Christian
Perring, Ph.D.
Class
Tue, 530-730, RC 310.
Office:
330A RC
Office
Phone: (631) 244-3349
Office
Hours: TWR 4:00-5:30 PM
Class
time: T 5:30-7:30 PM
Email:
perringc@dowling.edu (please put
“EDU304” in the subject line of your email, and make sure your message contains
your first and last names)
We
will also use some of the services available on Blackboard, at http://webclasses.dowling.edu
This
course is designed to help students examine the diverse educational views that
have affected, and are affecting, curriculum development in the United
States. Students will explore questions
about the purposes, ends, and means of education, and assess their own
philosophy through readings, discussions, and lectures. The central aims of the course will be to
provide students with content knowledge about philosophical debates about
controversies in education and to improve their skills in understanding
philosophical ideas, assessing the strengths and weaknesses of different
philosophical arguments, seeing the relevance of philosophical theories to
their own experience, and formulating and defending their own views on
controversial issues.
Four
central questions in philosophy of education are:
·
What
is the purpose of education?
·
Which
people in society should be educated?
·
What
are the ethical rights and responsibilities of teachers in relation to
students, students’ families, and other teachers?
·
What
are the ethical rights and responsibilities of students in relation to teachers
and other students?
There
are many more specific issues with strong philosophical content, some of which
we will address. These show that philosophy of education is not a separate
field from other areas within the academic study of education, but rather is an
examination of the debates of fundamental issues that underlie both educational
policy and classroom practices. The
questions we may cover include:
·
What
subjects should children be taught?
·
Who
should receive a free education?
·
What
are the responsibilities of society concerning the education of children with
exceptional talent or special needs?
·
Is
it fair to stream or track classes with respect to children’s talent, or should
classes consist of children of mixed ability?
·
Should
ethics and religious studies be taught in public schools?
·
Is
it possible and right to teach children to be virtuous or to become good
citizens?
·
Should
education in the USA be multicultural?
·
Should
mathematics and science be taught as neutral truths or as culturally specific
approaches to understanding the world?
·
Is
single-sex education ethical?
·
Should
parents or society have the most control in deciding what kind of education
children receive?
·
Should
philosophy, logic or critical thinking skills be taught to children?
·
Do
teachers or education policy-makers need to have some understanding of
philosophy in order to be good teachers?
There
are many perspectives on these questions; the fundamental nature of education
has been debated since the start of philosophy in the work of Plato and
Aristotle, and there has been vigorous discussion by philosophers since then,
especially in the twentieth century. It
is essential for students of philosophy of education to have a grasp of the
historical foundations of the subject.
Consequently, a substantial portion of the course will be devoted to
understanding the major thinkers in this field. Although their writing is often challenging for readers without a
background in philosophy, there is really no adequate substitute for reading
these primary sources. We will spend a
considerable amount of time in class interpreting these texts and discussing
their relevance to teaching in contemporary Western society. Indeed, it is essential in such a course as
this that students understand the implications of the philosophical debate for
real issues that teachers face in their everyday practice, so the second part
of the course will also be devoted to considering controversial issues in
teaching today. In portion of the
course, the emphasis will be on enabling students to assess the strengths and
weaknesses of different philosophical approaches concerning real life topics,
and to formulate their own opinions.
Ultimately, this course should help illuminate for students what it
means personally for them to be teachers and their role in society.
All
papers should be submitted via Turnitin.com or sent to me by email as an
attachment in MS Word or RTF. I will
give you information about how to use Turnitin.com. Note that I view any form of academic dishonesty very seriously,
and if I find that you have engaged in any form of plagiarism or cheating I
will fail you in this course and report my action to the Dean of Students.
|
Percentage
of grade |
Work |
|
5% |
Attendance
and participation. Each unexcused
absence costs 1%. More than five
absences mean you fail the class.
Participation can be in class or on the class discussion list on the
class Blackboard website. |
|
30% |
6 reflection pieces. At least 2 pages each (at least 500
words). 5 % each. These are due by email the day before
class: i.e., by 5.30PM on the Monday.
Note that unless you explicitly request otherwise, I will discuss the
contents of your reflection pieces in class. |
|
30% |
Take
Home Exam |
|
35% |
Paper:
12 pages/3500 words. (See below for
instructions and paper topics.) Note
that I expect you to write a draft of your paper, at least 6 pages long, that
will be due a month before the final version is due. |
(Unfortunately
this is an expensive book. There is a
copy on 3-hour reserve in the library if you cannot afford to buy it. I plan to use this book every semester I
teach this course, so you should be able to resell it at the end of the
semester. If you would like, I can make
your contact info available to students in those future courses so they can
purchase your textbook directly. You
can also sell your copy at a good proportion of the original price at Half.com,
Amazon.com, or Textbooks.com)
Philosophy
of Education. Nel Noddings. Westview Press, 1995.
The
Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Education.
Nigel Blake, Paul Smeyers, Richard Smith and
Paul Standish (editors). Blackwell
Publishing, 2003.
Democratic
Education,
Amy Gutmann, Princeton University Press, 1999.
|
Wk |
Reading
to be done |
Work
Due |
|
9/9 |
None |
None |
|
9/16 |
16. Theories of teaching and learning: D. C. Phillips 17.
The capacity to learn: Carol Wren and Thomas Wren |
Reflection
Piece 1. Describe in detail an event or
experience where you were not sure what the right course of action was --
where a difficult ethical or philosophical question was raised. Explain why it was not clear what to
do. I prefer that you use your own
experience as a student or a teacher, but you can if you prefer use an
example from fiction/TV/film. |
|
9/23 |
1.
The Socratic movement: C. D. C. Reeve 5.
Humanism: Craig Kallendorf |
|
|
9/30 |
6.
Enlightenment liberalism: Amy M. Schmitter, Nathan Tarcov, and Wendy Donner 9.
Romanticism: Frederick C. Beiser |
Reflection
Piece 2. Drawing on your experience
as a student, consider what qualities your best teachers have had. Do you think that it is possible to train
people to be good teachers, and if so, what is the best way of doing so? |
|
10/7 |
7.
Rousseau, Dewey and democracy: Patrick Riley and Jennifer Welchman 8.
Kant, Hegel and the rise of pedagogical science: G. Felicitas Munzel |
|
|
10/14 |
15.
The nature and purposes of education: Paul Standish 28.
The authority and responsibility to educate: Amy Gutmann |
Reflection
Piece 3. Why do you think that the
state has a responsibility to educate children? What kind of skills and knowledge should we provide children? |
|
10/21 |
21.
Cultivating reason: Harvey Siegel 22.
Moral education: Graham Haydon |
Visit
by Megan Laverty of Montclair State, NJ.
|
|
10/28 |
31.
Children's rights: James Dwyer 36.
The ethics of teaching: Kenneth A. Strike |
Reflection
Piece 4. What kinds of powers do
teachers have over their students, and what powers do they need in order to
be effective teachers? |
|
11/11 |
33.
Educational equality and justice: Harry Brighouse 37.
Inclusion and justice in special education: Robert F. Ladenson |
6-page
paper draft due. |
|
11/18 |
30.
Common schooling and educational choice: Rob Reich 34.
Multicultural education: Robert K. Fullinwider |
Reflection
Piece 5. In addition to teaching
students in particular areas of knowledge, to what extent is it the responsibility
of schools to teach students to be good citizens? |
|
11/25 |
19.
The measurement of learning: Andrew Davis Park). 32.
Education and standards of living: Christian Barry. |
|
|
12/2 |
13.
Feminism: Jane Roland Martin 38.
Sex education: David Archard |
Reflection
Piece 6. Is there any point to
teachers formulating their own opinions about the purpose of education, or
should they just follow the curriculum?
How could formulating their own ideas about teaching be useful to them? How could it be useful to you? |
|
12/9 |
Review
of semester for take home exam. |
Paper
due. |
|
12/13 |
|
Take
Home Exam Due |
Instructions
for papers. All papers should show
evidence of research beyond the main textbook.
You should demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of the
philosophical ideas you discuss, and an ability to show how those ideas help us
understand difficult cases facing teachers or policy makers. It may be useful to include facts about law,
psychological theories of childhood development, or educational studies about
how different teaching methods work in the classroom, but you need to go beyond
those facts and engage in philosophical discussion. Papers should discuss in detail at least one scholarly work
published in a journal or academic book.
Excellent papers will need to discuss more than one work, but it is
better to give a through discussion of a few authors than to give a superficial
discussion of many. The 12-page length
specification is just a guideline -- papers will be judged on the quality of
their research and the strength of the argument. It is essential that papers engage in philosophical argument, so
it is not enough simply to compare statistics, state opinions or describe
personal experience. It is also
essential that you consider counter-arguments to your conclusion and explain
why you believe they are unsuccessful.
You can create your own topic if you get it approved by me by Oct 21.
Final
Paper Topics.
1. Discuss what function education is meant to
serve in modern society and whether home-schooling can achieve this
function. In particular, is there a
significant role for the socialization of children with the aim to make the
part of a wider community? Should
parents have the right to keep their children out of the classroom, and if so,
under what conditions?
2. For children who have disabilities or
impairments that could make it more difficult for them to benefit from a
standard education, what moral obligations does our society have to use extra
resources to educate them? Relate this
to the general purpose of education, and provide some justification for the
theory that you endorse.
3. Describe in detail a real ethical dilemma
that is faced by teachers, and set out several possible ethical solutions to
the dilemma. Then assess the strengths
and weaknesses of each of those solutions, and come to a conclusion about which
solution is best. Make sure to justify
your conclusion as far as you can, and assess to what extent other choices
might also be morally permissible.
4. Many educators, child psychologists and
psychiatrists claim that the criteria for learning disorders, developmental
delays, and emotional disorders are scientifically objective and make no
assumptions about values. Explain what
this means, and then discuss to what extent this claim is plausible. Some critics have suggested that such claims
are in fact ideology dressed up to look scientifically respectable: consider
whether there is any truth to such a charge.