Basic Theories of Learning and Education

Unit I: Basic Theories of Learning and EducationIssue 1: Can psychological science improve the quality of education?YES: Edward L. Thorndike, from“The contribution of psychology to education,”The Journal of Educational Psychology (vol. 1, no. 1, January 1910).NO:John Dewey, from “Education as engineering,” New Republic (September 1922).Edward Thorndike argues that psychology forms the basis of educational practice and the knowledge generated by the discipline will promote better practices. John Dewey argues that while psychological science may be good at improving what exists and measuring educational outcomes, it is limited in making educational progress.  Issue 2: Should students be free? YES: Carl Rogers,selections from“Freedom to Learn: A View of What Education Might Become,”(Charles Merill, 1969).NO: B. F. Skinner, selections from Beyond freedom and dignity (Hackett Publishing Co.: Indianapolis, 1971). Founder of humanistic psychology, Carl Rogers argues that students learn best when they are allowed to be autonomous and can exercise choice. Founder of behaviorism, B.F. Skinner argues that any notion of personal freedom is an illusion. Issue 3: Are constructivist teaching methods superior to traditional methods of teaching?YES: Sam Hausfatherfrom "Content and process in constructivist teacher education" in J. Rainer (Ed.) (2002), Reframing Teacher Education: Dimensions of a Constructivist Approach (pp. 63-80). Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt.NO: R.E. Clark, P.A. Kirschner, &J. Sweller, from “Putting Students on the Path to Learning: The Case for Fully Guided Instruction,” (2012).Sam Hausfatherargues that constructivism, which challenges the stability of content knowledge, improves teaching by focusing teaching students not only on content knowledge but also on the processes involved in producing it.Richard Clark and colleagues argue that ideal leaning environments differ between experts and novices and that constructivist pedagogy that fosters discovery is not ideal for novice learners. Issue 4: Should schools aim for students’ “happiness”?YES: NelNoddings, from “What does it mean to educate the whole child?” Educational Leadership (vol. 63, no. 1, September 2005).NO: Kenneth R. Stunkel, from “Quality in Liberal Education and Illusions of the Academy,” Liberal Education(vol. 85, no. 4, Fall 1999).NelNoddings argues that schoolsshould be “genuinely happy places” to remind us why we engage in academics and to address children as they are, “whole persons”. Kenneth Stunkel observes that the decline of liberal studies in college is fostered by an increasing number of academically unprepared students every year. Unit II: Basic Educational Issues Issue 5: Are international comparisons helpful? YES: OECD from “Learning from high performing educational systems” In Lessons from PISA for the United States, OECD Publishing, Paris (p. 231-233).NO: Anna Dall, from "Is PISA counter-productive to building successful educational systems?" Social Alternatives (vol. 30, no 4, 2011).The OECD argues that if a country is committed to children and their education, the real test of their commitment is how they fare in international comparisons. Anna Dall argues that the PISA model is problematic and is counterproductive to building a successful educational system. Issue 6: Do Recent Discoveries About the Brain Have Implications for Classroom Practice? YES: Judy Willis, from “Building a Bridge from Neuroscience to the Classroom,” Phi Delta Kappan (February 2008)NO: Dan Willingham, from “When and How Neuroscience Applies to Education,” Phi Delta Kappan (February 2008)Judy Willis argues that current research on brain function does inform educational practice and she provides some examples from recent brain science findings. Dan Willingham argues that not every finding about how the brain works can or should lead to an accommodation of educational practice.  Issue 7: Can Schools Close the Achievement Gap between Students from Different Ethnic and Racial Backgrounds?YES: Carol Corbett Burris and Kevin G. Welner, from “Closing the Achievement Gap by Detracking,” Phi Delta Kappan (April 2005)NO: William H. Schmidt, Leland S. Cogan, and Curtis C. McKnight, from “Equality of Educational Opportunity: Myth or Reality in U.S. Schooling?” American Educator (Winter 2010–2011)Carol Burris and Kevin Welner argue that the achievement gap between whites and African American and Latino students can be closed by “detracking” and having similarly high expectations and similar curricular demands on all students. William Schmidt and colleagues argue that minority students are exposed to pervasive and persistent inequalities that makeschool-based reforms unrealistic. UNIT III: Best Practices Issue 8: Does Grading Help Students Learn?YES: Kyle Spencer, from “Standards-Based Grading” The Education Digest (vol. 78, September/October 2012)NO: Alfie Kohn, from “The Case Against Grades” Educational Leadership (November 2011)Kyle Spencer argues that grades provide useful information if they are linked to standards, or targeted competences to be acquired. Alfie Kohn argues that grades interfere with learning because they subvert one’s enjoyment of learning and lead the student to work for grades instead.  Issue 9: Is Full Inclusion Always the Best Option for Children with Disabilities?YES: Michael F. Giangreco, from “Extending Inclusive Opportunities,” Educational Leadership (February 2007)NO: James M. Kauffman, Kathleen McGee, and Michele Brigham, from “Enabling or Disabling? Observation on Changes in Special Education,” Phi Delta Kappan (April 2004)Michael F. Giangreco argues that even students with severe disabilities are best served within the “regular” education classroom along with their typically developing peers. James M. Kauffman and colleagues argue that the goal of education for students with disabilities should be to increase their level of competence and independence.  Issue 10: Are Single-Gender Classes Necessary to Create Equal Opportunities for Boys and Girls?YES: Frances R. Spielhagen, from “How Tweens View Single-Sex Classes,” Educational Leadership (April 2006)NO: Kelley King and Michael Gurian, from “Teaching to the Minds of Boys,” Educational Leadership (September 2006)Frances Spielhagen argues that single-gender classes are viewed as more conducive to learning than are coeducational classes by students, especially younger students. Kelley King and Michael Gurian argue that coeducational classrooms can be made to be more accommodating to the learning profiles of both boys and girls. Issue 11: Does homework improve student achievement?YES: SwantjeDettmers, UlrichTrautwein, OliverLüdtke, MareikeKunter,&Jürgen Baumert, from “Homework works if homework quality is high: Using multilevel modeling to predict the development of achievement in mathematics,”Journal of Educational Psychology (vol. 102, 2010).NO: Harris Cooper, James J. Lindsay, Barbara Nye, & ScottGreathouse, from “Relationships among attitudes about homework, amount of homework assigned and completed, and student achievement. Journal of Educational Psychology, (vol. 90, no. 1, March 1998). SwantjeDettmers and colleagues demonstrated that high homework quality fosters motivation to do homework, which in turn leads to higher achievement over time.Harris Cooper and colleagues conducted a study and found that the amount of homework assigned was associated with negative student attitudes weakly related to student grades. Issue 12: Is parental involvement in education critical for student achievement?YES: Nancy E. Hill, &Diana F. Tyson, from “Parental involvement in middle school: A meta-analytic assessment of the strategies that promote achievement,”Developmental Psychology, (vol. 45, no. 3, May 2009).NO: Cecilia S.-S. Cheung&Eva M.Pomerantz, from “Value development underlies the benefits of parents’ involvement in children’s learning: A longitudinal investigation in the United States and China,” Journal of Educational Psychology, (vol. 107, no. 1, February 2015). Nancy Hill and Diana Tyson conducted a meta-analysis and found a positive and significant association for most types of parental involvement. Cecilia Cheung and Eva Pomerantz demonstrated that the association between parental involvement and students’ academic achievement could be explained by the parent-child transmission of values placed on academics. Issue 13: Should we be “tiger” parents?Yes: Ruth K. Chao &ChristineAque, from “Interpretations of parental control by Asian immigrant and European American youth,” Journal of Family Psychology, (vol. 23, no. 3, June 2009).No:Su Yeong Kim, Yijie Wang, Diana Orozco-Lapray, Yishan Shen, and Mohammed Murtuza, from“Does “tiger parenting” exist? Parenting profiles of Chinese Americans and adolescent developmental outcomes,” Asian American Journal of Psychology (vol. 4, no. 1, March 2013). Ruth Chao and Christine Aqueargue that parental control can be viewed as virtue, especially in Asian influenced cultures. Su Yeong Kim and colleagues found that tiger parenting was not commonperhaps because it was associated with lower grades. Unit IV: Educational InterventionsIssue 14: Should schools use cash incentives to promote educational goals?YES: W. David Pierce, Judy Cameron, Katherine M. Banko, & Sylvia So, from “Positive effects of rewards and performance standards on intrinsic motivation,” Psychological Record (vol. 53, no. 4, Fall 2003).NO: Roy F. Baumeister, from “Choking under pressure: Self-consciousness and paradoxical effects of incentives on skillful performance,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (vol. 46, no. 3, March 1984).W. D. Pierce and colleagues demonstrated that cash rewards can promote intrinsic motivation. However, a classic series of experiments conducted by Roy Baumeisterunderscores how situations that demand performance, including the use of cash incentives, causes the individual to “choke” – or fail – due to increased self-consciousness.Issue 15: Is there anything good about Abstinence-Only Sex Education?YES: Elaine A. Borawski, E. S. Trapl, L. D. Lovegreen, N. Colabianchi, &T. Block, from “Effectiveness of Abstinence-only Intervention in Middle School Teens,” American Journal of Health Behavior (vol. 29, no. 5, Sep/Oct 2005) NO: Kathrin F. Stanger-Hall &David W. Hall, from “Abstinence-only education and teen pregnancy rates: Why we need comprehensive sex education in the US,” PLoS One (vol. 6, no. 10, October 2011). Elain Borawski and colleagues demonstrated that an abstinence-until-marriage curriculum can positively influence abstinence as well as reduce the frequency of sex among sexually experienced youths. Kathrin Stanger-Hall and David Hall argue that as a matter of policy, an abstinence-only curriculum is ineffective in reducing teen sex. Issue 16: Does reducingclass size improve student achievement?YES:Jeremy D. Finn, Susan B. Gerber, & Jayne Boyd-Zaharias, from “Small classes in the early grades, academic achievement, and graduating from high school,” Journal of Educational Psychology (vol. 97, no. 2, May 2005).<s></s>NO: Eric A. Hanushek from “The Tennessee class size experiment” pages p. 55 to 58 from Chapter 2: Evidence, politics, and the class size debate, in The Class Size Debate, Economic Policy Institute, (2002). Jeremy Finn and colleagues reported that high school completion was related to attending small classes for 3 or more years (K - 3) in Project STAR. Eric Hanushek questions the reliability and magnitude of the findings from an economic perspective. Issue 17: Are school-wide antibullying programs effective?YES: AnntiKärnä, Todd D. Little, MarinusVoeten, ElisaPoskiparta, ErkkiAlanen&ChristinaSalmivalli, from “Going to scale: A nonrandomized nationwide trial of the KiVaantibullying program for grades 1-9,” Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology(vol. 79, no. 6, 2011) NO: Sabina Low &Mark Van Ryzin, from “The moderating effects of school climate on bullying prevention efforts,” School Psychology Quarterly(vol. 29, no. 3, September 2014)  AnntiKärnä, with support from a team of experts and colleagues, reported upon the positive effects of a nationwide school-based antibullying program in Finland. Sabina Low and Mark Van Ryzin, propose and provide evidence that a positive psychosocial school climate plays a foundational role in the effective prevention of bullying. Issue 18: Are charter schools advancing educational reforms?YES: RAND Educationfrom“Are Charter Schools Making a Difference? A Study of Student Outcomes in Eight States,”RAND Corporation(2009). NO: Martin Carnoy, Rebecca Jacobsen, Lawrence Mischel, & Richard Rothstein from “Worth the price? Weighing evidence on charter school achievement,” Education (vol. 1, no. 1, 2006). RAND researchers argue that charter schools can make a difference on traditional and non-traditional indicators of success. Martin Carnoy questions whether any gains observed by charter schools is worth the price of closing down traditional public schools.