9/16/14 1 CUR 510 Historical Foundations Dr. Jeff Sapp Our Textbook • The Colonial Period (1642-1776) – New England School’s primary purpose was to teach children to read Scripture. – Old Deluder Satan Act of 1647…towns of 50+ families had to have a reading & writing teacher…towns of 100+ had to have a Latin teacher – Middle colonies – not much going on – Southern colonies – education decisions left up to the family Our Textbook • The Colonial Period (1642-1776) – Curriculum • Stressed basic skills • Timeless and absolute values • Social and religious conformity • Faith in authority • Knowledge for the sake of knowledge • Rote learning and memorization • Reflected the belief that children were born in sin, play was idleness, and children’s talk was gibberish “Oh yeah, we already did that.” “Oh yeah, we already did that.”
Transcript
9/16/14
1
CUR 510 Historical
Foundations Dr. Jeff Sapp
Our Textbook • The Colonial Period (1642-1776) – New England School’s primary purpose was to teach children to read Scripture.
– Old Deluder Satan Act of 1647…towns of 50+ families had to have a reading & writing teacher…towns of 100+ had to have a Latin teacher
– Middle colonies – not much going on – Southern colonies – education decisions left up to the family
Our Textbook • The Colonial Period (1642-1776) – Curriculum • Stressed basic skills • Timeless and absolute values • Social and religious conformity • Faith in authority • Knowledge for the sake of knowledge • Rote learning and memorization • Reflected the belief that children were born in sin, play was idleness, and children’s talk was gibberish
“Oh yeah, we already did that.”
“Oh yeah, we already did that.”
9/16/14
2
“Oh yeah, we already did that.”
Our Textbook *The National Period (1776-1850) *Universal education for all Dr. Benjamin Rush Thomas Jefferson
*Noah Webster – The American Dictionary *William Holmes McGuffey – The McGuffey Readers (still used today in some rural, conservative, and/or fundamentalist schools) *Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi – learning should be based on a child’s natural development; he deplored rote learning (influenced curriculum relevancy and humanistic curriculum) *Friedrich Froebel – Kindergarten
Our Textbook *The National Period (1776-1850) *Johann Herbart – Moral & Intellectual Development Formulated 5 Steps of Instruction 1. What do my students know? 2. What questions should I ask? 3. What events should I relate? 4. What conclusions should be reached? 5. How can students apply what they have learned?
These pretty much are the guidelines for our lesson plans today as well as what we’re calling curriculum
development in this class.
Our Textbook *The National Period (1776-1850) *Herbert Spencer – “survival of the fittest”
9/16/14
3
Spencer constructed a curriculum aimed at advancing human survival and progress. His curriculum included knowledge and activities (in order of importance) for: 1. Sustaining life 2. Earning a living 3. Rearing children properly 4. Maintaining effective citizenship 5. Enjoying leisure time Students should be taught how to think, not what to think.
Our Textbook *The Rise of Universal Education (1820-1900) *Monitorial Schools *Common Schools (Horace Mann, The 3 R’s) GED 503
From the colonial period until the turn of the 20th century, the traditional curriculum, which emphasized classical studies for college-bound students, dominated at the elementary and secondary levels. The rationale for this emphasis was that the classics were difficult and thus were a good way to develop mental abilities. More subjects were added to the curriculum. And people began to question whether there should be two tracks for elementary students…one for children bound for high school and another for those who would stop when they graduated elementary school.
Soooooooo…between 1893 and 1895 the NEA (Um, yes. It’s been around a looooong time!) organized 3 major committees: 1. The Committee of Fifteen on Elementary
Education 2. The Committee of Ten on Secondary
School Studies 3. The Committee on College Entrance
Requirements These 3 committees determined curricula. And they “standardized” the curriculum for much of the 20th century.
Annnnnnnd…they had no concern at all for
student abilities, social needs, interests, or capabilities. These found no place in their deliberations.
9/16/14
4
Our Textbook *The Transitional Period (1893-1918) *Two conservative reformers to know about: 1. William Harris – a traditionalist who
subscribed to McGuffey’s moralism and Mann’s faith in free public schools. For Harris education was about preserving society’s customs and norms. He advocated for a mix of essentialsim and perennaialism. 2. Charles Eliot – President of Harvard, he
shaped higher education. He proposed a 4 class system that many saw as elitist and biased…and advocated for tracking secondary students into academic and nonacademic programs (Vocational Education).
Modern Curriculum
1917
Modern Curriculum
1916
Lab School
Modern Curriculum The 1918 Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Education: 1. Education should promote 7 aims: health, command
of the fundamentals, “worthy home membership” (preparation for marriage, raising children), vocation, citizenship, leisure, and ethical character
2. High school should be a comprehensive institution having the nation’s social and economic groups.
3. High school curricula should meet varied student needs – agricultural, business and commercial, vocational, and college preparatory.
4. Current educational psychology, psychological principles, and methods of measurement and evaluation should be applied to secondary curriculum and instruction.
5. U.S. educational institutions should function in conjunction with one another.
The Birth of the Field of Curriculum, 1918-1949
Content &
Subject Matter
Principles &
Methodology +
= Science
*William Heard Kilpatrick: The Progressive Influence A colleague of Dewey’s, Kilpatrick came up with
the Project Method (later called purposeful activity). It included 4 steps:
1. Purposing 2. Planning 3. Executing 4. Judging
He was concerned with social issues and was part of the radical progressive wing (later known as
reconstructionism). He argued for integrated subject matter and a general education emphasizing values and social issues.
9/16/14
5
*In 1930, the National Society for the Study of Education at the U. of Chicago published Curriculum Making: Past and Present and The Foundations of Curriculum Making. In them, they outlined the ideal curriculum, which should do the following: 1. Focus on affairs of human life. 2. Deal with local, national, & international issues. 3. Enable students to think critically about various forms of
government. 4. Foster open-mindedness. 5. Consider students’ interests and needs and provide
opportunities for discussion & debate. 6. Deal with the issues of modern life & society’s cultural &
historical aspects. 7. Consider problem-solving activities & practice in choosing
alternatives such as role playing, independent learning, & cooperative learning.
8. Organize problems & exercises in a graded organization. 9. Deal with humanitarian themes in purposeful, constructive ways.
Modern Curriculum In the 1940s Hollis Caswell wanted teachers to have more input into curriculum making. He
presented 7 ques?ons that s?ll have relevance to us today: 1. What is curriculum? 2. Why is there need for curriculum revision? 3. What is the func?on of subject maIer? 4. How do we determine educa?onal objec?ves? 5. How do we organize curriculum? 6. How do we select subject maIer? 7. How do we measure the outcomes of instruc?on?
Modern Curriculum In the 40s, progressive educators implemented the idea of sta?ng objec?ves in behavioral terms. Ralph Tyler wrote Basic Principles of Curriculum & Instruc5on in 1949 and posed the basic ques?ons he believes should be answered by anyone involved in planning or wri?ng curriculum: 1. What educa?onal goals should a school seek to accomplish? 2. What educa?onal experiences are likely to lead to these goals? 3. How can these educa?onal experiences be effec?vely
organized? 4. How can we determine whether a school’s goals are being
accomplished?
Modern Curriculum John Goodlad extended Dewey’s ideas of democracy and social ac?vism. In A Place Called School, Goodlad studied more than 17,000 students and as a whole they described their learning with widespread
PASSIVE and rote learning.
Research Findings 1. The classroom is generally organized
as a group that the teacher treats as a whole; individual or small-group instruction is rare.
2. The emphasis is on classroom control and order.
3. Teachers check enthusiasm & excitement; the educational tone is flat & neutral.
4. Students passively listen to teachers, write answers to questions, and take tests; they rarely interact or learn from one another.
5. Little use is made of media, guest speakers, or field trips. 6. Instruction rarely goes beyond knowledge acquisition; little
effort is made to motivate students to reflect, solve problems, hypothesize, or think creatively.
7. When teachers prioritize order and students prefer to do as little work as possible, the result is often minimum standards and expectations.
8. Overwhelmingly, secondary students say that “good looking students” & “athletes” are the most popular students. Only 10% say that “smart students are popular.”
