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MORTIMER ADLER. THE PAIDEA EDUCATIONAL REFORMS Paidea History. Dr. Rafael Cartagena. What is the history of Paidea?.
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MORTIMER ADLER THE PAIDEA EDUCATIONAL REFORMS Paidea History Dr. Rafael Cartagena
What is the history of Paidea? Paideia is a Greek word meaning the upbringing of a child. There are many different pronunciations, but the one we use is pie-day-ah. Paideia has long been used as a term for education projects. One particular use developed into a major program centered around basis principles and regular use of Socratic seminars for all students.
Between 1979 and 1985 a group of educators met with Mortimer Adler, then Chairman of the Board of Editors for Encyclopedia Britannica, to discuss education reform. They referred to themselves as the Paideia Group. Some of their concerns were the high use of lecture by teachers (85% of teacher time) as reported by John Goodland in A Place Called School, excessive stress on coverage of material, lack of equal opportunity to education in the schools, and poor conditions for learning within the school environment created by such elements as large class size numbers.
The Paideia Group published three books: Paideia Proposal (1982), Paideia Problems and Possibilities (1983), and the Paideia Program (1984). These books sparked public interest across the country. By 1994 the Paideia Proposal was translated into 6 different languages. In response to many requests for training, Dr. Adler formed the Paideia Associates in 1985.
The Paideia Associates designed and conducted the early training and implementation programs. The Paideia Associates formulated the Paideia Principles (below) summarizing major points in the Paideia concept of education. PGI is a national not-for-profit organization with national and international members. Mortimer Adler is the Honorary Chairman. Its purpose is to monitor and guide Paideia development, foster networking and sharing of information. In 1992, PGI instituted the stages of development and the essential elements for a Paideia school. In 1993, the board issued the certification process for trainers. PGI conducts regional workshops, an annual national conference and on site Paideia training programs.
Paidea Principles • That all children can learn; • That, therefore, they all deserve the same quality of schooling, not just the same quantity; • That the quality of schooling to which they are entitled is what the wisest parents would wish for their own children, the best education for the best being the best education for all;
That schooling at its best is preparation for becoming generally educated in the course of a whole lifetime, and that schools should be judged on how well they provide such preparation; • That the three callings for which schooling should prepare all Americans are (a) to earn a decent livelihood, (b) to be a good citizen of the nation and the world, and (c) to make a good life for oneself; • That the primary cause of genuine learning is the activity of the learner's own mind, sometimes with the help of a teacher functioning as a secondary and cooperative cause;
That the three kinds of teaching that should occur in our schools are didactic teaching of subject matter, coaching that produces the skills of learning, and Socratic questioning in seminar discussion; • That the results of these three kinds of teaching should be (a) the acquisition of organized knowledge, (b) the formation of habits of skill in the use of language and mathematics, and (c) the growth of the mind's understanding of basic ideas and issues;
That each student's achievement of these results should be evaluated in terms of that student's capacities and not solely related to the achievements of other students; • That the principal of a school should never be a mere administrator, but also a leading teacher who should cooperate with the faculty in planning, reforming, and reorganizing the school as an educational community;
That the principal and faculty of a school should themselves be actively engaged in learning; and, • That the desire to continue their own learning should be the prime motivation of those who dedicate their lives to the profession of teaching.
Paideia Goals - The goals are to prepare students to: earn a living; be a good citizen; be a lifelong learner. The Paidea Curricular Framework Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 Goals An Acquisition Development of Enlarged organized intellectual skills- understanding of knowledge skills of learning ideas and values (knowing that) (knowing how) (knowing why)
Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 Means by means of by means of by means of Didactic Coaching, Socratic instruction, exercises, questioning lectures and supervised participation responses, practice textbooks and other aids
Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 Areas, Language, Reading, writing Discussion of Literature, and speaking, listening books (not the Fine Arts textbook) and other works of Mathematics and Calculating, art and Natural Sciences problem solving, involvement in observing, artistic activities, measuring, e.g., music, History, estimating drama, visual arts Geography, and Social Studies Exercising critical judgment
The Three Types of Learning Promoted by Paidea Paideia stress three types of teaching and learning: 1. Socratic teaching in seminars with primary sources (e.g., documents, essays, speeches, stories, art and math and science experiments) for understanding;
Coaching sessions for developments of specific skills (e.g., reading, writing, listening, analyzing, computing, and problem-solving); • Didactic instruction for recall of important facts and information.
The Great Ideas- Mortimer Adler The following 102 topics are the called the Great Ideas, and represent the index of the Syntopicon. Invented by Dr. Mortimer J. Adler, the Syntopicon is a topical index of Britannica's Great Books.
Comprising the first two volumes of the Great Books set, the Syntopicon allows readers to locate within the set any text that addresses that particular idea. Each Idea is accompanied by an introductory essay, and an outline which breaks down the main issues regarding the Idea that have been discussed and debated throughout history.
The development of the Syntopicon was a monumental task that took Dr. Adler and a staff of 90 ten years to complete. With the Syntopicon, the Great Books set becomes the single greatest reference set of the greatest body of knowledge in history.
1 Angel 2 Animal3 Aristocracy 4 Art5 Astronomy and Cosmology6 Beauty7 Being8 Cause9 Chance10 Change11 Citizen12 Constitution 13 Courage14 Custom and Convention 15 Definition16 Democracy17 Desire18 Dialectic19 Duty20 Education21 Element22 Emotion23 Eternity24 Evolution25 Experience
26 Family 27 Fate28 Form 29 God30 Good and Evil31 Government32 Habit33 Happiness 34 History35 Honor36 Hypothesis37 Idea38 Immortality 39 Induction40 Infinity41 Judgment 42 Justice43 Knowledge44 Labor45 Language46 Law47 Liberty48 Life and Death49 Logic50 Love51 Man52 Mathematics and Science
53 Matter 54 Mechanics55 Medicine 56 Memory and Imagination57 Metaphysics58 Mind59 Monarchy60 Nature61 Necessity & Contingency62 Oligarchy 63 One and Many 64 Opinion65 Opposition66 Philosophy 67 Physics68 Pleasure and Pain 69 Poetry70 Principle71 Progress72 Prophecy73 Prudence74 Punishment75 Quality76 Quantity77 Reasoning
78 Relation 79 Religion80 Revolution 81 Rhetoric82 Same and Other83 Science84 Sense85 Sign and Symbol86 Sin87 Slavery88 Soul89 Space90 State 91 Temperance92 Theology93 Time 94 Truth95 Tyranny and Despotism96 Universal and Particular97 Virtue and Vice98 War and Peace99 Wealth100 Will101 Wisdom 102 World