PDF Reading Assignment 2 - An Overview Two Educational ...

Uretsky/Andrews ? 2014 ?

Foundations of Secondary Education ? EDSS 3900

Reading Assignment 2

An Overview of Two Educational Philosophies: Essentialism and Progressivism

Educational philosophies encompass broad views about the purposes of education as well as ideas about effective teaching and learning practices. This reading focuses on two educational philosophies: Essentialism and Progressivism. As you read the information below, consider which philosophy best aligns with your own views about the most effective education.

As an important note, with regards to philosophies of education, many educators adhere to an eclectic approach. An eclectic approach involves drawing on aspects from more than one philosophy in order to maximize learning. Thus, many educators use aspects from essentialism as well as aspects from progressivism in their pedagogical practices.

Essentialism

According to the educational philosophy of essentialism, there are important ("essential") facts, concepts, and skills that all students should learn in school. Thus, when students complete their public education, they should be able to demonstrate their knowledge of the facts, concepts, and skills that are considered to be "essential" in each subject area.

According to essentialism, education should be focused on having students gain proficiency with a core body of knowledge that should be learned in school. Educational leaders, administrators, teachers, and policymakers often determine the core body of knowledge that is considered to be "essential" for students to learn. Based on the philosophy of essentialism, it is the responsibility of teachers to ensure that students are learning this "essential" knowledge in their classes at school.

Essentialists tend to believe that classes should be teacher-directed and clearly structured. Structured classes enable teachers to explicitly cover a lot of important course material in a time efficient manner, which makes it more likely that students will be able to learn the core body of knowledge within a subject area. Thus, teachers are seen as being responsible for directly presenting/providing important (essential) information and material to their students.

The essentialist philosophy also emphasizes the importance of testing students on a regular basis to determine if they have achieved proficiency with the "essential" knowledge that has been taught in their classes. As a result, essentialists tend to favor the use of frequent assessments to determine the comprehension levels of students.

Based on essentialism, material tends to be presented to students in a linear manner. Learning is typically broken down into parts. Students are taught important basic fundamental information and skills. Students are then tested to determine if they can show that they have mastered the skills and/or

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learned the information that has taught. Teachers move on to more advanced material when students show mastery over the basic information.

Advocates of essentialism tend to favor the idea of having clear and explicit academic standards. According to essentialists, academic standards are important because they clarify what teachers should focus on and what students should be learning in school. Thus, the use of well-defined academic standards allows educators, parents, and students to clearly understand what should be taught and what should be learned in a school setting.

Educators who subscribe to the essentialist philosophy of education typically teach in a manner that aligns with the following areas of emphasis:

? Teacher-Directed Classes: o The classes are teacher-directed and the learning environment is controlled and disciplined. Desks are often in rows and the teacher is at the center of instruction. Students are typically all doing the same thing at the same time (i.e. listening to the teacher, working on an assignment, practicing a new skill, taking an assessment to demonstrate their proficiency...).

? Information is Explicitly & Directly Presented/Provided: o Teachers spend time explicitly and directly providing information to students to make sure that they are learning the essential facts and skills in a subject area. It is the teacher's responsibility to "tell" the students what they need to know and to make sure that the required material has been sufficiently covered.

? Frequent Assessments: o Students are frequently assessed over the key facts and skills to determine if they have achieved proficiency with the important material that has been covered in their classes.

Aspects of essentialism have been utilized throughout much of the history of education in America. Attributes of essentialism have been prominent during the past decade with the passage of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law. NCLB emphasized the importance of using clear academic standards, ensuring that students were becoming proficient with "important" information, and measuring results by frequently testing students to determine if they were learning "essential" facts, concepts, and skills. Thus, in recent years, as well as throughout the history American education, the underlying ideas of the essentialist philosophy have aligned with the education provided in many schools.

Progressivism

Progressivism is an educational philosophy that focuses on "how" learning takes place rather than just focusing on "what" is taught. The philosophy emerged in the late 19th century and has existed in various forms up through the present (Sadker and Zittleman, 2010). Advocates of progressivism emphasize that education should focus on the curiosities, interests, and real experiences of students rather than focusing on specific content or the teacher. Based on this philosophy, education should allow students to test out their own ideas through active experimentation and education should

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provide students with opportunities to have direct experiences with the material that they are learning (Cohen, 1999). According to progressivism, education should promote the ideals of democracy in which everyone has opportunities to actively participate (The John Dewey Project, 2002).

According to progressivism, students do not learn best when they are sitting at their desks listening to the teacher provide them with information. Instead, learning should be an active, experiential, and real process for students. Advocates of progressivism follow a constructivist view of learning, which entails having students construct and discover knowledge through their own experiences and through their active involvement in the learning process (Powell, 2009).

According to progressivism, students are more likely to understand, process and retain what they are learning when they have meaningful experiences with the material. Based on progressivism, the most meaningful education occurs when the following circumstances exist.

? Students are given opportunities to learn by doing. ? Students have the chance to discover information through their own direct experiences. ? The teacher serves as a guide to provide help and assistance to students as they are learning. ? Students are able to draw their own conclusions about the material that they are learning

(instead of having the teacher "tell" them about the material).

Based on progressivism, teachers play an integral role in the learning process because they are responsible for creating activities and opportunities that allow students to have meaningful learning experiences. Teachers serve as guides for students as they develop ideas and discover information during the learning process. According to progressivism, teachers should develop scenarios, situations, and experiences that allow students to play an active role in learning. Thus, proponents of progressivism tend to value activities such as simulations, field trips, experiments, games, role playing, debates, discussions, group work, problem-solving activities...

Educators who subscribe to the progressive philosophy of education typically teach in a manner that aligns with the following areas of emphasis:

? Active Involvement in Learning: o Students play an active role in the learning process, which often involves collaborating and connecting learning to real experiences. Students are provided with opportunities to have direct experiences with the material that they are learning about.

? Discovery of Information: o Teachers create a learning environment that provides students with the freedom to discover information and draw conclusions on their own.

? Problem-Solving: o Teachers provide opportunities for students to engage in problem-solving activities and encourage students to develop their own ideas, test out their ideas, and draw evidenced-based conclusions. The teacher serves as a guide as opposed to "telling" students the answers.

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John Dewey is often thought of as the most prominent proponent of the progressive philosophy (Cohen, 1999). He believed in the importance of experiential learning and helping students to apply previous experiences in new ways. Dewey emphasized learning by doing, social interaction, stimulating the interests of students, and connecting learning to real life.

Dewey believed in the importance of democracy and freedom. He viewed traditional, autocratic, teacher-centered schools as the opposite of democratic ideals (Sadker and Zittleman, 2010).

According to Dewey, the emphasis in education should be on the process of learning and allowing students to discover information through experiences and active participation. The following excerpt shows the way that Dewey used real life experiences to promote learning in his laboratory:

"[students] played grocery store and sold the fruit and sugar that was needed for making jelly. Some students were clerks, some delivery boys, and some made the grocery wagons. The clerks were given measuring cups with which to measure the sugar and cranberries and they were given paper to wrap the packages to take to homes. This led to a discussion about the functioning of large storehouses" (Mayhew and Edwards, 1936).

The following are excerpts from John Dewey's My Pedagogic Creed (1897) that support his ideas of progressivism.

"I believe that the school must represent present life. Life as real and vital to the child as that which he carries on in the home, in the neighborhood, or on the play-ground."

"...the school life should grow gradually out of the home life; it should take up and continue the activities with which the child is already familiar in the home."

"I believe that much of present education fails because it neglects [the] fundamental principle of the school as a form of community life. It conceives the school as a place where certain information is to be given, where certain lessons are to be learned, or where certain habits are to be formed... As a result [education] often does not become a part of the life experience of the child and is not truly educative."

"I believe that under existing conditions far too much of the stimulus and control proceeds from the teacher..."

-John Dewey, 1897

Features of progressivism can be found in many of today's classrooms. Teachers often use aspects of the progressive educational philosophy in their classes when they give students the opportunity to play an active role in the learning process. This can be seen when teachers provide students with opportunities to participate in experiential learning activities, engage in problem-solving, and demonstrate their knowledge in ways that mirror the real world. It should be noted, that there are times when activities that align with the philosophy of progressivism are not practical due to financial and liability restrictions. However, many teachers use activities such as simulations, experiments, games, hands-on activities, real world applications, and field trips to help engage their students in the curriculum and the learning process.

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Combination: Essentialism & Progressivism

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In many cases, educators take an eclectic approach and draw on aspects from different educational philosophies. Thus, teachers often do not strictly follow the tenants of only one philosophical approach because there are advantages to utilizing aspects of different approaches. As a result, it is common for teachers to combine aspects of progressivism with essentialism. For example, towards the beginning of a unit of study, a teacher may utilize teaching practices that align with the philosophy of essentialism by focusing on directly and explicitly providing students with information that is based on essential facts, concepts, and skills that students need to know. As the unit progresses, the teacher may shift towards utilizing activities that align with the philosophy of progressivism by providing students with opportunities to engage in experiential learning activities that are related to the subject matter. Overall, educators can effectively utilize aspects from both essentialism and progressivism to maximize student learning.

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