Chapter 13The Purposes of Education

By Jovanni Cifaloglio, Frank Cortese, and Nabid Chowdhury

Establishing Goals and Objectives

• Also known as “ends” or “end point”.

• 3 major influence that shape our end points.– Society– Knowledge– Nature of the learner

3 Major Influence

• Society- What is important to society will determine what educators will teach.

• Knowledge- Developments in science and technology.

• Nature of the learner- New theories about the learning process.

Goals

• Goals are broad statements of purpose.

• They cannot be directly observed or evaluated.

National or State Level

• The “National Educational Goals Panel” sets the goals at state level.

– All Children in America will start school ready to learn.

School District Leven and School Level

• At the school district level it begins to narrow in focus.– All children will have access to high-quality and

developmentally appropriate preschool programs that will help children prepare for school.

• At the school level it becomes even more refined.– Kindergarten will be expended from a half day

program to a full day program.

Ralf Tyler's 4 Question

• In the 1940’s Tyler developed an outline for school goals that remains influential today. Tyler identified four fundamental questions to consider.– What educational purposes should the school seek to

attain?– What educational experiences can be provided to help

attain these purposes?– How can these educational experiences be effectively

organized?– How can we determine whether the purposes have been

attained?

Objectives

• Goals provide a direction, but they are too vague and long-term for teachers and students to apply them directly in the classroom. So goals become translated into more specific objective.– Objectives are easer to observe and measure.– Objectives have shorter accomplishment time

than goals.

Classroom Level and Lesson Plan Objective

• Classroom level will include organized instruction with a combination of general and specific objective in mind.

• Lesson plan objectives become specific and they use precise wording such as: – discuss, describe in writing, state orally, list, role-play,

and solve.• These statements are content and skill specific, require

practical student behavior or performance, and are observable and measurable.

Historical Perspective

• Early on– Mental discipline approach – belief that the mind is

strengthened through mental activities• The belief was that the harder the subject matter, the

greater the value of the subject

• Now– Various changes have been made to meet the

needs of a changing social order• Lead educators to stray away from classic curriculum and

focus emphasis on mental discipline and repetitive drill

The whole-child concept

• This view held that schools must be concerned with the growth and development of the entire child, not just certain selected mental aspects– Cognitive development had to share the stage

with other important developments such as social, psychological, vocational, moral and civil

Return to academic essentials

• The Soviet’s Sputnik flight forced the U.S. to reexamine it’s schools academic disciplines– The launch of the Sputnik proved that Americans

were losing technological superiority to the Soviets• This called for American education to return to academic

essentials and mental discipline• University scholars were called on to reconstruct subject-

matter content to help kids to learn more about science, mathematics, and language

• The new educational climate also lead to more emphasis on getting the most out of an academically talented child

Disadvantaged students

• During the 80’s concern grew about students that were disadvantaged– Federal funding increased for multicultural, bilingual,

and disabled children• ESL classes were created to group bilingual students and

help them learn together• Similarly, disabled students were grouped together

• Controversy – Recently, ESL classes have been criticized for

contributing to separatism rather than cultural unity

Educational Accountability

• Many argued that education should focus more on outcomes-meaningful, measurable academic results– While some believe that a completion of a course

is useless unless the student can use their education in real-life context• As a result, 25 states have implemented and outcome-

based education approach

State standards

• State standards are very likely to heavily influence your instructional planning– State standards are directly linked to “high stakes” tests

• Outcomes of the high stakes tests are what states use to make their decisions for school budgets, pay raises, and bonuses

• Although there are many more arguments and controversies over public education, for the first time goals have been set for every child in public education

The Call for Excellence

• Overview of the Policy Reports- In the Early 1980’s national attention began to focus on the need for educational excellence and higher academic standards for “All Students”.

• So they made national policy reports that urged reform to improve the quality of education.

The Policy reports

• Here are the Six most Influential policies-Action For Excellence (1983)-Educating Americans for the 21st Century(1983)-High School (1983)-Nation at Risk (1983)-First Lessons: Elementary Education (1986)-The National Educational Goals (1990,94,97)

Declining Achievement and Competency

• Average achievement scores on the SAT declined steadily from 1963 to 1990.

• Avg. verbal scores fell 34 points (466 to 432) and math scores dropped 10 points( 492 to 482)

• But in recent years both scores have rebounded with modest gains. Verbal scores increased by 9 points and math increased 25 points.

Functional Illiteracy

• About 20% of 200 million U.S. adults are functionally illiterate by the simple tests of everyday reading and writing.

• About 14% of all 16 yr. olds in the united states are considered illiterate and the illiteracy rate jumps to 38% among minority youth.

Curriculum needs to get Stronger

• All of these reports and statistics emphasize that the core subjects of English, Math, Science, and Social Studies need to be strengthened.

• The reports further emphasize tougher standards and tougher courses, and a majority propose that colleges raise their admission requirements.

• The reports also talk about increasing the homework students receive , time for learning, and time in school.

Increased Teacher Requirements and Rewards

• The reports mention upgrading teacher certification, increasing the teachers salaries. In addition, increasing the number of science and math teachers and paying higher salaries.

• Also, providing merit pay for outstanding teachers.

• Overall, the reports stress academic achievement and increased productivity.

The National Educational Goals• In 1994 Congress passed the Goals 2000: Educate America Act. • Here’s the list of Goals

-School Readiness-School Completion-Student Achievement and Citizenship-Teacher Education and Professional Development-Mathematics and Science-Adult Literacy and Life long Training-Safe, Disciplined, and Alcohol –Drug Free Schools-Parental Participation