EDCI 658 – History of Education
Spring 2007
Instructor: Lynn M. Burlbaw
Office: Harrington Tower 330
Office Hours: Th 2:00 to 4:00 pm, and by appointment
Phone: 979-845-6195
Email: personal web site coe.tamu.edu/~burlbaw
Course web site: http://www.coe.tamu.edu/~lburlbaw/edci658/edci65807ahome.htm
Co-Instructor: Hanna Muldowney
Email:
Course Listserv: Much of the communication in this course will be conducted using a listserv. The address of the listserv is . To send a message to everyone in this course, use the above address in the place of anyone’s name.
Description of Course: The genesis of formal education in the Western world beginning with the ancient Greeks and working though the Enlightenment; tracing the idea that schooling is a fundamental part of human existence and therefore crucial to all questions concerning the human condition. (Texas A&M University Graduate Catalog 2006-2007, 315).
In addition to these course goals, the course contains readings and activities which expand the students’ understanding of education in the current global society and how this relates to education in the United States.
Required Textbooks available at Campus Bookstore and on-line
Gutek, Gerald L. A History of the Western Educational Experience, 2nd ed. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, 1995. ISBN 0-88133-818-4
Mazurek, Kas and Margret A. Winzer, Schooling Around the World, Boston: Pearson Allyn Bacon, 2006. ISBN 0-205-45459-3
Class Attendance: Class, in College Station, will meet each Thursday night at 5:45 in Harrington Tower, Room 636. Class will run until 8:35, Central Time. There will be a 10 minute break around the middle of each class session. Students are expected to attend each class session and come prepared for class by completing the required readings and/or assignments.
I understand that, as professionals, you may have obligations that require you to miss a class. If you must miss a class meeting, please let me know prior to the session and make arrangements to complete the assignment(s) due that meeting date. Failure to do this may result in no credit being given for an assignment or activity.
Assignments: Four types of assignments will be completed in this course(descriptions follow):
First type: Web-based responses to class readings in the Gutek book
Second type: Discussion lead/support in class based on class readings in the Gutek book
Third type: Summaries of chapters/sections in the Mazurek book
Fourth type: Biography of a school building and presentation based on biography.
Grading and Work Completion
Students are expected to complete assignments by the date indicated in the Assignment Calendar.
All assignments will be graded and points awarded for work completed. Late assignments will be assessed a penalty of 10%.
Grades will be assigned as follows:
Grade of “A” will be assigned for accumulating between 94% and 100% of total points
Grade of “B” will be assigned for accumulating between 86% and 93.9% of total points
Grade of “C” will be assigned for accumulating between 75% and 85.9% of total points
In incomplete will be given only upon written request and then only if the request meets the requirements listed in the Student Rules under Section 10: Grading. http://student-rules.tamu.edu/rule10.htm
Course Evaluation – the evaluation of a course is one of the measures used to assess quality, strengths and need for improvement. Each student who completes the course evaluation will receive an additional 50 points on their accumulated points for the semester.
Assignments and Values
Assignments / Number / Value / TotalWeekly Web Assignment for Gutek Book / 11 / 50 / 550
Mazurek Section Summaries / 5 / 50 / 250
School Biography
Paper
Presentation (w/ Ppt) / 1
1 / 100
50 / 150
Class Discussion / 1 / 150 / 150
Total Available Points for Course / 1100
End of Course Evaluation / 1 / 50 / 50
Total Available Points for Course with evaluation bonus / 1100
Course Calendar
Below is a calendar showing the dates various assignments will be due. Following the calendar is a description of the various assignments. The Gutek Book column refers to the reading that is due for that week. A calendar of presentation dates will be distributed at the second class meeting after everyone has chosen which personage they wish to make a presentation on.
Date / Assignments from the below listed books are due on the following datesGutek Book / Mazurek Book
Jan 18 / Introduction to Course, Syllabus, Books
Jan 25 / Historiography Readings from course Website, Chap 1 / Intro and Chap 1
Feb1 / Chapters 2 – 4 / Preliminary Identification of School
Feb 8 / Chapters 5 – 7
Feb 15 / Chapters 8 – 9 / Section II
Feb 22 / Chapters 10 - 11
Mar 1 / Guest Speaker – Dr. Sherry Field on Writing for Publication
Mar 8 / Chapters 12 – 13 / Section III
Mar 15 / Spring Break, No Class
Mar 22 / Chapter 15
Mar 29 / Chapters 17 and 19 / Section IV
Apr 5 / School Biographies
Apr 12 / School Biographies / Section V
Apr 19 / Chapter 21
Apr 26 / Chapter 22 / Section VI
May 3 / Chapter 23
Chapters 18 and 20 should be included as content for writing your analysis of the chapters on Russia and France from the Mazurek book.
Assignments for the Gutek Book
Web-based Responses: For the designated class meeting, you should complete, no later than noon on the Monday before the class meeting, the web-based assignment for the chapter(s) from the Gutek book listed for that day.
The web-based responses will ask you to write briefly about what you found especially interesting, informative, or provocative in the chapter read. It will also ask you to, after having read the chapter, to identify at least one thing that you would like to know more about as a result of having read the chapter. A web form will be used for each night’s readings, not for each chapter submission – this means that for Feb 1st, you will have one form to complete which covers all three chapters.
This assignment DOES NOT ask you to outline the chapter!
To complete these assignments, log onto the course web site, click on link titles Assignments and then click on the appropriate chapter hotlink. This will take you to a web form to complete the assignment. Failure to use this form will result in no credit being given for an assignment. You may also Control/Click here to go to the assignment page.
Chapter discussion – you will also, as a member of a two person team, leading a discussion the chapters read and scheduled to be discussed on an evening. The purpose of the discussion will be to internalize/synthesize the information in the chapter(s) and explain the significance of the content – DO NOT make a presentation over the content of the chapter as if the class had not read the chapter. My expectation is that you will include information not found in the textbook as part of the content of your discussion.
In addressing ideas in a chapter, a team may choose to spend part of the class time in an activity that will help the class understand the ideas of the chapters.
When you are planning your discussion, you may allocate about 15 minutes per number of chapters in your assigned group. These discussions should be a synthesis of ideas and should combine information from chapters. For example, on February 1st, the chapters to be discussed are Greek Education (Chap 2), Greek Education Theory (Chap 3), and Roman Education (Chap 4). The ideas from these three chapters will be presented as a single presentation that includes both personages and a comparison and contrasting of the ideas. On February 1st, the class can expect to spend 45 minutes in a discussion/activity on these three chapters.
Each discussion will be guided by a power point which will conform to the guidelines provided – guidelines are on the last page of this syllabus and will also be available, as will a model, on the class web site. Control/Click here to see the guidelines (Power Point Guidelines). Power points will be submitted to Dr. Burlbaw no later than 5:00 pm on the Wednesday before the discussion is to be held – power points which do not meet the criteria for use will be returned for revision – if you do not hear back from Dr. Burlbaw, you may assume that the ppt meets the criteria for use.
Chapter and team assignments will be made before the second class meeting.
Assignments for Mazurek Book
Very few American students in education have taken a course in the History of Education, either the classical Western Education or American Education. All have graduated, or at least most, excluding the home schooled, from a school that has its organizational roots in the Western tradition and therefore have some understanding of schools and their organization. But how schools got this way and what influences the past has on schools is seldom a topic of conversation.
Fewer still have taken a course or been exposed to education in countries other than the United States. I was a history major in school and never, in the 72 undergraduate hours I took, did the role of education in a society take more than a few pages of any course textbook.
To make some small step toward remedying the lack of knowledge most students have about global educational systems, I have chosen to use this book. The book is not perfect; the book has bias (both in selection and in the authoring); the book is incomplete – but it is the broadest book I know of that is currently in print. Therefore, we are reading this book.
For Sections II through VI of the Mazurek book, you will write a 2-4 page report focusing on similarities and differences you found for the countries in that section. The due dates are those listed on the calendar under the column Mazurek Book. You will submit this paper electronically by email to me by noon on the due date.
I do not expect you to submit a paper that summarizes each country in a section – I expect you to write about ideas common across the countries. Ideas rather than countries should be the organizers for these papers.
Your papers should be clearly organized, properly documented, and conform to the generally accepted standards of grammar and spelling. You will be graded on all of these in addition to your ability to draw ideas together from the various chapters. You may include information other than from the Mazurek book if you would like to in each section paper but that is not a requirement of the paper. You should use proper referencing formats in the paper.
To assist you in collecting information for each of the chapters, I will provide you with a data collection sheet in electronic format. The form is a Word document and you can type in the cells which will expand as you type. The form will be linked from the course web page and will also be sent to you electronically over the listserv. The use of this form is optional and you do not need to submit it with your paper.
Building Biography Project
The public schools are perhaps the most familiar but least understood institution in our society. Most Americans spend over 12 years attending public schools and later, as adults, confront a wide array of school-related issues.
(Tozer, Violas, and Senese, 2002, 4)
History is not disembodied. The past is implicit in the present, in each of us, and in the places we inhabit. Archibald (1999, 9)
Public schools are ubiquitous in people’s lives. As the Tozer, Violas, and Senese state above, everyone has experience with schools. Because schools are such a common part of the milieu of life, many drive or walk past or in the buildings and fail to attend to changes in schools. In an attempt to bring to people’s attention and encourage explorations of classrooms, Ian Grosvenor, along with Kate Rousmaniere and Martin Lawn edited Silences and Images: The Social History of the Classroom wherein authors such as the editors explored various ways of looking at classrooms; different lenses, different techniques, for different purposes.
In an attempt to open the eyes of students in this course, a school building biography will be completed. The final products will be a paper supplemented by a power point for presentation to the class. An example of the project will be provided.
Here are the criteria for the assignment
Identify a building, in a school district, that is at least 50 years old
Building may or may not be currently in use, but must have been used for instructional purposes at some time during its life. The building may not even exist in physical form now.
Prepare a written biography consisting of images and at least 10 pages of text
Use proper citations for all materials – check with APA or Chicago Manual of Style for format
Submit prepared materials on April 5, 2007
Collect data about the school building (here are some types of sources and data you might use for your school building biography):
Building date
Renovation date(s) if any
Closing date (if appropriate)
Construction materials description
Blue prints of the building (if available - otherwise measure and draw a footprint of the building) blueprints may be photographed and photograph(s) included.
Photographs of the building - both contemporary and historic
Types of uses with years of those occupations (grade levels, number of students, etc)
Photographs/documents related to the building - could be interior, exterior, groups of students, etc.