Social Efficiency Ideology

1. Social EfficiencyIdeology

2. A scientific Technique of Curriculum Making • Created by Franklin Bobbit (1913) who based his curriculum ideology on the scientific techniques or production developed and used by industry. • “The curriculum will then be that series of experiences which children and youth must have by way of attaining those objectives… that series of things which children and youth must do and experience by way of developing abilities to do that things well that make up the affairs of adult life.”

3. Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction (Ralph Tyler, 1949) • What educational purposes should the school seek to attain? – goals, objectives • What educational experiences can be provided that are likely to attain these purposes? – means to achieve objectives • How can these educational experiences be effectively organized? – effective organization = efficiency • How can we determine whether these purposes are being attained? – evaluation, assessment

4. Programmed curriculum and the Behavioral Engineer • Programmed curriculum – carefully sequenced set of learning experiences, each representing a behavior to be learned. “… gradually leading the learner from incompetence to competence.” • Behavioral Engineer – views teaching as a process of shaping learners’ behavior through the use of rewards or reinforcements (Pavlov’s Dog?). A specific stimulus results in the desired response.

5. Underlying assumptions • Learning consists of a change in behavior. The new behavior being response to stimuli that would not have otherwise taken place. • Learning takes place only as a result of practice. People learn by constructing in their brains the connections so that they automatically respond to stimuli (executive function?). • Learning consists of acquiring specific responses to particular stimuli rather than general response to vague stimuli. • Learners acquire complex behaviors by first acquiring a simple behavior and then building upon it (constructivism?). • All aspects of learning can be accomplished via this ideology. (Only is analysis is not needed…).

6. Behavioral Engineering • Obtain educational purposes for the curricular. Programs designed for clients (society, parent, teachers, school, workplace) • Analysis of the education purpose to determine a sequence of specific behavioral objectives (one stimulus/response contingency for each) to move from incompetent to competent (learning hierarchy). • Creation of the learning experiences (student activities that contain stimuli to elicit the desired response). • Organize the learning experience (linear sequence). • Design an assessment tool for each learning experience.

7. Analogy • Bobbitt compared the school to a factory. • Child = raw material; Adult = finished product; Teacher = factory worker. • The curriculum is whatever processing the child needs to become the desired adult. • The curriculum developed is the researcher who determines what is needed in the finish product and the most efficient way of producing it.

8. Social Orientation & Terminal Objectives • Education as a social process that recivilizes each generation. • Childhood is viewed as preparation for adulthood. • Aim of education is to maintain society and to prepare the individual for a meaningful life in society. • Goal is to develop a future society superior to the current one. • Must be stated in behavioral terms that indicate observable behaviors, action capabilities, actions, skills, or cognitive processes. • Must be specific and particular. Not vague, like “good citizen”, but specifically what are the specific features of a “good citizen”. • Student must be able to do something to or with something (Bloom). • The form of curriculum objectives is more important than the content.

9. Progressive stages to terminal objective Franklin Bobbitt Robert Gagne • Determine the finite set of tasks to be completed which will result in the finished job. • Each task is analyzed to find most efficient way of accomplishing it. • Flow chart detailing delineating the manner, time, standards and sequence for each task. • Pyramid of prerequisite objectives. • What must the learner already know how to do in order to achieve this performance, assuming that he is to be given only instructions? • Atomism – the breaking down of a complex behavior into its smallest unitary actions.

10. Historical Context/Origins • Social Reform –needs of society highest priority and society as the sanctioning body in which individuals take meaning. • Utilitarian Education – making schools useful and relevant to the life of individuals and the nation; based in agricultural education, manual training, industrial education, trade school and vocational education. • Behavioral Psychology – “real competence only comes with extensive practice”. • Scientific Methodology – use of statistics, accurate measurement, task analysis, efficiency engineering, and industrial management. • Transition of terminal objectives from satisfying social needs to improving student academic performance (NCLB/Accountability Movement).

11. Knowledge • Nature – ability to act is more important that the ability to be informed. Correct behavior emphasized over correct information. • Objective reality – behavior that cannot be observed or measure is not dealt with. • The value of knowledge is based in its ability to satisfy needs in the objective world. What are the consequences for the person who possesses knowledge and the society in which they function.

12. Learning • Learning = a change in behavior • Emphasis on the stimuli that cause the learner to change, not on the learner. Not impacted by information processing and cognitive psychology. • Assumptions about learning: active process, requires practice, influenced by feedback, automatic response to specific stimuli, learning is atomistic – total learning is composed of summative accumulation of specific learnings – prerequisites, not all learning is of the same complexity. • Readiness – function of the absence or presence of necessary prerequisites; not age dependent.

13. The Child, Teaching, Consequences • Children are meaningful only because they become adults that will contribute to society. Focus primarily on societal needs, secondarily on individual needs. Children are viewed as workers, they provide the energy to progress through educational materials/tasks. • Teachers are the managers of the conditions of learning. They prepare the environment, engage the students, and supervise their work. • Consequences: Teachers are managers, implementing the curriculum. With no teacher input on curriculum, “quality control” is assured. The objective is efficiency, greatest change in student behavior in the shortest period of time.

14. Evaluation • Accountable to clients; curriculum developers and teachers are assessed to prove that client needs are being satisfied. • Evaluation used to prove reproducibility, validity, reliability, and proof. (scientific) • Constant monitoring is needed to ensure that students learn in sequence . • Evaluation and feedback to learners helps them to adjust their behavior (ditto teachers, schools, etc.) • Maintenance of standards – students, teachers, school systems.

15. Conclusion • Practical influence on American Education. • Late 19th – early 20th century with the rise of utilitarian education. • 1920’s influence on school administration via adoption of “scientific” methods of assessment and research. • 1940-1980 – social efficiency influenced the majority of educators. • Late 20th century – renewed influence with its views on accountability, efficiency, and NCLB.