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Thursday, August 28. 2014

Sol Stern: When the Instructors Need Instructing - A new book reveals the damage education schools have done to pedagogy.

... the founders of the twentieth-century education schools—iconic figures like William James, Edward Thorndike, and John Dewey—were disinterested in the nitty-gritty of the classroom and thought little about how to improve methods of instruction. (Thorndike abhorred school visits, calling them “a bore.”) Instead, they preferred to write and do research about more intellectually challenging subjects, such as psychology and human intelligence. What Green calls the uniquely American “myth of the natural-born teacher,” along with the corollary assumption that good teachers simply “know what to do to help their students learn,” also encouraged the ed schools’ inattention to the art of teaching.

Posted by The Barrister in Education at 13:17 | Comments (6) | Trackbacks (0)

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As a former math teacher, I see the need for pedagogy. It is not intuitively obvious how to best present a given material to a given population.

However, the Ed Schools, instead of instructing prospective teachers on what has worked during 2,500 years of formal classroom instruction, focus on two other matters. 1) Teaching the latest educational theory that will explain it all, even though it hasn't been sufficiently tested to prove it works. To be followed several years later by the newest latest educational theory... Lather, rinse, repeat. Prospective teachers and their future students make great guinea pigs. 2) The latest and greatest in political correctness.

#1 Gringo on 2014-08-28 13:50 (Reply)

I think every administrator should also be in the classroom every semester. I know that is a strain on us (I have administrative duties for my college now in addition to my teaching duties). But nothing stops lunacy faster than being the one who realizes how stupid the policy is when you try to enforce it in the classroom.

#2 Dangerous Dean on 2014-08-28 14:28 (Reply)

In my prep school, all administrators taught - including the Headmaster. They all coached something too.

In my kids' private school, same thing.

#2.1 Bird Dog on 2014-08-28 17:47 (Reply)

Which reminds me of my experience in high school. The teacher who taught AP World History for years moved up to vice principal.

The teacher who took over the AP World History class taught American History. While it was more apparent to us after we graduated from high school and saw how college courses were conducted, it was not hard to see even when we took the class that the teacher was winging it. He didn't want to spend 3 hours a night preparing lectures, so he winged it with "discussions" - with a heavy emphasis on current events.
Which didn't stop him from imposing the heavy work load that an AP course required. It was demoralizing to work your ass off for a teacher whom you knew was winging it. Speaking of winging it - a week apiece on Rome and the Middle Ages? Even inexperienced high school students knew there was something wrong with that spacing in a year long World History course.

If that vice principal had taught only that one course, we would have had a decent AP World History course. As he had taught the course for years, he wouldn't have had to prepare anything new- he had already done it.

#2.2 Gringo on 2014-08-28 20:03 (Reply)

Ah! They did not wish to dirty their hands with real teaching. Explains Ed. schools, yes, it does.

#3 Sam L. on 2014-08-28 19:55 (Reply)

This is a good hint as to why the one thing schools won't teach students is how to study. Some students figure it out, others reach their brute method limit.

In their defense, most teachers never learned how to study when they were students.

#4 JKB on 2014-08-29 00:17 (Reply)

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Thursday, August 28. 2014

Education Schools