Course credit
3 credit hours
Course description
Education as a formal institution; emphasis on the historical antecedents which have affected education in Western Culture and America.
Delivery
This course is available in a web-based format, utilizing web pages and WebCT, a computer conferencing program. WebCT requires Internet access and a web browser — no additional software is required. Students may need access to someone who can assist with computer set-up.
This course is available in a print-based format. Mail completed assignments to the GIS Office. We will forward them to the instructor for grading.
Prerequisites
UNI students: junior standing
Instructor
Robert Boody, Associate Professor
Evaluation
12 assignments, 1 additional assignment for graduate level credit, 1 exam
Overview
This course is not just about recent education in America—it goes back and examines education in its cultural context from the beginnings of Western culture with the Greeks and Romans. I think you will find this going back to not only be interesting and informative but also relevant to understanding current issues.
Note, also, that the focus is on Western Education leading up to contemporary education in America. There were many interesting educational practices in the East, both anciently and more contemporaneously, but as we are in America, the focus is on cultures that specifically led up to ours and to our forms of educational practice. The ancient world was a big place, and it lasted for thousands of years. Out of all of that we will be focusing on a subset: the education of Greece, Rome, and China. Is this because no one else had education? No. Is it because all other forms of education were inferior to these? No. Rather, it is because these, for better or worse, are the forces which had the largest hand in shaping the beliefs and practices of America and its social institutions, including education.
The total history of education isn't the same as the history of schooling. Schooling is a particular form of formal education. Education in its broadest sense also includes informal forms of education. Still, the focus of the course is on formal forms of education.
Also, the history of education isn't the same as the philosophy of education or of comparative education. Philosophy of education examines the ideas and concepts associated with education. Comparative education compares education as practiced in different countries and cultures. Neither of these is the focus of the course, although elements of both are there.
Finally, a brief word about what history is and isn’t. One of the continuing controversies in education is between those who believe that the acquisition of facts is the most important goal of education as against those who believe that thinking and process—being able to use knowledge—is the most important. I believe that both extremes are partly right and thus also partly wrong. We need both; one needs facts with which to think, and facts by themselves are among the most useless of mankind’s’ toys. So this course will help you to process material so as to remember certain important people, ideas, and movements. But, it will also ask you to make connections between them, and also between them and now. This is where the real meat of history lies.
General course goals
Course organization
What is Required
Finishing the course requires: (a) completing 11 content assignments, (b) taking a final exam, and (c) carrying out a project (two projects if you are taking the course for graduate credit).
Doing the Assignments
Please prepare your responses thoughtfully. Please word process all submissions. To make it easiest for me to read, please use a 12-point, proportional font (such as Times or Times New Roman) and 1.5 spacing. And, try to enjoy the process!
Some of the questions posed in the assignments can be considered instructional questions, designed to help you better understand what the author is saying. Others can be called
expansion questions, which ask you to go beyond the information provided by the author to infer things. Note that no outside reading or research is required to answer these, beyond one or two dictionary trips (although you are always welcome to do so!). “Compare and contrast” questions are typically of this variety. Finally there are reflection questions, which ask you to make judgments and/or connections between the past and the present.
The following organizational questions may help you in summarizing and analyzing different movements and periods in education. One or more of these questions may be a good organizing framework for thinking about education in each period and for responding to the open-ended questions in the assignments.
Exams
The final exam is an essay test made up of questions similar to those done as assignments for each lesson.
Grading
Grades will be given on a percentage scale (90-80-70) based on the following three categories, following the weighting to their right.
| Undergraduate credit | |
| 11 lesson assignments | 110 |
| Final Examination | 40 |
| Project | 40 |
| Total | 190 |
| Graduate credit | |
| 11 lesson assignments | 110 |
| Final Examination | 40 |
| Project | 40 |
| Project | 40 |
| Total | 230 |
Textbook(s)
Gutek, Gerald L. A History of the Western Educational Experience (2nd Edition). Waveland Press, Inc. Prospect Heights, Illinois. 1995.
Texts are available from the vendor of your choice or
University Book and Supply
1009 West 23rd Street, Cedar Falls, IA 50613
Phone: 319-266-7581 or 800-728-7581
Fax: 319-277-1266
E-mail: bookstore@panthersupply.com
To enroll
ONLINE
GIS enrollment information
IN PERSON
UNI Continuing Education
2637 Hudson Road (corner of 27th St. and Hudson Rd.)
Cedar Falls, IA 50614-0223
Campus map (Look for Building 31)
For more information
Cindy Klodt, Guided Independent Study
UNI Continuing Education
319-273-2123 or 800-772-1746
ContinuingEd@uni.edu