PFB1004: FOUNDATIONS OF EDUCATION

TOPIC 1: THE PROMISES AND LIMITS OF EDUCATION: TOWARDS

REFLECTIVE PRACTITIONERS

1.1 The Promises of Education.

• Education can be defined as “the growth process of the individuals and

society”. “The promises of education” means what education can do to
individuals of all ages, from children to adults to senior citizens, in a particular
country. The growth of individuals can be divided into four basic domains: (1)
cognitive domain (knowledge), (2) psychomotor domain (skills), (3) affective
domain (attitudes), and (4) social domain (social interactions).

• Other domains of growth include: (5) productive domain (knowledge and skills
for job, home, citizen and member of society), (6) physical domain
(development & maintenance of strong & healthy body), (7) aesthetic domain
(values and appreciation of the arts), (8) moral domain (values & behaviours),
and (9) spiritual domain (recognition & belief in the divine & the view of
transcendence).

• Education helps young citizens so that they can function more effectively in
their current and future times. These functions are determined by the aims of
education. The aims of education are the general statements of the functions to
be transferred to the learners through education, or simply the general purpose
of education.

• Ralph Tyler summarized the aims of American education as: (1) developing
self-realization, (2) making individuals literate, (3) encouraging social mobility,
(4) providing the skills and understanding necessary for productive
employment, (5) furnishing tools requisite for making effective choices
regarding material and nonmaterial things and services, and (6) furnishing the
tools necessary for continued/life-long learning.

1.2 The Limits of Education

• “The limits of education” means the factors that become hindrance/obstacle to

education. As we are all aware, education needs infrastructures such as
buildings, classrooms, laboratories, libraries; others than the human capital
such as administrators, teachers and supporting staff. The provisions of these
facilities require financial support, which may become the limitation to
education.

• School location can be another limitation to education, with some schools are
nicely located in towns and cities, while others are located in the villages or far
in the mountains. The access to schools could be a problem to some children,
other than lack of teaching and learning materials available at such schools.
Hence, school location can be a limit of education.

• Mental and physical abilities of students differ in many ways. Some of them are
mentally retarded, or physically handicapped, blind, or deaf and dumb. These
students cannot learn as much as the normal students. They need special

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 learning aids, for example, the Braille materials for blind students, and sign
language for deaf and dumb students. All these become limits of education.

• There is a large amount of knowledge and skills that students need to learn.
With the limited time and resources available to students and teachers;
teachers face the problem of selecting what subjects the students should take
to equip them for their future life. There are at least nine domains of growth that
are important to students. Can they learn all of them? Hence, time can be
another limit of education.

1.3 Towards Reflective Practitioners

• Reflective practitioners mean those who look back at what they are doing,
making evaluation as to the quality of the processes and think of how to
improve those processes. With the above promises and limits of education,
teachers as practitioners in education, should be more reflective in their
profession. That is, for example, they should look back at how they teach,
evaluate the effectiveness of the teaching process, and think of how to improve
this process.

• As an example teaching process, assume that you are a teacher in a

secondary school, and you are given a class with mixed abilities students to
teach, i.e. some of them are very bright, some are moderate, and the rest are
weak students. What would you do to make sure each one of your students in
your class understand what is taught to them, though they have different
academic abilities, background, interest, and motivation?

• Would you have all of them in the same class, and give more attention to the
weak students? Or, would you divide them into three groups according to their
abilities and teach them differently? Or, would you use the cooperative-learning
strategy such that the good students will teach the moderate students in groups
of five, while you teach the weak students?

• Or, would you separate your students into three classes, i.e. Class A for good
students, Class B for moderate students, and Class C for weak students, and
teach them different syllabus using different approach? Can you reflect back,
as a student, by recalling what your teacher did to you when you were a
student in school? Let us share these experiences and do some reflection on
them, and suggest the better teaching approach for these students.

1.4 Tutorial Activity

• There are five steps for teachers to follow in reflective teaching process (p 25):
(1) PERCEIVE (Identify issues, problems, dilemmas, and opportunities); (2)
VALUE (Consider different relevant perspectives or take into account the
values underlying individuals’ actions); (3) KNOW (Call up professional from
academic preparation, educational theory and research, and practical
experience); (4) ACT (Applying knowledge and skills to make decisions); and

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 (5) EVALUATE (Assess the consequences of decisions and outcomes of
actions).

• Reflect teaching and learning when you were a student in school. Identify one
issue, problem, dilemma, or opportunity in the teaching and learning process.
Explain what you would do in the remaining four steps of the model in order to
improve the teaching and learning process. Form groups of five students. A
representative from each group should present the answers during tutorial
session next week.

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 TOPIC 2: UNDERSTANDING EDUCATION: THE FOUNDATIONS PERSPECTIVE; A
MULTIDISCIPLINARY AND INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH

2.1 Introduction

This topic will discuss the understanding of education through foundations of education perspective. The
topics covered in the foundations of educations course (see Study Guide) are the purpose of schooling,
philosophy of education, sociology of education, history of education, politics of education, curriculum and
pedagogy, transmission of knowledge, schools as organization, teacher professionalism, equality of
opportunity, educational outcomes, educational inequalities, educational reforms, school improvements,
current issues and trends in education, and the future of education. Which of these topics do you think are
multidisciplinary, and which of them are interdisciplinary?

2.2 The Multidisciplinary Approach

“Multidisciplinary approach in understanding of education” means “understanding of education through

many separate disciplines of knowledge”. For example, the sociological foundations of education, and
teacher professionalism. These two disciplines of knowledge are different, with little or no overlapping
contents. The theories and/or principles that made up the two disciplines come from two different
disciplines of knowledge (sociological foundations of education & teacher professionalism).

(a) The Social Foundations of Education

• “Sociology” is defined as “the branch of knowledge that deals with the origin, development, organization
and functioning of human society”. Education develops within, not a part from, social contexts. Schools
influence the cultures of the people that the schools serve. Likewise, the surrounding cultures shape the
schools and their curricula.

• Other than the dynamic nature of our local cultures, we have the technology (such as internet and other
electronic technologies) that exposes global cultures to our community. Can we provide relevant
education to cater for these dynamic cultures? This is actually part of the social foundations of education.
We have to study the present and perhaps future cultures to determine the direction of our present
education.

• In trying to understand education, we need to understand the sociology of a particular country. We than
try to relate the life and cultures of this country to its education system, particularly to the philosophy,
aims, goals and objectives of education. Since we can study sociology of a country as a separate
discipline, we can study social foundations of education through a multidisciplinary approach.

(b) Teacher Professionalism

• “Professionalism” is defined as “professional character, spirit, or methods of professionals, as

distinguished from an amateur”. Hence, “teacher professionalism” means “professional character, spirit,
or methods of a teacher, as distinguished from non-teachers”. Good teachers are not just born with the
professional character, spirit, or methods; but they acquire them through trainings and experiences.
They gain their knowledge from successful and unsuccessful experiences.

• Teachers differ from others at least in five aspects of teaching and learning: (1) they have the content
knowledge of the subject-matter they teach; (2) they have the knowledge and skills of how best to
deliver/teach a particular content; (3) they can understand learners’ needs in teaching and learning; (4)
they know how to handle students with discipline problems; and (5) they know various
methods/techniques to evaluate students’ academic achievement, skill performance, attitudes and social
interaction.

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• In trying to understand education of a particular country, we need to understand, partly, the teaching and
learning process and teacher professionalism that are being practiced in the country. We can also look at
the character, spirit, or methods of other professionals; and compare them with those for the teachers.
Since we can study teacher professionalism as a separate discipline, therefore it can be studied through
a multidisciplinary approach.

2.3 The Interdisciplinary Approach

“Interdisciplinary approach in understanding of education through foundations perspective” means

“understanding of education through related disciplines of knowledge”. For example, the philosophical
foundations of education and the historical foundations of education are interdisciplinary knowledge. We
use the theories and principles from other disciplines (philosophy & history) and create theories and
principles for the “Philosophical Foundations of Education” and the “Historical Foundations of Education”.

(a) The Philosophical Foundations of Education

• “Philosophy” is a combination of two Greek words, the “phil’s” which means “love”, and “sophia” which
means “wisdom”. Hence, the word “philosophy” means “love of wisdom”, i.e. we need to “search for
wisdom”. It involves searching for defensible values, clarifying our perceptions, beliefs and attitudes;
formulating principles for making decisions; and finally implementing these decisions.

• Philosophy of education focuses on the values, beliefs and attitudes related to education, i.e. the process
of growth of individuals and society. These values, beliefs and attitudes determine the direction of our
education, particularly the aims, goals, objectives, contents, delivery and assessment of education. We
look at our life and problems in full perspective in deciding on our philosophy of education.

• For example, the philosophy of “perennialism”, the oldest and most conservative philosophy, is based on
“realism”. Realist views the world in terms of objects and matter. People come to know about the world
through senses and reason. Everything is derived from nature and is subjected to its laws. American
education, up to the late nineteenth century, was dominated by perennialist thinking.

• Hence, in order for us to understand the philosophy of education, we need to know the general
philosophies first, and then relate them to the aims of education of a country. That is, we have to combine
the knowledge about “philosophy” and the knowledge about the “education” to form the knowledge about
the “Philosophical Foundations of Education” of a particular country, which can be regarded as an
interdisciplinary approach.

(b) The Historical Foundations of Education

• “History” is defined as “the branch of knowledge that deals with past events”. History involves searching
for what had occurred within a particular time frame and context. All human activities, including those in
the field of education, occur within time and context. The events that took place during a particular period
of time in a country had influenced the education of that country. In Malaysia, can you recall an event that
had changed our education?

• In the USA, the historical foundations of education started with the colonial Massachusetts, which settled
by Puritans (members of a sect of Protestant from England) who hold strictly to religious discipline. The
earlier schools were closely related to Puritan church. The major purpose of school was to teach children
to read the Scriptures (passages from Bible) and notices of civil affairs. The purpose of schooling at that
time was to make sure children can read and understand the principles of religion and the laws of the
Commonwealth.

• Hence, in order for us to understand the history of education of a country, we need to know the events
that had taken place at a particular time, and relate them to what had happened in education of a

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 country. That is, we have to combine the knowledge about “history” and the knowledge about the
“education” to form the knowledge about the “Historical Foundations of Education” of a particular country,
which can be regarded as an interdisciplinary approach.

2.4 Tutorial Activity

Read the subtopic of: “How Can Schools Reduce Risks That Threaten Children’s Health and Safety?” on
pages 43-53 of the textbook. Relate the social phenomena in the USA (the social foundations of
education) to the roles of schools (what schools can do to educate young children to reduce the risks that
threaten their health and safety).

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 TOPIC 3: THE PURPOSE OF SCHOOLING
3.1 Introduction

Why did we go to school? Why do children go to school? The answer to these questions will probably
help us to understand the purpose of schooling. What would have happen to us if we did not go to
school? What was the purpose of schooling 300 years ago? What is the purpose of schooling now? This
lecture will relate the philosophy, aims, goals and objectives of education to the purpose of schooling.

3.2 The Philosophy, Aims, Goals and Objectives of Education

• To understand the process of education, we need to understand curriculum development, content

development, content delivery, and assessment of content learning. The curriculum (syllabus)
development includes determining the philosophy, the aims, the goals and the objectives of education,
as shown the figure below. The content development, delivery, and assessment will not be discussed
here.

Philosophy Aims Goals Objectives

• Philosophy of education, as we know, focuses on the values, beliefs and attitudes in relation to the
growth process of individuals and society. These values, beliefs and attitudes determine the direction of
our education, particularly the aims, goals, objectives, contents, delivery and assessment of education.
Some of the educational philosophies will be discussed in Topic 4. As an example, we will discuss
pragmatism as a philosophy of education.

• Pragmatism defines the truth and meaning of ideas (knowledge) according to their physical
consequences and practical values (p. 154). It views the world as not fixed, but constantly changing;
and views knowledge as process. It suggests education should focus on experiencing the process, for
example, learning occurs as pupil engages in problem solving. Knowing is considered an interaction
between the learner and environment, of which both are undergoing constant changes.

• Aim of education (What education expects students will achieve) can be defined as “general statement
of the functions to be transferred to learners through education, or simply the purpose of education”.
The earlier aims of American education were to “ascertain the continuation and enforcement of
democratic ideals, and to save the souls” (p. 94). These aims had been associated with the philosophy
of pragmatism, which many people claimed to be the unofficial American philosophy (p. 154).

• Goal of education (What students can do after completing education) can be defined as “statement of
specific purpose with some outcomes in mind”. The aim gives the purpose of education, such as
“Making individual literate”; while the goal gives more specific outcomes of education, such as “All
Year-1 pupils should be able to read and write simple sentences in English”. Hence, the goal of
education is the statement about what pupils should be able to do to achieve the aim/purpose of
education.

• Objective of education can be defined as “statement of specific learning outcomes at various levels of
learning”; e.g. at program level, course level, topic level, or lesson level. An example of course level
educational objective is: “At the end of this course, students should be able to write short stories in
English”. The objectives are usually written in behavioural terms, such as “write, read, explain,
compare, compute, or draw” and so on. The curriculum is then developed based on the various
objectives of a particular school subject.
3.2 The Purpose of Schooling

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 There are many classifications of the purposes/aims of schooling, for example those given by The
Educational Policies Commission (USA) and those given by the Cardinal Principles of Secondary School
Education. The Educational Policies Commission listed four purposes of American schooling: (1) self-
realization, (2) human relationships, (3) economic efficiency, and (4) civic responsibility.

• The purpose of self-realization is to encourage inquiry, mental capabilities, speech, reading, writing,
numbers, sight and hearing, health knowledge, health habits, public health, recreation, intellectual
interests, and character formation.

• The purpose of human relationships includes humanity, friendship, cooperation with others, courtesy,
appreciation of the home, conservation of the home, homemaking, and democracy in the home.

• The purpose of economic efficiency includes work, occupational appreciation, personal economic,
consumer judgment, efficiency in buying, and consumer protection.

• The purpose of civic responsibility includes social justice, social activity, social understanding, critical
judgement, tolerance, observance, conserving of resources, social application of science, world
citizenship, economic literacy, political citizenship, and devotion to democracy.

• The Cardinal Principles of Secondary School Education listed seven major areas of purposes of
secondary schooling: (1) health, (2) command of fundamental processes (living skills), (3) worthy home
membership, (4) vocational education, (5) civic education, (6) worthy used of leisure, and (7) ethical
character.

3.3 Tutorial Activity

• Read Chapter 10 of the textbook about the Backward Design of Curriculum (p. 284). Explain “backward
curriculum design”. Give one example of the design based on an educational objective. Ralph Tyler
(1949) described the design as follows:

“Educational objectives become the criteria by which materials are selected, content is outlined,
instructional procedures are developed, and test and examination are prepared… The purpose of a
statement of objectives is to indicate the kinds of changes in the student to be brought about so that the
instructional activities can be planned and developed in a way likely to attain these objectives”.

Sample Answer

• Backward curriculum design starts with the learning objectives (backward) to derive/develop a
curriculum (i.e. prepare lesson content, select materials, develop teaching procedures, prepare
exercises, and prepare test/examination). A simple example is given below:

• Learning objective: At the end of the lesson, the students will be able to find the area of a right-
angle triangle.
• Lesson content: Find the area of a rectangle and the area of the right-angle triangle by dividing the
rectangle into two right-angle triangles. Derive the formula for the area of a right-angle triangle.
• Materials: Use a manila card to make rectangles and use a ruler to measure the
sides.
• Teaching procedures:
(a) Review on how to find the area of a rectangle.
(b) Ask students to cut the manila card to make rectangles of various sizes.
(c) Ask students to measure the sides of the rectangles and compute the areas.
(d) Ask students to cut the rectangles into right-angle triangles and then compute the areas of each
rectangle
(e) Deduce the formula for the area of rectangle and triangle.

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• Exercises: Students are asked to draw right-angle triangles of various sizes and are asked to
compute the areas.

• Assessment: Students are given a few figures of right-angle triangles and are asked to compute the
areas.

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 TOPIC 4: THE PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE
FOR TEACHERS
4.1 Introduction

The philosophy of education will be discussed first, since we need to understand the philosophy of
education, before we can discuss about its significance for teachers. The lecture will cover seven
philosophies of education (idealism, realism, pragmatism, existentialism, essentialism, progressivism,
and social reconstructionism); followed by the significance of four of these philosophies (pragmatism,
existentialism, essentialism, and social reconstructionism) for teachers.

4.2 The Philosophy of Education

Philosophy of education, as we know, focuses on the values, beliefs and attitudes in relation to the
process of growth of individuals and society. These values, beliefs and attitudes determine the direction
of our education, particularly the aims, goals, objectives, contents, delivery and assessment of
education. Now, we will look some educational philosophies which will help us to understand better the
goals of education.

• Idealism: “Ideal” means “a conception of objects as something that are perfect, having noble
character, visionary, and existing only in imagination”. Idealism views that education should focus on
moral, spiritual and mental aspects of human being; and that the truth and values are absolute,
timeless, and universal. Education should concern with ideas and concepts and their relationship,
with the final outcomes of education are the most general and abstract subjects. Mathematics is
important to develop abstract thinking; while history and literature are important to develop moral and
culture.

• Realism: “Real” means “a conception of objects as something that are actual, existence, and
authentic, rather than imaginary”. Realism views the world in terms of objects and matter; and
everything is derived from nature and is subjected to its laws. Realism suggests that education should
focus on objects and matter; and views that people can learn about the world through their senses
and reasons. However, just like idealist, realist views that the ultimate goals of education are the most
general and abstract subjects. Realist stresses that the subjects such as ethical, political and
economics are important in life; while reading, writing and arithmetic are necessary as basic
education.

• Pragmatism: “Pragmatic” means “a conception of objects as something that are real, and having
cause-effect relationship and practical values”. Pragmatism views the world as not fixed, but
constantly changing; and views knowledge as process and not as product. Education, therefore,
should focus on experiencing the process, for example, learning occurs as pupil engages in problem
solving. Knowing is an interaction between the learner and environment (both are undergoing
constant changes). Teaching is not focused on “what to think”, but on “how to think critically”; and
hence, it should be more exploratory than explanatory. The ultimate goal of education is for the
learner to acquire the process of solving problems in an intelligent manner.

• Existentialism: “Existential” means “a conception of objects as actual being, existing, occurring,

appearing, or emerging”. Existentialism views the world as subjective, depending upon one’s
perception; and that knowledge is a personal choice. Education should focus on emotional, aesthetic
and philosophical subjects; such as literature, drama and arts. Learners are allowed to choose the
subject(s) for their self-fulfillment. Curriculum should stress on self-expressive and experimentation
activities that will create emotions, feelings and insights. The ultimate goal of education is to develop
consciousness about freedom to choose, and the meaning one’s choices and responsibility in relation
to these choices.

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 • Essentialism: “Essential” means “a conception of objects as something that are absolutely
necessary, indispensable, or vital”. Essentialism views that education should focus on the
fundamental and essential subjects, such as the 3 R’s (reading, writing, arithmetic) as the
fundamental subjects at primary school level; and five academic subjects at secondary school level
(English, mathematics, science, history & foreign language). Essentialism rejects the subjects such
as arts, music, physical education, homemaking and vocational education. The ultimate goal of
education is the acquisition of culture and mastery of essential skills, facts, concepts, and thinking
skills.

• Progressivism: “Progressive” means “a conception of objects as something that are moving forward
toward specific goal, further stage, or cumulative improvement”. Progressivism views that education
should promote democratic society in which students could learn and practice the skills and tools
necessary for democratic living; which include problem-solving methods and scientific inquiry; and
learning experiences that include cooperative behaviors and self-discipline; which are important for
democratic living. Since reality constantly keeps changing (similar to pragmatism), progressivism
believes that there is little need to focus on fixed body of knowledge.

• Social Reconstructionism: “Social reconstruction” means “a conception that the social problems; such
as poverty and lack of educational and employment opportunities; can be solved through education”.
Social reconstructionism believes that “people are responsible for creating social conditions, whether
they are good or bad”. It views that education should prepare people to create new good and just
society and to bring the have-nots into a better society. Other than those who are fortunate helping
out those who are unfortunate, education can play its role by preparing students to meet their
intellectual, emotional, personal, and social needs, to solve their social problems.

4.3 Significance of Philosophy of Education for Teachers

The significance of the philosophy of education for teachers can be discussed by looking at the goals
of education, role of students, role of teachers and teaching methods for various philosophies of
education (Figure 6.3, p 151). We are going to look at four philosophies of education as examples,
i.e. the Existentialism, Pragmatism, Essentialism, and Social Reconstructionism.

• Pragmatism: The goal of education under this philosophy is “developing and applying practical
knowledge and skills for life in a progressive democratic society”. The role of students is to show
“active learning and participation”. Hence, teachers need to plan teaching and learning activities that
encourage students to actively participate in learning. The role of teachers is to “teach inductive and
deductive reasoning, scientific method, and the power of observation and practice”, which can be
achieved through the teaching methods of “hands-on curricula, group work, and experimentation”.

• Existentialism: The goal of education under this philosophy is “developing authentic individuals who
exercise freedom of choice and take responsibility for their actions”. The role of students is to
“develop independence, self-discipline, set challenges, and solve problems”. Teachers should know
this goal to decide what to teach, how to teach, how students learn and how to assess learning
outcomes. The role of teachers is to “encourage students to philosophize about life and to recognize
and fulfill personal freedom”, which can be done through the teaching methods of “discussion and
analysis, examination of choice-making in own and other’s live”.

• Essentialism: The goal of education under this philosophy is “acquisition of culture and cultural
literacy for personal benefit”. The role of students is to “receive knowledge and demonstrate minimum
competencies”. The role of teachers under this philosophy is to “deliver a standard curriculum”, which
can be done through teaching methods of “subject-centered direct instruction”. Teachers need to
know this role in order to plan teaching and learning activities that are subject-centered and can
deliver the standard content through direct instruction. An example of a subject with standard

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 curriculum is history. A teacher can prepare the content of a lesson and delivers the content through
direct instruction.

• Social Reconstructionism: The goal of education under this philosophy is “solving social problems
and create a better world”. The role of students is to “inquire, apply critical thinking skills, and take
action”. The role of teachers under this philosophy is to “ask questions, present social issues and
problem solving challenges, and serve as organizer and information resource”, which can be done
through the teaching methods of “stimulating divergent thinking and group discussion”. Teachers
should give emphasis on social studies, social problems, global education, and environmental issues.

4.4 Tutorial Activity

• Read Chapter 6 of the textbook from page 152 to 156. Explain in your own words of your
understanding about the philosophies of Marxism, Behaviorism, Cognitivism, Perennialism and
Essentialism.

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 TOPIC 5: THE SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION

5.1 Introduction

• In Topic 1, we defined “education” as “the growth process of the individuals and

society”; and in Topic 2, we defined “sociology” as “the branch of knowledge
that deals with the origin, development, organization and functioning of human
society”. Since, sociology of education is a branch of sociology that focuses on
education, it can be defined as “the origin, development, organization and
functioning of human society that are associated with the growth process of the
individuals and society”.

• Some argued that education is a valued-based activity in which individuals

experiencing and accepting what is valued by our society. Few argued that
education is the transmission of culture. As we all know, a society is made up of
people with different customs, beliefs, values, languages, religions and social
institutions. Beside all these “local” cultures, our society is exposed to “global”
cultures brought to us by foreign visitors and various technologies, such as
internet, CD’s, magazines, films, etc. Ask ourselves, “Which of these cultures
should we transfer to children/youths?”

5.2 Social Foundations of Education

• Transmitting and Improving Society: John Dewey (an American educator)

believed that aims of education were of both transmitting and improving society.
To do this, educators must be very selective in determining and organizing the
experiences for the children and society. Hence, educators, together with
others in the society, are responsible in determining the content and activities
(experiences) that can help individuals to grow and finally to improve their
society. The aims of transmitting and improving society were carried out by the
schools which educate and socialize the younger members of the society.

• Modal Personality comprises of a set of characteristics that differentiate citizens

of one country to those of other countries (“mod” means “distinguished
attributes”). For example, there are certain behaviours, attitudes and feelings
that distinguish the Americans from Europeans, which are believed to be the
outcomes of schooling. American schools, among other things, focus on the
national civic culture to inculcate modal personality. How do Malaysians differ
from citizens of other countries? Is it due to their schooling (formal education)
or other institutions, such as homes or religious institutions (informal
education)?

• Though each country has cultural pluralism, there still exist a modal personality
for all citizens of that country. They gain this modal personality through
schooling, which offers standard curriculum that develops the modal
personality. Do Malaysians have modal characteristics? Can we list some of
them? We in Malaysia have a large number of foreign workers that came from
many countries. Do you think they have the Malaysian modal personality? If we
have a modal personality, regardless of religion, national origin, race, class or
gender; we will still have common points of likeness.

• The Americans, for example, despite of having different economic level,

education, manners, taste, ethnic group, origin and tradition; they have many

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 points of likeness, such as language, diet, hygiene, dress, basic skills, land use,
community settlement and recreation. They are closer together in their moral
outlook, political beliefs and social attitudes; compared to other nationals. Do
we have any points of likeness in Malaysia? What are they? Most of these
points of likeness are society behaviours, which are actually the sociology of a
community. This is in fact an example of the social foundations of education.
• Belief in the possible is perhaps another point of likeness that the Americans
have, i.e. belief that “anything is possible”. Slogans such as “Work hard and
you will succeed”, “Just do it”, “Anyone can grow up to be president” and “What
counts is not where you came from but what you do” are just some examples of
this belief. US schools are promoting this message throughout the country.
What can these slogans promote for the American people? Perhaps right
attitudes and the belief that “The measure of a person is his or her
achievements”.

• Belief in moral bases for right action is another point of likeness for the
Americans. When American educators discuss about the rights of individuals to
an education, they belief that people have a moral right to further their
humanness (to be good people). The belief also will guide the Americans in
their individual and collective (group) conduct (behaviour). The slogan such as
“Just say no” to either sex or drugs indicates the influence of this belief. This is
another social phenomenon that influences education.

5.3 A Dynamic, Changing Society

• The social foundations become very important in education because of the

rapid change in our society. The appropriate education for various groups
cannot be determined accurately, since the groups are changing, ethnic
demands are emerging, information is exploding, behaviours are being
modified, and values are being altered. What are the changes that we see in
Malaysia? May be food preferences, entertainments, etc. How do these affect
education? Thus, we have difficulty to set education for the present, and even
more complex for the future.

• As the society changes rapidly, the education should also change accordingly.
For example, as most mothers are now working, they have problems taking
care of their young children. In response to this change, the schools now have
the provisions of taking children as young as four years old. Parents can send
their younger children to nurseries either at private place or at place of work.
The idea of literacy is no longer confined to reading and writing, but must be
expanded to cultural, scientific, computer, technological, electronic and
research literacy.

• The number of Asian immigrants in US increases from 13% to 38% in 1981-

1990. In California, people of colour are already majority. In Seattle schools,
over 34 languages are spoken. English as second language is a must for the
students. Education must be responsive to the needs of the diversity of
students, while at the same time, transferring the civic culture that serves as the
binding for the American nation. Schools need different learning outcomes,
pedagogical approaches, flexible curricula, and different teaching
environments.

5.4 Tutorial Activity

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• National Philosophy of Malaysian Education (NPME): “Education in Malaysia is
an on-going effort towards further developing the potential of individuals in a
holistic and integrated manner so as to produce individuals who are
intellectually, spiritually, emotionally and physically balanced and harmonic,
based on a firm belief in and devotion to God. Such an effort is designed to
produce Malaysian citizens who are knowledgeable and competent, who
possess high moral standards and who are responsible and capable of
achieving high level of personal well-being as well as being able to contribute to
the harmony and betterment of the family, society and nation at large” (CDC,
MOE, 1988).

• Discuss the Malaysian philosophy of education from the perspectives of the

philosophy of education and the sociology of education. Which philosophy(s)
matches the NPME? What are the social aspects of human relations that are
covered by NPME?

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 TOPIC 6: HISTORY OF EDUCATION

6.1 History of Education: Introduction

• History, in Topic 2 is defined as: “the branch of knowledge that deals with past events”. Therefore,
history of education can be defined as: “the branch of knowledge that deals with past events that
were related to education”. The events that took place during a particular period of time in a
country had influenced the education of that country, that is, the history of particular country
becomes the foundations of education of that country. Think of Malaysia, can you recall an event
that had changed our goals of education?

• Curricula are prepared or created within political, social, economic and cultural contexts. The
people who created the curricula have firm belief in appropriate social action, views of knowledge,
acceptance of political ideologies, allegiances to class value systems, incorporation of economic
motives, and even adherence to religious convictions. These values are sometimes being
challenged by various sectors of community. Can you think of one curriculum that was not yet
accepted in Malaysia? We are going to look at American history of education as an example.

6.2 The Colonial Period: 1642-1776

• In the northern (New England) colonies, the history of American education started with the
education in the earliest colony of Massachusetts, a settlement of the Puritans (members of a sect
of Protestant from England) who hold strictly to religious discipline. The earlier schools in
Massachusetts were concerned with the doctrines of Puritan church. The major purpose of
schooling was to teach children to read scriptures (passages) from the Bible and the notices of
civil affairs department. The major goal of education then was to enable children to read and
understand the principles of religion and the laws of the Commonwealth. The basic education in
Massachusetts at that time was reading and writing; and Latin in addition was taught mainly to
prepare students to go to Harvard College.

• In the middle colonies, unlike in Massachusetts (everyone used English language), there were no
common language or religion existed. Due to the differences in the language used and religious
believes, no single school system could be established in the middle colonies. These differences
motivated the settlers of different ethnic and religious groups to established parochial (provincial/
local) and independent schools, rather than the central or district-wide school system as in New
England. The present concept of cultural pluralism in fact already existed 200 years ago in the
middle colonies. Think of Malaysia, are there similarities to what had happened in the North
America with respect to school system or cultural pluralism?

• In the southern colonies, the education decisions were left to the family. There was no formal
education here and the focus of education was only on vocational skills. Why vocational skills?
The legislative provision was instituted only to the guardians of poor children, orphans, and
illegitimate children, that is for them to provide private education or vocational skills to the
children. The privileged class of white children (children of plantation owners) received their
education through private tutors. The poor white children (children of the farm workers) did not
have any formal education, with most of them could not read or write. They continued to become
farmers just like their parents. The children of Black slaves were forbidden to learn to read or
write.
• The curriculum of colonial schools in the northern, middle and southern colonies; despite the
differences in language, religion, and economic system; was influenced by the English political
ideas. The religious commitment had high priority in all schools and society, and the family played
a major role in socialization and education of all children. The curriculum of colonial schools
consisted of reading, writing, arithmetic, and some religious faith, and lessons to develop manners
and morals. The curriculum stressed on basic skills, social and religious conformity, faith in

16
 authority, knowledge for the sake of knowledge, rote learning and memorization. There were
various types of schools existed during this period, such as the town schools (one-room primary
schools), private schools (established by missionary, ethnic and religious groups), Latin grammar
schools (for sons of upper class), academy (secondary school) and college (Harvard or Yale).

6.3 The National Period: 1776-1850

• School curricula during Colonial Period were mostly based on religious needs. However, during
the National Period, secular forces had changed American education from religious based primary
and secondary education to more function based education. The secular forces argued that the
time spent on studying the two dead languages (Latin & Greek), for example, should be better
used to study science, to help the new America to explore and develop its natural resources. The
secular forces also had influenced the development of democracy, strong federal government, an
emerging cultural nationalism, the idea of religious freedom, and new discoveries in natural
sciences. As a result of this movement, the federal government became more committed to
education and had allocated 154 million acres of land for schools. The government even decided
to give free primary, secondary, college and university education,

• The school curriculum during the National Period (Rush’s curriculum) stressed on reading, writing,
arithmetic and history in elementary school; English, German, the arts and especially sciences at
secondary school and college level; and good manners and moral principles for all levels.
Education was seen more for the development of natural resources, and to promote democracy.
During this period also, grammar schools were built for gifted students and scholarships were
given to gifted students who could not pay tuition fees. Half of the scholarship students were later
assigned positions as primary school teachers. Educational policy makers (e.g. Rush, Jefferson,
Franklin) were all concerned with equality of educational opportunity; and had proposed
nationwide education for all children and youth. Students of superior ability were identified and
given free secondary and college education.

• During this period also, the Americans were thinking of having their own national cultures, for
example having a national language and literature, which should be different from the English
language and literature used in Britain. This language (spelling, pronunciation & reading) should
be taught deliberately and systematically to the children and youth in the nation’s schools. The
selection of literature was focused on portraying patriotism, heroism, hard work, diligence, and
virtuous living; with the tone of moral, religion, capitalistic, and pro-American. Other than the
cultures, the Americans also aspired to expand the moral and political ideas as their contributions
to humankind. For example, they had shown to Europe the proof that institutions founded on
equality and representation principles (democracy) were capable of maintaining good
governments.

6.4 Tutorial Activity

• Read Chapter 4 of the textbook from page 90 to 102. Explain in your own words, your
understanding about the influence of religion, politics, industry or others in each of the education
described (Education in Southern Colonies, Middle Atlantic Colonies, New England Colonies,
Education for the Slaves, Education for Native Americans, Education in Spain’s Colonies,
Education for Women).

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 TOPIC 7: POLITICS OF EDUCATION

7.1 POLITICS OF EDUCATION

• Politics can be defined as: “the use of strategy to gain any position of power or control”.
Hence, politics of education can be defined as: “the use of strategy to gain any position
of power or control through education”. We once taught that education was value neutral
and apolitical (not political), however, curricular theorists argued that education is
political, since curriculum has been used as an instrument for advancing particular
political ideologies and agendas. The curricular critics are usually using opposition
politics to voice their dissatisfactions about education.

• The Americans are exposed to three political ideas, that is, the democracy of the
collective, the democracy of free-market capitalism, and the neo-Marxist socialism. The
politics of education are not going to focus on these ideas, but rather on the ideas and
values of various groups within American society. Multicultural education indeed is very
political, i.e. the pressure from various groups on the ruling political-party of the
government. As there are more individuals and groups/ organizations influencing the
government in shaping public education, more of their views will influence school
curricula.

• The formal sources of power in shaping public education are school governance leaders.
The informal sources are the elected lawmakers who have to listen to public opinions on
school education. Other than these, citizen groups are also working together with
schools to create changes in schools based on their political beliefs. Since 1960s,
African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanic (Spanish-speaking peoples) Americans
and Americans with disabilities (pp. 206-07) had demanded that schools to respond to
their needs. Since they are voters, their demand/ pressure on education can be
considered political.

• Other pressure groups on education are special-interest groups such as National Parent-
Teacher Association (NPTA) and The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). NPTA, the
largest volunteer educational group in USA, was very successful in shaping education
policy pertaining to curricula, instruction and governance in public schools at local, state
and national levels. ACLU is a legal organization that defends US citizens against the
attacks on their civil liberties (freedom). For example, Tennessee Law during 1925 (p.
207) forbade public school teachers from teaching any theory that denied the theory of
creation described in the Bible. ACLU helped teachers to fight against this law and won
the case.

• Though there are critics that support the opposition political parties, the Americans have
people who share the common voice of the mainstream culture. They are not going to be
silenced and will be heard. The different views among political parties will be increasingly
relevant in future. For example, the issues of censorship are very political, that is, will
people resist it totally, or to have it applied to educational materials only. Hence, all
discussions about moral and character education can be considered very political, since
they relate to the concern, respect and empathy for others (Who are they? The voters?).

18
7.2 TUTORIAL ACTIVITIES

• Read about the groups that influence education in USA (pp. 205 – 211). Describe
how each of these groups influences education in USA: (a) political influences, (b)
special-interest groups, (c) mass media, (d) federal government, (e) national goals, and
(f) state government.

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 TOPICS 8: CURRICULUM, PEDAGOGY AND THE TRANSMISSION OF KNOWLEDGE

8.1 INTRODUCTION

• Generally, we think of curriculum as what to be taught in schools, pedagogy as the

method of delivering them, and the transmission of knowledge as transfer of knowledge,
skills and attitudes to learners. This topic will give you the definition of curriculum and
explain the foundations of curriculum, curriculum development, pedagogy, and the
transformation of knowledge; and the relationships between them. We will also look back
at the aims, goals, and objectives of education.

8.2 CURRICULUM

• Curriculum definition. There are many definitions of curriculum. For this course, we can
simply define curriculum as “the knowledge, skills and attitudes to be transferred to
learners and the strategies to achieve them”. Generally, the strategies would include the
plan for the learners to go through some specific experiences that can help them to
achieve these goals of education. For example, if the goal is for students to master
science-experiment skills, they should experience doing science experiments.

• Foundations of curriculum. The major foundations of education are the philosophy,

history, psychology, sociology and politics. As we translate education into curriculum, the
foundations of education become the foundations of curriculum. The philosophy of
education explains the aims of education of a particular country. For example, the
education in Malaysia is designed to produce Malaysian citizens who are knowledgeable
and competent, and possess high moral standards”.

• Curriculum development. As we learned earlier, a curriculum is developed based on

political, social, economic and cultural contexts of a country. The curriculum developers
should decide what kind of knowledge, skills and attitudes to be transferred. They need
to consider personal needs, community values, social issues, economic motives, future
needs, and knowledge continuity, before a curriculum can be developed, whether it is a
general curriculum, or a specific subject-matter curriculum.

• The flow from the philosophy, aims, goals, and objectives of education is shown in the
following diagram. The philosophy will determine the aims, the aims will determine the
goals, the goals will determine the objectives, and finally the objectives will determine the
curricula at the subject-matter (content, pedagogy & assessment) and school levels
(primary, secondary & tertiary). All these elements have direct relationship to curriculum
development.

Philosophy Aims Goals Objectives Curricula

• As we learned earlier, the aims of education are the statements of the functions to be
transferred to the learners, for example, “making individual literate”. Educational goals
are statements of specific purpose of education at subject-matter/school levels
(knowledge, skills & attitudes); such as “all Year 1 pupils should be able to read and
write simple sentences in English”. Educational objectives are statements of learning
outcomes, for example, “at the end of this course, students should be able to write short
stories in English”.

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 8.3 THE MALAYSIAN CURRICULA

• Malaysian school curricula are developed centrally by the Centre for Curriculum
Development (CDC), Ministry of Education (MOE) Malaysia, based on the following
National Philosophy of Malaysian Education (NPME) (CDC, 1988).

“Education in Malaysia is an on-going effort towards further developing the potential

of individuals in a holistic and integrated manner, so as to produce individuals who
are intellectually, spiritually, emotionally and physically balanced and harmonic,
based on a firm belief in and devotion to God. Such an effort is designed to produce
Malaysian citizens who are knowledgeable and competent, who possess high moral
standards and who are responsible and capable of achieving high level of personal
well-being as well as being able to contribute to the harmony and betterment of the
family, society and nation at large”.

• The philosophical foundations of Malaysian curricula. Some keywords in the NPME will
help us match our philosophy of education to the type of general philosophy of
education. Some of these keywords are: “holistic”, “intellectually, spiritually, emotionally
and physically balanced”, “knowledgeable and competent, who possess high moral
standards”, and “responsible and capable of achieving high level of personal well-being
as well as being able to contribute to the harmony and betterment of the family, society
and nation at large”.

• Based on these keywords, we probably can match NPME to the general educational
philosophy of Progressivism, which stresses that “school should be a miniature of
democratic society in which students could learn and practice the skills and tools
necessary for democratic living; which include problem-solving methods and scientific
inquiry; and learning experiences that include cooperative behaviors and self-discipline;
which are important for democratic living”.

• The aims and political foundations of Malaysian curricula. The aims of Malaysian
education are “to produce individuals who are intellectually, spiritually, emotionally and
physically balanced and harmonic, based on a firm belief in and devotion to God; so that
they become Malaysian citizens who are knowledgeable and competent, possess high
moral standards and are responsible and capable of achieving high level of personal
well-being as well as being able to contribute to the harmony and betterment of the
family, society and nation”.

• Are these aims similar to four (4) aims proposed by The Educational Policies
Commission (USA)?, that is, (1) self-realization (inquiry, mental capabilities, speech,
reading, writing, numbers, sight and hearing, health knowledge, health habits, public
health, recreation, intellectual interests, and character formation); (2) human
relationships (humanity, friendship, cooperation with others, courtesy, appreciation of the
home, conservation of the home, homemaking, and democracy in the home); (3)
economic efficiency (work, occupational appreciation, personal economic, consumer
judgment, efficiency in buying, and consumer protection); and (4) civic responsibility
(social justice, social activity, social understanding, critical judgement, tolerance,
conservation of resources, social application of science, world citizenship, law of
observance, economic literacy, political citizenship, and devotion to democracy). These
aims have political elements in them, which can be regarded as the political foundations
of education.

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• The social foundations of Malaysian curricula deal with “the origin, development,
organization and functioning of human society that are related to the growth process of
the individuals and society”. These foundations become very important in Malaysia
because of the rapid change in our society. The aims “to produce Malaysian citizens
who possess high moral standards and being able to contribute to the harmony and
betterment of the family and society” have certain sociological elements in them, such as
ethnic integration.

• The psychological foundations of Malaysian curricula deal with the psychological

elements of human being that are used to determine the aims of education and
pedagogy. Some keywords in the NPME are related to psychology, for example, “an
effort towards further developing the potential of individuals” and “to produce individuals
who are intellectually, spiritually, emotionally”, which indicated that people have different
abilities (mental & physical) and multiple intelligences; and education should develop
these potentials to the maximum.

• The historical foundations of Malaysian curricula deal with the past events of a particular
country that had influenced the education of that country. These historical elements are
used to determine the aims of education. The keywords like: “on-going effort”, “in a
holistic and integrated manner”, and “intellectually, spiritually, emotionally and physically
balanced and harmonic” may suggest that our past education did not address these
issues, i.e. the importance of life-long learning, and well-rounded-person education.

8.4 PEDAGOGY

• Pedagogy can be defined as “method of teaching”. Shulman (1986) had introduced the
concept of “pedagogical content knowledge”, which combines the knowledge about
content, learner, and pedagogy to come up with a suitable teaching method for a
particular content and learner(s). Therefore, a teacher needs to master the content
knowledge, the general pedagogy, and also the characteristics of the learners to be able
to design an effective teaching and learning activities so that the delivery of content to a
specific group of learners is effective.

• Examples of content and pedagogy are given in Figure 10.5 (p 283). The process starts
from the aim of education to curriculum orientation, roles of students and teachers,
curriculum content and instructional/ pedagogical approach (we have teaching methods
for a particular teaching approach, and teaching techniques for a particular teaching
method). For example, in direct instruction approach, we can have “lecture” as teaching
method, and “explaining lecture notes and ask students to apply the concept taught” as
techniques.

• Take for example, the aim of education to “teach students how to learn” with curriculum
orientation/goal of “development of cognitive processes” (p 283); role of students to
“relate new content to prior knowledge”; role of a teacher to “facilitate students’ learning”;
and curriculum content of “problem-solving skills”; the instructional/pedagogical approach
suitable to this content is “scaffolding: inquiry learning”. Scaffolding here means to
support/help students going through the stages of the problem-solving processes.

• Four teaching/pedagogical models are given in Figure 10.6 (p 286), namely the
Behavioral-Systems-Family Model, Social-Family Model, Information-Processing-Family
Model, and Personal-Family Model. Different learners and different objectives usually
require different pedagogical models. Successful teachers usually have a variety of
pedagogical models (approaches, methods & techniques) that they can use for teaching

22
 different subjects, contents or objectives to different types of learners (such as low,
moderate or high abilities).

8.4.1 Behavioral-Systems-Family Model

• Three approaches in this model are: (1) Mastery Learning, (2) Direct Instruction, and (3)
Computer-Assisted-Instruction. Mastery learning is based on the idea that the quantity
learned depends on student’s aptitude, motivation, and quantity and quality of teaching.
The aptitude is defined as the amount of time (not natural ability) a student requires to
master an objective. Mastery is defined as the performance at 80% of the objective.

• Mastery learning believes that any student can master any objective provided that
he/she is given enough time, is motivated to learn, and the teaching is appropriate for
their needs. Think about blind students. What are their needs? How to best teach them?
How long do they need? Teacher’s role in mastery learning is to break the content into
small manageable objectives, determine students’ needs with respect to learning
materials, teach in the ways that meet their needs, and evaluate their progress regularly
(p 286).

• Direct instruction: Like mastery learning, direct instruction is very structured (with a list of
objectives to achieve) and teacher-centered (content-centered). The methods and
techniques of teaching heavily based on behavioral principles, such as modeling
(students watch actors), feedback (rewards & punishments), reinforcement (drill &
practice, revision, memorization) to teach basic skills (reading, writing, mathematics).
This approach seemed effective (minimum efforts, maximum outcomes) and becomes
quite popular.

• Computer-aided instruction: CAI uses the capabilities of computers to facilitate teaching

and learning. Specials software can give tutorials to students on new contents, just like a
teacher facilitates direct instruction or mastery learning. Some software can be used for
drill and practice or to review previous contents, or to give tests, test marks, and
feedbacks to students. Computer-managed instruction (CMI) is another form of CAI that
has the ability to record student progress, in addition to tutorial features.

8.4.2 Social-Family Model

• Four approaches in this model are: (1) Cooperative Learning, (2) Peer Tutoring, (3)
Project-Based Learning, and (4) Reciprocal Learning. Pedagogical approaches in social-
family model facilitate students to work together in a group (teamwork) to achieve both
the academic and social objectives of education. Teachers just help students by giving
guides/directions, answer questions from students, check their progress, and solve
issues that arise from discussions or problems in carrying out group/teamwork.

• Cooperative learning: This approach promotes group/team efforts to carry out tasks
given to the group. Instead of each student works on his/her own to understand new
concepts (such as what is a graph) or to master new skills (such as how to draw graph).
One cooperative learning technique is the Students Team-Achievement Division (STAD),
whereby a teacher uses direct instruction to teach certain concepts or skills, followed by
students working in small heterogeneous groups to understand the concepts and master
the skills taught.

• Peer tutoring: This approach involves teaching/tutoring of other students by a particular

student. The tutoring tasks are rotated among students, which indirectly promotes
academic leadership among students. Each student is responsible to make sure he/she

23
 understands the contents and masters the related skills properly before he/she is able to
teach/tutor other students. The teaching/tutoring is done in small groups, which requires
the group tutors to cooperate with each other in preparing tutorial contents, skills, and
materials.

• Project-based learning: This is another form of group learning, whereby students are
given a project(s) to do and report back to the groups/class. The project problem(s) can
come from students, teachers, or schools. Students will carry out the project by “asking
and refining questions, debating ideas, making predictions (hypotheses), designing plans
and/or experiments, collecting and analyzing data, drawing conclusions, communicating
ideas and findings to others, asking new questions, and creating artifacts” (p 289).

• Reciprocal teaching: This approach teaches students four strategies in reading

comprehension, namely, (1) summarizing the content of a passage, (2) asking the
question about the central point, (3) clarifying the difficult parts of the material, and (4)
predicting what will come next. Research has shown that the reciprocal teaching some
successful results for students with far below average in reading comprehension. After
20 hours of practice, the students in the bottom quarter had move up to second and
some to third quarter in the class.

• In reciprocal teaching, first the teacher and groups of students read a short passage
silently. Then the teacher provides a model by summarizing, questioning, clarifying, and
predicting based on the reading. Next, every student reads another passage in small
groups, and they take the role of the teacher. Each group then presents the four
elements to the class, while the teacher provides the feedbacks. In the process of
preparing the report, the teacher also provides clues, guidance, and encouragement
(what Vygotsky called scaffolding).

8.4.3 Information-Processing-Family Model

• Three approaches in this model are: (1) Concept Formation, (2) Inquiry Learning, and (3)
Synectics. These approaches stimulate the development of thinking skills such as
observing, comparing, finding patterns, and generalization. The approaches are based
on information-processing and constructivist theories that explain how information are
gathered through our senses, stored and retrieved from our memory, and explain how
we process the information and take action.

• Concept formation method is used to help students analyze and synthesize

data/information to construct knowledge about a specific idea, such as “plant
classification”. In this case, a teacher would ask students to observe a variety of plant
specimens, group the plants according to some characteristics, and give a name for
each group of the plants. Students, later, are asked to classify other plants into existing
groups or students can create new group(s) of plants.

• Inquiry learning helps students to do research to solve problems given to them, based on
facts and observation, just like the scientists doing experiments. Students construct their
own knowledge based on their research or inquiries. In inquiry learning, the teacher’s
role is just to guide students to: (1) define the problem; (2) formulate hypotheses; (3)
gather data; (4) organize data and modify hypotheses accordingly; and (5) generalize
from findings to form new theories.

• Synectics is a teaching method that helps students to increase problem-solving abilities,

creative expression, empathy, and insight into social relations. The method begins with

24
 the understanding of certain basic concept, followed by deeper understanding of the
concept. For example, a teacher may introduce the concept of pollution, and asks
students about the effect of pollution. Later, the teacher may ask students to compare
the effects of chemical pollution compared to construction-waste pollution, for deeper
understanding about pollution.

8.4.4 Personal-Family Model

• Two approaches in this model are: (1) Individualized Instruction, and (2) Nondirective
Teaching. The personal-family model encourages students to decide what they want to
learn and how they want to learn. This will help students to develop/discover effective
learning styles and positive self-concepts. The individualized instruction is a teaching
method that is tailor-made to a particular student, depending on his/her ability, interest,
motivation, learning style, or achievement.

• In nondirective teaching, a teacher helps a student to learn based on student’s own

interest and goals. The teacher may ask a student to identify a problem, be responsible
to solve it, to explore own feeling when solving personal problem, to explore his/her
feeling about others when dealing with social problem, and to determine his/her own
interest and competence when solving academic problems. Teacher would meet a
student one-to-one as to give time for the teacher and student to have a proper
discussion.

8.5 TUTORIAL ACTIVITIES

• Read on “What Is Effective Instruction?” (p 292). Describe in your own words: (a)
Effective instruction, (b) understanding students, (c) communicating, (d) creating learning
environments, (e) adapting instruction for students with special needs, and (f) evaluating
student learning.

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 TOPICS 9: SCHOOL AS ORGANIZATION AND TEACHER PROFESSIONALISM

9.1 Introduction

• This topic will focus on school organization and teacher professionalism in USA. This topic
will provide an overview of the different types of schools in USA, from Kindergarten (K),
Elementary School (K/1-6 or K/1-8), Middle School (5-8), Secondary School (7-12), Post-
Secondary School (Community Colleges, State Colleges, State Universities).

9.2 School as Organization

• School Districts. “A school district is a state-defined geographical area responsible for

providing public instruction to students living within that area” (p 172). School district
provides effective administration and financial services, and standard curriculum for all
schools. There were 16,850 districts in USA in 2000, with 94,090 schools, and 47.7 millions
students (pre-kindergarten to grade 12). The smallest district (Nebraska) has 2 schools &
394 students, and the biggest district (New York City) has 1,207 schools and over 1 million
students.

• Types of Schools. The 3 types of schools are public schools, public alternative schools, and
private schools. (Figure 7.1 p 173). The public school levels are: (1) Kindergarten (K), (2)
Elementary School [Primary School (K Grade 2), Intermediate School (Grades 3–6)], (3)
Middle School (Grades 5-8), (4) Secondary School [Junior High School (Grades 7-8, or 7-9),
High School (Grades 7-12, 9-12, or 10-12], and (5) Post-Secondary School (Community
Colleges, State Colleges, State Universities).

• Public Alternative Schools include Head Start, Pre-kindergarten Programs, Laboratory

Schools, Non-graded Schools, Magnet Schools, Charter Schools, Accelerated School,
Cluster Schools, Vocational-Technical Schools, Professional Development Schools,
Government-Run Schools, and Home Schooling. The Vocational-Technical Schools provide
programs in the areas of cosmetology, food preparation, law enforcement, horticulture,
automotive repair, building construction, data processing, etc.

• Private Schools include Nursery Schools & Preschools, “Concept School” Alternatives
(Montessori Schools, Waldorf Schools), “Ethnic School” Alternatives (Afrocentric Schools,
Reservation Schools), Parochial/Religious Schools (Catholic Schools, Christian Academies,
Hebrew Schools, Islamic Schools), College Preparatory Schools, Trade Schools, Military
Academies, Junior Colleges, Colleges and Universities, and Adult Education Centers.

• Teachers can choose to teach at any of the school levels, for example, teaching in
preschools or teaching in graduate schools. Enrolment in preschools is not very high since
the cost of sending children to preschools is high. But, by the age of 5 (required by law),
most parents send their children to public schools (less expensive), and some send to
private schools (more expensive). The grades in schools depend on the student population
in the districts. If the population is small, a school will provide education from Kindergarten to
Grade 8.

• Secondary Schools or High Schools usually provide education for Grades 9 to 12 (Form 3 to
Lower 6). High schools usually prepare students for higher education, such as technical or
vocational institutions, two-year colleges (taking Certificate or Diplomas), or four-year
colleges and universities (taking Bachelor degrees). The choice of the institution depends on
student’s interest and also the cost of pursuing education at the particular institution.

26
9.3 Administration of Schools

• Board of Education. Figure 7.2 (p 187) shows the management structure of schools in the
United State. The public (people in a district) will appoint members of the District Board of
Education (DBE), and DBE will appoint the School District Superintendent. Board of
Education is the legislative policy-making body responsible for making sure schools are run
by competent individuals. The board sets policies and hires employees to carry the policies.

• School District Superintendent is the chief executive officer (CEO) of a school district. Three
Assistant Superintendents, namely, Assistant Superintendent (Administration), Assistant
Superintendent (Personnel), and Assistant Superintendent (Curriculum), are appointed to
assist School District Superintendent. The school principals are appointed to manage
schools together with the instructional and support staff to deliver the curricula and manage
the students.

• Assistant Superintendent (Personnel) will supervise the school principals, while the Assistant
Superintendent (Curriculum) will coordinate the curricula, including special education, for all
schools in the district. Assistant Superintendent (Administration) will coordinate the business
and finance, including maintenance of grounds, buildings, and buses; for all schools in the
district. People in the district will meet the School District Superintendent if they are not
happy with the education system in the district.

• Principal. Schools are administered by School Principals who are responsible the everyday
operations of the schools. Large schools have one or more Assistant Principal(s). Principals
are responsible for administering discipline, deal with teachers and other staff, locate
substitute teachers, balance school budget, and maintain building and equipment. Due to a
lot of work to be done, nearly half of the principals have to work 60 hours per week, that is
about 12 hours per day.

• Issues that schools face include retention, that is, to retain students in a particular grade until
they have mastered the curricula for that grade. Holding students back in a particular grade
does not solve the problems, because students are not motivated to learn because of the
stigma attached to it. Class schedule and class size also become issues to school. Longer
class period and small class size are supposed to make instruction more effective. Research
indicated that small class (20 students) is more effective than bigger class.

• Tracking is another issue, that is, to group students homogeneously based on their ability.
The critics of tracking argued that students are grouped based on unclear criteria. For
example, the low-track classes usually comprised of students with behaviour problems,
rather than those with low academic achievement. Once they are placed in low-track
classes, usually it is very difficult for them to improve academically. Those who support
tracking argued that if high-ability students are placed in the same class, they can be taught
faster.

9.4 Teacher Professionalism

• The five steps of professional practice (REFLECTIVE TEACHING PROCESS) for teachers
(pp. 25, 389) are: (1) they perceive problems and opportunity (PERCEIVE - alert to what is
going on around them); (2) they can articulate their values in relation to values (VALUE) of
others they work with (other teachers) and serve (students); (3) they possess some
specialized knowledge (KNOW), for example, they know lesson content, how to
communicate, and appropriate pedagogy to use; (4) they act based on their perceptions,
values, and knowledge (ACT); and (5) they evaluate their actions and improve in future
(EVALUATE).

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• Good teachers are not just born with the five steps of the professional practice, but they
acquire them through trainings and experiences. This is a life-long learning for the teachers,
since knowledge and skills cannot be mastered in a short time. Teachers gain their
knowledge from successful and unsuccessful experiences. Teachers also can anticipate all
the problems students will face, and they will discuss the problems and solutions with fellow
teachers, students and parents.

• Teachers as professionals differ from non-teachers at least in five aspects of teaching and
learning: (1) they have the content knowledge of the subject-matter they teach; (2) they have
the knowledge and skills of how best to deliver/teach a particular content; (3) they can
understand learners’ needs in teaching and learning; (4) they know how to handle students
with discipline problems; and (5) they know various methods/techniques to evaluate
students’ academic achievement, skill performance, attitudes and social interaction.

9.5 Tutorial Activities

• Read about “What makes some schools more effective than others?” (pp 192-6). Describe
the elements that contribute to school effectiveness.

• The five steps of reflective teaching: (1) they perceive problems and opportunity (alert to
what is going on around them); (2) they can articulate their values in relation to values of
others they work with (other teachers) and serve (students); (3) they possess some
specialized knowledge, for example, they know lesson content, how to communicate, and
appropriate pedagogy to use; (4) they act based on their perceptions, values, and
knowledge; and (5) they evaluate their actions and improve in future.

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 TOPICS 10 & 11: EQUALITY OF EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY, EQUALITY OF
EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES AND EDUCATIONAL INEQUALITIES

10.1 Equality of Educational Opportunity

• “Opportunity” means “a situation or condition favourable for attainment of a goal”.

“Educational opportunity” means “a situation or condition favourable for attainment of
educational goals”. “Equality of educational opportunity” means that everyone is given equal
situation or condition favourable for attainment of educational goals. Do you think everyone
is given equal situation or condition favourable for attainment of educational goals? Discuss
this with respect to factors that can hinder/hold back the equality of educational opportunity
for Malaysian children, for examples: type of school; location of school, quality of teachers,
or family background. Other than these factors, children themselves differ from each other in
terms of general ability/intelligence, language ability, interest and attitude.

• In USA, there is a legislation to ensure equal educational opportunity for all Americans. In
USA, equal educational opportunity is simply defined as “equal access to schooling” (p.
202). At federal level, the focus of the legislation is to provide equal educational
opportunities for female students, students of different races (White, Black, Indian,
Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, Hawaiian, Korean, and other races), students with limited
English proficiency, students from low-income families, and students with disabilities (vision
problems/blind or semi-blind, hearing problems/deaf & dumb, learning difficulties, mentally
retarded, physical handicapped). In the early history of education in USA, only boys can go
to grammar schools. To provide equal educational opportunity for girls, they were later
allowed to study in these schools. Equal educational opportunity should also be given to
children of different races, students with learning difficulties, students from low income
families, students with disabilities, and students who live in different locations, for example,
those who live in cities, towns or farms; so that they are not deprived of education.

• In USA, the main idea of providing equal educational opportunity so that every child can be
developed to his/her maximum potential. It means that public school administrators and
teachers must provide education according to the needs and strengths of students, while
making sure that all students acquiring minimum basic skills (reading, writing, speaking,
arithmetic, thinking skills, ICT literacy). Court case: In USA, 15 African-American preschool
and elementary school students living in a low-income housing project (p. 259) sued
Michigan Board of Education in 1978 for denying them of equal educational opportunities.
Their African American English differed from the English used by teachers and written
materials in school, which violated Title 20 of US Code.

• The Code says that no state can deny individuals educational opportunities due to their
race, gender, or national origin, by failing to overcome language barriers that might inhibit
learning. In this case, the Court acknowledged that Michigan schools had provided special
assistance to these and other students through learning consultants, a speech therapist, a
psychologist, a language consultant, tutors and parent helpers. The Court however ordered
the School Board to develop plan whereby teachers would learn to understand home
language of students and use it to teach reading skills and Standard English effectively (pp.
259-260).

• US Supreme Court (Lau v. Nichols, 1974, p. 259) held that a school district receiving federal
aid must provide special instruction for non-English-speaking students whose opportunities
to learn are restricted because of language barriers/problems. This case was brought to the
Court to solve language problem of 1,800 Chinese American students in San Francisco
public schools, who spoke little or no English, yet they were not offered remedial English.
The schools violated the Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which specifies that no one,

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 regardless of race, colour, or origin, can be discriminated against or denied participation in
programs receiving federal assistance. The Court ordered the establishment of bilingual
programs.

• Children normally have about the same ability/intelligence to help them understand lesson
contents. However, some have deficiencies, such as born with mental retardation, having
problems with eyesight or hearing, or physically handicapped. How can we provide equal
educational opportunity for them? Probably we cannot provide equal education for each one
of them, but we can provide education to the maximum of their potential. For example, we
may use modified curricula for those who are mentally retarded or having hearing problems.
10.2 Equality of Educational Outcomes

• As for the equality of educational outcomes, schools are to make sure that all students to
achieve equal intended/desired educational outcomes for each school subject taken by
students. The effective teaching and learning will help students to achieve the
intended/desired educational outcomes. As we learn earlier, the educational outcomes can
be divided into four major domains (cognitive, affective, psychomotor & social domains), and
other domains (productive, physical, aesthetic, moral & spiritual domains). The educational
outcomes depend on the subjects taken by students. Do all students take the same
subjects? Definitely not. Hence, we can talk about equality of educational outcomes only for
students who take the same subjects.

• The effectiveness of teaching and learning, however, does not depend only on the quality of
teaching/teachers, but also on the availability of teaching materials/resources, the ability of
students to learn, and the quality of learning. The ability of students to learn depends on the
general intelligence of students and learning materials/resources provided, while the quality
of learning depends on the interest, motivation and extra learning materials available to
students. Hence, quality of teaching and learning is very important to make sure similar
educational outcomes can be achieved by all students, particularly for students with special
needs. Therefore, what happen in the classroom and at home are of paramount important in
achieving equality of educational outcomes for all students. The cases of English language
deficiency mentioned earlier could be the major cause for inequality of educational outcomes
for African and Chinese Americans.

11.1: EDUCATIONAL INEQUALITIES

• In the earlier history of education in USA, there were independent schools established by
different ethnic and religious groups, that is, children from different ethnic groups or different
religious groups studied in different types of schools. Since they learned different
curricula/contents in different types of schools, therefore, they were not given equal
education, and this is what we call “educational inequality”. One way to provide equal
education to all students is to use common curricula for all students. Another example of
educational inequality is when students are tracked into arts or science stream. When they
are in arts track, they will study only arts subjects, while those in the science track will study
science-related subjects. This causes educational inequalities.

• In terms of delivery/pedagogy, we can choose teaching approach/method/technique suitable

for students with different needs. For example, the pedagogy to deliver contents to blind
students is different from normal students or deaf-and-dumb students. A proper pedagogy
can be used as a way to provide educational equality to children with special needs, that is,
using suitable pedagogy so that all students can learn all subjects and receive equal
educational outcomes. In relation to this, schools need to provide appropriate teaching and
learning materials and equipments, together with specialist teachers to implement proper

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 teaching and learning to all students. Other than proper pedagogy, we can also allocate
longer learning time for slow learners or students with special needs. As for examination,
exam time should be longer for them, so that they have enough time to answer exam
questions.

• Three other approaches can be used in teaching students with special needs: (1) remediate
students’ learning problems (for example, if a student could not write an essay, the teacher
can remediate him/her by using concept-mapping technique); (2) compensate for student
deficiencies (for example, if a student has eyesight problem, the teacher can ask him/her to
sit in the front row or provide vision aids); and (3) capitalize on what the student prefers to do
and do it well (for example, if the student likes music, the teacher can encourage him/her to
play piano; or if a student likes drawing, the teacher can encourage him/her to do drawings).

11.2 Tutorial Activities

• Read Table 10.2 (p 299) on “How teachers may treat high and low achievers differently”.
The table gives you 18 different treatments when dealing with low achievers/slow learners.
Try to understand these treatments. Which of these 18 treatments do you think are effective
or not effective for teaching low achievers? Give reasons for your answers. You may also
suggest other treatments for low achievers/slow learners.

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 TOPIC 12: EDUCATIONAL REFORMS AND SCHOOL IMPROVEMENTS

12.1 Educational Reforms and School Improvements

• Reform means “the amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, or unsatisfactory to a better

state”. Improve means “to bring to a more desirable or excellent condition”. Educational
reforms and school improvements mean “the amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, or
unsatisfactory in educational practices to a better state; and to bring to a more desirable or
excellent condition of the schools”. Hence, educational reforms and school improvements
deal with how we can change our education system and schools to a better education
system and better schools.

• During the twentieth century, education in USA was criticized by public, for example,
teachers were using mechanical teaching and learning methods, administrators were
incompetence, and parents were not interested in their children’s welfare (p. 116). As for the
condition of classrooms, particularly in city schools, it was criticized that classrooms were not
fit for human beings to breathe and teachers were badly treated. Schools were only
interested to educate bright children and ignoring the slow or average students. School
children were exploited as source of cheap labour during the rapid industrial growth in USA.

• These require educational reforms and school improvements. For example, the introduction
of laws on mandatory attendance of school protected the children by educating them and
keeping them away from being employed as cheap labour force, while at the same time
giving/securing more jobs for adults. At the same time also, there was a demand from the
industry to use scientific methods to make education more effective. They suggested that
education should produce specialists rather than generalists, so that after completing the
school, students can work in specific industries.

• As a result, many psychological testing were developed to measure students’ ability and
intelligence. The results of these tests were used to stream students to academic programs
or vocational and technical programs. The behavioural theories (reward & punishment) were
used in teaching and learning so as to make them more effective. Public libraries were built
to house thousands of books for teachers, students and public to use. Radio and television
were also used to supplement the education provided by the schools. However, other than
for teaching and learning, there were negative effects of television on students, that is, they
became more violent.

• Federal government had also influenced the educational reforms in USA, after Supreme
Court ruled that racial segregation in schools was unconstitutional. Schools become the
agencies for eradicating poverty and racial equality, that is, through education students will
get better jobs and income, regardless of the race or social class. Federal government had
provided financial assistance to school that served students from low-income families,
legislation that guaranteed racial and sexual equality, provisions for students with disabilities,
bilingual-bicultural programs, and career education.

• Another example of educational reform and improvement was the Elementary and
Secondary School Act (ESEA) 1965 which gave the power to federal government to set
certain policies for elementary and secondary schools. The Act had provided funds and
support for poverty programs, school libraries, textbooks, other instructional materials,
counselling and health services, remedial instruction, research centres and laboratories for
advance educational practice (p. 120). Later on, at local level, educational reforms and
improvements were discussed to cater for district or local needs.

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12.2 Multicultural Education

• Multicultural education can be defined as “an approach of educating students to understand

and accept the cultural diversity of a country, and still can participate in the mainstream
culture of the country”. Multicultural education is another example of educational reforms
and school improvements. The multicultural education emphasizes on values and cultures of
different groups of people in a particular country. The main aim of multicultural education is
for students to appreciate values and cultures of groups of people based on, for example,
gender, class, ethnic or religion. This aim can be achieved through multicultural teaching.
There are five approaches to multicultural teaching.

• (1) Teaching the exceptional and culturally different approach is teaching students with
different backgrounds, such as students of a particular race, low-income students or special
education students, for the purpose of assimilating them into mainstream values and
cultures. Children are taught mainstream/common knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are
needed for successful life in USA, which may be different from their own values and cultures.
This will create conflicting values for the students in relation to their own values.

• (2) Human relations approach is teaching students with different backgrounds to understand
and accept each other on personal level. They are taught conflict mediation, which will help
students to solve daily conflicts that arise, due to the differences in their backgrounds. One
example of mediation program is “Teaching to Be Peacemakers”, which prepare students to
apply negotiation and mediation procedures whenever a conflict arises. When students are
trained to be their own peacemakers, student discipline problems decrease by 60%.

• (3) Single-group studies approach is teaching students with different backgrounds to

understand values and cultures of a particular group of people. The main purpose is for the
students to appreciate group values and cultures by studying the group values and cultures.
For example, students can participate in activities that feature the food, dress, and custom of
foreign countries. The major drawback of single-group studies is that students tend to accept
diversity of values and cultures more than unity.

• (4) Multicultural approach is teaching students with different backgrounds to understand

diversity of values and cultures. The major purpose of multicultural approach is for students
to appreciate other values and cultures, and mostly use the contents of the single-group
studies. One example of using multicultural approach in teaching is teaching algebra to
African American students while listening to African drum-beats.

• (5) Social reconstruction approach is teaching students with different backgrounds to

understand social inequality and equality. Teachers will use students’ life experiences in
discussing social inequalities, such as classism, racism; either from students’ own
experiences or materials from textbooks or newspapers. Students are asked to think of ways
that might solve problems related to social inequalities, to achieve social justice for all.

12.3 Tutorial Activities

• Read Figure 3.3 (p 70) on “Bank’s Approaches to Multicultural Curricular Reform”. Briefly
explain these approaches in your own words.

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 TOPIC 13: CURRENT ISSUES AND TRENDS IN EDUCATION

13.1 THE CURRENT ISSUES IN EDUCATION

• Public education system. Issues in education can be defined as “certain aspects

of education that are worrying people”. For example, people are worried about
public education system. Critics are worried that students are not getting the
knowledge and skills that they needed, that teachers are not fully trained before
entering the classroom, and that a big gap is forming between rich and poor
schools (p 363). It means that students are not getting the knowledge and skills
that they need for their daily life, teachers are not well trained, and there are
differences in teaching and learning activities in the poor and rich schools. Do we
have similar scenarios in Malaysia?

• Control of curriculum in public schools. Educators and other citizens find

difficulties in controlling curriculum in public schools. Government policy makers,
parents, educators, and citizens want to decide on what is to be taught and
learned in schools. Public demands changes in the curriculum, methods of
teaching and learning, and process of assessment. The demand for changes
called for teachers to change their practices. Department of Education demanded
that by 2002-2003 all new teachers must be highly qualified, that means they
must be licensed/certified and teaching only in the subject-matter (content) areas
for which they are certified.

• The use of technology in teaching and learning. The use of technologies,

particularly the ICT, in teaching and learning, varies from school to school. For
example, poor schools have less ICT facilities compared to rich schools. Another
issue related to the use of ICT in teaching and learning is teacher knowledge and
skills in using ICT. Teachers need to be trained on how to use the latest ICT
hardware and software for teaching and learning, since the development in ICT is
very rapid. Schools also need a lot of financial support to maintain the hardware
and to purchase new PCs and software.

• Teaching of Mathematics and Science. Trends in International Mathematics and

Science Study in 1995 and 1999 had indicated that the mathematics and science
achievement of US students were lower compared to Asian or European
students. It was argued that the low achievement was due to the focus of
mathematics and science teaching was on drill-and-practice, rather than
understanding the concepts, principles and applications, as being practice by
other countries, which also using project-based and solving-real-problem
approach in teaching mathematics and science. In term of curricula, it was found
that the contents the US students studied in grade eight were given to students in
grade five of other countries.

• Testing and Standard Achievement. American students were also found not often
given tests and examinations while they were in schools. This could contribute to
their low achievement in mathematics and science compared to Asian or
European students. As a result, a ruling was introduced such that schools in all
states must give annual tests to all students in grades three to eight in reading
and mathematics. Schools also must document student achievement in report
cards and also the School District must produce report cards for every school.
Other than that, schools also must make sure students attain certain level of
proficiency. Weaker students should be given personal tutorial to make sure they
achieve at the highest potential.

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• Understanding Global Interdependence. The September 11, 2001 events had
changed the American thinking about relationships to other people in the world.
Other than this, the effects of national activities, such as economics,
communications, and politics, had made the American thought that they were
also just a part of the global community, with the term such as global village
becoming a model. The process of understanding these relationships now
becomes the major issue and focus in American education. American education,
through Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, had tried to
make comparison of educational achievement within USA and with other
countries in the world, and at the same time tried to understand education system
of these countries.

13.2 TRENDS IN EDUCATION

• Trends towards common educational expectations. Implementing common

educational expectations for all schools, teachers and students is one way to
solve the issue of students are not getting the knowledge and skills that they
need, teachers are not fully trained, and differences between rich and poor
schools. Teachers need common curricula as guide for their teaching, and
schools should have common mechanism to measure school effectiveness.
States must make sure all students reach certain level of achievement in the
examinations.

• Trends towards comprehensive curriculum and assessment. The pressure from

public on educational standards had motivated the curriculum and assessment
reforms. The trend is to integrate the contents with characteristics of students,
teaching methods, and relevant thinking skills to the contents, so that schools can
have comprehensive curricula. As for assessment, the trend is to have more
comprehensive assessment, not just depending on examination results, but more
on project-based assessment.

• Trends towards the application of technologies in teaching and learning. The

application of technologies, particularly those related to ICT, needs substantial
investment in the hardware, software and teacher training. Allocations of fund
must be made to schools, to enable them to purchase the equipments and
software. Teachers are now being trained and retrained on how to apply
technologies in teaching and learning. All these trends can be regarded as
educational reforms, and teacher professionalism will change accordingly.

• Trends towards education for diversity. Schools were asked to make sure all
students get similar educational outcomes. However, students are different for
example some are motivated to learn, while others are not. If they are to have
similar outcomes, they need different types of support. These include developing
different curricula and instruction for students with different cultures and
subcultures, and for students with special learning needs. A new trend to cater
education to students with different needs is teaching them in inclusive
classrooms. One example is to teach special-needs students in the same class
as normal students, rather them in putting them together in special classes.
However some argue on the problems of suitability of curricular and instruction
for special-needs students (p. 368).

• Trends towards character education. Character education is teaching students

about values with the hope to shape students’ character. Schools were pressured

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 to add character education in addition to the normal knowledge and skill curricula.
Three approaches were suggested for character education: views, virtues, and
values. The views approach will encourage students to state their views on
certain controversial issues related to, for example, politics or religion. The virtues
approach will help students to develop good habits and virtues to become
responsible adults. The values approach (most popular in schools) will help
students to know the values that are desirable to people. The six core values are
trustworthiness, respects, responsibility, fairness, caring, and citizenship.

13.3 TUTORIAL ACTIVITIES

• Read on “How are links to technology changing the foundations of education” (pp
371-75). Briefly explain how technology had changed the foundations of
education.

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