Christian Perring, Ph.D.
Office: 330A RC
Office Phone: (631) 244-3349
Office Hours: MTW
Class time: T
Email: perringc@dowling.edu
(please put “EDU5304” 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
philosophical views that have affected, and are affecting, educational policy
in the
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
· 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?
|
Percentage of grade |
Work |
|
5% |
Attendance and participation. I will take attendance, and you should explain to me the reasons for any absences, since this can affect your grade. More than 4 unapproved absences will mean you fail the course. |
|
30% |
6 reflection pieces.
At least 500 words. 5 %
each. These are due by email, preferably
as an attachment, the day before class: i.e., by |
|
30% |
Take Home Exam. |
|
35% |
Paper: At least 3000 words (12-14 pages). (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,
|
Wk |
|
Work Due |
|
2/3 |
None |
None |
|
2/10 |
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 personal experience at a school or
college 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. |
|
2/17 |
1. The Socratic
movement: C. D. C. Reeve 2. Stoicism:
Christopher Gill |
|
|
2/24 |
6. Enlightenment liberalism:
Amy M. Schmitter, Nathan Tarcov,
and Wendy Donner 9. Romanticism:
Frederick C. Beiser |
Reflection Piece 2.
Apart from teaching students facts and giving
them skills, do schools have a responsibility to enable children to
experience finer emotions? Discuss this using particular examples, preferably from your own
experience. |
|
3/2 |
7. Rousseau, Dewey
and democracy: Patrick Riley and Jennifer Welchman 12. The analytical
movement: Randall Curren |
Take-home exam
topics given. |
|
3/9 |
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? |
|
3/16 |
33. Educational
equality and justice: Harry Brighouse 37. Inclusion and
justice in special education: Robert F. Ladenson |
Deadline for
creating your own paper question: it must be submitted in writing, along with
a list of 3 academic articles or scholarly books that you will use to answer
the question. |
|
3/23 |
31. Children's
rights: James Dwyer 36. The ethics of
teaching: Kenneth A. Strike |
Reflection Piece 4.
Give one example in which it is right for a teacher to impose his or
her moral views on children, and another in which is wrong to do so. Justify both examples. |
|
3/30 |
21. Cultivating
reason: Harvey Siegel 22. Moral
education: Graham Haydon |
6-page paper draft due.
|
|
4/13 |
30. Common schooling
and educational choice: Rob Reich 34. Multicultural
education: Robert K. Fullinwider |
Reflection Piece 5.
What understanding do children have of their own cultures, and how
does exposure to other cultures change their perspective? Try to draw on your own experience from
your youth or as a teacher. |
|
4/20 |
11. Critical
theory: Douglas Kellner 14. Postmodernism:
David E. Cooper |
|
|
4/27 |
19. The
measurement of learning: Andrew Davis Park). 32. Education and
standards of living: Christian Barry. |
Reflection Piece 6.
How are teachers assessed today and are these
assessments accurate measures of their abilities? Can you think of any better ways to assess
teachers? |
|
5/4 |
38. Sex education:
David Archard 26. Aesthetics and the educative powers of art:
Noël Carroll |
Take Home Exam Due |
|
5/7 |
|
Paper due. |
Instructions for class. It is important that you do the assigned
reading before class. It will be a good
idea for you to take notes during the explanation of the assigned readings to
enable you to explain some of them in your take-home exam and include
discussion of them in your paper.
Participation is strongly encouraged and your grade will be partly
assessed on this. Discussion and dialog
between students is also an essential part of the learning process. I expect students to respect me and each
other, which includes the following: you should make every effort to arrive on
time, and avoid bathroom breaks during the class unless absolutely necessary;
cell phones should be silent; you should not bring food into class, especially
if others can hear or smell it; you should not be doing reading or writing
unrelated to the course during the class
Instructions for reflection pieces. The aim of these reflection pieces is to
encourage you to reflect on the philosophical issues raised in the readings and
class discussion and relate them to your own experience as a student and as a
teacher. They are meant to help you
thinking and writing philosophically and to help you draw connections between
abstract ideas and everyday experience.
Since each piece is worth up to 5% of your grade and should be at least
500 words, I expect you to craft a thoughtful and well-written reflection. These are not meant to be
"mini-papers" and should not include any research, but it is a good
idea for you to consider the relevance of some of the assigned course reading
to the topic of the reflection and for you include your own opinion.
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 two scholarly works published in an academic journal or book. It is better to give a through discussion of a few authors than to give a superficial discussion of many. Papers will be judged on the quality of their research the strength of the argument, and the clarity of the writing. It is essential that papers engage in philosophical argument, so it is not enough simply to compare statistics, state opinions or describe personal experience of the writer or an interview subject. It is also essential that you consider counter-arguments to your conclusion and explain why you believe they are unsuccessful. Papers should have a clear structure, with an introduction, different sections in logical sequence, and a brief conclusion.
Referring to other sources in your exam and paper: Any quotation from other work must be explicitly labeled, with a page number or exact URL. Any paraphrasing must also be explicitly noted. I recommend APA style for your references. It should be easy for the reader to check on your sources. If you quote from a non-academic website, you should include a print-out of the relevant webpage when you hand in a hard-copy of your paper.
All papers and exams 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.
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 them
part of a wider community? I encourage
you to include discussion of whether parents should have the legal 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. I encourage you
to discuss the foundations of rights of people with disabilities.
3. To what extent is it possible to objectively
assess the quality of a teacher and the benefits provided by education? Is the movement knows as "outcomes
assessment" based on true scientific principles or pseudoscience? Are some forms of teaching better suited to
outcomes assessment than others, and is it wise policy to insist that all
teaching have measurable outcomes?
4. There are fierce debates over the
appropriateness of teaching children of different ages and levels of maturity
about various aspects of human sexuality.
Discuss the fundamental ethical issues behind these debates, with
reference to some specific issue -- preventing teen pregnancy or STDs, wise
sexual decision-making, or gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual identities. Be sure to include discussion of the extent
to which it is possible and desirable to teach these topics in value-neutral
ways, and whether it is appropriate for the state to provide or even insist on
such education.