Teaching and Schooling in America: Pre- and Post-September 11

by Ornstein, Allan C.

• ISBN13: 9780205367115
• ISBN10: 0205367119
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-01-01
• Publisher: Allyn & Bacon

Summary

Teaching and Schooling: Prior to and Post-September 11 examines 2,500 years of historical, philosophical, and educational thought, forcing the reader to think and rethink the issues of schooling and society.This book is concerned with life and death, peace and war, good and evil, miseducation and education, achievement and aptitude, and equality and inequality. It begins with the ancient Greeks and Romans and ends with a post-September 11 society, including American, Chinese, Indian, and Arabic cultures. At the level of society, specific topics deal with religion, morality, justice, colonialism, global poverty, the horrors of the 20th century-war, death camps, and racial/ethnic hatred-and now the new century with terrorism and cloning. At the educational level, the focus is on race, gender, class, social stratification, school finance, black/white achievement gaps, affirmative action, quotas, reparations, computers, satellite communications, and global education and understanding. The nature of the subject matter is controversial and the prose written in a critical, honest, and passionate style.For anyone interested in education

Table of Contents

Every chapter begins with “Focusing Questions” and concludes with “Summary.”

1. Improving Teaching.
Review of the Research on Teaching.
Theory Versus The Practice of Teaching.
The Science Versus The Art of Teaching.
The Expert Teacher.
Reconceptualizing Teaching.
Final Words.

2. Teaching Teacher Accountability.
Do Teachers Make a Difference?
Contextual Problems In Evaluating Teachers.
Criterion Problems In Evaluating Teachers.
The Measurement Problem.
Educational Accountability.

3. Theories of Learning.
Behaviorism.
Cognitive Psychology.
Moral Education.
Brain Research and Learning.

4. The School As A Socializing Agent.
Education For Transmitting the Culture.
The Purposes of Education.
Changing American Society.
Post nuclear Family.
The Peer Group.
The Culture of the School.

5. Schooling in America: Part I.
Reexamining Three Icons: Rousseau, Cremin and Dewey.
The Rise of the Common School Movement.
History 101: Topics Rarely, If Ever, Discussed.

6. Schooling in America: Part II.
The Transitional School Period: 1893-1918.
Progressive Schools.
Essentialist Philosophy and Priorities.
Reconstructionism: The Warning Bell is Sounded.
Renewed Search for Relevancy and Humanism.
Neoconservatism: Present-Day Warnings and Concerns.

7. Social Stratification and Inequality.
Historical and Philosophical Issues of Equality.
Social Mobility and Social Structure.
International Comparisons—Science and Math.

8. Class, Race and Education.
Do Schools Make A Difference? Large Scale Studies.
Implications and Policies.
Race, Schools and Society