Developing the curriculum chapter 6

CHAPTER 6: PHILOSOPHY AND AIMS OF

EDUCATION

Developing the CurriculumEighth Edition

Peter F. OlivaWilliam R. Gordon II

Oliva/Gordon Developing the Curriculum, 8e. © 2012, 2009, 2005, 2001, 1997 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved

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AFTER STUDYING THIS CHAPTER YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO:

•Explain how aims of education are derived.

•Cite commonly voiced statements of the aims of education.

•Write statements of the aims of education.

•Outline major beliefs of four well-known schools of philosophy.

•Draft a school philosophy that could be submitted to a school faculty for discussion.


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AIMS OF EDUCATION

•The educational literature uses a proliferation of terms, rather loosely and often interchangeably, to signify terminal expectations of education.

•Educators speak of “outcomes,” “aims,” “ends,” “purposes,” “functions,” “goals,” and “objectives.” “Aims” are equated with “ends,” “purposes,” “functions,” and “universal goals.”


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AIMS OF EDUCATION

•The aims of education are the very broad, general statements of the purposes of education; they are meant to give general direction to education throughout the country.


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AIMS OF EDUCATION

•Over the years a number of prominent individuals and groups have expressed their positions on the appropriate aims of education for America. The curriculum worker should be able not only to formulate his or her own statement of aims but should also be knowledgeable about historic and significant statements of aims.


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AIMS OF EDUCATION

•Curriculum Goals:○Curriculum goals are defined as general, programmatic expectations without criteria of achievement or mastery, whereas curriculum objectives are specific, programmatic targets with criteria of achievement and, therefore, are measurable.

○“Curriculum goals,” “curriculum objectives,” “instructional goals,” and “instructional objectives” are separate entities of special relevance to the local school or school system.


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AIMS OF EDUCATION

•Curriculum Goals and Objectives○The curriculum objectives stem from the curriculum goals.

○Both curriculum goals and curriculum objectives trace their sources to the school’s philosophy and the statement of aims of education.


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AIMS OF EDUCATION

• Instructional Goals and Objectives ○ Instructional goals are statements of instructional targets in general, in observable terms without criteria of achievement.

○ Instructional objectives are expected learner behaviors formulated, with possible exceptions for those in the affective domain, in measurable and observable terms.

○ Instructional objectives are derived from instructional goals.

○Both instructional goals and instructional objectives originate from the curriculum goals and objectives.


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• Typically the aims of education have special relevance to the nation as a whole. However, aims of education can be defined on a global scale.

• Many organizations attempt to define aims on a global perspective for use by nations of the world as a guide for the development of their own educational systems.

GLOBAL AIMS


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DERIVATION OF AIMS

•The aims of education are derived from examining the needs of children and youth in our American society, from analyzing our culture, and from studying the various needs of our society.

•Statements of aims of education repeatedly address great themes like democracy and the progress of humanity.


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DERIVATION OF AIMS

Salad Bowl vs. Melting Pot:

• As our heterogeneous population reveals plural rather than common values, the “salad bowl” concept now challenges the old “melting pot” idea.

• Whether to promote multicultural values or common values of American society is a highly charged issue both in public schools and on college campuses.

• As we examine statements of aims of education, we soon discover that these statements are, in effect, philosophical positions based on some set of values and are derived from an analysis of society and its children and youth.


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PHILOSOPHIES OF EDUCATION

•Four major philosophies of education have demanded the attention of educators. Only two of these philosophies appear to have large followings in today’s schools.

•Although these philosophies are known by various names and there are schools of philosophy within schools, we shall refer to these four as reconstructionism, perennialism, essentialism, and progressivism.


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RECONSTRUCTIONISM

•At the far left is the most liberal of these four philosophies, reconstructionism, which contends the school should be used to achieve what is considered to be improvements in society and young people should consider pressing social, economic, and political problems and even attempt to reach consensus on possible solutions.


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RECONSTRUCTIONISM

•Problems arise when teachers propose their own specific solutions to problems which raises the specter of indoctrination, a practice unacceptable to most schools of philosophy.

•With its heavy emphasis on controversial social issues and its major premise to make the school a primary agency for social change, reconstructionism has not made great inroads into the largely middle-class, centrist schools of the United States.


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PERENNIALISM

•On the far right is the most conservative of the four philosophies: perennialism.

•Perennialists believe that truth is eternal, everlasting, and unchanging and at the heart of the perennialist curriculum are the great books of the Western world. In the great books of the past, one searched for truth, which in perennialist thinking is the same today as it was then and always shall be.


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PERENNIALISM

•The perennialist looks backward for the answers to social problems.

• If taken seriously, perennialism would afford an education suitable to that small percentage of students who possess high verbal and academic aptitude.

•To date, perennialism has not proved an attractive philosophy for our educational system.


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ESSENTIALISM

•The aim of education according to essentialist tenets is the transmission of the cultural heritage.

•The goals of the essentialist are primarily cognitive and intellectual. Organized courses are the vehicles for transmitting the culture, and emphasis is placed on academic learning.


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ESSENTIALISM

•The three R’s and the “hard” (i.e., academic) subjects form the core of the essentialist curriculum.

•The subject matter curriculum is an essentialist plan for curriculum organization. Erudition, the ability to reproduce that which has been learned, is highly valued, and education is perceived as preparation for some future purpose—for college, vocation, and life.


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PROGRESSIVISM

•Progressivists insist that the needs and interests of learners must be considered by recognizing that learners bring their bodies, emotions, and spirits to school along with their minds, and a child learns best when actively experiencing his or her world as opposed to passively absorbing preselected content.


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PROGRESSIVISM

•To the progressives, education is not a product to be learned—for example, facts and motor skills—but a process that continues as long as one lives.

•To date, progressivism has captured the attention and allegiance of many educators.

•Today, essentialism is the dominant philosophy.


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FORMULATING A PHILOSOPHY

•A school’s philosophy should always be the result of cooperative efforts by teachers and administrators and preferably with the additional help of parents and students.

•Curriculum workers should take the time to think through their own philosophies and to formulate them into some kind of coherent statement.


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FORMULATING A PHILOSOPHY

•Statements of philosophy are sometimes written and promulgated by a school administrator as the philosophy of that school. Such an activity misses the spirit of the exercise.

•The writing of a school philosophy should be an effort to gain consensus among divergent thinkers and to find out what aims and values the group holds in common. It should be accepted by the school as a whole.


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VALUE IN WRITING A PHILOSOPHY

•As curriculum workers we must disabuse ourselves of the notions that it is somehow indecent to expose our beliefs and that we must feel either silly or guilty when setting forth ideals.

•A school’s philosophy should include statements of belief about the purposes of education, society, the learner, and the role of the teacher. Examples of statements of philosophy written by school personnel are included in the text.


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PROBLEMS IN DEVELOPING AND IMPLEMENTING A PHILOSOPHY

•Curriculum workers often encounter two sets of problems in developing and implementing a school’s philosophy:○The various participating individuals may well espouse differing and conflicting philosophies of life that color their beliefs about education.

○The statement of philosophical beliefs is written in rather general, often vague, terms that permit varying interpretations which creates a continuing problem of striving to achieve consensus on interpretations of the wording.


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FINAL THOUGHTS:

• In spite of the many conflicting philosophical views the public and a majority present-day educators endorse educational programs and practices in American schools that represent a judicious mixture of essentialist and progressive philosophy.

•The development of a statement of aims of education and a school philosophy is seen as the first phase or component of a comprehensive model for curriculum development.