Language: German

Language: English

ISSN: 1941-0646

Abstract/Notes: More than a century before modern controversies over scripted instruction, the Froebelian kindergarten--the original kindergarten method designed by Friedrich Froebel--and Maria Montessori's pedagogy were criticized for rigidly prescribing how teachers taught and children learned. Today, scripted methods such as Direct Instruction and Success for All are condemned for limiting teachers' autonomy and narrowing students' learning, especially that of students from low-income backgrounds, for and with whom scripts are often designed and used. Proponents of scripted instruction counter that it is helpful for teachers and effective with students. Comparing historical and modern scripts offers an opportunity to explore teachers' reactions to this hotly debated approach to school reform and to think about some possible implications for teacher education. I examine how teachers reacted to four different models of scripted instruction. I chose to compare the Froebelian kindergarten, Montessori, Direct Instruction, and Success for All because of their longevity, wide use, and the amount of information available about them. I focus on the scripts' theory and research base and teacher training, and on teachers' assessments of the scripts' effectiveness, and ask how these factors might influence teachers' autonomy, fidelity, and resistance when using scripts. Research Design: Using historical methods, I summarize the history of scripted instruction; selectively survey research on teacher autonomy, fidelity, and resistance; and interpret primary and secondary sources on the Froebelian kindergarten, Montessori, Direct Instruction, and Success for All. Teacher autonomy, fidelity, and resistance varied in these four scripts. Froebelian kindergarten and Montessori teachers autonomously chose to receive scripted, lengthy, intensive, pre-service training and professional development in closed professional learning communities. Direct Instruction and Success for All teachers receive scripted, relatively limited pre-service training and ongoing professional development in schools in which teachers often do not autonomously choose to teach. Despite the scripted training, most Froebelian kindergarten teachers, and many Montessori, Direct Instruction, and Success for All teachers modified these scripts at the classroom level; some Froebelian and Montessori teachers made very overt, substantial changes when the social class backgrounds of the students changed. Many Froebelian and most Montessori teachers seemed to believe that these scripts helped their students learn. Direct Instruction and Success for All teachers express more mixed views of these scripts' effectiveness. Some say that the scripts "work "for their students but that as teachers they feel constrained, a situation I see as a professional dilemma. Anecdotally, some new teachers with little pre-service training say that they feel limited by scripts but daunted by the task of creating curricula and instruction on their own. My research raises questions about teachers' reactions to scripts. The examples of Froebelian kindergarten, Montessori, Direct Instruction, and Success for All teachers I studied suggest that there may be unpredictable contradictions in scripted instruction. Scripted, autonomously chosen, intensive training may strengthen teacher fidelity and resistance, by giving teachers a deep repertoire of pedagogical skills that some continue to use and others use to autonomously modify scripts in response to students' perceived needs. Scripted, externally imposed, less extensive training may give some teachers a sense of security but also create tensions between the scripts 'perceived effectiveness and the teachers' desires for autonomy, and, for new teachers, between autonomy and the difficulty of independently designing curricula and methods. I argue that these reactions suggest that educators in traditional pre-service teacher education programs may want to experiment with offering an autonomous choice of distinctly different instructional models, including scripted ones such as Direct Instruction and Success for All, in which teachers in training in professional learning communities may become deeply skilled. I also argue that script developers may want to experiment with giving teachers more explicit autonomy, both in choosing scripts and in modifying them, and more extensive pre-service training. I recommend more comparative research on teachers' reactions to scripts, especially on new teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Language: English

ISSN: 0161-4681, 1467-9620

Language: English

Language: English

ISSN: 0010-700X

Language: English

Published: New York City, New York, 1971

Abstract/Notes: This dissertation was a comparative study from the perspectives of history and philosophy of the educational theories of John Amos Comenius, Friedrich Froebel, and Maria Montessori. The purpose of this dissertation was: 1 - to determine whether or not there were parallel ideas in the educational theories of Comenius, Froebel, and Montessori; 2 - to show to what extent these ideas were actually similar or divergent; and 3 - to consider the additional question of whether or not Froebel and Montessori recognized their theories as part of a sequence of thought originating with Comenius. Using the extant published works of the three educators, descriptions were given of their educational theories in relation to the following topics: the position and principles of methodology; the role of sense realism and the changes in emphasis each educator made in the use of the sense realist concepts of teaching; the role of the religious point of view; the manner of teaching moral values; the role of intellectual and social influences of their respective historical periods in the formation of their educational theories; and the insights of the three educators which can be considered important in the educational world of the latter half of the twentieth century. These descriptions were followed by comparisons of the similarities and differences of the three educators in relation to the above-mentioned topics. The conclusions of the dissertation were the following: 1 - There were parallel ideas present in the educational theories of the three educators. The Comenian concepts and educational emphases which seemed to find restatement most often in the works of Froebel and Montessori were the belief in the importance and the necessity of the use of the correct method of teaching; the theory that if the correct method were used, anything could be taught to nearly anyone; the basic position of the concepts of sense realism in the teaching methodology; and the supreme importance of a definite religious perspective as the groundwork and frame of reference for the whole educational system. 2 - There appeared to be no recognition of influence of the work of Comenius by Froebel and Montessori. In relation to Froebel's gifts or didactic apparatus and his principle of self-activity, there appeared to be a slight recognition of influence by Montessori in the creation of her didactic material and the formulation of her principle of spontaneous activity in a carefully prepared environment. 3 - Concerning the insights of the three educators which may be considered important for education in this century, Comenius was cited for his outstanding ability to systematize knowledge, his championship of the humanitarian ideal of freedom, and his pansophic ideal of universal knowledge through a universal college system with uniform textbooks in a universal auxiliary language. The study of Froebel's work can provide more insights into the educational possibilities of the preschool age child obtained through self-activity. The study of the work of Montessori provides help in the greater educational use of the period of postnatal infancy, and the greater application of the disciplines of anthropology, physiology, and psychology to education. Montessori's work can also prove to be significant in the search for more effective means of education for the culturally deprived child. All three educators seemed to possess an ability to synthesize - to see things in their whole relationships. Specifically they applied this insight to means of educating all facets of human personality.

Language: English

Published: Denver, Colorado, 1970

Language: German

ISSN: 0932-1403

Language: German

Published: Regensburg, Germany: Roderer, 1994

ISBN: 3-89073-697-1

Language: Korean

ISSN: 1226-2722