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Period: to
Curriculum Ferment in the 1890s
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Period: to
Mental discipline theory prevalent
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Christian Wolff
German psychologist in 1700’s – introduced idea of “faculties” -
Yale faculty report of 1828
“the discipline and the furniture of the mind” -
Monitorial method
- separated coursework into unitsii.
- Textbooks
- separated coursework into unitsii.
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William Harvey Wells creates grade level curriculum
William Harvey Wells, the superintendent of Chicago schools, creates curriculum divided into subjects and grade levels -
Herbert Spencer
"Spreads the message of Social Darwinism" through his works in Popular Science Monthly and his lecture tours. p. 21 -
Ward's Dynamic Sociology
- Against Darwinism-said that humans had the power to intervene with natural selection2. Argued that social inequality is a product of a maldistribution of the social inheritance
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"Mind-as-a-Muscle" metaphor
The "mind-as-a-muscle" metaphor leads to a system of "monotonous drill, harsh discipline and mindless verbatim recitations." (p.5) -
Center of Education shifts
From teacher centered to a focus on a curriculum -
Changing role of Schooling
Social factorsi. Growth in popular journalism 1. Newspapers 2. Magazinesii. Railroads 1. Industry created standardized time zones 2. Track gauge standardized (made nationwide travel easy) 3. 125,000 miles of railroad by 1889 – connected big cities and small townsiii. Population boom 1. U.S. population doubled in last 40 years of 1800’s (included 14 million immigrants) -
Mental discipline begins to collapse
Many reasons are attributed to the failing of mental discipline
- "failure to survive the test of empirical verification"
- brought about by changes in the "social order"
(p.6) -
Decline in the influence of the family
Dewey: this means that the school should build stronger connections between home and school Ross: school can instill habits of obedience better than the home can
-welcomed the opportunity to pick people that will influence children -
Edward A. Ross
Writes for the American Journal of Sociology
-He completed his editingof that work and in 1901, it was published in book form
-Reveals Ross to have some kind of "intellectual schizophrenia"
-Identified with the blonds of the west and admired their individualism
-Saw society on the "edge of a precipise"
-Saw his book as the weapons that society needs to protect itself
-Most effective of these weapons: Education
-schools=instrument of scoial control -
Committee of Ten Appointed
Committee originally appointed to decide on college entrance requirements -
Charles W. Eliot
-Appointed head of the National Education Association's Committee of Ten
-humanist
-also a mental disciplinarian
-He thought that "any subject, so long as it were capable of being studied over a sustained period, was potentially a disciplinary subject"
(p.10) -
Joseph Mayer Rice surveyed elementary schools in 36 cities in 1892
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Committee of Ten Report
- four different subjects in high school
- uniformity -no division in the curriculum between the college-bound and the life-bound
- subjects not taught any different to either group
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Ward's The Psychic Factors of Civilizaiton published
- Recognized as one of Ward's most significant volumes of work
- Ward attacks the "survival of the fittest" approach to social and human affairs
- Egalitarianist
- Says that "criminals are the geniuses of the slums" who are "making the best use they can" of the position that society has put them in.
- "Prophet of the welfare state"
(p. 22-23) -
The Public School System of the United States, 1893
i. Surveyed elementary schools in 36 cities in 1892ii. Published results in series of 9 articles in The Forum, collected into book form the following yeariii. Places blame for poor education on unqualified superintendents and school boards, incompetent teachers, and the misinformed public -
Committee of Fifteen
- Report on elementary school curriculum
- Headed by William Torrey Harris
- Grammar, literature and art, mathematics, geography, and history called the "windows of the soul" (p.15)
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National Herbart Society
- John Dewey in attendance
- "opposition to traditional humanist curriculum" (p.15)
- President Charles DeGarmo
- criticism of William Torrey Harris
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Joseph Mayer Rice
Undertook huge study in 1895 on the teaching of spelling, with no conclusive results -
Edward A. Ross publishes Social Control
Storgly influenced the work of:
-David Snedden
-Ross Finney
-Charles Ellwod
-Charles C. Peters
They devoted themselves to developing a curriculum consistent with Ross's ideas.\ -
G. Stanely Hall
- Criticizes the Committee of Ten report
- Developmentalist
- "teachers assumed too much about the content of children's minds"
- Says that the Committee of Ten has 3 fallacies:
- All students being taught the same curriculum in the same way
- All subjects are equally valued if they are taught well
- The idea that college preparation and life preparation are equal
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Douglas Commission
Passed in 1905 by Massachusetts Senate and House of Reps
Authorized Governer William L. Douglas to appoint a commision that would investigate industries and "what new forms of educational effort may be advisable"
Dr. Susan M. Kingsbury appointed "expert investigator"
Issued a report based on 20 public hearins and the testimony of 143 witnesses
-agreement between "broader-minded students of education" and "men and women who have been brought into intimate contact with the harder side of life." -
Kingsbury's "Report of the Sub-Committee on the Relation of Children to Industries"
focused on the 25,000 children between the ages of 14-16 not in school -
John Franklin Bobbitt
-Brought to University of Chicago by Charles H. Judd
-Within a year, promoted from lecturer to Instructor -
Loenard Ayres publishes Laggards in Our Schools
"scientific treaties in educaion"
studied the schools and the effects of students not making normal progress
Studied school records instead of observation of the schools themselves
said that the problems were in the curriculum
-the curriculum was made for the "exceptionally bright" child, not the "slow" or "average."
Developed index of Effic -
Ayres developed Index of Efficiency
Applied to 58 urban school systems -
Discussion of vocational education for women alludes to women's rights
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Taylor publishes Principles of Scientific Management
"The heart of scientific management lay in the careful specification of the task to be performed and the ordering of the elements of that task in the most efficient sequence" 1st: Find 10 - 15 men skilled in the work to be analyzed
2nd: Study the motions used for the work to be completed
3rd: Time the movements
4th: eliminate all false movements
5th: Collect the best and fastest movements into a series -
Rice's Scientific Management in Education
Rice's Forum articles were publised in a volumr
- Focus shifted from "monotony and mindlessness of school life to the themes of standardization and efficiency in the curriculum."
- Wanted to apply "management techniques" that had been utilized in industrial settings to the curriculum Places blame for poor education on unqualified superintendents and school boards, incompetent teachers, and the misinformed public
(p.20) -
Bobbitt publishes "The Elimination of Waste in Education"
-talks about the system developed by Willard Wirt in Gary, Indiana
-"Platoon system"
-shifted studens from classroms to other indoor rooms such as the auditorium or playground in a systematic fashion
-schools = plants
-superindendent = educational egnineer
-extends the metaphor of a factory to the curriculum -
School children prefer factor labor to school
In 1913, Helen M. Todd interviewed 500 school children and found that 412 preferred "factory labor to the monotony, humiliation and even sheer cruelty that they experienced in school." (Keliebard, 1995, p. 6) -
Thondike's studies Transfer of Training
"Imporvement in any single mental function need not imporve the ability in functions commonly called by the same name. It may injure it." -
IQ and intelligence testing becoming prominent
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Vocational edcuation regarded as an "urgent necessity"
"The whole curriculum for all but the college bound was becoming vocationalized" -
The Project Method article Written by William Heard Kilpatrick
Rekindles the developmentalist idea "that somwhere in the child lay the key to the revitalized curriculum" -
Thorndike administers 2 forms of the same intelligence test to 8,564 highschool students
"we find notable differences in gain in ability to think as measured by these tests, but they do not seem to be due to what one studies..Those who have the most to begin with gain the most during the year. Whatever studies they take will seem to produce large gains in intellect."
