The Progressive Education Fallacy in Developing Countries

In Favour of Formalism
2011
ISBN: 978-94-007-1850-0
Verlag: Springer Netherlands

Buch, Englisch, 257 Seiten, Format (B × H): 160 mm x 241 mm, Gewicht: 606 g

This highly controversial book challenges half a century of conventional educational wisdom. The Progressive Education Fallacy in Developing Countries: In Favour of Formalism argues that progressive teacher education and curriculum reforms in developing countries are wrong in principle and widespread failures in practice. The book is essential reading for academics, aid and educational professionals, and for overseas students of education.

In a methodologically elegant contribution to the theory, methodology and practice of education in developing countries, 12 chapters address the merits of formalism and the risks associated with what Gerard Guthrie identifies as the Progressive Education Fallacy. The Fallacy, that developing the enquiring mind needs enquiry teaching methods in schools, has lead to many inappropriate attempts at educational transfer. Progressive assumptions about the classroom have rarely been debated or tested experimentally in non-Western, especially non-Anglophone, cultures. School effectiveness research too has failed to examine adequately classroom processes and their cultural contexts.

A formal analysis of ideas inherent in the Fallacy uses C.E. Beeby’s stages model as an influential example of the progressive position. Progressive claims are refuted using the case of failed curriculum reforms in Papua New Guinea and an analysis of the unlikelihood of the adoption of progressive teaching in Confucian-tradition China. Widespread evidence from Africa and Asia also shows that progressive education reforms have failed in countries with pedagogic paradigms founded in revelatory epistemologies. Old-fashioned though formalism may be in some Western countries, classroom change in the developing world does not necessarily require progressive methods, but can focus on upgrading formalism.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Guthrie, Gerard

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Pädagogik Pädagogik Bildungssystem Bildungspolitik, Bildungsreform
• Sozialwissenschaften Pädagogik Pädagogik Bildungssystem Vergleichende und Empirische Bildungsforschung
• Sozialwissenschaften Pädagogik Schulen, Schulleitung Schulleitung, Schulentwicklung

Inhaltsverzeichnis

FOREWORD.- References.- PREFACE.- References.- Educational Bibliography.- SECTION 1: OLD CONJECTURES.- CHAPTER 1: THE PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION FALLACY.- CHAPTER 2: FORMALISM IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES. - CHAPTER 3: STAGES OF EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT?.- CHAPTER 4: TEACHER RESISTANCE TO CHANGE.- CHAPTER 5    CLASSROOM TEACHING AND SCHOOL EFFECTIVENESS.- SECTION 2: REFUTATIONS.- CHAPTER 6   FORMALISTIC SCHOOLING SYSTEM IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA.- CHAPTER 7: FAILURE OF PROGRESSIVE REFORMS IN PNG.- CHAPTER 8: CULTURAL CONTINUITIES AND FORMALISM IN PNG.- CHAPTER 9: FORMALISTIC TRADITIONS IN CHINA.- SECTION 3: NEW CONJECTURES.- CHAPTER 10: EDUCATION IN CULTURAL CONTEXTS.- CHAPTER 11: GROUNDED EDUCATIONAL CHOICES.- CHAPTER 12:  IN FAVOUR OF FORMALISM.- INDEX.

Über Autor(innen)

Guthrie, Gerard
Dr Gerard Guthrie is an educationalist with 40 years experience. His career has had two main parts. As an academic, he has been a staff member of four universities in Australia and Papua New Guinea, including as Foundation Professsor of Education at the University of Goroka. As an Australian governmental aid official, he held management positions involving training, corporate management, aid delivery in China and Africa, and rural development. He has also worked as a consultant for AusAID and the World Bank in Asia, Africa and the South Pacific. Dr Guthrie has a wide background in development and practice and in social science research, which he has applied primarily to education in developing countries, particularly teaching and teacher education.