Ch. 11 Fads in General Education: Fad, Fraud, and Folly Author: Martin A. Kozloff

1. Ch. 11Fads in General Education: Fad, Fraud, and FollyAuthor: Martin A. Kozloff Presented by: Thomas J. Donahue Caldwell College

2. Fads in General EducationAuthor: Martin A. Kozloff, Ph.D. • Teaches Direct Instruction, Instructional Design, and Educational Research at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington • Expert on pedagogy (correct use of instructive strategies) and has numerous publications about methods of instruction (direct instruction) • Supports instructivism as superior to constructivism (discovery learning – the theory public schools are based on) • Panel Member of the Autism Society

3. Fads in General Education • Fads – Ideas, Materials, and Activities that are the “In” Thing • Saturate the market and then disappear • Ordinary fads are cheap and harmless • This is not the same in the case of innovations in education

4. Fads in General EducationVideo: Vacuum ad

5. Fads in General Education • History of innovations in education • They range from questionable to destructive • Examples: Additive Free Diets, Gentle Teaching, Sensory Integration, Full Inclusion, Facilitated Communication, Whole Language, Invented Spelling, Multiple Intelligences, Brain Based Teaching, etc.

6. Fads in General EducationVideo: Gentle Teaching

7. Fads in General Education • Fads in education are not always passing • Many exist for decades under the same name and when revealed for what they truly are, simply change their name and continue on • Pet rocks aren’t the same as education • Educational system exponentially influences how children learn, then teach, and continue to support that same system (“destructive innovation infects a larger circle”)

8. Fads in General Education • History of education is characterized by faddish ideas and methods that don’t work • Unfortunately, history is also characterized by failing to institutionalize ideas and methods that do work • The good, true, and effective ideas and methods end up becoming the real fad in education

9. Fads in General Education • Project Follow Through showed direct instruction (DI) and applied behavior analysis (ABA) fostered the highest achievement in reading and math • DI and ABA were attacked by proponents and sellers of ineffective curricula. • They ended up being marginalized and only used for disadvantaged children with special needs.

10. Fads in General Education • Fraud is applied to innovations created by those operating in bad faith • 1- claim it is in the best interest of the child, but is not (self-serving) • 2- refuse to test the null hypothesis that their innovations don’t work • 3- refuse to conduct research that can be verified • 4- denigrate research that challenges their claims (e.g., Report of the NRP – next slide) • References Plato’s discovery that his fellow citizens did not much care to engage in behavior (reasoning) that jeopardized self-serving and class serving beliefs

11. Fads in General Education • Kozloff believes the Report of the National Reading Panel (NRP) is politically motivated • The progress report was sent to Congress in 1999 by 14 experts and subgroups • They built upon the work of the National Research Counsel (NRC) Committee - identifying and summarizing research literature relevant to the critical skills, environments, and early developmental interactions that are instrumental in the acquisition of beginning reading skills. The NRC Committee did not specifically address “how” critical reading skills are most effectively taught and what instructional methods, materials, and approaches are most beneficial for students of varying abilities.

12. Fads in General Education • Romantic Modernism is the rejection of the modern world • It calls for the return to innocence of older times • Core propositions of individuals are: naturally good, naturally moral, naturally able to construct knowledge, naturally spontaneous/creative (health depends on this), and that they are inhibited by society which is naturally repressive

13. Fads in General Education • General tenets of Progressivism • Instruction should be developmentally appropriate (there is no research to support this!) • Preaches that language and reading should not be done in a systematic fashion (since this is unnatural) • “DAP” (Developmentally Appropriate Practice) in essence denies disadvantaged students and students with disabilities exactly what they need to catch up with their advantaged peers.

14. Fads in General Education • Progressivism continued • The teacher should be a facilitator rather than a transmitter of knowledge • Students must discover and construct knowledge on their own • Example: Bad: Teacher creates and enforces the rules Good: Students help set and enforce the rules

15. Fads in General EducationVideo: Inquiry-Based Learning

16. Fads in General Education • Progressivism continued • Students don’t need to be taught in a logical progression of tasks with precisely designed instructional communication • Children will learn well enough in “messy,” natural environments • They don’t want to feel stifled by the technically proficient protocols

17. Fads in General Education • Progressivism continued • Homogeneous grouping based on students’ current skills is bad • It will lower self esteem and create track. • It is DISCRIMINATION! • In actuality, the neediest students will fall farther behind in such a system

18. Fads in General Education • Progressivism continued • Teachers shouldn’t correct errors immediately and consistently • Error correction makes students dependent on teachers and threatens self-esteem • In actuality, the students end up both unskilled and with low self-esteem

19. Fads in General Education • Progressivism continued • Frequent practice is not an effective way to foster mastery and high self-expectations. • Practice is boring and inhibits creativity • Drill and kill! Assault on individuality • Reality – Practice is the only route to mastery and realization of values

20. Fads in General Education • Progressivism continued • Teachers should create their own curricula and lesson plans, rather than follow field-tested programs • Programs disempower teacher and hinder self-expression. • To receive knowledge places the individual beneath the oppressive weight of external authority • Reality – disempowerment of teachers and denying them tools to make them more effective

21. Fads in General Education • Progressivism Incarnate in Whole Language • Adults can’t teach children how to read or write – only demonstrate • Language is learned “incidentally” • Learning is continuous, spontaneous, and effortless – requires no specific reinforcement • No need for formal lessons – let it become part of their life

22. Fads in General EducationVideo: Whole Language

23. Fads in General Education • Scientific research is at odds with the core propositions of Romanticism and Progressivism • When objectives are clear, teachers are able to plan exactly how to teach and how to evaluate the effects of instruction • Example: “I am increasing fluency of math facts. By the end of the week, students will solve at least 10 one-digit adding and subtracting problems per minute with at least 90% accuracy.”

24. Fads in General Education • Teacher systematically fosters the different sorts of changes that define mastery: * acquisition (accuracy) * fluency (accuracy & speed) * assembling elements into larger compounds * generalization of knowledge to new examples * retention of skills over time * independence from teacher supervision

25. Fads in General Education • Instruction is a logical progressive sequence * Begins with elemental skills (e.g., counting, math facts) * Moves to increasingly complex skills (e.g., adding, subtracting, word problems) * Students are always taught pre-skills needed for the next lesson

26. Fads in General Education • Curriculum focuses on a skill until it is mastered before moving onto another kind of skill * Example – strategy of moving from multiplying two digit numbers to decimals. MASTERING NOTHING MEANS THAT WE HAVE TO START ALL OVER AGAIN NEXT YEAR!

27. Fads in General Education • Teacher moves at a brisk pace to sustain attention and get more taught • Teacher stays focused and keeps student focused on the task at hand – discussions don’t wander off • Teacher corrects all errors immediately.

28. Fads in General Education • Teacher immediately tests or checks whether students are getting what he or she is trying to teach - If the student makes an error, the teacher re-teaches the problem spot This shows the teacher understands: a.) solid measure of teaching effectiveness is using what the teacher has taught b.) teacher must check teaching-effectiveness every time he/she teaches something new

29. Fads in General Education • Teacher asks questions of the group and the individual • Teacher gives specific praise (e.g., “Excellent for reading that passage with no errors!” Not, “Good reading.” • Homework is not used to teach a skill, but generalize or apply skills learned in school.

30. Fads in General Education • There is a strong contrast between core beliefs of Romantic modernism the set of empirical generalizations • HOW CAN A FIELD SO READILY ADOPT AND INSTITUTIONALIZE IDEAS AND METHODS THAT FLY IN THE FACE OF BOTH COMMON SENSE AND SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH???

31. Fads in General Education • Anomie (Social instability) and Egoism (Doctrine of self interest) • Medical practice rests on shared and strong knowledged base of empirically robust propositions – fostering cohesion amongst physicians (lending moral authority independent from the individual and making the physician morally responsible) • This is not the case for the field of education.

32. Fads in General Education • Education does not have a knowledge base shared within and across teachers and the educational establishment • Progressive ideas, methods, and curricula are not generated and legitimized by a solid and shared body of empirical propositions • The independent truths and rules are seen by the Romantic modernist as stifling the academic freedom and creativity of the individual.

33. Fads in General Education • When critics ask for objective data and experimental research to test the claims of innovators, these requests are understood as attacks. • They take themselves as the final judges of what is true, effective, and good.

34. Fads in General Education • There is an incentive in education not to routinize and package effective instruction • This would reduce the business for education consultants, education professors, education researchers, gurus, workshop promoters, and certifiers • Each new innovation must be understood as an example of a creation of a new need and set of products

35. Fads in General Education • Absence of Contract, Contact, and Accountability • Not being held responsible for delivering contracted outcomes or operating in violation of professional standards • There is no external, professional code similar to the Hippocratic oath in medicine

36. Fads in General Education • Schools do not adequately teach students the logic of scientific reasoning • Schools do not have students read original works, original research articles, meta-analyses, and other literature reviews • Students end up having to rely on what their professors tell them to believe

37. Fads in General Education • There are two sorts of harmful innovations in education – passing fads (e.g., multiple intelligence) and chronic malignancies (e.g., whole language). • Both waste time, money, energy, teachers’ efforts and good will, and children’s opportunities to master skills • “Fads, folly, and fraud are perpetrated by too many faculty in education and will continue as long as they are allowed.”

38. Fads in General EducationVideo: Multiple Intelligences

39. Fads in General Education Questions?

40. Fads in General EducationReferences • Jacobson, J.W., Foxx, R.M., & Mulick, J.A. (Eds.). (2005). Controversial therapies for developmental disabilities: Fad, fashion, and science in professional practice. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, ISBN: 0-8058-4192-X