Social Foundations of Education

Social Foundations of Education

Joie DiGiovanni
Social Foundations of Education Final
Dr. Victor Brooks
1. A student learning is composed of both formal and informal experience. Formal learning is from the classroom and is structured by teachers to help students achieve an objective. Informal learning is all other outcomes from a student’s participation in the experience. One of the most important changes in educational practices between the 1960-70’s was the evolution of the American educational shift to an “open-classroom,” or “open-education,” due to the problems occurring in U.S. society and the remarks of education critics. The schools in the U.S. were held responsible for everything that went wrong with society. They were not developing enough “citizens” who were decent human beings and could hold jobs and do well in society, therefore we begin to realize how the state of society is held in the hands of the schools. The inhabitants of the society of the 1960 schools and teachers are the main vehicles that were believed to aid in winning the Cold War, furthering civil rights and bettering society. This open classroom had its focus on the student, one learns by doing. This new Progressive/Pragmatic philosophy was the most important new theory between 1960-70s.
2. People believed that the teacher as an instructor or leader was harming the creativity of the students and creating a rise in the youth counterculture, which was composed of various social and political movements. This enabled college students to become the most active they have ever been within the political and social realms. Civil rights movements, anti-war protests, political, feminist and environmental movements developed. Students began to question authority, even the schools. This type of learning believed that the students should decide what they learn about in accordance to their personal interests. They could work collaboratively with each other, use open space, do group projects or individual...

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