The key points of “Tinkering Toward Utopia: A Century of Public School Reform” are centered around the notion enforced by professors David Tyack and Larry Cuban that although Americans view schools as educational institutes meant to enrich the skills and viewpoints of its citizens, and thus build a better society, it has been shown time and again how the efforts to perfect American schools have been a game of trial and error. Many individuals who have come up with ideas as to how to achieve this utopia have not achieved that goal at all or have done so only partly. However, Tyack and Cuban avoid condemning the American public school system as has been done in the past and instead focus in on the most pressing problems, which include- but are not limited to- the American schools that educate the quarter of American students living in poverty. They also challenge with conviction the ideas that America’s educational decline can be defined by test scores as well as America’s failure to compete internationally. Tyack and Cuban differentiate between “policy talk”, “policy action” and “implementation of change” as far as changing the education system goes and contradictions across these three concepts reflect the disorder that arises from these contradictions in a democratic society going through social and economic changes. The basis of each chapter illuminates the contrasting efforts at school reform. Tyack and Cuban’s analysis of the current, mainstream school reform is that it is based on the adoption of quickly conjured up proposals and served on a large scale. Many of the authors’ insights come from educational research centered around spending time in schools and classrooms and identifying the important roles teachers, parents and students play in school reform- as opposed to vast generalizations about schooling based off of national data and surveys. However, the authors could have paid more attention to the impact of racial and cultural issues in U.S. society as far as education goes, in addition to the recognition that a child’s education is received only partly in schools and that other agencies can join with schools to create an education that aids in developing a more well-rounded individual. Reaching for social and economic change is a slow and complicated process, but what these authors reveal to us is that although utopia in its entirety cannot be fully attained, constantly striving to achieve such a goal is always the direction to aim for.
This article helps me to better understand teaching and learning through inquiry because it further stresses to me that at the heart of inquiry-based learning, is a quest for truth and to know what really “is”. In fact, inquiry is necessary in order to make strides towards creating a utopian school system. Effective inquiry is a complex process that leads individuals to convert information and data into useful knowledge so that they can be progressive members of society. Like effective inquiry, it will take individuals learning from mistakes of school reform in the past and observations of real classrooms in today’s world to create an innovative and effective strategy towards meaningful school reform. Additionally, inquiry is necessary in order to reach a consensus amongst policy talk, policy action and the actual implementation of change because school reform can only work when all three of these elements are in sync and working together. When we face the reality of today’s classrooms by learning to understand what schools are really like, and all the components of school reform come together in unity, only then can we achieve the closest thing to a utopian school system.
First, your interpretation through writing is very well expressed and linguistically appropriate. Second your understanding of what TtU is all about is well stated. You share how educational policy has often been a result of trial and error, while needing to be more culturally aware of a childs education, including extraneous factos.
The key points of this article are… The article discusses a book called Tinkering Toward Utopia, which discusses public school reform in the United States over the last hundred years. It discusses how schools are often seen as the major tool in building a better society and how reform efforts to move us towards this goal are slow, hence the title of the book. It also discusses how the book challenges the idea that school reform is necessary for the purpose of helping America compete more vigorously with international averages.
This article helps me to better understand teaching and learning through inquiry because it reflects the idea that inquiry is a necessary aspect of school reform if we are to ever reach a utopian school system. Inquiry is a process of learning that requires us to build off new and previous knowledge in order to obtain new and relevant information. In essence, school reform is similar in the way that it requires individuals to learn from previous reform movements and today’s classroom observations to make strides towards utopia. We can use previous reform movements as a basis of what is effective and ineffective, but we must also inquire about what makes today’s schools different from the past systems. Using these aspects together with inquiry can help us to refine the effectiveness of reform policies and push us towards a more utopian school system.
Do you agree with the notion that schools are the place for making America the place to compete? Should others be responsible too? You are absolutley right in sharing we should use the past to reflect upon what is effective reform...
The article discusses the author’s opinion of the book “Tinkering Toward Utopia” by David Tyack and Larry Cuban. Tyack and Cuban give a concise, rational analysis to school reform, something which occurs very rarely when a book is produced on this topic. Rather than criticizing the slow progress of school reform, they productively analyzed it. Furthermore, the article explains how in “Tinkering Toward Utopia” the authors share with the readers their understanding of the contrasts that have occurred throughout the years with school reform efforts. The last key point of this article is that even though Howe is a strong advocate for what Tyack and Cuban wrote in their book, he feels they could have discussed more in depth two topics which he believes will impact school reform in the United States, including the cultural and racial issues that the United States is currently facing and the fact that a child’s education is spent only partly in schools.
This article helps me to better understand teaching and learning through inquiry because it shows the importance of inquiry to reach understanding. The article shows the reader that through inquiry he can get a better understanding of how the process of school reform works as opposed to just unproductively, bashing it. Through inquiry Tyack and Cuban suggest to the reader to look at the history of school reform as well as to observe in actual schools to determine what is needed for the upcoming school reform. Lastly this article helps me to better understand teaching and learning through inquiry because it shows the importance of forming one’s own opinion through inquiry. Howe shares with the reader how Tyack and Cuban are opposed to what the mainstream of people believe about the United States education system, including that our students are falling behind on the international level. This shows the reader that it is alright to question and even argue against what the majority of people support.
The key points of “Tinkering Toward Utopia: A Century of Public School Reform” all sum up into one broad aspect discussed throughout the book .. the trial and errors of past reforms in school contrasted to a modern day reform which is currently going on which the article calls it a “slow game”. The article also points out other issues that have a big concern for reform but the book addresses little and I believe that these are two key points that should be discussed more. One being the cultural issues in U.S. society as they interact with what goes on within schools and classrooms, I believe that it is the interaction between cultures that will eliminate negative racial thoughts, but so many schools are failing at this completely. Another key point is that a child’s time is only partially in school and it is important to allow for a child’s mind to constantly develop and learn not only within the classroom.
This article helps me to better understand teaching and learning through inquiry because through inquiry which is essentially defined by the act of seeking to obtain knowledge Tyack and Cuban suggest to the reader to look at reforms that already happened in history with schools as well as to observe todays occurrences in actual schools to determine what is needed for the upcoming school reform in “tinkering” our societies schools down a better path. I don’t believe that anything can become a utopia but we can surely try hard to make it as close as possible! -John Napolitano
The key points of this article are: -The authors point out that as Americans we believe that school should be a way of bettering society by enriching skills, learning, and the viewpoints of citizens. - Perfecting this school system is a slow continuous effort, which is not a bad thing. -The authors also believe school reform is not and should not be a result of poor nationwide test scores. School reform has been continuously going on for years and poor test scores between countries can be affected by a whole list of in equivalences between students across the globe. Some of which include difference in curriculum, different motivations, different ideas, and different cultures. -The authors believe these changes that have been occurring in schools have been and may continue to be disorderly due to the democratic nature of America. For example in the 1950’s there was a push for large schools, now there is a push for smaller schools. -Due to this disorderly nature of the changes, large scale adoptions of quickly conceived plans have become the new norm in school reform and many of the people making these decisions are far removed from education. The teachers and individuals within the schools should be involved in these changes and a movement toward this is beginning. -The reviewer wishes that the authors had addressed how cultural and racial issues in society will impact education and how learning is now starting to be thought of as more then just what happened in a classroom while in school.
This article helps me to better understand teaching and learning through inquiry because as a teacher I have to be aware of the changes that have happened, that are happening, and that are going to happen. If a teacher is not aware of these changes they will not be able to use these reforms to help their students. The changes occurring in education currently are moving toward a push for inquiry driven classrooms. As an upcoming teacher, I will have to push students to ask questions, formulate ideas, and work through problems, which is different than what many students have had to do in the past.
This article mainly discussed school reform. It talks about how schools are a tremendous tool that is helping society today. The reform of the school systems is the "utopia" that the authors speak of. The reform is putting us a step closer to reaching the "perfect world."
This article helps me to better understand teaching and learning through inquiry because change is happening everyday. All future teachers should always be on their toes and be aware of the things to come. Reformed schools will happen one day and when it does we all should be ready. As a future teacher , i need to inspire my students and encourage them in any way possible because they aren't used to that kind of teaching style. They are used to the memorize and regurgitate method. That should not be happening in an inquiry based classroom. Students should want to ask questions because that way they will be able to learn and know the information rather than writing it down on their paper and forgetting it the year after.
The key points of Harold Howe’s article stem from his view of Tinkering Toward Utopia by David Tyack and Larry Cuban as a fresh take on the ideas of educational reform. He makes it a point to explain that Tinkering Toward Utopia shows the long history and slow changes provided by reforms, which the authors of the book take a closer look at. This leads him to express how the book differs from other literature on the subject. Tyack and Cuban look at all different factors of school reform instead of attacking the school system and the different efforts made. They explore different issues like the contradictions found among several reforms and the comparison between American test scores and those of other nations. In writing on these complicated issues, Howe points out that the authors do well and keep matters concise, which he considers a benefit. However much Howe enjoys Tinkering Toward Utopia, he still expresses his last point that the book should have included more on two topics—cultural issues and how students are out of school for more time than they are in school. Howe then concludes by exploring the book’s title and its implications further.
This article helps me to better understand teaching and learning through inquiry because…
This article helps me to better understand teaching and learning through inquiry because it promotes inquiry. Tyack and Cuban explore an array of topics in educational reform, which they had to inquire about. Howe at the end of the article inquires about the two topics he feels needed more elaboration and why Tyack and Cuban chose not to include more on them. In effect, he is also prompting the reader to inquire about this and the other issues raised in Tinkering Toward Utopia, like teachers should do in a classroom.
The key points of this article mainly discuss the school reform system that has been going on in this country for ages. Howe, the author of this article, identifies that school reform has been a “slow game” with “numerous predecessors” that, so far, did not work out. However, once this reform happens schools will reach the perfect world and the process of education will once again be a highly respected discipline.
It is well known that United States schooling systems cannot compare to schools in other countries. According to the authors, “In some nations [...] pupils are expected to uphold the national honor, whereas many U.S youths regard the test as yet another boring set of blanks to pencil in on answer sheets.” This analysis of Tyack and Cuban’s work mainly concentrates on the schools in the United States. I agree that the schools need to be worked on, but the less obvious answer is that students themselves may be at fault here, too.
For someone who has been educated in a school in Europe for over ten years, there is a drastic difference between the schooling systems in the USA and my home country. This is not to offend anyone nor to distinguish which nation is better, but why is it that the students in the USA find school boring? Why are they so disinterested?
This article helps me better understand teaching and learning through inquiry based learning. This aspect of learning could be one of the most challenging ways of learning yet, however, it is one way that could lead us to utopian education. Thanks to inquiry, students would be challenged to apply their previous knowledge to enhance their learning experience; not only to express themselves, but also to seek more knowledge on their own However, students need to learn how to have the right mindset to be successful and this comes from more effective teaching techniques and motivation/ encouragement from both parents and teachers.
Your question about school being boring, may be more of a question about understanding the role of schooling as a job/work or responsibility. But either way, it is the right question to be taking away from the reading!
This article is a book review and summary of David Tyack and Larry Cuban's analysis of US school reform in their book, Tinkering Towards Utopia. The book seems to be a "breath of fresh air" in terms of it's attitude towards discussing school reform. The nature of school reform is obviously complex, and the problems causing frequent gear shifts in school reform can be multifaceted. However, instead of negativity and condemnation regarding US schools and education, Tyack and Cuban take a responsible approach of analyzing the problems with American schools and reform efforts, and summing up their views of these issues in concise and clear prose.
This article helps me understand teaching and learning through inquiry by giving the me a concrete example of raising questions and points to be discussed. I am very interested in the point Howe raises about children only spending about 10% of their school years actually in school, thereby strictly limiting the influence schools have in the education and development of a child. I think it is important to ask what other factors in our society are influencing our student's overwhelmingly disinterested and unmotivated attitude towards their education. I believe problems with education and attitudes of students are heavily influenced, if not entirely caused by broader problems in our society. In many ways, school reform is contingent upon societal reform. Moving society as a whole towards utopia is much more complex issue than school reform, but it is an interesting issue to discuss.
The key points of this article are… A key point of this article is the fact that there will constantly be new reforms in education because every day brings something new and each generation learns in a different way. Another point, that I was unaware of, was the fact that there had been a vision for American high schools post WWII that was in favor of large classes. I know that large classes do exist in American schools today; I do not think that this vision had the effects James Bryant Conant hoped they would. Like all things, larger classes may work for some students but may not work for others. I believe this is the most difficult part of teaching because students can learn in so many ways. As the teacher, you need to be able to provide the best learning environment for your students.
This article helps me to better understand teaching and learning through inquiry because…..
The part of the article that really stood out to me and helps me better understand teaching and learning through inquiry was the international comparisons regarding student achievement. When children are learning differently, of course test scores will be different. Teachers need to help motivate their students to want to perform well on these tests. Though I understand this is a tough task, it can be done using the right tools and getting the students to think outside the box and ask questions. When students are comfortable enough to ask questions, they may gain the confidence in themselves to perform better in school. If students and teachers "tinker" together, schools may be able to reach that Utopia that Tyack and Cuban are hoping for.
The key points of this article are…….. about how important schooling is to the society. Through hundreds of years of reform, our society is hoping to perfect the education system. A Utopia in education does not come easy, and we are still far from perfection. They say that reform is not based on the fact of a decline in test scores and America failing to compete internationally. Conant thought the key to success was to limit the number of students in each school. Also to the contrary, some thought larger school would be better. It is hard to pin point what will work, because every student is different and they all learn in their own ways.
This article helps me to better understand teaching and learning through inquiry because….. i learned about how America compares to other countries internationally. It all comes down to the curriculum and how well each students learn from their teachers. We, as teachers, must know that every student learns in different ways. Some do better in smaller classrooms, while others learn better in a large classroom with their peers. Having students critically think can help them a lot better on their tests when they are forced to think, without tools such as their notes and books. Some students are bad test takers and this also may concern a lot of us. It is a slow and difficult task to reach a Utopia in education, and we may never come to perfection
The key points of this article are ...... the change in how society and the education system view the importance and the goal of education over the last 100 years in the United States. Probably the most important point of the article however is the fact the author believes along with the authors he is critiquing that tweaking and trying to improve on the current education system is a good thing. The author is saying it is a good thing that we continuously ask ourselves how can we make the education system better and even though we can never get to an Utopian education system it is important to still try to reach for this goal.
This article helps me to better understand teaching and learning through inquiry because.... the article and book are solely based on inquiry. How can we make the education system better? The article also touched on a point which I have agreed with for a while now it is not fair to compare different countries to the united states when it comes to test scores for two reasons. The first was mentioned in the article about Korean vs. American children and is true in many cultures; education in other countries is about respect for teachers and for honor of family and country, far different from the ideals of families in America. The second point being that in other countries teachers and students don't have to worry about a diverse cultural background of students, which we as American educators have to deal with frequently.
The key points of this article are about how the authors of Tinkering Toward Utopia have analyzed school reform movement of the past century and why it has not been successful. Tyack and Cuban state that America cannot compete internationally because different countries have different curriculums and because students in America are being compared with the top percentile of students in other countries. They touch upon how school reform is trial and error while discussing that larger schools were favored over small schools, but later in time large schools were argued to not bolster a sense of community within the schools. The authors also analyzed how reforms are being placed in schools by people who look at national data and test scores but are not involved in the schools and do not understand how they work. Educational research must be done by those who are involved in the schools and the interaction with the children. This article better helps me understand teaching and learning through inquiry because it shows how inquiry can successfully reform schools. Through analyzing past reforms Tyack and Cuban have used inquiry to understand why school reform has been so slow over the past 100 years. Through inquiry not only can we learn what may work and what may not work, but we can also understand the reasons why. Tyack and Cuban realize that we must use inquiry as well as the insights of teachers and parents who are involved in schools in order to create effective teaching and learning in schools.
The key points of this article are…….. That, as the book Tinkering Toward Utopia shows, perfecting schools has been a very long, slow moving process. There have been an uncountable amount of school reform movements, all of which only helped out partly, if at all. Tyack and Cuban discuss how the U.S. seems to be falling behind other countries. They say this is because of different curriculum patterns and motivation of the students. "In some nations — Korea, for example — pupils are expected to uphold the national honor, whereas many U.S. youths regard the test as yet another boring set of blanks to pencil in on answer sheets." They also show how it was argued that larger schools could offer a broader and deeper curriculum to meet the learning needs of the growing variety of student backgrounds. However, today, they believe that large schools produce feelings of alienation and anonymity among students and isolation among staff.
This article helps me to better understand teaching and learning through inquiry because….. As future teachers, we must be aware that teaching reform is inevitable. No matter how successful a certain strategy may appear to be, there will always be flaws. Even as we take this class, reform is taking place. Schools across the nation are changing to the common core, in hopes that it will improve test scores and intelligence across the nation. We must get students to want to inquire on topics, and to want to succeed, just as the Korean students do. If we can do that, then students will be motivated to get better grades and become more intelligent.
The key points of this article are…….. The article Tinkering Toward Utopia discussed why we have yet to perfect schools in America. Our country has produced many school reform movements over the last one hundred years; however they haven’t done the job we were hoping they would. Some helped more than others along the way but for numerous reasons we are still looking for the “perfect” the schools in the United States. The authors of the article compared schooling in the United States to schools in countries across the world. As a result, the United States is falling behind. I believe this has something to do with how other countries put so much importance in school, in example China and Japan they focus so much on school work and even attend school after hours year round. Though, in the United States children take our education system for granted and as result don’t put in an as much effort as other places around the world.
This article helps me to better understand teaching and learning through inquiry because….. The whole point of this article is how can we make education better? How can we continue to get our students to learn when we know new reforms will be created on a daily basis and put a damper on the education world? This article helps me better understand teaching and learning through inquiry because it supports inquiry teaching which allows me to use student centered lessons, create lesson plans that really grab the students attention where they want to participate and learn. To get my students to enjoy teaching their classmates about the topics we are covering in the classroom. The more the students are willing to be active participants in your classroom the more they will learn and hopefully test scores will increase and overall the grades in the classroom will improve.
This article has pointed out that over the course of several years, schools in the United States of America have changed in various ways and yet what the students get out of their school experience has only slightly changed over the years. In some countries, students take their studies very seriously. In the U.S., students are bored and are only going to school because they have to. They don't want to be bothered with doing the work if they don't need it later on in life. Another point this article pointed out is the ongoing debate on which direction we should take to better the schools and better the experience the students get.
The fact the schools are constantly changing and future teachers as well as current teachers have to deal with the changes to the curriculum among other changes in the school shows me that I have to go into teaching with an open mind and a new way of teaching every year since I'll never know when something is going to change. Sticking with the same routine every year is great and you become comfortable with it but it doesn't always work when each year is different than the year before. New students, new technology, a new curriculum, and a new way of teaching. This is what we as teachers have to remember at the beginning and the end of each school year.
The key points of this article are school reform and Tyack and Cuban's book "Tinkering Toward Utopia". In Tyack and Cuban's book, they discuss school reform in the U.S. over the course of time. They point out that there have been many attempts at school reform and how they either didn't work, only partially worked, or were used as stepping stones for other reform ideas. They also discuss how the rankings of student achievement in the U.S. compared to other nations are inaccurate due to the uneven percentage of students being tested and the seriousness in which the students from other nations are taught to take the evaluation test. The book also touches upon the differences in school reform over the years due to the changes in society over time.
This article helps me to better understand teaching and learning through inquiry because school reform has developed over the years through the examination of past efforts. Many school reform ideas have grown and evolved from previous school reform efforts. I found the use of the word utopian very interesting. I don't feel that we will ever reach a "perfect" solution to the problems in education because of the fact that we as a society are always growing and evolving, however, we will continuously try to perfect our schools systems and reach for the idea of a utopia.
In this article, the authors explore some basic questions about the nature of educational reform. Why have Americans come to believe that schooling has regressed? Have educational reforms occurred in cycles, and if so, why? Why has it been so difficult to change the basic institutional patterns of schooling? What actually happened when reformers tried to "reinvent" schooling?
Tyack and Cuban argue that a historical nature of most current reform proposals magnifies defects and understates the difficulty of changing the system. Policy talk has alternated between lamentation and overconfidence. The authors suggest that reformers today need to focus on ways to help teachers improve instruction from the inside out instead of decreeing change by remote control, and those reformers must also keep in mind the democratic purposes that guide public education.
This article helps me to learn and understand better about schools reform. In addition being inquisitive teachers can do better and can help students to learn and do better in school.
A key point of this article is that building schools to be perfect has taken a long time and we still haven't reached the goal that society has wanted. The title, Tinkering Toward Utopia, portrays the slow movement towards this perfection in the education system. The reforming of schools has had many key leaders who have tried to achieve this perfection, but the book shows how they have all failed. Tyack and Cuban talk about how America's math and science assessments may not be as low as we think compared to other countries. When you take a look at the students in each country, the statistics are unfair in that America averages the scores of a particular age range, while other countries are using the top students' scores. Also, the teaching habits and motivation behind each student have to account for the assessment scores. Every country teaches a different way and each student has different expectations. Another key point is that there are many contrasts among school reform efforts. In the early 1900's, the ideas to improve schooling were to control the education, whereas almost a century later, new ideas of "…decentralization, deregulation, and choice will cure what is wrong with education".
This article helps me to better understand teaching and learning through inquiry because so much research has been done throughout history to improve the conditions of education through teaching an learning. Studies have been done to find out why education systems may be better in other countries as opposed to ours. It's important to look into these facts so that we can improve our own society. Also, this article shows that the "tinkering" around educational reform isn't necessarily a bad thing. Whether we are improving a little or a lot, it is still positive change toward a "utopian" educational system.
The key point in this article is that high school reform is very difficult. Over many years changes have been made to schools in the United States but the students don't seem to be getting out any more than before changes. The struggle is how to make changes that will benefit all students throughout the country. In other countries children are eager to learn and want to go to school while the kids in the United States are bored and inattentive in the classroom.
This article helps me to better understand teaching and learning through inquiry because it allows me to see that change is hard in the high school setting but it can be helpful in some aspects. It shows me that change is good as long as it helps the students in the long run.
The key points of “Tinkering Toward Utopia: A Century of Public School Reform” are centered around the notion enforced by professors David Tyack and Larry Cuban that although Americans view schools as educational institutes meant to enrich the skills and viewpoints of its citizens, and thus build a better society, it has been shown time and again how the efforts to perfect American schools have been a game of trial and error. Many individuals who have come up with ideas as to how to achieve this utopia have not achieved that goal at all or have done so only partly. However, Tyack and Cuban avoid condemning the American public school system as has been done in the past and instead focus in on the most pressing problems, which include- but are not limited to- the American schools that educate the quarter of American students living in poverty. They also challenge with conviction the ideas that America’s educational decline can be defined by test scores as well as America’s failure to compete internationally. Tyack and Cuban differentiate between “policy talk”, “policy action” and “implementation of change” as far as changing the education system goes and contradictions across these three concepts reflect the disorder that arises from these contradictions in a democratic society going through social and economic changes. The basis of each chapter illuminates the contrasting efforts at school reform. Tyack and Cuban’s analysis of the current, mainstream school reform is that it is based on the adoption of quickly conjured up proposals and served on a large scale. Many of the authors’ insights come from educational research centered around spending time in schools and classrooms and identifying the important roles teachers, parents and students play in school reform- as opposed to vast generalizations about schooling based off of national data and surveys. However, the authors could have paid more attention to the impact of racial and cultural issues in U.S. society as far as education goes, in addition to the recognition that a child’s education is received only partly in schools and that other agencies can join with schools to create an education that aids in developing a more well-rounded individual. Reaching for social and economic change is a slow and complicated process, but what these authors reveal to us is that although utopia in its entirety cannot be fully attained, constantly striving to achieve such a goal is always the direction to aim for.
ReplyDeleteThis article helps me to better understand teaching and learning through inquiry because it further stresses to me that at the heart of inquiry-based learning, is a quest for truth and to know what really “is”. In fact, inquiry is necessary in order to make strides towards creating a utopian school system. Effective inquiry is a complex process that leads individuals to convert information and data into useful knowledge so that they can be progressive members of society. Like effective inquiry, it will take individuals learning from mistakes of school reform in the past and observations of real classrooms in today’s world to create an innovative and effective strategy towards meaningful school reform. Additionally, inquiry is necessary in order to reach a consensus amongst policy talk, policy action and the actual implementation of change because school reform can only work when all three of these elements are in sync and working together. When we face the reality of today’s classrooms by learning to understand what schools are really like, and all the components of school reform come together in unity, only then can we achieve the closest thing to a utopian school system.
First, your interpretation through writing is very well expressed and linguistically appropriate. Second your understanding of what TtU is all about is well stated. You share how educational policy has often been a result of trial and error, while needing to be more culturally aware of a childs education, including extraneous factos.
DeleteThe key points of this article are…
ReplyDeleteThe article discusses a book called Tinkering Toward Utopia, which discusses public school reform in the United States over the last hundred years. It discusses how schools are often seen as the major tool in building a better society and how reform efforts to move us towards this goal are slow, hence the title of the book. It also discusses how the book challenges the idea that school reform is necessary for the purpose of helping America compete more vigorously with international averages.
This article helps me to better understand teaching and learning through inquiry because it reflects the idea that inquiry is a necessary aspect of school reform if we are to ever reach a utopian school system. Inquiry is a process of learning that requires us to build off new and previous knowledge in order to obtain new and relevant information. In essence, school reform is similar in the way that it requires individuals to learn from previous reform movements and today’s classroom observations to make strides towards utopia. We can use previous reform movements as a basis of what is effective and ineffective, but we must also inquire about what makes today’s schools different from the past systems. Using these aspects together with inquiry can help us to refine the effectiveness of reform policies and push us towards a more utopian school system.
Do you agree with the notion that schools are the place for making America the place to compete? Should others be responsible too? You are absolutley right in sharing we should use the past to reflect upon what is effective reform...
DeleteThe article discusses the author’s opinion of the book “Tinkering Toward Utopia” by David Tyack and Larry Cuban. Tyack and Cuban give a concise, rational analysis to school reform, something which occurs very rarely when a book is produced on this topic. Rather than criticizing the slow progress of school reform, they productively analyzed it. Furthermore, the article explains how in “Tinkering Toward Utopia” the authors share with the readers their understanding of the contrasts that have occurred throughout the years with school reform efforts. The last key point of this article is that even though Howe is a strong advocate for what Tyack and Cuban wrote in their book, he feels they could have discussed more in depth two topics which he believes will impact school reform in the United States, including the cultural and racial issues that the United States is currently facing and the fact that a child’s education is spent only partly in schools.
ReplyDeleteThis article helps me to better understand teaching and learning through inquiry because it shows the importance of inquiry to reach understanding. The article shows the reader that through inquiry he can get a better understanding of how the process of school reform works as opposed to just unproductively, bashing it. Through inquiry Tyack and Cuban suggest to the reader to look at the history of school reform as well as to observe in actual schools to determine what is needed for the upcoming school reform. Lastly this article helps me to better understand teaching and learning through inquiry because it shows the importance of forming one’s own opinion through inquiry. Howe shares with the reader how Tyack and Cuban are opposed to what the mainstream of people believe about the United States education system, including that our students are falling behind on the international level. This shows the reader that it is alright to question and even argue against what the majority of people support.
The key points of “Tinkering Toward Utopia: A Century of Public School Reform” all sum up into one broad aspect discussed throughout the book .. the trial and errors of past reforms in school contrasted to a modern day reform which is currently going on which the article calls it a “slow game”. The article also points out other issues that have a big concern for reform but the book addresses little and I believe that these are two key points that should be discussed more. One being the cultural issues in U.S. society as they interact with what goes on within schools and classrooms, I believe that it is the interaction between cultures that will eliminate negative racial thoughts, but so many schools are failing at this completely. Another key point is that a child’s time is only partially in school and it is important to allow for a child’s mind to constantly develop and learn not only within the classroom.
ReplyDeleteThis article helps me to better understand teaching and learning through inquiry because through inquiry which is essentially defined by the act of seeking to obtain knowledge Tyack and Cuban suggest to the reader to look at reforms that already happened in history with schools as well as to observe todays occurrences in actual schools to determine what is needed for the upcoming school reform in “tinkering” our societies schools down a better path. I don’t believe that anything can become a utopia but we can surely try hard to make it as close as possible!
-John Napolitano
The key points of this article are:
ReplyDelete-The authors point out that as Americans we believe that school should be a way of bettering society by enriching skills, learning, and the viewpoints of citizens.
- Perfecting this school system is a slow continuous effort, which is not a bad thing.
-The authors also believe school reform is not and should not be a result of poor nationwide test scores. School reform has been continuously going on for years and poor test scores between countries can be affected by a whole list of in equivalences between students across the globe. Some of which include difference in curriculum, different motivations, different ideas, and different cultures.
-The authors believe these changes that have been occurring in schools have been and may continue to be disorderly due to the democratic nature of America. For example in the 1950’s there was a push for large schools, now there is a push for smaller schools.
-Due to this disorderly nature of the changes, large scale adoptions of quickly conceived plans have become the new norm in school reform and many of the people making these decisions are far removed from education. The teachers and individuals within the schools should be involved in these changes and a movement toward this is beginning.
-The reviewer wishes that the authors had addressed how cultural and racial issues in society will impact education and how learning is now starting to be thought of as more then just what happened in a classroom while in school.
This article helps me to better understand teaching and learning through inquiry because as a teacher I have to be aware of the changes that have happened, that are happening, and that are going to happen. If a teacher is not aware of these changes they will not be able to use these reforms to help their students. The changes occurring in education currently are moving toward a push for inquiry driven classrooms. As an upcoming teacher, I will have to push students to ask questions, formulate ideas, and work through problems, which is different than what many students have had to do in the past.
This article mainly discussed school reform. It talks about how schools are a tremendous tool that is helping society today. The reform of the school systems is the "utopia" that the authors speak of. The reform is putting us a step closer to reaching the "perfect world."
ReplyDeleteThis article helps me to better understand teaching and learning through inquiry because change is happening everyday. All future teachers should always be on their toes and be aware of the things to come. Reformed schools will happen one day and when it does we all should be ready. As a future teacher , i need to inspire my students and encourage them in any way possible because they aren't used to that kind of teaching style. They are used to the memorize and regurgitate method. That should not be happening in an inquiry based classroom. Students should want to ask questions because that way they will be able to learn and know the information rather than writing it down on their paper and forgetting it the year after.
YOU are a student...do you want to ask questions?
DeleteThe key points of this article are…
ReplyDeleteThe key points of Harold Howe’s article stem from his view of Tinkering Toward Utopia by David Tyack and Larry Cuban as a fresh take on the ideas of educational reform. He makes it a point to explain that Tinkering Toward Utopia shows the long history and slow changes provided by reforms, which the authors of the book take a closer look at. This leads him to express how the book differs from other literature on the subject. Tyack and Cuban look at all different factors of school reform instead of attacking the school system and the different efforts made. They explore different issues like the contradictions found among several reforms and the comparison between American test scores and those of other nations. In writing on these complicated issues, Howe points out that the authors do well and keep matters concise, which he considers a benefit. However much Howe enjoys Tinkering Toward Utopia, he still expresses his last point that the book should have included more on two topics—cultural issues and how students are out of school for more time than they are in school. Howe then concludes by exploring the book’s title and its implications further.
This article helps me to better understand teaching and learning through inquiry because…
This article helps me to better understand teaching and learning through inquiry because it promotes inquiry. Tyack and Cuban explore an array of topics in educational reform, which they had to inquire about. Howe at the end of the article inquires about the two topics he feels needed more elaboration and why Tyack and Cuban chose not to include more on them. In effect, he is also prompting the reader to inquire about this and the other issues raised in Tinkering Toward Utopia, like teachers should do in a classroom.
The key points of this article mainly discuss the school reform system that has been going on in this country for ages. Howe, the author of this article, identifies that school reform has been a “slow game” with “numerous predecessors” that, so far, did not work out. However, once this reform happens schools will reach the perfect world and the process of education will once again be a highly respected discipline.
ReplyDeleteIt is well known that United States schooling systems cannot compare to schools in other countries. According to the authors, “In some nations [...] pupils are expected to uphold the national honor, whereas many U.S youths regard the test as yet another boring set of blanks to pencil in on answer sheets.” This analysis of Tyack and Cuban’s work mainly concentrates on the schools in the United States. I agree that the schools need to be worked on, but the less obvious answer is that students themselves may be at fault here, too.
For someone who has been educated in a school in Europe for over ten years, there is a drastic difference between the schooling systems in the USA and my home country. This is not to offend anyone nor to distinguish which nation is better, but why is it that the students in the USA find school boring? Why are they so disinterested?
This article helps me better understand teaching and learning through inquiry based learning. This aspect of learning could be one of the most challenging ways of learning yet, however, it is one way that could lead us to utopian education. Thanks to inquiry, students would be challenged to apply their previous knowledge to enhance their learning experience; not only to express themselves, but also to seek more knowledge on their own However, students need to learn how to have the right mindset to be successful and this comes from more effective teaching techniques and motivation/ encouragement from both parents and teachers.
Your question about school being boring, may be more of a question about understanding the role of schooling as a job/work or responsibility. But either way, it is the right question to be taking away from the reading!
DeleteThis article is a book review and summary of David Tyack and Larry Cuban's analysis of US school reform in their book, Tinkering Towards Utopia. The book seems to be a "breath of fresh air" in terms of it's attitude towards discussing school reform. The nature of school reform is obviously complex, and the problems causing frequent gear shifts in school reform can be multifaceted. However, instead of negativity and condemnation regarding US schools and education, Tyack and Cuban take a responsible approach of analyzing the problems with American schools and reform efforts, and summing up their views of these issues in concise and clear prose.
ReplyDeleteThis article helps me understand teaching and learning through inquiry by giving the me a concrete example of raising questions and points to be discussed. I am very interested in the point Howe raises about children only spending about 10% of their school years actually in school, thereby strictly limiting the influence schools have in the education and development of a child. I think it is important to ask what other factors in our society are influencing our student's overwhelmingly disinterested and unmotivated attitude towards their education. I believe problems with education and attitudes of students are heavily influenced, if not entirely caused by broader problems in our society. In many ways, school reform is contingent upon societal reform. Moving society as a whole towards utopia is much more complex issue than school reform, but it is an interesting issue to discuss.
The key points of this article are…
ReplyDeleteA key point of this article is the fact that there will constantly be new reforms in education because every day brings something new and each generation learns in a different way. Another point, that I was unaware of, was the fact that there had been a vision for American high schools post WWII that was in favor of large classes. I know that large classes do exist in American schools today; I do not think that this vision had the effects James Bryant Conant hoped they would. Like all things, larger classes may work for some students but may not work for others. I believe this is the most difficult part of teaching because students can learn in so many ways. As the teacher, you need to be able to provide the best learning environment for your students.
This article helps me to better understand teaching and learning through inquiry because…..
The part of the article that really stood out to me and helps me better understand teaching and learning through inquiry was the international comparisons regarding student achievement. When children are learning differently, of course test scores will be different. Teachers need to help motivate their students to want to perform well on these tests. Though I understand this is a tough task, it can be done using the right tools and getting the students to think outside the box and ask questions. When students are comfortable enough to ask questions, they may gain the confidence in themselves to perform better in school. If students and teachers "tinker" together, schools may be able to reach that Utopia that Tyack and Cuban are hoping for.
The key points of this article are……..
ReplyDeleteabout how important schooling is to the society. Through hundreds of years of reform, our society is hoping to perfect the education system. A Utopia in education does not come easy, and we are still far from perfection. They say that reform is not based on the fact of a decline in test scores and America failing to compete internationally. Conant thought the key to success was to limit the number of students in each school. Also to the contrary, some thought larger school would be better. It is hard to pin point what will work, because every student is different and they all learn in their own ways.
This article helps me to better understand teaching and learning through inquiry because…..
i learned about how America compares to other countries internationally. It all comes down to the curriculum and how well each students learn from their teachers. We, as teachers, must know that every student learns in different ways. Some do better in smaller classrooms, while others learn better in a large classroom with their peers. Having students critically think can help them a lot better on their tests when they are forced to think, without tools such as their notes and books. Some students are bad test takers and this also may concern a lot of us. It is a slow and difficult task to reach a Utopia in education, and we may never come to perfection
The key points of this article are ......
ReplyDeletethe change in how society and the education system view the importance and the goal of education over the last 100 years in the United States. Probably the most important point of the article however is the fact the author believes along with the authors he is critiquing that tweaking and trying to improve on the current education system is a good thing. The author is saying it is a good thing that we continuously ask ourselves how can we make the education system better and even though we can never get to an Utopian education system it is important to still try to reach for this goal.
This article helps me to better understand teaching and learning through inquiry because....
the article and book are solely based on inquiry. How can we make the education system better? The article also touched on a point which I have agreed with for a while now it is not fair to compare different countries to the united states when it comes to test scores for two reasons. The first was mentioned in the article about Korean vs. American children and is true in many cultures; education in other countries is about respect for teachers and for honor of family and country, far different from the ideals of families in America. The second point being that in other countries teachers and students don't have to worry about a diverse cultural background of students, which we as American educators have to deal with frequently.
Matt Musumeci
The key points of this article are about how the authors of Tinkering Toward Utopia have analyzed school reform movement of the past century and why it has not been successful. Tyack and Cuban state that America cannot compete internationally because different countries have different curriculums and because students in America are being compared with the top percentile of students in other countries. They touch upon how school reform is trial and error while discussing that larger schools were favored over small schools, but later in time large schools were argued to not bolster a sense of community within the schools. The authors also analyzed how reforms are being placed in schools by people who look at national data and test scores but are not involved in the schools and do not understand how they work. Educational research must be done by those who are involved in the schools and the interaction with the children.
ReplyDeleteThis article better helps me understand teaching and learning through inquiry because it shows how inquiry can successfully reform schools. Through analyzing past reforms Tyack and Cuban have used inquiry to understand why school reform has been so slow over the past 100 years. Through inquiry not only can we learn what may work and what may not work, but we can also understand the reasons why. Tyack and Cuban realize that we must use inquiry as well as the insights of teachers and parents who are involved in schools in order to create effective teaching and learning in schools.
The key points of this article are……..
ReplyDeleteThat, as the book Tinkering Toward Utopia shows, perfecting schools has been a very long, slow moving process. There have been an uncountable amount of school reform movements, all of which only helped out partly, if at all. Tyack and Cuban discuss how the U.S. seems to be falling behind other countries. They say this is because of different curriculum patterns and motivation of the students. "In some nations — Korea, for example — pupils are expected to uphold the national honor, whereas many U.S. youths regard the test as yet another boring set of blanks to pencil in on answer sheets." They also show how it was argued that larger schools could offer a broader and deeper curriculum to meet the learning needs of the growing variety of student backgrounds. However, today, they believe that large schools produce feelings of alienation and anonymity among students and isolation among staff.
This article helps me to better understand teaching and learning through inquiry because…..
As future teachers, we must be aware that teaching reform is inevitable. No matter how successful a certain strategy may appear to be, there will always be flaws. Even as we take this class, reform is taking place. Schools across the nation are changing to the common core, in hopes that it will improve test scores and intelligence across the nation. We must get students to want to inquire on topics, and to want to succeed, just as the Korean students do. If we can do that, then students will be motivated to get better grades and become more intelligent.
Dan Limone
The key points of this article are……..
ReplyDeleteThe article Tinkering Toward Utopia discussed why we have yet to perfect schools in America. Our country has produced many school reform movements over the last one hundred years; however they haven’t done the job we were hoping they would. Some helped more than others along the way but for numerous reasons we are still looking for the “perfect” the schools in the United States. The authors of the article compared schooling in the United States to schools in countries across the world. As a result, the United States is falling behind. I believe this has something to do with how other countries put so much importance in school, in example China and Japan they focus so much on school work and even attend school after hours year round. Though, in the United States children take our education system for granted and as result don’t put in an as much effort as other places around the world.
This article helps me to better understand teaching and learning through inquiry because…..
The whole point of this article is how can we make education better? How can we continue to get our students to learn when we know new reforms will be created on a daily basis and put a damper on the education world? This article helps me better understand teaching and learning through inquiry because it supports inquiry teaching which allows me to use student centered lessons, create lesson plans that really grab the students attention where they want to participate and learn. To get my students to enjoy teaching their classmates about the topics we are covering in the classroom. The more the students are willing to be active participants in your classroom the more they will learn and hopefully test scores will increase and overall the grades in the classroom will improve.
This article has pointed out that over the course of several years, schools in the United States of America have changed in various ways and yet what the students get out of their school experience has only slightly changed over the years. In some countries, students take their studies very seriously. In the U.S., students are bored and are only going to school because they have to. They don't want to be bothered with doing the work if they don't need it later on in life. Another point this article pointed out is the ongoing debate on which direction we should take to better the schools and better the experience the students get.
ReplyDeleteThe fact the schools are constantly changing and future teachers as well as current teachers have to deal with the changes to the curriculum among other changes in the school shows me that I have to go into teaching with an open mind and a new way of teaching every year since I'll never know when something is going to change. Sticking with the same routine every year is great and you become comfortable with it but it doesn't always work when each year is different than the year before. New students, new technology, a new curriculum, and a new way of teaching. This is what we as teachers have to remember at the beginning and the end of each school year.
The key points of this article are school reform and Tyack and Cuban's book "Tinkering Toward Utopia". In Tyack and Cuban's book, they discuss school reform in the U.S. over the course of time. They point out that there have been many attempts at school reform and how they either didn't work, only partially worked, or were used as stepping stones for other reform ideas. They also discuss how the rankings of student achievement in the U.S. compared to other nations are inaccurate due to the uneven percentage of students being tested and the seriousness in which the students from other nations are taught to take the evaluation test. The book also touches upon the differences in school reform over the years due to the changes in society over time.
ReplyDeleteThis article helps me to better understand teaching and learning through inquiry because school reform has developed over the years through the examination of past efforts. Many school reform ideas have grown and evolved from previous school reform efforts. I found the use of the word utopian very interesting. I don't feel that we will ever reach a "perfect" solution to the problems in education because of the fact that we as a society are always growing and evolving, however, we will continuously try to perfect our schools systems and reach for the idea of a utopia.
- Michele Treadwell
In this article, the authors explore some basic questions about the nature of educational reform. Why have Americans come to believe that schooling has regressed? Have educational reforms occurred in cycles, and if so, why? Why has it been so difficult to change the basic institutional patterns of schooling? What actually happened when reformers tried to "reinvent" schooling?
ReplyDeleteTyack and Cuban argue that a historical nature of most current reform proposals magnifies defects and understates the difficulty of changing the system. Policy talk has alternated between lamentation and overconfidence. The authors suggest that reformers today need to focus on ways to help teachers improve instruction from the inside out instead of decreeing change by remote control, and those reformers must also keep in mind the democratic purposes that guide public education.
This article helps me to learn and understand better about schools reform. In addition being inquisitive teachers can do better and can help students to learn and do better in school.
A key point of this article is that building schools to be perfect has taken a long time and we still haven't reached the goal that society has wanted. The title, Tinkering Toward Utopia, portrays the slow movement towards this perfection in the education system. The reforming of schools has had many key leaders who have tried to achieve this perfection, but the book shows how they have all failed. Tyack and Cuban talk about how America's math and science assessments may not be as low as we think compared to other countries. When you take a look at the students in each country, the statistics are unfair in that America averages the scores of a particular age range, while other countries are using the top students' scores. Also, the teaching habits and motivation behind each student have to account for the assessment scores. Every country teaches a different way and each student has different expectations. Another key point is that there are many contrasts among school reform efforts. In the early 1900's, the ideas to improve schooling were to control the education, whereas almost a century later, new ideas of "…decentralization, deregulation, and choice will cure what is wrong with education".
ReplyDeleteThis article helps me to better understand teaching and learning through inquiry because so much research has been done throughout history to improve the conditions of education through teaching an learning. Studies have been done to find out why education systems may be better in other countries as opposed to ours. It's important to look into these facts so that we can improve our own society. Also, this article shows that the "tinkering" around educational reform isn't necessarily a bad thing. Whether we are improving a little or a lot, it is still positive change toward a "utopian" educational system.
The key point in this article is that high school reform is very difficult. Over many years changes have been made to schools in the United States but the students don't seem to be getting out any more than before changes. The struggle is how to make changes that will benefit all students throughout the country. In other countries children are eager to learn and want to go to school while the kids in the United States are bored and inattentive in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteThis article helps me to better understand teaching and learning through inquiry because it allows me to see that change is hard in the high school setting but it can be helpful in some aspects. It shows me that change is good as long as it helps the students in the long run.