CURRENT TRENDS

IN CURRICULUM

AND INSTRUCTION

Ole Sand

Director

NEA Center ' for the Study of Instruction

There was a time-hard to remember now-when education was not a steady front-page subject in the news. nor were the foreign and domestic events reported so quickly reflected in educational concerns. Fortunately. we as a people have moved beyond a concern for sur- vival which focused on education in science and tech- nology. Now, there is welcome news of a growing solic- itude about "survival for what?" This can be found in the many announcements about new activities in the humanities and arts.

One of the most recent of these is the Presi- dent's message to Congress requesting Federal aid to stimulate and encourage drama. dance, painting, music. literature, history, and other cultural activities in the United States-to establish a National Foundation for the Arts and Humanities. Senator Claiborne Pell. who introduced the President's bill, said at the time that it was-the first time in our history" that "a President of the United States has given his administrative support to such a comprehensive measure which combines the two areas most significant to our nation's cultural ad- vancement . . ."'

Just before that event, the Rockefeller Broth- ers Fund published a report, The Performing Arts-Prob-

/ems and Prospects.? to assess the place of these arts in our national life and to identify the impediments to their greater welfare and to their wider enjoyment.

There also are some other indications that a re- versal of the emphasis on the sciences has begun. Early

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The first of these tasks is the building of obiec- fluenced by the new studies of learners. Schools of the tives for the curriculum. These objectives or statements thirties developed programs that attempted to meet of ends should be constructed in a systematic manner the so-called fundamental needs of children. In the that consciously uses appropriate data sources and 1940's. the advent of a large scale war caused objectives screening devices. In order that objectives can be useful to be more nearly centered around the needs of a soci- in the remaining three tasks, it is also important that ety in crisis. A different kind of crisis. the competition

of the learner. and that they indicate the content or makers in the decade of the fifties to educate for sur- area of life in which the behavior is to operate. In addi- vival and national eminence. The first half of the sixties tion to preciseness in statement, educational objec- has seen the reappearance of the academic scholar in - tives should meet the criteria of significance and attain- . the lower schools and a heavier emphasis on organized ability. That is, the ends selected for learners should be knowledge as a basis for decision-making in developing the most important ones out of all that could be chosen, objectives. In retrospect, thecurriculum of United States and learners should be able to acquire the behavior im- schools has changed emphasis as pressures to consider plicit in the objective. new data sources have increased.

The other three tasks flow from, and are closely In order that objectives shape a balanced pro- related to, the statement of objectives. These tasks gram, one that will enable learners to live personally have to do with selecting learning opportunities and satisfying and socially significant lives, curriculum appropriate materials for learners, the organization of makers need to make selections from a broad range of . these opportunities, and the selection of means of evalu- curricular choices. The rationale for developing educa- ation in terms of the objectives. All curricular products tional objectives that is described here provides for a can be placed in one or more of the broad categories of thorough review of the pertinent data sources and in- objectives, selection of learning opportunities, organiza- dicates procedures for making valid decisions from the tion, and evaluation. data.4

Of these four tasks the most important is the Threesourcesof data are essential in validating act of determining educational objectives, of making educational objectives-the learner, society. and t h e choices from a wide range of skills, understandings, and disciplines. A word about each seems appropriate. attitudes. The purpose of making choices, of establish- ing priorities, is to provide a foundation for the school's The Learner as a Base Every child has an inner program, to provide direction and shape for the educa- drive to become a more complete person and to learn tion of students. Wise choices will, therefore, provide what can become meaningful to him. The art of teach- a stronger foundation for the school's program. ing lies in stimulating this force and in keeping it alive,

The nature of the choices made by those devel- free, and developing. To do so. it is essential to under- oping objectives is determined by many factors. Curricu- stand the learner, to know what he is working on, what lum makers in the 1930's. for example. were greatly in- he is up against, what his basic assets include.

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cumulated body of organized knowledge about the world that the schools be the source for all necessary learning. and man. I n these areas lie the forces that determine Education is a process of changing behavior- the setting and the possible method and substance of behavior in the broad sense of thinking, feeling, and act- education. These forces must then be screened against ing. As a result of education, students should acquire the values and objectives that society sets for education, ideas they did not have, skills they did not possess. in- and the guides that influence the translation of what terests broader and more mature than they had known, could be into what shall be. and ways of thinking more effective than they had em-

Thevalues against which the multiple possibili- ployed. From this viewpoint, educational objectives ties for educational practice are screened must be made should be stated in terms of behavioral change, and explicit. TO do otherwise would be to make decisions the responsibilities of the schools should be identified without reference t o what is sought and without suffi- with the behavioral changes most susceptible of accom- cient heed to the actual fm-4~ of those at whom the plishment by the schools rather than by other educative values are aimed. The following values are vital as cri- agencies, ~t is necessary for the schools to choose rela- teria for assessing Present practices and as guides t o tively few important objectives, to work toward them future improvement of the schools: consistently,and to review them periodically in the light

, . Respect for the worth and dignity of every of changing times. The additive approach of putting

individual more subject matter into the curriculum and adopting a multitude of educational goals is ineffective.

2. Equality of opportunity for all children; The basic criterion in establishing priorities

3. Encouragement of variability should be an assessment of the contributions that edu- cation can make to the individual, to society, and to the

4' Faith in man's ability to make rational improvement of mankind, I n this swifi-moving world, decisions such choices are not easy. What knowledge wil l today's

5. Shared responsibility for the common ten-year-old need three decades hence? What skills will he require to live successfully? What problems will he have to solve? In what social context will he need to

6. Respect for moral and spiritual values. reinterpret basic human values? Education must help and for ethical standards Of conduct' the individual t o cope with change as well as to main-

The schools should not and cannot provide all tain values that are relatively constant. of the learning opportunities that students need in order The essential objectives of education, therefore. to live fully and effectively. Other agencies have particu- must be premised on a recognition that education is a lar responsibilities in the education of youth. and learn- , process of changing behavior and that a changing soci- ing also takes place outside the school and continuously , ety requires the capacity for self-teaching and self- throughout life. Furthermore. school time and facilities adaptation. Priorities in educational objectives should are finite, making it impossible as well as undesirable be placed upon such goals as:

," -,...- 7. How can the school provide a balanced issue in attempts to appraise American education.

programfor the individual and maintain Stated in behavioral terms, the question is. "What it amidst various pressures for speciali- should the graduate be able to do that he could not zation? do if he had not gone to school?" I

A t a general level, there is agreement. Laymen 8 . How can schools make wise selections

and educators alike agree that the school has a major of content from the ever-growing body responsibility for preparing young people to live in to- of available knowledge? day'ssociety. They agree that the school has a responsi-

9. How should the content o f the curricu- bility for preparing young people to live wi th change lum be organized? and to contribute to constructive change. They agree

that the school has a responsibility for helping the in- 10. How should the curriculum of the school dividual f ind and develop his own unique ways to per- be organized t o give appropriate direc- sonal satisfaction, recognizing that within the range of t ion to the institutional process? behavior that is acceptable to society there is room for

Howshou~dtheschoo~and theclassroom much individual variation. A t a more specific level, they to make the effective agree that the student should yead, write, speak, com-

use Of the time and talents Of students pute, and think more effectively than he would had he and teachers? not gone to school.

12. How can the quality of instructional ma- Great differences of opinion appear, however,

terials be improved? How can the prod- when educators and laymen, together or separately, ap-

ucts of modern technology be used ef- proach the more complex tasks that come next. These

fectively? How can space be designed are the tasks of ( 1 ) deciding the knowledge, skills, and

and used t o support the instructional values that are needed by children and young people; program? (2) determining which of these goals can best be

achieved by the school and therefore should be included TRENDS I N DECIDING W H A T TO TEACH Of the in the school program; (3) delineating the knowledge, twelve areas of educational concern formulated above, skills. and values that can best be taught by the home, seven focus attention on decisions about what to teach. the church, and other social institutions; and (4) decid- Three are especially relevant to this conference because ing which learnings require the joint efforts of the school they concern priorities for the school, a balanced pro- and other agencies. gram, and the selection of content. Thoughtful consideration of these questions is

needed to determine priorities for the schools-to make Establishing Priorities for the School The question, sure, for example, that reading is identified as more im- "What shall the schools teach?" and its counterpart, portant than cheerleading. Those responsible for de- "What shall the schools not teach?"constitutes a central ciding what to teach should apply concrete standards.

7 8 SAND

however. has been to create a new and disturbing im- Some steps in the right direction were cited I balance-one that threatens t o leave today's student previously. l 'he primary responsibility, however, is w i th 1 starved in the humanities. the schools; they must provide and maintain a curricu-

Ask any eight-year-old about the sun. and he lum appropriately balanced for each student. Note that wil l tell you that it is 93.000.000 miles from the earth, we say a balanced program and that w e are not endors- approximately 866.500 miles in diameter, wi th a surface ing an individual so completely balanced that he cannot rotation of about 25 days at the equator. If he is to live be creative. While it is true that one of the problems in the shadow of "the bomb," he must perhaps know of education is to channel the means by which tension- and be taught all these things. Yet i t wil l always be the producing forces are relieved, a slight amount of dis- larger purpose of education t o show him the radiance equilibrium seems to produce people who are exciting, of a sunset. productive. and imaginative rather than bland, dull, and

Science is not the be-all and end-all of life. We pablum-like. must keep our debt to it in clear perspective. I ts penicil- The human being is a dynamic organism at- lin has saved us; its wash-and-wear has clothed us; its tempting to keep his energy system in equilibrium. It is air-conditioning has cooled us. One day, its promise of possible that, for certain individuals, a program slightly moon living may even give us the universe. But the test off balance might be appropriate. At least. this is an al- tube has yet to come up with an easy formula for in- ternative worth studying. creasing man's ability to think, to feel, t o appreciate. It To achieve a balanced program schools must: is the task of the humanities t o help us understand our- selves, as well as our fellow men, and to help us live in 1. Offer a comprehensive program of studies I t h ~ s brave new world that science has fashioned for us 2. Make early and continuous assessment of I

il 1 1 ),I )I The greatest blessing that technological prog- 1 , ' 1 , ' I! ress has in store for mankind is not, of course, an accu-

:I mulation of material possessions. It is the gift of leisure.

individual potentialities and achievements of students

3. Provide individualized programs based I and the schools must accept the challenge t o help to- on careful counsel~ng

day's students ut~lize this le~sure. I Arnold Toynbee says that the creative use of In addition, local, state, and federal govern-

, leisure by a minority of even the leisured few in Past ments should provide general financial support for the times has been the mainspring of all human Progress total program. Recent allocations have failed t o do this. beyond the primitive level. Soon automation wil l Pro- In 1961, of the $969 million the government spent in vide plenty of free time for workers-without loss of s ~ p p o r t of basic research, 71 per cent went t o the phys- income, of self-respect. or social esteem. To have time icalsciences, 2 6 per cent to the life sciences. 2 per cent on your hands wil l not be a matter for excuses to the to the psychological sciences, and 1 per cent to the so- "gainfully employed."If this extra time is misused. how- cial sciences. Virtually nothing went to research in the ever, it may become a curse instead of a blessing. humanities.

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I n our preoccupation w i t h survival, w e must keep sight o f the prime question: "Survive for what?" This is no t the first t ime humanity has been threatened

w i t h annihilation. I n the days o f King Arthur, man be- lieved the world wou ld come t o an end i n the year 1000. When life continued and he received reprieve, he went o n a spree o f lawlessness and brutal i ty wh ich sickened Europe for centuries.

W e must take lesson f rom the past. W e must askourselves. "Why survive if w e cannot lead a highly civilized life? W h y survive i f the knowledge, values, and

skills that are needed for interested and intelligent par- ticipation i n the world's economic. social. and political problems are no t t o be learned at a highly usable level?"

Selecting Content These are perplexing days for man. Apparently, civilization is o f such a nature that

the further w e progress, the more man is forced t o ad- mit, "I just do no t know." As the result o f the massive accretion of knowledge i n the past hundred years, many men and women, even the most educated, are forced t o concede this.

Knowledge is not only increasing; i ts g rowth

has reached explosive proportions. As the M a d Hatter

v in Alice i n Wonderland complains. "You have t o keep running just t o keep up."

So much has been learned i n so many areas of

knowledge that i t is n o longer possible for students t o learn even summaries o f existing knowledge. Sheer bulk defeats any effort t o teach knowledge as a body of facts t o be learned. Furthermore, w e can expect radical reor- ganization o f a given body of knowledge no t once in the remainder o f this century bu t several times. The school problem once known as "coverage" is now meaning- less and obsolete. Coverage is n o longer difficult; i t is impossible!

As Harold Gores explains:

A generation ago a competent sixth grade teacher could answer about every question a sixth-grader was likely to ask. How many legs has a grasshopper? What's the capital of Montana? How far away is the moon? Teachers had stored in their heads the encyclopedic facts of life and these were enough to get them through the day without loss of face from "not knowing" the answer.

Today no teacher can be sure. There may be lurking in the back of the sixth grade room an 1 1 -

year-old demon who's been watching television or reading the more solemn columns of the newspapers and is ready to pounce with the question. 'Teacher. the Russians are going to use solid fuel to get to the moon.

Why are we sticking to liquids?'' I f the teacher is a normal. well-adjusted.

educated person, she won't have the slightest idea. She had better ask the kid what he thinks and remem- ber what he says.

When the pace of cultural change is rapid. every- body must learn from everybody.0

Never before have the dynamic forces o f

change spun w i t h such incredible speed. I n the nearly t w o thousand years since the bi r th o f Christ, there has been first a very slow and then a rapidly accelerating growth in the accumulation o f knowledge. I f this accurn- ulation is plotted on a t ime line, beginning w i t h the bi r th

of Christ, the first doubling o f knowledge occurs in 1750, the second in 1900, the th i rd in 1950, and the fourth only ten years later, in 1960 ! This explosion o f knowl- edge applies, of course, much more t o the natural sci- ences than t o the social sciences and the humanities. An-

other way o f illustrating th is phenomenon is that by the year 2 0 0 0 w e wi l l have 2,000 t imes as much knowledge as w e have today.

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This knowledge explosion is best illustrated by a look at the record in the increase in knowledge during the past century. A hundred years ago the Smithsonian Institution. probably the world's largest museum, cata- loged 46.000 objects: in 1952 i t had 33.1 84.494. In 1850 the British Museum added 14.266 books; a hun- dred years later the comparable figure was 51.41 9. Technical papers alone are being turned out around the world at the rate of 6 0 million pages annually, and Cor- nell University reports that i t is cataloging 80,000 new titles a year. The executive secretary of the National Edu- cation Association once described that organization as "this land of smoking mimeograph machines."

Because of this great expansion of knowledge. the problems of what to learn and how to learn it require a different approach today. W e need to f ind ways to move from memorization of facts to discovery of facts; ways to help young students think as physicists think. as historians think, as artists think. One scholar puts it this way: the problem is one of moving from a rhetoric of conclusions to an experience in inquiry.

Illinois math . . . PSSSC . . . SMSG . . . the FLES program . . . the Economic Task Force-these and a bewildering number of other new terms are find- ing their way into the educational vocabulary. The proj- ects to which these terms refer are major curriculum studies that merit thoughtful consideration. They have grown, in part, out of the need to bring the content of the school curriculum up to date so that new knowledge in specific disciplines can be incorporated and obsolete content can be eliminated. Most of the projects have

focused on the development of materials for the sec- ondary schools: few have given attention to the ele- mentary school program.

How,then,canschools make wise selections of content? How can they make intelligent use of the find- ings and methods of the disciplines? And. in the process. what are the appropriate roles of academic scholars, educators, and laymen? The National Committee for the Project on Instruction made three recommendations:

1. The objectives of the school, w i th a clear statement of priorities, should give direction t o all cur- riculum planning. This applies to adding content, elimi- nating content, or changing the emphases on various topics and fields of study.

2. Each curriculum area should be under continuous study and evaluation and should be reviewed periodically. One purpose of such reviews is to deter- mine whether recent findings in the academic disci- plines are, or should be, reflected in the instructional program. These reviews should utilize the knowledge and skills of the teacher. the school administrator, the scholar in the academic disciplines, the scholar in the pro- fession of teaching, and the informed lay citizen, each contributing his special competence to the total task.

3. In selecting content, school staffs should study the results and recommendations of curriculum projects sponsored by nationally oriented groups wi th a view to applying promising findings. There should be a systematic procedure for studying the results of these curriculum projects. The procedure should recognize the importance of balance and continuity in the total school experience of students and include the steps pre- requisite to curriculum changes.

The above suggestions are, of course, essential for the college curriculum too.

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n o other reason than for the joy of his lean and lucid The school will some day. i t is hoped, occupy a half- prose: acre of Washington Square, where land is three-quar-

ters of a million dollars per acre. What is startling about First, let's look at the schoolhouse, the most public of this building isthat its playground site will be built into, public buildings, the public building more people care under, and on top of the building. After all. land at three- about. get angry over. and take up sides about. Look at quartersof a million dollars per acre makes city schools them.if you can, as though you hadn't, once upon a time. built in the suburban image quite beyond the public spent a quaner of your life in one.

fisc. A schoolhouse is a big box filled with equal-sized The building is, in effect, seven layers of space.

little boxes called classrooms. The classrooms are like out of which group spaces. including classrooms. can be ' our kitchens-hard. reflective. reverberative, utilitarian, snappedas needed. Perimeter classrooms lead out onto indestructible, and antiseptic. Their motif is dictated balconies which provide outdoor work space for each by a municipal desire to frustrate any errant scholar classroom. It is quite possible that some day you may who. unsheathing his jackknife, might try to carve his approach this building in its highrise setting and see it initials in this ceramic vault the taxpayers have provided literally alive from top to bottom with the shrubs and for his childhood.

flowers the children planted. A sunflower. though 80' The very architecture sorts the children. It helps in thealr. is still a sunflower, and the big city could use

the administration to establish groups of uniform size- a few to diminish its brassy. glassy facelessness. Truly 25 pupils if the community is rich. 35 i f it is poor, and this school can bring oxygen back to the city. 50 if i t doesn't care. In each box is placed a teacher who Whatsucha school can do for children is obvious. will be all things to all children all day all year. If i t be a But what it can do toward reinvigorating a city is equally secondary school, bells will ring to signal the musical important. And i t is not entirely inappropriate that a chair game that is played a half-dozen times a day as school for children could lead commercial construction groups exchange boxes. This is known as secondary toward more humane and esthetic expression.9 education.

The interior layout of schools has been this way W i t h regard t o planning and organizing for

ever since the Quincy School was built in Boston in teaching, there are many alternative directions t o con- 1847. and keyed for 100 years their ice-cube tray ar- sider. Many schools are moving in these directions: rangement. Incidentally. the Quincy School, now in its 11 5th year, is scheduled next year for abandonment

v FROM TO because Boston.which was once described as becoming a cemetery with lights. now finds the Quincy School a 1. The group The individual

detriment to the exciting rebirth of that city.8 2. Memory

Goresgoeson t o describe a n e w demonstration 3. Spiritless 'Iimate Zest for learning

school being developed b y the N e w York University 4- The graded school The nongraded school

School o f Education and the architect I. M. Pei: 5 . Self-contained classroom Self-contained school

FROM

6. Scheduled classes

7. Teacher as general practitioner

8. School building use geared to an agrar- ian society-nine-month year-limited to children

9. Classrooms that are like kitchens

10. Boxes and egg crates

1 1. Teaching as telling

12. A teaching schedule of 30 hours a

Appointments and independent learning

Teacher as clinical specialist (member of team)

School building use reflecting urban society -twelve-month year-available to all age groups

Classrooms that are like libraries. living rooms

Clusters and zones of space

Teaching as guiding

15 hours a week with children in class and week with children in class and 15 30 hours for research, planning, and develop- hours for planning and correcting ment.IO

TRENDS I N TEACHING1' The prior, somewhat sub- ing, and gifted children represented by Getzels, Guilford, jective approaches to the study of teacher behavior and Jackson, Aschner and others have added new dimen- teacher competencies have been replaced by a number sions of understanding to both the meaning and applica- of objective analytical techniques. The report of the Amer- t ion of learning research. The study of human behavior ican Association of Colleges for Teacher Education on through improved research designs and extended longi- the Teacher Education and Media Project makes an ex- tudinal investigations adds to the preceding research. cellent beginning on the redefinition of teacher training Within the last few years the behavioral sciences gen- ! : as an intellectual process. The variables inherent in all erally have attained a new level of maturity. 1 teaching-learning situations are now better defined and Theories of teaching or instruction have re- !

! their inter-relationships more clearly seen. ceived considerable attention by several scholars such

Advances in the research and the applications as Elizabeth Maccia, George Maccia. Bellack. Kounin. of the research in learning have reached a new level of Travers. Suchman. Gage, and others. Recent develop- meaningfulness for curriculum development, as shown ments in areas such as information theory. communica- by the fieldsof mathematics,sciences. foreign languages tion theory, game theory, and systems theory are being . and social sciences. Work by Piaget, Bruner, Ausubel. critically studied for their relationships to instruction. Hilgard. Woodruff.Taba, and many others illustrates the The research in linguistics and the renewed emphasis progress in this vital area. The studies in creativity, think- on analytic philosophy are also related t o and support

the work In theory of teach~ng The study of knowledge, Although there are a number of ltnes of research I structures of knowledge, and ways of knowing has a par- that have contributed to an expanded concept of the ticular meaning for the professional preparation of human mind from the old narrow definition of intelli- teachers. gence that "intelligence is what intelligence tests meas-

ure,'' the efforts related to creative thinking abilities

TRENDS I N EVALUATION There is a growing body have done much to push this expanded concept into the

of literature questioning some of the current ways of consciousnessof educators. This research points to some evaluating student progress and potential, so that a of the things that must be done to bring about a higher study of this subject is now not only at a turning point level of mental health and educational achievement. but is more than ever full of controversy. There is no point Education is not more humane because it has to testing students for a catalog of their knowledge in a failed to recognize differences among children in their given discipline if educators are agreed that the disci- ways of learning. Some tend to learn by authority and plines ought to be taught in terms of principles and ap- are anxious to please their teacher; these wil l respond propriate methods of inquiry. Students wil l then be favorably if the teacher rewards correct responses. Some evaluated on their ability to recognize and apply to fresh children.on the other hand. tend to learn spontaneously data the principles and methods they have discovered. or creatively. by exploring, testing the limits, searching, It is essential that new instruments of evaluation be inquiring. manipulating, and even playing. It appears developed in order to adequately measure progress in that research on the relationship between mental abilities i identifying and using such principles and methods. and procedures of instruction, an area which has never

Formany years, the concept of most people (pro- really been explored, might be truly promising and may fessional educators and psychologists included) of the lead to an understanding of what it really means to in- human mind and its functioning was largely limited by dividualize instruction. the concepts embodied in intelligence tests. Though A broader concept of the human mind and its

",I ,; / )!Il presumably no developer of intelligence tests meant to functioning opens up many new and exciting possibili-

ill^ imply that an intelligence test assessed all of man's in- ties. It places new emphasis on what man may be- tellectual functioning, educators often have behaved as come. It suggests that we can educate to a higher degree though this were so. It has almost always been the sole many people whom we have not been very successful 1 instrument used in assessing intellectual potential, men- in education-the vast army of dropouts. There is al- tal growth, and the like, and it has been heavily relied ready evidence of "hopeless" individuals who began to upon to determine who was mentally retarded and gifted. learn successfully when permitted to learn creatively Unfortunately, we have usually shaped the educational rather than by authority and when they were rewarded curricula and methods to bring about the kind of growth for this kind of achievement. or achievement that is related to the mental abilities Drastic changes in evaluation techniques will involved in intelligence or scholastic aptitude tests. accompany changes in instruction. Since most of life's Measures of educational achievement have also been questions do not have one correct answer but numerous patterned along these same lines. alternatives, the old model of test construction wil l fall.'*

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TRENDS IN TEACHER EDUCATION Can t h e col-

leges catch u p w i t h the h igh schools?l3 I s i t n o w t i m e I

for M r . Conant t o s tudy t h e liberal ar ts col lege so tha t

the real scandal i n Amer ican educat ion w i l l b e unvei led?

Seriously, m y f irst proposit ion is tha t w e need t o launch

immediate ly a five-year comprehensive Project o n the

Instruct ional Program o f Amer ican Colleges. Such a Pro-

ject is desperately needed n o w . Father Hesburgh. Presi-

den t o f No t re Dame. states t h e ~ r o b l e m succinct lv:

aggregate parts, concocted by piling course on diverse course. without internal unity of the subject matter i t- self and with even less external integration contributed

mentalized into the equally specialized structure of iso- lated academic departments.

The result is comparable to a tossed salad. except

ceed. N o in fo rmed person today believes tha t all there

is t o teaching is t o k n o w one's subject and make t h e

chi ldren behave. It is n o w clear t h a t t h e teaching o f

reading involves considerably more complex skills than

tak ing ou t an appendix. Students w h o are admissible

t o the medica l school could b e considered for teacher

education.

Burns has some provocative ideas about

teacher education:

lief shared by us Athen~an pedagogues, and this is it: I n no profession, in no occupation. is a liberal edu- cation more important than in teaching. That may

a tautology which says only that "a teacher is a teach- er." with the implication that illiberally educated teach- ers are in fact merely indoctrinators, baby-sitters, or

... fort, French. and Thousand Island dressing all at once.14 we see that it leads directly to the all-University con-

cept of teacher education, a concept which demands 1 its I f teacher educat ion is t o m o v e beyond t h e that the WHOLE of the University, ALL of its intellectual bili- somewhat superficial recommendat ions of t h e Conant resources and a great deal of its financial resources.

sful I To do otherw~se. to separate the arts and sclences

I lated funct~ons, 1s to foreshorten the power of the Unl- ' en ~f thev teach In k~nderaar ten -~ f for n o other - verslty and arb~trar~ly l~mt t ~ t s contr~but~on to our com-

t h e psycho log~ca l o w n e r s h ~ p of munlttes Such an a r t ~ f ~ c ~ a l dlvls~on of funct~on and pur-

k n o w ~ n g one subject wel l-must be revlsed F~na l l y , t h e pose would condemn profess~onal educat~on to an alm-

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tales repeatedly told to students in a same-course-but- different-title curriculum. It would also condemn the arts and sciences to intellectually sterile inbreeding, pro-

ducing second and third and fourth generations of ivory towered specialists with little means, and perhaps no inclinations, to influence or educate the masses of peo- ple since all functional contact with future public school teachers would be needlessly sacrificed to the false dichotomy which separates the arts and sciences from professional education.

Such would be, and have been, the bitter fruit produced when the several branches of the tree of learn- ing grow apart. But when the academic trunk of a uni- versity is strong and sturdy. when its intellectual roots grow deep and spread out to touch all programs. then that branch we call teacher education is truly an integral part of the tree of learning and will surely flower because i t draws support and sustenance from all the arts and sciences.

Less metaphorically, the all-University principle which guides us Athenians signifies that there is a total institut~onal responsibility for the education of teachers.

"Now."you Spartans are entitled to ask. "if these be not mere words uttered in Socratic fashion. what action must follow-for we of Sparta are men of ac- tion.'' Let me then identify only a few of the actions

suggested. First, as to curriculum: if we Socratics are right in

our judgment that in no profession is liberal education more important than in teaching. i t certainly follows

that we should design a teacher education curriculum which is basically achieved in and through the arts and sciences. But. at the same time, we realize that liberal education is not equivalent to teacher education. A lib- eral education for teachers means not only an under-

graduate curriculum which does something more than familiarize our Athenian students with the arts and sciences. i t also means joint specialization in academic

and professional subject-matters-in academic knowl- edge of the subject to be taught, and professional knowl- edge of the teaching-learning process.

These joint requirements provide the key to cur- ricular plans in teacher education at Athenian Univer- sity: all prospective teachers will be jointly enrolled in the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Edu- cation. The full meaning of joint enrollment is that, with reference to secondary school teaching, merely major- ing in a subject is no guarantee that one can teach that subject. for subject matter competence is a neces- sary but insufficient condition of teaching: hence the need for professional preparation coupled with academic training. With reference to elementary school teach- ing. merely majoring in elementary education is no guar- antee that one will be able to teach the range of subjects required at that level. As a matter of fact. given the so-

ciological and epistemological realities of public edu- cation in an increasingly complex and technological

society. the day of the so-called "self-contained class- ,

room" in the upper elementary grades is-and ought to be-doomed. for no one teacher can possibly do justice to the "3R's." plus social science. plus physical science, plus art, plus music, plus. plus. plus. The upper elemen- tary school teacher will need increasingly to specialize in one or two teaching subjects. This is not to say she will be a mathematician or a scientist or an historian: but i t is to say she will be a specialist deliberately trained in the teaching of mathematics or science or social studies or language to children of certain ages or grades or levels of cognitive development.

Second. as to faculty: given the foregoing, i t fol- lows that-in an informal but nevertheless important sense-any professor who teaches anything to any fu- ture teacher is in some way part of the teacher educa- tion faculty. More formally. the term "joint appoint-

ment" indicates another principle: those professors who are primarily or directly involved in teaching students or

87 SAND

subjects pertinent to teacher education-be their pri- mary academic appointment in the arts, sciences. or humanities-have the right and the obligation to be- long to the faculty of an all-University school of educa- tion and participate in its deliberations and actions. its rightsand responsibilities. On this view the faculty of a school of education will be composed not only of those with single appointments in teacher education but, where appropriate and when possible. by joint appoint- ments with those holding primary appointments in other units of a university.

To illustrate, consider the training of foreign lan- guage teachers for the public schools: here the separa- tion of content from method, or the separation of the academic from the professional, is simply impossible. And since this is so, should not some professors of foreign languages be involved in the planning and super- vision of the practice-teachers they have helped to pre- pare? Such joint appointments would clearly enhance both the academic and professional aspects of teacher education.

Third. as to studentbody: with such curricula and such a faculty. who is to be enrolled? The honest and direct answer is this: only the superior student. Those possessed with the idea that teachers in training are the dull rejects of the arts and sciences, that anyone can teach in the public schools even though not everyone can master the subject matter to be taught, or that teacher education curricula will be filled with "Mickey Mouse" courses taught by professors so distinterested that they waive all standards on request, forget it. A simple sense of logic requires that teachers be better prepared than other graduates, so acceptance to joint enrollment in the teacher education curriculum means that such students are among the most promising schol- arsfor, while the average student may learn his subject, only the best qualified should teach it. Teaching is not

only a noble profession but a demanding profession.

for which only the talented need apply.15

SUMMARY This paper has at tempted t o deal w i t h seven areas o f concern t o a l l educators:

1 . A theoretical background for examining current trends in cur r~cu lum and in-

struction

2. Asking the r ight questions about curricu-

lum arrd instruction

3. Trends i n deciding w h a t t o teach

4. Trends i n planning and organizing for teaching

5. Trends i n teaching

6. Trends i n evaluation

7. Trends i n teacher education

To determine the implications for music educa-

t ion of the trends cited in this paper is a task for this

seminar-conference and for music educators across the country. A number o f issues have been considered.

Some lines o f action have been drawn. One point t o b e

underscored is this: the recommendations o f the NEA

Project o n Instruction can b e used as you draw up your

o w n priorities, your o w n action committees, and make

your decisions.

The assumptions underlying this entire paper

are that college faculties need t o understand current

trends in the school program and that they also need

t o get moving t o improve their o w n programs. To these

honorable tasks the NEA Center for the Study o f Instruc-

t ion pledges its resources, i ts stable o f talented con-

sultants across the country, and its energy.

88 S A N D

N O T E S

'New York Times. March 1 1, 1965. BGores, op. cit.

'The Performing Ans-Problems and Prospects, Rockefeller Panel s l b ~ d ~ -

Report on the Future of Theatre. Dance. MUSIC m America. New York: ,Olb,d. McGraw Hall. 1965.

"Forexactreferencestothe studies cited in this section. see bibliography 3 R a l ~ h W. Tyler. Basic Principles of Curr~culum and inslrucfion. Chi- in Herbert F. LaGr0ne.A ProposalfortheRev~s~on of the Pre-Service Pro- cago University of Chicago Press, 1950. pp. 1-83.

" * ~ , , fessional Componenr of a Program o f Teacher Education, Washington. "ng section is drawn from Robert M . McClure. "Pro- 0 . C : American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.

ceaures. rrocess. and Product in Curr~culum Development." unpub- lished Ed D, dissertation, Graduate Div,s,on, Un,versity of Cal,fornia, "Robert D. Strom. Ohio State Universitv, has studied trends in evalua-

Los Angeles. 1965. tion.and he has permitted the writer to draw on one of his unpublished

5Ralph W. Tyler. "Emphasize Tasks Appropriate for the Schooi." in Papers for thls section.

PhiDeltaKappan.XU2 (November, 1958) 73-74. l3Lee A. DuBridge. "College Freshmen Are Better Than Ever," in NEA =Harold 8. Gores. "The 8ig Change," an address delivered to the Journal, LI (October. 1962). 1 0 ~ 1 2 . 43rd Annual Convention of the New York State School Boards 14Theodore M. Hesburgh, "Liberal Educat~on in the World Today:' in Association. December. 1962. Associauon ofAmerican Colleges Bulletin. XLI (March. 1955). 82-87.

'Lester W. Nelson. 'A Perspective on Innovation in Education." unpub- l5Hobert W. Burns, "Response to Dr. Ole Sand.'' paper read before the lished paper delivered at a National Education Association Staff meeting of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Educa- Meet~ng. October 3 1. 1962. tton. Chicago. Illinois. February 11. 1965.