Wednesday 1 September 2010

Progressive education

For most of recorded history, the formal education of children entailed an adult teaching a body of knowledge or skills to those a good deal younger than himself. Perhaps the earliest reference we have to schooling of this kind comes from a clay tablet unearthed in Nippur, in Iraq. Dating from around 1700 BC, it says;

The man in charge of Sumerian said: 'Why didn't you speak Sumerian?' He caned me. The teacher said: 'Your handwriting is unsatisfactory.' He caned me. I began to hate learning...

Sounds a lot like my own school days!

There were experiments with other methods of education, especially from the late eighteenth century onwards and including places like Summerhill, but until the 1960s, most schools remained pretty much the same as they had been in Victorian times and before. Rows of children, sitting at desks, facing the front and being handed knowledge by the teacher in charge. No nonsense about the teacher as friend, guide or facilitator; this was the teacher as pedagogue. Those of us who were at school in the 1950s will remember classes of over forty primary school children being taught in this way; all sitting quietly at their desks, copying down what had been written on the blackboard.

The 1960s saw many changes in society. The legalising of homosexuality and abortion, the pill, abolition of censorship, increased freedom of young people and of course enormous changes in the way that schools were run. These changes were part of the revolution which was taking place generally in society at that time. The scrapping of the 11+, the introduction of new and informal methods to primary schools, these are the kind of things I am talking about as regards schools. The changes to primary schools were especially dramatic. Many schools chucked out the desks and arranged the classrooms with small groups sitting around tables. Everything became a lot less formal. Much of what was happening in schools at that time was known by the general term of 'progressive' education.

It is important to realise that the motivations which prompted these changes to the traditional classrooms and teaching methods were philosophical rather than empirical. I mean by this that it was not that objective observers studied what was happening in schools and concluded that the techniques used there were not working. Instead, it was noticed that schools were still being run in a very old fashioned and authoritarian way and this seemed to be increasingly at odds with the changes taking place in the rest of society. The feeling was that it would be nicer if children could stop being regimented and made to sit quietly in rows and if they, like others in sixties society, were allowed more freedom for self expression. Thus did 'progressive' education begin to take over British schools.

From this progressive educational movement grew many of the teaching methods which are common today in schools. Collaborative learning, discovery learning, enquiry-based learning; all these flourished as a result of the ideas which became popular in the 1960s. A lot of the child centred teaching methods used by home educators had their roots too in this period. As I said above, the adoption of all these techniques was not a result of any sort of educational research or evidence that the old, didactic methods had been found wanting. Rather, it was an ethical and philosophical decision because many people felt that it was wrong to boss children about so much and make them sit still while adults taught them. It is important to understand this distinction and not to muddle up the ethical basis for child centred educational methods with any supposed educational benefits. This is not to say that there are no such benefits, but if there are, then these are definitely by way of being a by-product of the whole business.

As I have pointed out recently, questions are now being asked in some quarters about the efficacy of progressive educational methods. Some evidence is emerging which suggests that these methods may not be as effective as straightforward, old-fashioned teaching. Anybody who has watched 'collaborative learning' in action in a classroom setting will readily understand these concerns. It is not uncommon in a primary school to see an entire morning wasted on letting a group of ten year olds find out which substances will float and which will sink in a tank of water. The huge amount of time wasted in some of these episodes puts British children at a great disadvantage educationally compared with the children in some other European countries where more traditional teaching is the norm.

In any debate about unschooling, child centred learning, natural learning, autonomous education, enquiry-based learning and other strands of the progressive education movement, it must always be borne in mind that the motivation behind these things has always been social and ethical, rather than educational. If progressive education were a great improvement in terms of education alone, then we would by now be reaping the fruits of it in a big way. That this does not seem to have happened is causing an increasing number of professionals in the field to start scratching their heads and asking what the educational benefits have been of this revolution.

34 comments:

  1. I think your view of 'progressive' education is simply inaccurate. In 1908 Edmond Holmes (former Chief Inspector of schools) was reporting schools using project-based education, I've already cited DH Lawrence's example of his teacher telling him to express himself (late 19thc.), and throughout the 20s and 30s there was a whole tranche of studies into the effectiveness of child-led learning. Montessori's methods were often used in primary education throughout this period.

    It's important, as always, to be clear about what one means by 'progressive' and 'traditional' methods. They are not uniform concepts.

    To be sure there were ideological elements to 'progressive education', but many of the studies into child-led learning came about because 'traditional' methods had been found to be counterproductive.

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  2. "The huge amount of time wasted in some of these episodes puts British children at a great disadvantage educationally compared with the children in some other European countries where more traditional teaching is the norm.
    "

    Which ones ? Cos if you want good old fashioned teaching then you are talking about Italy, Portugal, Spain and Greece. So is the teaching method the primary cause of any anybody’s success or are there other factors that come into play and limit or aid the methodology in terms of success ?

    What helps in something like the PISA tables is the extent to which schools do not let the least able fall behind well beyond any unchangeable limitations they might have, which is a fairly progressive strategy in its own right. See Finland for an example of placing an emphasis of inclusion and not letting kids fall by the wayside (just had a great meeting with a bunch of them, is startling the way the kids work together as a team that supports all its members, we stood there with our gobs catching flies, the coming together was unforced, unrequested, no whiff of the military and cheerful, I want to go there on a reciprocal visit and get inside the schools to do some fly on the wall so I’m hoping for a second stint as official interpreter.)

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programme_for_International_Student_Assessment#League_Tables

    So maybe how we teach isn't the sole factor that will impact outcomes. There have been huge social changes that have gone hand in hand with changes in education, what part do they play ? And it's sometimes hard to work out who is talking the talk in the staffroom, but not walking the walk (or walking in a very lopsided sort of way) in the classroom. Some people can take new ideas and stick to very limited cherry picking only certain aspects that suit them rather than the kids to fit in with their own trad comfort zone preferences, which can lead to the worst of both worlds.

    I'm with you on the lack of evidence. Drives me mad when people talk in absolute terms about a methodology when there is nothing to back up the claims other than the individual teachers current zeal.

    On the other hand I do have proof that my in my (local)field, using progressive teaching methods, gain far better results than the (local)state and private schools do using traditional approaches (which is why they bring people like me in, under the mistaken belief that my mere presence in the corridors is like a magic spell and then proceed to spread me so thinly that any impact I might have is frittered). There is a "correlation v causation" issue though cos large scale well set up studies are as common as the Dodo, but we do seem to be getting something right in the sense that the kids don't tend to regard English as "child torture" in the way they do at school, the same way I remember French being.

    sorry, is dead rushed and not well written, have an appointment with the verruca doc.

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  3. 'have an appointment with the verruca doc.'

    Yuk and double yuk! Way too much information.

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  4. LOL, Not my verruca, just the leg holder and person who risked a donkey kick to the head.

    Chief tear wiper too, which was horrible cos he isn't one for crying and he was awash by the end.

    Many apologies for the Hague moment.

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  5. Simon wrote,
    "The man in charge of Sumerian said: 'Why didn't you speak Sumerian?' He caned me. The teacher said: 'Your handwriting is unsatisfactory.' He caned me. I began to hate learning...

    In any debate about unschooling, child centred learning, natural learning, autonomous education, enquiry-based learning and other strands of the progressive education movement, it must always be borne in mind that the motivation behind these things has always been social and ethical, rather than educational."

    My motivation was both ethical and educational. I wanted my children to love learning, it seemed ethically wrong to do anything that damaged their inbuilt love of learning. It also seemed logical, and it was mine and my partner's personal experience, that a love of learning results in more in-depth and efficient learning than learning carried out grudgingly. For my children, I discovered the best way to achieve this was through autonomous education. Your mileage may vary, I'm sure it's not going to suit all families, etc, etc...

    BTW, you still haven't covered the issue of school based research transferring to the home. You said previously that you were going to address how research in schools and traditional methods transferred to parent-led structured education at home. Much of the research into the learning methods you seen to group under the progressive title seems to be have involved small groups, family settings or really involved, interested professionals with a particular interest in that method. This doesn't sound the sort of thing that would transfer well to mass schooling situations but may well find the equivalent input in the home.

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  6. "Rather, it was an ethical and philosophical decision"

    I think that is a fairly valid stance to take in itself though. The power one wields over particularly powerless people can be heady stuff for some who are attracted to the profession for the sake of having an outlet to exercise just that. Which can and does slide into an abusive and unhealthy situations. Please see young Japanese students, as recently as a couple of decades ago, dying with their heads crushed in the school gates that were deliberately closed despite the kid being in the crush zone to emphasize the point that tardiness will not be tolerated. There are issues relating to the “power” associated with trad that go beyond the question of educational attainment.

    Working in BKK I was in a school (private, ele to high, but not "sixth form") where some teachers got what looked like a rather perverted charge out of abusing and humiliating their students on the flimsiest of basis. To be honest I don’t care how many kids got great exam results. What I saw being done to some children was simply not worth the payout in educational terms. I’d rather have half the GCSEs and not have my kid emotionally or psychologically abused in that way. Not all motivation to study and apply yourself is created equal in terms.

    I have blogged two cases recently of school employees in Italy one stripping kids before humilitaing them before the rest of the class for a Wmisdemenour" and another stipping kids before enciting the other kids to beat the crap out of the kid who wouldn't behave.

    So I'm sort of defining Trad as an authoritarian, teacher led, punitive set up versus Progressive as being on the authoritative to permissive scale, more student centered, non punitive ideal.

    cont, too long

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  7. "but in the last decade or so the training has been adapted to alert trainees to the dangers of "over embracement" to the extent that they (through too superficial an understanding or through self interest in terms of jettisoning responsibility) see their role as redundant and fail to serve the students' needs."

    From what I've read I think this process is quite common:

    * research carried about by intellegent, involved professionals confirms a great new method works.

    * large numbers of less qualified and less invested/involved professionals are trained and the method rolled out into mass education situations

    * research in the field finds the method is not as good as previously thought, people start to believe it was always a crock.

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  8. Your posts are disappearing again Sarah! Hope you kept a copy.

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  9. "From what I've read I think this process is quite common:"

    Based on the extent to which human nature includes teachers too, I'd say you were right.

    It's not the less invested or the less involved though that are the issue, I created a paraody called ..Metholdology Maggie I think, who is very invested and very involved..but not for the right reasons. Jargon feels good on the tongue when you feel insecure and if you can get some "deciples" from taking a highly defined stance your promotion propects improve thanks to having a higher profile in the staffroom.

    ahh here she is, scroll down to Methodology Maggie, I've worked with numerous incarnations of her.

    http://homeschoolinitaly.blogspot.com/2010/03/slapheads-1.html

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  10. EDIT

    It's not ONLY the less invested or the less involved though that are the issue...

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  11. Now my quote from your post appears before the post! Great way to confuse future readers.

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  12. "Great way to confuse future readers.2

    It's crap isn't it ?

    No such a big issue on the mummy blog circuit since replies to replies aren't a big deal, but on a debate based blog...ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!

    I wouldn't mind but this appears to have been a "coming and going" issues for a year or so now.

    Wordpress is beginning to look attractive.

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  13. "Now my quote from your post appears before the post!"

    No it doesn't, post has gone again. Now it just looks like you are talking about posts that you immagined.

    I'll try again (deep sigh)

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  14. Link to my eaten post cos I give up trying to post it here, scroll down to the comments, ignore the post, didn't want to create new post so I went back to an old one and stole the comment space.

    http://homeschoolinitaly.blogspot.com/2009/04/impending-mushroom-cloud.html

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  15. "No it doesn't, post has gone again. Now it just looks like you are talking about posts that you immagined."

    I'm often accused of speaking to myself, so no change there then.

    Very strange link to this blog article at the end of your linked comment as you say. However, it does bring you straight to your comment here rather than the top of the page - something I've not seen before.

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  16. "However, it does bring you straight to your comment here rather than the top of the page - something I've not seen before."

    Hummm, so it is working like an anchor at a specific point on a page. I wonder if the orginal code allowed for later exansion to allow links to direct straight to a specific point on the page, got forgotten about and is now making later devolpments go all screwy.

    Is that possible compuer expert type people amoung us ?

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  17. "Hummm, so it is working like an anchor at a specific point on a page. I wonder if the orginal code allowed for later exansion to allow links to direct straight to a specific point on the page, got forgotten about and is now making later devolpments go all screwy."

    The link still takes me to the same place on this page despite later additions so yes, it is working like an html destination anchor. How did you create the link?

    If I right clicking on the date and time of the same post and copying the link location it produces this address:

    http://homeeducationheretic.blogspot.com/2010/09/progressive-education.html?showComment=1283429690665#c5539236603512245802

    Which achieves the same but is considerably shorter than the version on your blog. The number after showComment= in my link is the same on your link; the second part, from the # symbol onwards, appears at the end of your link. No idea what the stuff in between is though.

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  18. Webb says on dare to know blog-Webb says-It is the child who has the right; the right to a suitable and efficient education.
    now answer the question below Webb!

    does this include a right to home education Webb? or only for a state school education?

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  19. "How did you create the link?"

    I just came back to the page I had just posted on, selected all, copy and pasted the url on my blog, only to discover I had picked up an monster version of.

    Is anybody else still losing posts or is it just me ? I lost one that I posted last night too, this am it was gone.

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  20. no its just you Sarah but you do go on a bit! see if you can get Webb to answer the question

    does this include a right to home education Webb? or only for a state school education?

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  21. Third attempt, I'm removing the hyperlink this time.

    Some of mine are still disappearing. I posted a quote from Mills', http://www.serendipity.li/jsmill/on_lib.html, On Liberty, about the tyranny of the majority and it disappeared after refreshing the page. It took a few attempted re-posts before it stuck (and it's still there, I've just checked). I removed the hyperlink to the online version of his book before my last attempt, so it will be interesting to see if this comment,complete with hyperlink, works.

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  22. Seems to have worked after removing the hyperlink but can't see how that relates to your post. Unless blogger doesn't like back slashes?

    Test\test\ \ \

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  23. "but can't see how that relates to your post"

    Additional code ?

    Short posts I write direct into the box, but longer ones I have to switch to word (2007) cos in a little box my "scan" reflex goes wonky and I just can't read it without bouncing between lines.

    Then I cut and paste into the box, delete the doc (or I USED to delete the doc, so I'm thinking that maybe there is code from word embedded and the postfunction is trying to read it as hypertext .... or something technical like that. Are all missing posts containing "hidden" commands to hyperlinks, bold or Italic or coming from other docs ?

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  24. just trying something, i cut this from the centre of a doc leaving the top and tail behind, which I hope strips the code, will it stick

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  25. i see webb has not aswered the question?

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  26. Maybe see if you can make a comment disappear?

    I have a 2002 version of Word and if I select 'Reveal Formatting' from the Format menu and then tick the 'show all formatting marks' tick box at the bottom of the panel that appears on the right, I can see all the line breaks, paragraphs, spaces, etc code marks. Spaces appear as dots between words, for instance. Maybe finding the equivalent in your version will give you some clues if you look at the text from post that disappears?

    Notepad is supposed to be good for not adding extra code.

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  27. I am currently trying to make a comment disappear by posting it after it has been created with word, but I can’t think of anything to say so am going to a quote I like mucho.

    “ Society encourages mothers to cultivate guilt like a little flower garden, because nothing blocks the awareness and expression of legitimate anger as this all consuming emotion."

    Now blogger comments monster, are you full or do you still fancy a snack ?

    I can’t find the formatting cos my last computer died so I had to buy one right away instead of go back to the UK, so all the menus are in Italian and I can’t use the damn thing instinctively.

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  28. I just wrote 'test' into a comment, straight into the text box and it's gone. No code, just the word 'test', without code.

    Maybe it's just random?

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  29. "No code, just the word 'test', without code."

    Meant to say without hyperlinks or copying and pasting.

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  30. Simon wrote,
    "As I have pointed out recently, questions are now being asked in some quarters about the efficacy of progressive educational methods. Some evidence is emerging which suggests that these methods may not be as effective as straightforward, old-fashioned teaching."

    What evidence and what are they measuring? GCSE results are continuously on the rise so by their own measure state education is improving. It's difficult to discuss the post without better definitions of 'progressive' education and more information about evidence of it's failure. It's entirely possible that the wrong things are being measured, for instance.

    For arguments sake, if the aim of the education approach is to improve group working, self motivation, to impart a life-long love of and ability to learn, and to improve problem solving and critical thinking, but the test used is a multiple choice general knowledge quiz, it's obvious the wrong test is being used.

    Basically, you need to give more information to support your claims if you hope for a debate.

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  31. 'Basically, you need to give more information to support your claims if you hope for a debate.'

    A lot of the stuff is from the States. For instance;
    'Why Minimal Guidance During Instruction Does Not Work: An Analysis of the Failure of Constructivist, Discovery, Problem-Based, Experiential, and Inquiry-Based Teaching' which was written co written by Sweller.

    You might find this interesting:

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113763977423350560.html

    There have been several comparisons published between Swiss and British schools which aslo underline this point about different teaching styles. This is less to do with GCSE results and more to do with pupils grasping important principles and understanding them after the lesson.

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  32. The article doesn't really come to any conclusions about why science teaching in the US does not compare well to science teaching compared to some other countries. The international tests did not compare methods. We also don't know how much teaching is actually inquiry based. For instance, they say:

    "But with many districts struggling to find experienced science teachers, some educators and policy makers worry about teachers who aren't experts in the field overseeing such open-ended inquiry. Meanwhile, because of a heavy emphasis on reading and math in the lower grades, many students come to high school with fewer science skills. Vera Larkin, biology teacher and science coordinator at Watertown High School in Watertown, Mass., says she prefers letting her students discover things for themselves. But many of them have little understanding of the basics, she says. With so much ground to cover, "I feel compelled to constantly teach and instruct."

    Inquiry based learning needs a knowledgeable person on hand to answer questions and ask the right questions of the students. If they don't have experienced science teachers, it isn't going to work. The article goes on to describe how an inquiry-based biology curriculum lasted less than a year because of lack of time and basic previous science knowledge. How many children in the US actually learn the bulk of their science through good quality enquiry based learning? Not many judging by this article.

    The paper about minimal guidance during instruction is interesting but it's not a style I recognise from HE. I also have doubts that just providing inquiry-based science education (here's the kit, see that you think, maybe try to light the bulb) without instruction or guidance is going to work. I'd imagine it would be very frustrating for many children. Is this what you are calling progressive education? If so, I agree with you, I don't think it would be very good, but I don't think that's what we have in the UK in schools or HE by any stretch of the imagination.

    I can imagine some inquiry-based learning, preceded and followed by instruction, might well increase the number of 'light bulb' moments when ideas suddenly make sense in a concrete way, but I doubt many of these would happen purely as a result of handling 'stuff'. My children really enjoyed carrying out various science experiments when younger, but we saw this more as reinforcement of information they already had, most of which they gained through conversations before, during and after the experiments as well as related trips to museums, science parks, etc. I doubt the same approach could work in a classroom of 30 children as so much of their learning depended on one-to-one discussions.

    I'm not seeing a link between progressive education of this sort to autonomous education though. I'm sure it forms part of most autonomous educators experiences, but there's no reason to believe that it's the primary style used.

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  33. At my 'progressive' primary school (and at the primary schools I taught in) a science lesson would typically consist of half a dozen related experiments arranged around the room. There would be a short plenary introductory session with the teacher, consisting of a class discussion to ensure that everybody had the background knowledge they needed to do the experiments.

    Children would work their way round the experiments, individually, or in groups, and there would be a plenary session at the end, where results were pooled and discussed. The findings would often trigger further questions, resulting in another class lesson, or a group of children volunteering to find something out on their own and to report back to the class.

    Is this 'traditional' teaching or is it 'Constructivist, Discovery, Problem-Based, Experiential, and Inquiry-Based Teaching'? I would say the latter, and if done well, it was a very effective way of learning about scientific principles. If done badly, it would be a waste of time.

    But then you could say that about any pedagogical approach.

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  34. "At my 'progressive' primary school (and at the primary schools I taught in) a science lesson would typically consist..."

    That sounds really good. We had nothing like that at our primary school. The first time I experienced science experiments was at secondary school. The teacher demonstrated the experiment at the front before everyone had a go at the same experiment themselves. I think this happened about four or five times over the years. It was treated a bit like the end of term trip - it was a special occasion.

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