ED 250-Foundations of Education

1. ED 250-Foundations of Education Ashley Swanson

2. Quote: “The direction which education starts a man will determine his future in life.” -Plato

3. Today’s Topics: • Educational Pioneers • Philosophy vs. Theory • Group Discussions

4. Johann Comenius

5. Johann Comenius • Peace educator • Sensory method of teaching rather than passive memorization • Rejected the idea of child depravity • Advocate of learning readiness • Teaching a specific skill until it was thoroughly understood by students

6. Johann Comenius • Influence on today’s educational practices: • Respect universal human rights & children’s dignity • Recognize children’s stages of development and learning readiness • Use objects and pictures to encourage children to use their senses during the learning process

7. Jean-Jacques Rousseau

8. Jean-Jacques Rousseau • Educating children according to nature • Wrote Emile-the story of a boys education from infancy to adulthood • Rejected the idea of child depravity • Placed crucial importance on stages of human development

9. Jean-Jacques Rousseau • Influence on today’s educational practices: • Argument that curriculum should arise from child’s interest had a profound affect on progressive educators • Children should learn from their direct interaction with the environment- influenced constructivism

10. Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi

11. Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi • Schools should nurture children’s holistic nature • Emphasized the relationship between families and schools • Direct sensory learning • Dedicated to teaching students with special needs

12. Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi • Influence on today’s educational practices: • Emphasis on having students manipulate objects in their environment: process-based learning • Emotional security is necessary for skill and subject learning

13. Johann Friedrich Herbart

14. Johann Friedrich Herbart • Sought to systemize teaching • Instruction was structured into a sequence of 5 steps: • Preparation: prepare students for the information that is going to be taught • Presentation: clearly present the new concept • Association: new concept is compared and contrasted to previous knowledge • Generalization: principles are formed that combine new and previous learning • Application: exams and exercises to assess mastery

15. Johann Friedrich Herbart • Influence on today’s educational practices: • Relevant to NCLB guidelines: • Instruction should be efficient and effective • Students should be tested to assess mastery of skills

16. Friedrich Froebel

17. Friedrich Froebel • Created kindergarten • Games, play, songs, stories, and crafts • Stressed the importance of the teachers personality • Encouraged teachers to avoid introducing academic subjects

18. Friedrich Froebel • Influence on today’s educational practices: • Kindergarten as part of elementary school

19. Herbert Spencer

20. Herbert Spencer • Social Darwinism • Competition within the classroom and between schools • Utilitarian education • Focus on science and technology to prepare students to be efficient producers in a competitive industrial society

21. Herbert Spencer • Influence on today’s educational practices: • Contemporary curriculum designers use Spencer’s rationale when designing curriculum on human needs and activities • Competition between schools introduced between standardized testing • School vouchers • Raising standards for pre-service teachers

22. John Dewey

23. John Dewey • Curriculum organized into constructive, experimental, and creative activities that promoted: • Development of senses and physical coordination • Opportunities for children to make and do things based on their interests • Encouraged students to formulate, examine, and test their ideas by acting on them • Genuine knowledge is not inert information transmitted from teachers to students

24. John Dewey • Knowledge is continually reconfigured and reconstructed • Educations main purpose is to promote social growth • Three levels of curriculum: 1) Making and doing 2) Space and time 3) Science

25. John Dewey • Influence on today’s educational practices: • Ideas about socially expanding children’s experiences, emphasized children’s individual interests and needs • Hands on or process oriented learning • Collaborative learning • Opening schools to social reform

26. Jane Addams

27. Jane Addams • Socialized education • Hull-House • Teaching with a social justice mission- teachers need to examine issues of social justice and change in relationship to education and schooling

28. Jane Addams • Influence on today’s educational practices: • Equal rights for women • Classroom needs to be connected to the community it serves

29. Maria Montessori

30. Maria Montessori • Children possess an inner need to work at what interests them without needing external rewards and punishments • Children like to repeat actions until they master a skill • Curriculum included three major types of experiences: • Practical • Sensory • Formal skills and studies • Didactic devices and a prepared environment

31. Maria Montessori • Influence on today’s educational practices: • Emphasis on the formative power of early childhood education over a person’s adult development • Children are capable of self-directed learning of a particular skill • Emphasis on school as part of the community and importance of parent involvement • Concept of sensitive periods

32. Jean Piaget

33. Jean Piaget • Children create their concepts of reality through exploration of their environment • Stage-Learning Theory of Development: • Sensorimotor Stage • Preoperational Stage • Concrete-Operational Stage • Formal-Operational Stage • Children’s perceptions of reality often differ from the types of curriculum and instruction adults create for them • A rich environment can stimulate children to learn, but we cannot force learning on children

34. Stage-Learning Theory of Development

35. Jean Piaget • Influence on today’s educational practices: • Stimulated a movement to make the classroom less formal and more focused on how children learn • Encourage children to explore and experiment • Individualize instruction so children can learn at their own pace • Classroom learning centers stocked with hands-on activities

36. Paulo Freire

37. Paulo Freire • Liberation pedagogy • Critical consciousness-students should be conscious and critically aware of the social, political, and economic conditions that effect their lives • Opposes “teacher talk” • Banking Model

38. Paulo Freire • Influence on today’s educational practices: • Transformed teaching and learning from limited concept of transmitting information to discovering one’s identity and meaning in the world • Teachers should help students work towards social justices by exposing them to conditions that marginalize their communities

39. Choose 3 pioneers that you relate to in terms of your educational philosophy & jot down what you like about their ideals

40. Philosophy vs. Theory

41. Philosophy vs. Theory

42. Philosophies vs. Theories • Philosophies-highly generalized views of reality, knowledge, and values that include education • Theories-derived from philosophies, but focus more specifically on education, schools, curriculum, learning, and teaching • General philosophies link to more specific theories

43. Educational Philosophies

44. Philosophy Terminology • Metaphysics: considers questions about ultimate reality • Relates to education: determining which knowledge has the most worth when creating the curriculum • Epistemology: deals with knowledge • Relates to education: influences methods of teaching and learning • Axiology: ethics and aesthetics • Relates to education: classroom environment • Logic: correct and valid thinking-deductive and inductive logic • Relates to education: how lessons are organized

45. Answer the Following Questions: • What is knowledge? • What is the purpose of school? • Who should attend school? • How should we teach?

46. Idealism • What is knowledge? • Knowledge is about universal ideas and education is the intellectual process of bringing those ideas out in the consciousness of the learner • What is school? • Place to explore the questions of Socrates and Plato: What is truth?, What is beauty?, What is the good life? These questions can be answered through the study of quality books and works of art • Who should attend school? • Everyone-students should have an education that will take them as far as their intellectual abilities will allow • How should we teach? • Teaching is the process of bringing existing ideas into conscious reflection • Socratic method: teacher stimulates learners awareness of these ideas through questioning • Teachers should be good role models

47. Realism • What is knowledge? • Knowledge is about the world we live in and always corresponds with objects • What is school? • A place to obtain knowledge that is organized into disciplines • Who should attend school? • Everyone-oppose sorting students into separate academic tracks • How should we teach? • The curriculum should be organized into separate subjects • Focus should be on cognitive learning-teaching skills (reading, writing, computation, etc.) and subjects (history, math, science, etc.)

48. Pragmatism • What is knowledge? • Process of constructing, using, and testing ideas • What is school? • Three major functions: simplify, purify, and balance cultural heritage • Local community of learners and their teachers connected to the larger society • Who should attend school? • Everyone • How should we teach? • Interdisciplinary education rather than departmentalized subject-matter curriculum • Using the scientific method

49. Existentialism • What is knowledge? • Knowledge is created through our own personal choices • Individuals will choose the knowledge that pertains most to his/her life • What is school? • An opportunity for teachers and students to engage in discussion about their lives and their choices • Who should attend school? • Everyone • How should we teach? • Purpose of education is to awaken consciousness about freedom to create own sense of self • Students encouraged to participate in discussions about hopes, fears, desires, living, loving, and dying • Valuable subjects include literature, biography, drama, and film because they reveal people making choices Example: Summerhill School

50. Postmodernism • What is knowledge? • Constructed based on our experiences from interacting with our environment • What is school? • View public schools are a contested arena-argue that public schools help reproduce a society that is patriarchal, Eurocentric, and capitalist. • Who should attend school? • Everyone • How should we teach? • Encourage deconstruction of texts and teaching materials • With cultural diversity at the core • Conscious of bias