Latin Grammar School with the academy
 Started Franklin Academy (secondary school)
o Free of religious influence
o Offered variety of practical subjects (math, astronomy,
athletics, navigation, drama, and bookkeeping.
o Students got to choose their subjects
o Boys and Girls who could afford tuition could attend
 Franklin Academy became the University of Pennsylvania
Jerome Bruner (1915-
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 Established American School of cognitive psychology and
shaped school curriculum.
 Bruner has cogently argued for more problem solving
and direct involvement in the process of education for
all learners, from young children to adults.
 During World War II, he worked in General Eisenhower’s
headquarters, studying psychological warfare. His doctoral
dissertation concerned Nazi propaganda techniques.
o After the war he published works showing how human needs affect
perceptions. – poor children are more likely to overestimate the value of coins
than richer children. Adult values and needs affect the way they see the world
as well. Realities do not conform to these needs and beliefs are mentally
altered.
o Showed that human behavior can be observed, analyzed and understood
in an objective way.
In 1960 he help found Harvard University’s Center for Cognitive Studies.
He helped legitimize the systematic, objective and scientific study of human learning
and thinking.
His approach was applied to school curriculum.
His report on the Woods Hole summit of scientists, educators and scholars interested
in reforming education was published in The Process of Education in 1960. His work
is hailed as a practical and readable analysis of curriculum needs. It has been
translated into 22 languages and is studied by teachers around the world.
o He argues that schools should not focus on facts but should attempt to
teach the “structure”, the general nature, of a subject.
o He also stressed the need for developing intuition and insights as a
legitimate problem-solving technique.
o His best know quotation from this work is, “Any subject can be taught
effectively in some intellectually honest form to any child at any stage of
development.”
MANN, HORACE - 1796-1859 –
"Father of Public School"
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 Although a gifted and able student he was denied
formal schooling – this directed his life and altered the
history of US education. Learned on his own and was
eventually admitted to Brown University
Preparing for a career in Law and Politics
Worked to ensure other would not be denied educational opportunities.
As a member of Massachusetts House of Representatives he worked to improve the
quality of education:
o Corporal punishment, floggings and unsafe/unsanitary schools denounced
o Removal of religion instruction from schools
o Lengthen the school term
o Increase teacher salaries
Established the first public normal school in 1839 to prepare better teachers.
Organized school libraries
Encouraged writing of textbooks that included practical social problems
His efforts resulted in the establishment of the Massachusetts Board of Education
 Most remembered for his leadership in the common school
movement to establish fee, publicly supported schools for all
Americans.
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Viewed ignorance as bondage and education as a passport to
a promising future.
 Through education:
o The disadvantaged could lift themselves out of poverty
o Black could achieve freedom
o Children with disabilities could learn to be productive members of society
 Mann’s credo – Social mobility and the improvement of society could be attained
through a free education for all.
 His fervor not confined to establishing quality public education
o He denounced slavery, child labor, worker exploitation, workplace hazards,
and dangers of slum life.
o Later, (1850’s), as President of Antioch College, he admitted women and
minorities
His efforts are found in our public school system; education of minorities, the poor, and
women; and efforts to provide well-trained teachers in well-equipped classrooms.
Common School – NOW OUR ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
Bethune, Mary McLeod - 1875-1955  moved a people from intellectual slavery to education
(So. Carolina).
 African American daughter of slaves (1st child in her
family not born into slavery) The last of 17 children born
to South Carolina sharecroppers.
 Was a field hand, picking cotton to an unofficial
presidential advisor. (member of the Hoover
Commission on Child Welfare and advisor to FDR)
 Committed to meeting the critical need of providing
education to the newly freed African Americans.
 She was selected for a scholarship to educate one black
girl at Scotia Seminary in Concord, NH.
 Rented cottage for $1.50 and 5 students started her first school that became
Bethune-Cookman College in Daytona, FL
Dewey, John - 1859-1952  Developed progressive education and democratic practices.
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 Most influential educator of the 20th century
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 Professor of University of Chicago and Columbia University
 His Educational philosophy has been referred to as
progressivism, pragmatism and experimentalism.
 Believed purpose of education was:
o To assist the growth of individuals
o Help children understand and control their environment.
o Knowledge consists of experiences that should help you
solve problems
o School should be organized around the needs and interests of the child (Child-centered learning)
o Learn by doing.
 The learner’s interests serve as a springboard to understanding and mastering
contemporary issues. Ex: Use the school store to teach math by working with
money.
 Education consists of change and of reconstructing experiences.
o Children, like adults, should learn how to structure their lives and develop selfdiscipline.
o Autocratic governments and authoritarian schools are disservices to
democracy. Students should participate in shaping their education.
o The School should be preparation for democracy – Students should continue
this process and shape the world as adults.
 Dewey’s philosophy helped open schools to innovation and integrated education
with the outside world.
Piaget, Jean - 1896-1980 - Swiss.
Created theory of cognitive development.
He observed that children at different age levels see the world in
different ways. 4 stages of development
 Worked with Alfred Binet, who developed the first
intelligence test (version of today’s Stanford-Binet IQ test).
 In his work on the study to develop the test, he (Jean)
observed that children at different age levels see the
world in different ways. From this he conceptualized his
theory of cognitive, or mental, development which has influenced the way educators
have viewed children ever since.
Four stages of development:
 Infancy to 2 years of age – child functions at the sensorimotor stage -Infants
explore and learn through their senses
 Ages 2 to 7 years of age – children enter the preoperational stage – begin to
organize and understand through language and concepts
 Ages 7 to 11 – Concrete operations stage – children learn to develop and use
more sophisticated concepts and mental operations. They can understand
numbers and some processes and relationships
 Formal stage – 11 to 15 and into adulthood – represents the highest level of
mental development, the level of adult abstract thinking.
 His theory further suggests that teachers should recognize the abilities and limits at
each stage and provide appropriate learning activities.
 His work led to increased attention to early childhood education and
the critical learning that occurs during these early years.
Skinner, Burrhus Frederick (BF) - 1904-1990
 Robert Frost encouraged Skinner to write - Skinner said,
“I discovered the unhappy fact that I had nothing to say,
and went to graduate study in psychology, hoping to
remedy that short-coming.”
 Doctorate from Harvard – went on to teach –
 Attracted by works of John B. Watson – Skinner’s ideas
became quite controversial.
 He believed organisms, including humans, are entirely the products of their
environment --- engineer the environment and you can engineer human behavior.
His view of human behavior was called “behaviorism”.
 During World War II he trained pigeons to pilot missiles and torpedoes.
He believed children could be conditioned to acquire desirable skills and behaviors.
 Break down learning into small, simple steps
 Reward children after completion of each step
 By combining many steps, complex behaviors can be learned efficiently.
 Developed a “teaching machine” to use these principles. – later led to
development of behavior modification and computer-assisted instruction.
He wrote three books that spread his ideas on the importance of environment and behaviorism
to educators, psychologists and the public.
Clark, Kenneth - 1914- 2005
Panama Canal Zone and (NYC)
 Identified crippling effects of racism and
formulated community action to overcome it. His
work strongly key to desegregation decisions by
courts.
 Mother relocated family to NYC when he was 5 in
order to provide better education for her children.
 Mother, working as a seamstress in a NY sweatshop,
helped to organize the International Ladies’ Garment
Workers Union.
 He learned from his mother the importance of “people doing things together to help
themselves.”
 Went to school in Harlem – he witnessed an integrated community become all black and
felt the growing impact of racism.
 Graduated from Howard University and got a doctorate from Columbia – yet his concern
was with the educational plight of African Americans and the Harlem community.
He investigated the impact of segregated schools in NYC, concluding that black students
receive an education inferior to that of whites.
 He established several community self-help projects to assist children with psychological
and educational problems.
o HARYOU (Harlem Youth Opportunities Unlimited) to prevent school dropouts,
delinquency and unemployment.
o His efforts served as a catalyst for government action in NYC and Federally
providing funds to enhance educational opportunities for minority students.
 First African American appointed to faculty position at City College in NY.
 Supreme Court (in 1954) cited Clark’s work as psychological evidence for the need
to desegregate US schools.
 He said, “A racist system inevitably destroys and damages human beings; it
brutalizes and dehumanized blacks and whites alike.”
Warner, Sylvia Ashton - 1908-1984 - New Zealand
 Her emphasis on key vocabulary, individualized reading
and meaningful learning is evident in classrooms today in
America and abroad.
 Place children at the center of curriculum.
 Mother was a teacher – Sylvia learned through rote
memorization
 She was a flamboyant and eccentric personality- considered
herself an artist more than a teacher. (painter, musician and
writer) Considered a below-average teacher, often absent and
unpredictable.
 Fascinated w/creativity and encouraging self-expression among the native Maori
children in New Zealand.
 During peak years of her teaching career (1950 and 1952) she developed
innovative teaching techniques that influenced teachers in US and world
o Developed “key vocabulary” as she realized certain words were
especially significant to individual pupils because of life experiences.
Made word cards of the words.
o Her philosophy centered on bringing meaning to children. She provided a
foundation of several reading approaches and teaching strategies.
 Wrote "Key Vocabulary" and "Teacher"
Freire, Paulo Reglus Neves - 1921-1997 - Brazil
Wrote "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" - mobilized
education in the cause of social justice & education of the
poor.
 Abandoned his career in Law to commit himself to
education of the poor and politically oppressed.
 Denounced teacher-centered classrooms.
 Believed instructor domination denied the legitimacy
of student experiences and treated students as
secondary objects in the learning process. “Banking”
education – as students became little more than
passive targets of teacher comments.
 Critical pedagogy – placing the student at the
center of the learning process.
o Student dialogue, knowledge and skills
shared cooperatively, legitimizing the experiences of the poor.
o Students taught how to generate their own questions, focus on their own
social problems and develop strategies to live more fruitful and satisfying
lives.
o Teachers are not passive as bystanders or the only source of wisdom.
o Teachers should facilitate and inspire rather than unhappy witnesses to
social injustice.
o Teachers should be advocates for the poor and agents for social change.
 His best know work, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, illustrated how education could
transform society.
 When Brazil’s government was overthrown in 1964, Freire was jailed for “subversive”
activities and later exiled. In the late 1960’s, in America, Freire witnessed racial
unrest and antiwar protests. These events convinced him that political oppression is
present in “developed nations” as well as third world countries and that economic
privilege does not guarantee political advantage and that the pedagogy of the
oppressed has worldwide significance.
, and use of ideas and concepts rather than facts alone."
Ernest Boyer – Conducted a major study of secondary education – for over 150 years high
schools have been taking on more and more purposes with the delusion that they can do it all.
Boyer Quotes:
"It is no longer enough to simply read and write. Students must also
become literate in the understanding of visual messages as well.
Our children must learn how to isolate a social cliché and
distinguish facts from propaganda, analysis from banter and
important news from coverage".
"A poor surgeon hurts 1 person at a time. A poor teacher hurts 130".
April 1995 quote from Ernest Boyer
"And above all, let them remember that the meaning of life is to build a
life as if it were a work of art. In the end, the Basic School is
committed to building lives as if they were works of art."
James Coleman 1981 – did a study finding that private schools were doing a better job of
educating students than public schools – got higher test scores and were better behaved.
High School’s Adolescent Society - “High school is the closest thing to a real social system
that exists in our society, the closest thing to a closed social system.” Sociologist James
Coleman (Wrote “The Adolescent Society) high school “has little material reward to
dispense, so that its system of reward is reflected almost directly in the distribution of status.
Those who are popular hold the highest status.”
High school is sometimes remembered as a caste system of “innies” and “outies”, a minutely
detailed social register.
Students rated Most Popular Students
Senior
Student Types
Junior High High
Smart Students
14%
Athletes
23%
Good Looking
37%
7%
74%
Jr and Sr HS students identified the best thing about their school - FRIENDS, Sports,
Nothing,
Jonathan Kozol - Harvard Grad. Ignited by the murder of 3 young civil rights
workers by the Klu Klux Klan in Mississippi in 1964, he went to help with a summer teaching
program at a black church. From that experience
he decided to be a teacher. He worked in a very
poor Urban school in Boston. He had the children
working on works of a Black poet. Kozol was
fired as that book was not on the approved reading
list. He wrote “Death at an Early Age (1967)
which alerted the nation to the wrenching
injustices found in impoverished schools and the
resiliency of their students. Also wrote Savage
Inequalities (1991) describing life in destitute
schools from East St. Louis to the Bronx.
He did not support the voucher system as poor parents (30% of whom are illiterate) would not
be savvy enough to get a fair choice anyway.
Goodlad, John - Use of Time in classroom - 74% instruction; 20% routines, 4% behavior
Man., 2% social activities; most of time teacher in front of class; 85% of time teacher is
talking; little praise; students mostly listen to teacher. A Place Called School Emotional
tone of classroom FLAT. Also recommended a core curriculum but it should comprise “a
common set of concepts, principles skills and ways of knowing.”
John Goodlad/A Place Called School – one of the most
important and influential studies of school life. Refers to Explicit
and implicit curricula
John Goodlad study – use of time in schools
Social activities
Behavior management
Routines
Instruction
2%
4%
20%
75%
Subject matter time varied from 18.5 to 27.5 hours per week.
He found very limited time used for staples (reading and writing)
Time spent on reading:
6% in elementary schools 2% in high schools
Time spent listening to teacher lectures: 18% in elementary schools 25% in high schools
Studies show that when more time is allotted to subject-matter learning, student achievement
increases.
 Roughly 2/3 of classroom time is taken up by talk; 2/3 of that talk is by the teacher
 In the typical “pedagogical cycle”, teachers structure (lecture and direct), question and
react to student comments. Teachers initiate about 85 percent of their verbal cycles.
 While questioning signals curiosity, it is the teachers, not the learners, who do the
questioning, asking as many as 348 questions a day. The typical student rarely asks a
question.
 Most classroom questions require that students use only rote memory.
 Students are not given much time to ask, or even answer questions. Teachers usually wait
less than a second for student comments and answers.
 Teachers interact less and less with students as they go through the grades.
John Goodlad’s study also showed:
 Much of what happens in class is geared toward maintaining order among 20 to 30
students restrained in a relatively small space.
 Although the classroom is a group setting, each student typically works alone.
 The teacher is the key figure in setting the tone and determining the activities.
 Most of the time, the teacher is in front of the classroom, teaching a whole group of
students.
 There is little praise or corrective feedback; classes are emotionally neutral or flat places.
 Students are involved in a limited range of activities – listening to lectures, writing
answers to questions and taking exams.
 A significant number of students are confused by teacher explanations and feel that
they do not get enough guidance on how to improve.
 There is a decline in the attractiveness of the learning environment and the quality of
instruction as students’ progress through the grades.
Havinghurst, Robert -His study done in the Midwest showed nearly 90% of school
dropouts were from lower-class families.
Henry, Jules – anthropologist who analyzed hidden curriculum of elementary schools and
studied the values and behavior it teachers.
 Students are capable of learning many things at one time
 School teaches far more than academic content
 Hidden curriculum consists of implicit learnings that are not always intended.
Ex: Student Council elections – learn about democratic process but also may learn that people
vote for the most popular or the one
Hollingshead, August - Classis analysis of class and school achievement - he discovered
that approx. 2/3 of the students from the two upper social classes but fewer than 15% of
those of the lower class were in the college prep.
Ianni, Frances - Looked at students in affluent lifestyles in suburbs where they have
everything. Parents push them to be good at everything. Take SATS 4 and 5 times. Put
tremendous pressure on student beyond their abilities and alienate them from family and friends.
They can develop "delusion of uniqueness" - a sense that no one knows how they feel or cares they feel cut off from the "four worlds of childhood" - family, friends, school and work. - It can
be serious and life-threatening. Her plan was to develop YOUTH CHARTERS -Networks of
services to nurture children at risk (detracking, co-op learning, smaller schools, guidance for
psychological problems.
Jackson, Philip – Wrote "Life in Classrooms" where he looked at use of time and how
much time students spend waiting. Teachers usually busy.
Philip Jackson – “Life in Classrooms” – describes how time is spent in classrooms in
elementary schools.
 Teachers are usually busy
 Handing out supplies, timekeeping, structuring, organizing, talking, questioning,
collecting, etc.
 Students caught in patterns of delay
 Waiting, sitting, waiting
Oakes, Jeannie - 1985 Keeping Track - book - effort to "detrack"
or eliminate tracking practices. She found that race more than ability
determined placement of students. Children in the high groups moved
ahead as much as 5 times the lower groups.
Parsons, Talcott - Study in1960 showed that college selection
process begins in elementary school and is sealed by Jr. High. The
labeling system beginning at an early age determines who will wear a
stethoscope, carry a laptop computer or be a low-wage laborer.
Rosenthal, Robert and Jacobson, Lenore - Wrote
Pygmalion in the Classroom - self-fulfilling prophecy - high
expectations get high achievement and vice versa
Taba, Hilda – 1962 - educator who said, “Learning in school differs from learning in life in
that it is formally organized. It is the special function of the school to arrange the experiences of
children and youth so that desirable learning takes place. If the curriculum is to be a plan for
learning, its content and learning experiences need to be organized so that they served the
educational objectives.
Inductive thinking - Hilda Taba developed a multi-purpose approach that utilizes a method of
three discreet stages. First students make observations (many observations not only a few) then
they gather the similar items together, and finally they name each category. Students are then
assigned to category groups and begin to research their topics. The role of the teacher is that of
facilitator. The final report can be made using any one of the various reporting techniques
available. The premise here, according to Taba is that children make generalizations after
organizing the data.
Hilda Taba believed that students make generalizations only after information is organized. She
believed that students could be led toward making generalizations through concept development
and concept attainment strategies. According to Taba, the best way to deal with increase in
knowledge is to emphasize the "acquisition, understanding
Warner, W. Lloyd - In mid 1940s conducted a study in New England, the deep South and
the Midwest - determined the lower class students are almost immediately brushed off into a
bin labeled "non-readers, first grade repeaters" or opportunity class when you stay for 8 or
10 years and then are released.
Urie Bronfenbrenner – 1917 – 2005
From the very beginning of his scholarly work, Bronfenbrenner has pursued
three mutually reinforcing themes: 1) developing theory and corresponding
research designs at the frontiers of developmental science; 2) laying out the
implications and applications of developmental theory and research for policy and
practice; and 3) communicating - through articles, lectures, and discussions - the
findings of developmental research to undergraduate students, the general public,
and to decision-makers both in the private and public sector. Bronfenbrenner has
also played an active role in the design of developmental programs in the United States and
elsewhere, including being one of the founders of Head Start.
In Rebuilding The Nest, Urie Bronfenbrenner lays out five propositions that describe the
processes that foster the development of human competence and character. At the core of
these principles is a child's emotional, physical, intellectual and social need for ongoing,
mutual interaction with a caring adult--and preferably with many adults.
"I am sometimes asked up to what age do these principles apply. The answer is debatable, but I
would say anytime up to the age of, say, 99."
Proposition 1. In order to develop--intellectually, emotionally, socially, and morally--a child
requires participation in progressively more complex reciprocal activity, on a regular basis over
an extended period in the child's life, with one or more persons with whom the child develops a
strong, mutual, irrational, emotional attachment and who is committed to the child's well-being
and development, preferably for life.
Proposition 2. The establishment of patterns of progressive interpersonal interaction under
conditions of strong mutual attachment enhances the young child's responsiveness to other
features of the immediate physical, social, and--in due course--symbolic environment that invite
exploration, manipulation, elaboration and imagination. Such activities, in turn, also accelerate
the child's psychological growth.
Proposition 3. The establishment and maintenance of patterns of progressively more complex
interaction and emotional attachment between caregiver and child depend in substantial degree
on the availability and involvement of another adult, a third party who assists, encourages, spells
off, gives status to, and expresses admiration and affection for the person caring for and
engaging in joint activity with the child.
Proposition 4. The effective functioning of child-rearing processes in the family and other
child settings requires establishing ongoing patterns of exchange of information, two-way
communication, mutual accommodation, and mutual trust between the principal settings in
which children and their parents live their lives. These settings are the home, child-care
programs, the school, and the parents' place of work.
Proposition 5. The effective functioning of child-rearing processes in the family and other
child settings requires public policies and practices that provide place, time, stability, status,
recognition, belief systems, customs, and actions in support of child-rearing activities not only on
the part of parents, caregivers, teachers, and other professional personnel, but also relatives,
friends, neighbors, co-workers, communities, and the major economic, social, and political
institutions of the entire society.
Alfie Kohn – discriminates between genuine learning and mindless school routine.
Educational excellence comes from personalized learning, from recognizing the uniqueness of
each student and not from a lockstep curriculum. As a new teacher,
Alfie says, “I lovingly polished lectures, reading lists, and tests. I
treated the students as interchangeable receptacles – rows of wide-open
bird beaks waiting for worms. Finally I realized I was denying students
the joy of exploring topics and uncovering truths on their own.”
Standards turn schools into fact factories. With a focus on standards of
outcome rather than standards of opportunity, real barriers to
achievement – racism, poverty, low teacher salaries, language
differences, inadequate facilities – are lost in the sea of testing.
Theodore Sizer - Ted Sizer is arguably the leading educational reformer in the United
States. In 1984, he founded the Coalition of Essential Schools. Coalition uses authentic
assessment. It encourages schools to define their own model for successful reform, guided by
nine basic principles that emphasize the personalization of learning, including the requirement
that students complete ‘exhibitions’, tasks that call on them to exhibit their knowledge
concretely.
Theodore Sizer’s Horace’s Compromise (1984) emphasized the process
of knowing. He believed only certain essentials, such as literacy,
numeric ability and civic understanding should be mandated.
E.D. Hirsch, Jr.
book, Cultural literacy, 1987, Identified core cultural milestones.
“When the schools of the nation cease to transmit effectively the literate language and culture,
the unity and effectiveness of the nation will necessarily declineThe Core Knowledge Program
began with the work of Dr. E. D. Hirsch, an educational teacher, who proposed the idea that all
children need to be taught a common body of basic knowledge in order to be successful and
productive in our society. The Core Knowledge Sequence provides a clear outline of content to
be learned grade by grade. This curriculum focuses on teaching knowledge and skills
sequentially. The specific content in the Core Knowledge Sequence provides a detailed outline of
knowledge that is to be taught in language arts, history, geography, math, science, and fine arts.
“Cafeteria-style
education, combined with the unwillingness of our schools to place demands on
students, has resulted in a steady diminishment of commonly shared information between
generations and between young people themselves.”
“We
have ignored cultural literacy in thinking about education We ignore the air we breathe until
it is thin or foul. Cultural literacy is the oxygen of social intercourse.”
Book, Cultural Literacy. Hirsch believes that it is the poorer children and children of color who
will most benefit from a cultural literacy curriculum as they are less likely to become culturally
literate. A core curriculum will teach them names, dates, places, events, and quotes that every
literate American needs to know in order to succeed. Wrote a book for each grade.
Mortimer Adler -
December 28, 1902- June 28, 2001
Most stringent report on core requirements
Paideia Proposal – Required course of study the same for
every child the first 12 years of school. Only choice what
language to study. Adler thought electives downgraded
education.
He believes that education should be basically the same for
everyone, because children’s “sameness as human
beings...means that every child has all the distinguishing
properties common to all members of the species.”
For him, education should serve three purposes: to teach people how to use their leisure time
well, to teach people to earn their living ethically, and to teach people to be responsible citizens
in a democracy. He believes that each person has the innate ability to do these three things, and
that education should above all prepare people to become lifelong learners. Education never
ends, in his view -- age 60 is the earliest that anyone can claim to be truly “educated”, and only
then if they have devoted their life to learning.
Robert Slavin The program, Success for All, emphasizes reading, writing, and early
intervention to resolve learning problems, especially for elementary
schools with significant numbers of at-risk students. “Education
resembles such fields as fashion and design, in which change mirrors
shifts in taste and social climate and is not usually thought of as true
progress.”
Developed student team learning methods in which a team’s work is not
completed until all students on the team understand the material being
studied. Students tutor each other. Cooperative learning promotes both
intellectual and emotional growth.
Allen Bloom
September 14, 1930 “Education in our times must try to find
whatever there is in students that might yearn for completion, and to
reconstruct the learning that would enable them autonomously to seek
that completion.”
Allen Bloom/The closing of the American mind – (1987) one of several
books that sounded the call for a curricular canon.
Curricular canon – the most useful and valued books in our culture.
All students should share a common knowledge of our history and the
central figures of our culture, an appreciation of great works of art and
music, and the great works of literature. A shared understanding of our
civilization is a way to bind our diverse people.
Bloom claimed his university students graduated with a degree but without an education as they
were ignorant of music and literature. His vision, however, consisted almost exclusively of
white, male, European culture.
Robert Marzano He has developed programs and practices used by K-12 classrooms that
translate current research and theory in cognition into instructional methods.
“Tactics for Thinking” Identifying Similarities and Differences - TASKS
SHOULD BE STUDENT-DIRECTED - Students’ understanding and
ability to use knowledge can be enhanced by: 1)Presenting students with
explicit guidance in identifying similarities and differences 2)Asking
students to independently identify similarities and differences
3)Representing similarities and differences in graphic or symbolic form
Suggested Teaching Strategies: Comparing, Classifying, Creating
Metaphors and analogies
Metacognition – self-awareness of our thinking process as we perform various tasks and
operations. For example, when students articulate how they think about academic tasks, it
enhances their thinking and enables teachers to target assistance and remediation.
Metacognition which enables students to monitor and control their commitment, attitudes, and
attention during the learning process.
Lawrence Kohlberg
(October 25, 1927 - January 19, 1987). He is famous for his work
in moral education, reasoning, and development. Being a close follower of Jean Piaget's theory
of cognitive development, Kohlberg's work reflects and perhaps even extends his predecessor's
work. This work has been further extended and modified by such scholars as Carol Gilligan.
Kohlberg's Stages of Moral Development holds that moral reasoning, which he thought to be the
basis for ethical behavior, has developmental stages. He followed the development of moral
judgment beyond the ages originally studied by Jean Piaget, expanding considerably on Piaget's
work. He determined that the process of moral development continued throughout the lifespan,
and created a model based on six identifiable stages of moral development.
Kohlberg's six stages were grouped into three levels: preconventional, conventional, and post-conventional. Following
Piaget's requirements for a stage model, it is not possible to
regress backwards in stages. It is also not possible to 'jump'
stages; each stage provides new perspective and is "more
comprehensive, differentiated, and integrated than its
predecessors."
Level 1 (Pre-Conventional) (up to age 9)
1. Obedience and punishment orientation
2. Self-interest orientation
Level 2 (Conventional) (age nine+ to adolescence)
3. Interpersonal accord and conformity
(a.k.a. The good boy/good girl attitude)
4. Authority and social-order maintaining orientation
(a.k.a. Law and order morality)
Level 3 (Post-Conventional)(adulthood)
5. Social contract orientation
6. Universal ethical principles
(a.k.a. Principled conscience)
Carol Gilligan (1936-present)
Gilligan began teaching at Harvard in 1967 with renowned psychologist
Erik Erikson. In 1970 she became a research assistant for Lawrence
Kohlberg. Kohlberg is known for his research on moral development and
his stage theory of moral development, justice and rights. Gilligan's
primary focus came to be moral development in girls. Her interest in these
dilemmas grew as she interviewed young men thinking about enlisting for
the Vietnam War and women who were contemplating abortions.
Gilligan would go on to criticize Kohlberg's work. This was based on two things. First, he only
studied privileged, white men and boys. She felt that this caused a biased opinion against
women. Secondly, in his stage theory of moral development, the male view of individual rights
and rules was considered a higher stage than women's point of view of development in terms of
its caring effect on human relationships.
Women were taught to care for other people and expect others to care for them. She helped to
form a new psychology for women by listening to them and rethinking the meaning of self and
selfishness. She asked four questions about women's voices: who is speaking, in what body,
telling what story, and in what cultural framework is the story presented?
Her criticisms were published in 1982 in her most famous book titled, In a Different Voice:
Psychological Theory and Women's Development. She came to be known as the founder of
"difference feminism". Many feminists insisted that there are no differences between males and
females. Gilligan asserted that women have differing moral and psychological tendencies than
men. According to Gilligan, men think in terms of rules and justice and women are more inclined
to think in terms of caring and relationships. She asks that Western society begin to value both
equally.
She outlines three stages of moral development progressing from selfish, to social or
conventional morality, and finally to post conventional or principled morality. Women must
learn to tend to their own interests and to the interests of others. She thinks that women hesitate
to judge because they see the complexities of relationships.
Morris Dees – Civil Rights Lawyer who started Teaching Tolerance and Tolerance.org
interactive web site for anti-bias lessons and classroom activities. While
stranded at Cincinnati airport in 1967 he purchased Clarence Darrow’s book
The Story of My Life and that inspired him to become for active in the Civil
Rights movement.
He has successfully tracked and fought domestic terrorists for 20 years. He
knows what America faces in its war against terrorism. He also has a
powerful tolerance message to stem the tide of hate crimes against those
who resemble the terrorists. His message is one of hope, and of turning this
tragedy into America’s finest hour.
Over the course of his career, Dees has done much to promote diversity. His efforts have
resulted in many achievements, including the Civil Rights Memorial, lawsuits that bankrupted
the KKK and imprisoned perpetrators of hate crimes, and increased awareness of radical militias.
He is chief trial counsel for The Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit group he co-founded
in 1971, which specializes in lawsuits involving civil rights violations, domestic terrorists, and
racially motivated crimes.