An advocate of natural rights continues his/her presentation[1] …
The last posting introduced the teacher as the next commonplace of
curriculum development. For those just
beginning to read this series of postings over the commonplaces, they are the
brainchild of Joseph Schwab; his theorizing focuses on the factors that affect
the way curricula are designed and implemented.[2] More specifically, this posting, as opposed
to what the last one indicated, addresses only teacher effectiveness and the
next posting will report on teachers’ command of civics, the subject matter.
Teacher Effectiveness
Jere Brophy, some years ago, reviewed the
research on this factor of effectiveness among teachers up until 1988.[3] He states that, according to that research,
effective teachers tend to be those who have a goal-directed approach and a
businesslike, task-oriented personality.
These teachers do not waste time in class on non-academic activities but
stay on task expecting their students to meet their goals.
Class periods are well planned, and students
are clearly told what is expected of them.
Students’ progressions are closely monitored and problems such as
behavioral ones are quickly identified and handled. There are brisk paces to their class
procedures, and presentations are conducted in smooth manners avoiding choppy
transitions.
Students receive timely feedbacks on their
evaluated works and content sets of material are organized into small
increments so that successes are more likely.
These teachers rely mostly on direct instruction (usually didactic
style). They maintain enthusiastic
manners and utilize content presentations that are structured in such ways as
“integrated wholes.”
That leads students to grasp the material more
easily. Brophy adds that these teachers
have students do challenging but not overly difficult activities, so that the
students can more likely achieve successes.
And they also prepare students with appropriate framing or previewing of
homework assignments so as to increase the likelihood that those efforts meet
their planned purposes.
A respected online service, University of the
People, identifies eight functions that social studies in general – and civics
in particular – serve. This review of
the commonplaces addresses the function of civics as a subject matter earlier,
but here, by extension, one can apply those functions to that subject’s
teachers.
And in that pursuit, UOP offers eight
functions: better reading and learning,
citizen responsibilities and values, cultural understanding, economic
education, critical thinking (especially in line with Robert Gagne’s approach
to essentialist teaching),[4]
real-world understanding, political skills, and respect for history.[5]
In line with the effort here, and while this
account focuses on secondary schooling, readers can derive useful information
from elementary education literature.
One such case is what G. R. McKenzie[6]
offers. He applies these arguments from
his study of elementary education to social studies. His research further supports how social
studies is a basic, fundamental source for much of the core information
students need to know in order to perform in a typical curriculum.
That is, social studies information helps
individuals make sense of the complex realities of the world, from local
settings to the global stage. Such
knowledge is even necessary to acquire “basic skills” of reading, writing, and
arithmetic. McKenzie warns against the
use of high-level questioning, stating that teacher effectiveness research does
not support this practice because students do not have adequate knowledge to
respond in a useful manner. Of course,
with secondary students, more sophisticated questioning can be expected.
McKenzie tends to support a systemic approach
of curricular development. He
hypothesizes that problem solving skills are better taught with a systems
approach than with a direct problem-solving approach and calls for more
research into the question.
Daniel T. Willingham addresses this directly.
It's true that knowledge gives students something to think
about, but a reading of the research literature from cognitive science shows
that knowledge does much more than just help students hone their thinking
skills: It actually makes learning easier. Knowledge is not only cumulative, it
grows exponentially. Those with a rich base of factual knowledge find it easier
to learn more — the rich get richer. In addition, factual knowledge enhances
cognitive processes like problem solving and reasoning. The richer the
knowledge base, the more smoothly and effectively these cognitive processes —
the very ones that teachers target — operate. So, the more knowledge students
accumulate, the smarter they become.[7]
For some time, teacher effectiveness research has provided support for
direct instruction, i.e., an essentialist approach to the teaching of social
studies. It is conducive to the content
suggested by the natural rights construct and its reliance on political
systems.
Teachers who incorporate
the pedagogic method outlined by the teacher effectiveness approach have at
their disposal a theoretical foundation that has a holistic model of governance
and politics, that being the political systems model (with the supplemental
addition of the structural-functional model).
Once applied, an explanatory basis for that reality emerges and the
essential facts and principles of American government become exposed, making
cognitive acquisition by secondary students possible.
Of course, this presupposes that teachers are
sufficiently sophisticated in their knowledge of the discipline of political
science and, to some degree, the other social sciences. Teachers, one can assume, cannot know too
much when it comes to the subject they teach.
The next topic of this review is teacher knowledge.
[1] This
presentation continues with this posting. The reader is informed
that the claims made in this posting do not necessarily reflect the beliefs or
knowledge of this blogger. Instead, the posting is a representation
of what an advocate of the natural rights view might present. This
is done to present a dialectic position of that construct. This series of postings begins with “Judging
Natural Rights View, I,” August 2, 2022.
[2]
Joseph Schwab presents his conception of the
commonplaces of curriculum development – they are subject matter, students, teachers, and milieu. See William
H. Schubert, Curriculum: Perspective,
Paradigm, and Possibility (New York, NY:
MacMillan Publishing Company, 1986).
[3] Jere Brophy, “Research on Teacher Effects: Uses and Abuses,” The Elementary School
Journal, 89, 1 (September 1988), 3-21.
[4] B. Janse, “Gagne’s Conditions of Learning,” Toolshero
(2019), accessed September 15, 2022, https://www.toolshero.com/personal-development/gagnes-conditions-of-learning/.
[5] “Why Is Social Studies Important? 8 Reasons to Study,” University of the People
(n.d.), accessed October 9, 2022, https://www.uopeople.edu/blog/why-is-social-studies-important/.
[6] G. R. McKenzie, “Learning and Instruction,” in Elementary
School Social Studies: Research as a Guide
to Practice (Bulletin No. 79), edited by Virginia A. Atwood (Washington,
DC: National Council of the Social
Studies, 1986), 119-136.
[7] Daniel T. Willingham, “How Knowledge Helps,” Reading
Rockets (associated with WETA), (n.d.), accessed October 9, 2022, https://www.readingrockets.org/article/how-knowledge-helps.
