Educational Reform

and its Impact onThe Role of the

TeacherA bird’s eye view of issues from

the early 20th century to the present

The Rise of the Scientific Method

Franklin Bobbitt proposes the analysis of adult life and work to scientifically determine the skills and the content to train learners in “proficiency in citizenship” (2013, p. 11).

Experts develop curriculum. The teacher’s mandate is to follow the specified curriculum that would provide the training necessary for students to have productive adult lives (Bobbitt, 2013) .

Dewey and Montessori

Montessori’s approach “elevates and transforms the role of teachers” (Flinders & Thornton, 2013, p. 5). Teachers observe students and create activities to help them develop their interests and abilities. The teacher’s role becomes one of facilitator, rather than controller and dispenser of knowledge.

The progressive education movement of the 30’s and 40’s enables teachers to have greater independence and control over curricular implementation, instructional strategies and evaluation processes.

However, Lemiski and Clausen (2006) suggest lack of training for Ontario’s teachers prevented this reform movement from being successful. While Alberta’s teachers were given extensive training in educational strategies, they were not given the education necessary to adopt the basic theory of the new progressive curriculum.

50’s and 60’sCurriculum reform movement,

political and economic pressure for a return to academic curricula

Tyler’s (2013) traditionalist approach dominates. Curriculum specialists and the development of curricula that specify behavioral objectives become the focus.

The role of the classroom teacher is the implementation of the curricula so that changes occur in student behavior including actions, feelings and thinking (Tyler, 2013).

70s, 80s, 90sIssues of power in education dominant,

standardization, accountability

Attention in education is focused on the reasons why previous reform movements failed to produce the desired results (Flinders and Thornton, 2013).Pinar (2013) : Reconceptualist ideas moves curriculum beyond traditionalism and brings the loss of education’s identity as a field of its own. Poor economic conditions spell the end of funding for professional in-service, and curriculum development in general.Apple and Teitlebaum (1986) : Teachers are losing control of curriculum and their skills.Fullan (1998) : “Teachers fail to make the effort, or their commitment turns to despair, in the face of overload and political alienation” (p. 6).Apple (2013) : Teachers are suffering the effects of “intensification”, the erosion of work privileges, and a “workload that has escalated over time” (p. 173).

The 21st Century Teacher

“Never before has the need been so great for teachers to become agents of change and position themselves as problem solvers at the school level” (Owens, 2008, p. 57).

Assessm

entFu

nding

cuts

Multi- cultural

classrooms

Accountability

Increased class

size

Curriculum

Student

Diversity

Parents as

partners Technology