Week 2 Blog (Tyler Ch. 1)
What Educational Purposes Should The School Seek To Attain:
Educators claim that the purpose of what they teach is to help develop an educated human being. However is it entirely necessary for students to learn about our current objectives. Can one still be educated by the other experienced that have taken place in their lives. We live in a world full of knowledge and opportunity, where any person can learn. These subject help student feel more prepared for college. When I first got into a postsecondary institution, there was a lot of testing, reading, and following specific instruction. Students are fed this false dream of earning a degree which will lead to a life of employment benefits and comfortable wages. When in fact the only thing we obtain is our degrees as well as knowing how to take test and follow instruction. After investing approximately 20 year into schooling young adult are often even more confused and some even depressed due to the false promises of earning a bachelor's degree. I have personally seen students invest thousands of dollars and it not helping them in any way shape or form. This tells us that there is a vital need for the reframing of schools. School need to focus of the various needs of students being: educational, psychological, emotional, and even social.
At first you will wonder the importance of schools, but when you think about the different subjects they are often connected to the basics. When learning Algebra, one will have to demonstrate a mastery of addition, subtraction, multiplication and even division. These skill will help students and even eventually led them to mastering algebra. Society cannot explain the reason for teaching things like algebra when it can serve us in learning about things like loans, discount rates and possible ways to save money. “When education is viewed in this way, it is clear that educational objectives, then, represents the kinds of changes in behavior that an educational institution seeks to bring about in its students.” (Tyler, 6) The first way to changing the overall thoughts on education is by knowing the reasons for the subjects in education. If we take a step assess the the problems in the system we will see that the behavior is a huge problem that decreases motivation in the students and teachers. There is a huge need in reframing the way we think about education. Society needs to think of education as necessity, just like how we need food and water. If we want change the behavior then we will need to grasp the interest of students.
Schools can be very boring no matter what level. What makes them more interesting is making them more relevant. I completely agree with the author when he states,“should the educated man adjust to society, should he accept the social order as it is , or should he attempt to improve the society we live in?” (Tyler, 35) Education has slowly been shifted to becoming a part of human tradition, it seen as a chore which someone unconsciously does and fails to question the reason behind it. The article wakes us up and tells us that we should always be assessing the current process. There is always room for growth and improvement, even if something has been functioning effectively. If we truly aspire to develop intelligent human beings, then we need to constantly assess the current objectives. Then creating objectives that has implemented the basics as well as heard the voices of students, teachers, and parents. In the end it will take time and resistance of the current system to even begin the development of a community based curriculum.
I agree with major points made throughout your post that emphasis the shortcomings of the contemporary educational system. The structure and subjects of curriculum has not changed much from the needs of the 20th century, and as the author noted, educational objectives are becoming more of the traditional approach, rather than structuring a curriculum based on the needs (and interests) of the student and the needs of an advancing society.
ReplyDeleteI think the part that I enjoyed most about this reading is when Tyler outlined the interest of the learner in a progressive educational system because I often shared the same thoughts. When a student is engaged with the topics of their curriculum, the student can actively learn knowledge or skills necessary to pursue fields of interest. Education should serve as a catalyst to gauge students' interest and provide resources for student's development. Rather than making sure every student learn about contrived subjects in which the learner's knowledge will not develop any further after the longevity of their formal education (unless the learner themselves takes up a particular interest of said subject), students' interest should play a bigger role in curriculum. I think the structure of higher education is the closest to fitting this model today being that students choose their course of study, electives, majors. I feel that this model however should be introduced earlier in a learner's education, giving the learner the opportunity to decide whether they want to pursue their interest through (higher) education or the work force.
To play devil's advocate, I also see that potential problems that might come when structuring a curriculum off the student's interest or the contemporary needs of the society. The question comes up of how to implement a system that can focus on the individual interest of each student. And who will determine what kind of knowledge is worth knowing (as the author noted)? Subjects like coding might be an interest know because of how fast technology is advancing, but who is to say that the current system of coding would be the same five to ten years from now. And who will determine which subjects are of more values than others ( ex. I think creative arts is essential for some students' development, but it is a subject that is frequently cut from school programs).
Thank you for sharing!
First of all, thank you for sharing your views on this article.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this article, I first asked myself，What Educational Purposes Should The School Seek To Attain?In my opinion，school should improving students' social requirements and personality development are unified; promoting students' all round development of morality, intelligence, physical fitness; cultivating students' innovative spirit and practical ability; cultivating students' healthy psychology and unique personality.
I have some doubts about this statement.“Schools can be very boring no matter what level. What makes them more interesting is making them more relevant. ’Not everyone thinks school is boring.School education has its own goals to achieve. Education should start from students' interests. However, paying too much attention to the interestingness of school education may lose the basic knowledge level goals of school education.
As for this question： “should the educated man adjust to society, should he accept the social order as it is , or should he attempt to improve the society we live in?” (Tyler, 35)I think people should not only adapt to society and accept social order, but also try to improve the unreasonable parts of our society. This is not a contradiction.
My idea may be very shallow, please criticize and correct, thank you.
Thank you for sharing, Melvin.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that school should focus more on the various needs of students being. In China, we have an education psychologist called Confucius. He advocated teaching students in accordance with their aptitude. His point of view is similar to what you think interest is necessary to some extent. We believe in Confucius’s philosophy of education, but in actual teaching, we did not completely follow his thoughts. Due to the external environment, for example, the competition in the job market, the schools always focus on testing because it is the most direct way to make students stand out from others. From this point of view, I agree that the reframing of school is vitally important. Our social development is changing with each passing day. As an educator, we should educate students to acquire skills and abilities rather than just to pass the exam or get a degree. They should be encouraged to show their greatest potential in areas of interest. Otherwise, this will cause students to be confused after ten or even twenty years of study.
I like what you said that "we live in a world full of knowledge and opportunity, where any person can learn" and I agree. Furthermore, I think one of the functions of education should be providing opportunities for people to learn what they want to learn. Thus, the curriculum design or its objective selection is required to meet students' needs. No one can learn all of knowledge in the world, but they can choose what they are interested in or what they think can help them develop abilities to learn. From my perspective, education should be reasonable, thus, there ought to be a reason for the curriculum design to explain why students need to learn what they are taught at school. Therefore, when considering the educational objectives, I think it is necessary to think about why first.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, I like your point in the last paragraph that what makes schools more interesting is making them relevant. In my opinion, schools should not be like the machine factories where the mission is to shape students to be the same. Thus, schools need to know students' thoughts and interests, and help them grow up to be what they want to be. I agree with you that schools need to hear the voices of students, teachers and parents. Tyler raised a question that "should the school develop young people to fit into the present society as it is or does the school have a revolutionary mission to develop young people who will seek to improve the society?" (Tyler, 35) From my perspective, the educational objectives should not be what kind of people schools want students to be through education, but helping students achieve their goals or equipping them with knowledge and skills they need to pursue their dreams. And the premise of that is, knowing students through studying them.
Hi, Melvin. It is interesting you said that someone regards education as a chore. It is true that some students tend to learning aimlessly but just follow what teachers say. The society don’t need “robots ” but human beings who can think critically and creatively. It is important that teachers, parents and even the whole society remind these students why they learn. And the during the whole school life, students should be allow to and given more opportunity to explore what they want to take up thorough their whole life.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with you that the objectives should hears the voice of students, teachers and parents. I consider that the implementation of educational purpose should involve shareholders including students, teachers, parents, specialists and related government officials. Also, the voice of these different ends have to be integrated.
Thank you for your posting.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your opinion that we live in a world full of knowledge and opportunity, where any person can learn. Schools provide many opportunities for students to read, to learn, communicate and learn knowledge. If the learner have some problems the teacher will also help them to explore and solve the problems. The purpose of educators is to guide and enlighten his or her fellow students or mentees to develop with regards to any aspect of life. Students can not only be educated by the textbooks but also be educated by the other experienced that have taken place in their lives. However, our society develops really fast. It is really important that educators should follow the step to learn and teach new things.
I believe everything has its two sides, including each policy, and your attitudes on it depends on which sides you stand with. There is no way to make everyone satisfied and benefited. I watched a video last week, and I got to know that in the place of Finland, students grow up in a very happy atmosphere and they do not need to worry about their study, because there is no standardized test. The aims of teachers in Finland are to teach students how to be a good men and how to live a happy and worthy life. To speak honestly, I am totally yearn for this kind of life. In the video, it says that education is seen as a business in the U.S. On the other hand, We cannot deny that over half of the top 100 universities of the world are in the United States. There are many things that we actually need to change and reform, but it is a long journey. As you said, we should always be assessing the current process, and there is always room for growth and improvement.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that the school system in the United States is in need of reframing. Like you said, schools should be focused on the various needs of students, not just the academic aspect of it. I believe that we are starting to focus on the well-being of students more and shaping them to be well-rounded citizens. In CPS curriculum, we now must teach " social-emotional" lessons daily. These lessons help give students the knowledge and support they need to be mentally healthy and productive members of society. I also found the above comment interesting from Lingling Yan about not satisfying everyone and comparing ourselves to other countries school systems. I, too, watched the Swedish film about their school system and how it is less stressful in terms of curriculum and testing over there. However, would a system like that meet the needs of our society? I think that the United States has a long way to go on reforming curriculum and the school system, but like you said it all starts with reframing how our society thinks about education and their behavior towards it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this thoughtful blog. I think what you are talking about is creative. I really like the way you talk about the advantages and disadvantages of functions of school.
ReplyDeleteI mean what educational system should know is what to make students live better not just earn a good degree just like a robot. But what we should consider in advance is what can brings students a better life? Good degree? Or skills for life? I think that should based on what students want first. Some students love reading and obtaining knowledge. Others love learning skills for life. What I was considering is should we just let students decide what they really want? Or what age can let students control their desire for learning?
I really like you said that this world is full of knowledge. We are learning all the time actually. Just like after I got here, most of new things or new words are learned from my friends and experiences. The textbooks can only teach me the academic words or knowledge, it can not teach me how to live in a different cultural environment.
Thank you for your thoughtful blog. I agree that it is an enormous waste for students to pursue a bachelor's degree that ends up not helping them procure employment. It's even worse for the many students who begin to pursue a college degree, get many thousands of dollars into debt, and aren't able to complete their degrees. The Tyler article seemed to mainly be suggesting ways for educators to choose objectives for the students, by taking into consideration what the needs of the students are, what socially-acceptable ways of meeting those needs would be beneficial to society, and what skills the students need to meet those needs. The twin situations of students achieving degrees without being able to get jobs with them and students pursuing degrees without being able to finish them suggest that for these students, the objectives they've pursued have been misaligned. I think this suggests that there needs to be more counseling/coursework for high schoolers to give them a better idea of what careers are available for them to pursue. Students should also have more autonomy and ability to choose classes that closely align with a career they wish to pursue at an earlier age, particularly for jobs that are currently in demand. I believe there needs to be more counseling and guidance available for college students as well, to make sure that students stay on track to graduate and earn a viable and valuable degree. Again, thank you for your thoughts.
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ReplyDeleteYou mentioned a variety of issues in education that you consider valuable in this blog including access to education, the (unfortunate) monetary and emotional investment we must make as learners if we are part of the 70 % of students with collegiate debt (in the United States) and the importance of individual value we place on learning. You also mentioned that the education system as a whole needs reframing.
I agree that reframing needs to occur on a curricular level and I find your point of view refreshing. I too believe in the importance of breaking out of the antiquated forms of learning that are still vastly practiced in classrooms (test taking, memorization, and focus on Instruction) today.
For me, it is difficult to think about education reform without thinking about U.S. federal budget and state policy because those two subjects impact and trickle down into U.S. Classrooms. In this aspect, another classmate (Jiabo Han) mentioned in a comment that we as a society should push towards validating and placing importance on teacher, parent, and student voice when it comes to education reform. This is a valuable comment to me because I think when education is discussed on a national political level perhaps these voices that are so important in the dialogue of the human learning experience have been diluted through political agendas.
I know that learning about government and social studies exists in curriculum and I think perhaps more inclusion of government practices that affect education practices should be taught more elaborately in the classroom so that when students become of voting age, they can consciously and responsibly become active members of this change. It is only after education has happened to students that they are able to have a "legitimate" (through voting) voice.
When we think about relevant content it is important that we think about it from multiple perspectives. Culturally relevant, linguistically relevant, age appropriate are all factors in today's instruction. In regards to the quote about what position a person can take in society, I completely agree. Each one of us have a duty to fulfill that is directly aligned to our purpose. Often times, educators fall in line with the narrative society has already created. We must be conscious about how and why we do the work that we do. I also want to speak to the fact that the way we transition young people from el ed, to secondary, to college and post grad is not a well thought out process. We sometimes leave our students without a voice or clear path on how to maneuver through the next stage of life. This leaves people feeling that the education system has failed them after a lifetime of dedicating time and effort.
ReplyDeleteFrom my understanding of the history of public education and the varying objectives throughout the years, at it's core public education is supposed to prepare learners for their futures. What future is what is the difference? Is that future in a vocation, or as a citizen, in the management class or service energy, or as a decent human being. However establishing learning objectives to prepare for those futures is where essentialists, progressives, subject matter specialists, child psychologists, etc., disagree (Tyler, 4).
ReplyDelete"Students are fed this false dream of earning a degree which will lead to a life of employment benefits and comfortable wages ... This tells us that there is a vital need for the reframing of schools. School need to focus of the various needs of students being: educational, psychological, emotional, and even social."
I agree, I think factory-style education and standardized testing have created a culture of regardless of curriculum design, rote memorization is education. The culture also prioritizes matriculation over actually learning to become a contributing member of society. I think school should be focused on all needs, educational, psychological, emotional, and social. All of these needs can be addressed in the classroom with curriculum that is more integrated and comprehensive. Learning should be more practical and incorporate real world applications.