Deliberate Dumbing Down of America Public Education

114 B RUCE J OYCE AND M ARSHA W EIL OF C OLUMBIA T EACHERS ’ C OLLEGE WROTE M ODELS OF Teaching (Prentice Hall, Inc.: Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1972). The book was the product of research funded by the U.S. Office of Education’s Bureau of Research under a contract with Teachers’ College, Columbia University, in 1968. Models of Teaching ’s importance lay not only in the fact that the book itself would be used extensively for in-service teacher training in behavior modification, but that the book would serve as the foundation from which Joyce would develop his “Models of Teacher Repertoire Training,” which has been used extensively (since the 1970s to the present) in order to change the teacher from a transmitter of knowledge (content) to a facilitator of learning (behavior modifier). Several excerpts from Models of Teaching follow: Principles of teaching are not conceived as static tenets but as dynamically interactive with social and cognitive purpose, with the learning theory underlying procedures, with avail able support technology, and with the personal and intellectual characteristics of learning groups. What is emphasized is the wide range of options the teacher may adopt and adapt to his unique situation. In the preface, which has a subtitle, “We Teach by Creating Environments for Children,” Joyce and Weil explain: In this book we describe models which represent four different “families” of approaches to teaching. Some of the models focus on the individual and the development of his unique personality. Some focus on the human group and represent ways of teaching which empha size group energy, interpersonal skills, and social commitment. Others represent ways of teaching concepts, modes of inquiry from the disciplines, and methods for increasing intel lectual capacity. Still others apply psychological models of operant conditioning to the teach ing-learning process. For the teacher we provide some advice on how to learn the various models based on our experiences in the Preservice Teacher Education Program at Teachers College, Columbia University. For curriculum and materials designers we include chapters on systematic planning using a variety of models of teaching. For both, we present a system for deciding what approaches to teaching are appropriate for what ends and how models can be selected to match the learning styles of children. (pp. xiii–xiv ) (2) Group Investigation—Democratic Process as a Source. The school is considered as a model of an ideal society. This chapter explores a variety of democratic teaching designed by Herbert Thelen to bring about a new type of social relationship among men.… (5) The Laboratory Method—The T-Group Model. The National Training Laboratory has developed approaches to train people to cope with change through more effective social relationships. This model is the father of the encounter-group strategies. (6) Concept Attainment—A Model Developed from a Study of Thinking. This model was developed by the authors from a study of work by Jerome S. Bruner and his associates. [Bruner will be encountered in a later entry as a developer, along with B.F. Skinner, of the humanistic social studies curriculum, Man: A Course of Study , ed.] Excerpts from the table of contents of Models of Teaching include:

(7) An Inductive Model—A Model Drawn from Conceptions of Mental Processes and General Theory-Building. The late Hilda Taba developed a series of models to improve the inductive