1.

Essentialists Beliefs • Essentialism tries to instill all students with the most basic knowledge,
skills, and character development. • Essentialists believe that students should be taught to
be a model citizen. • Essentialists believe that teachers should teach traditional moral values
and virtues. • Essentialists believe in mastery learning.
2. 5. Purpose of Schooling • Prepare students to be productive, contributing members of
society. • For essentialist, the aim of education is to teach the young the essentials they need
to live well in the modern world. • Essentialists teach the basic subjects.
3. 6. Curriculum of Essentialism
4. 7. • The teacher teaches discipline and hard work. • The teacher is an expert of content
knowledge. • The teacher is accountable for student learning. TEACHER’S ROLE • As an
expert • Impart essential knowledge • Direct focused tasks Teacher’s Role
5. 8. Teaching Strategies • Use instructional strategies • Lecture • Memorization • Homework •
Teacher and subject centered • Mastery learning
6. 9. Students should be passive and be ready to learn what the teacher presents to them.
STUDENT’S ROLE • Listen and learn • Trust that the teacher knows best Role of the
Student
7. 10. Curriculum • Strong emphasis on basic skills in elementary schools and on disciplined
knowledge and scholastic achievement in secondary schools. • There should be a common
core curriculum that is taught to all students. • Essentialists believe that the core knowledge
could change.
8. 11. Criticism of Essentialism in Education Positive: • Stability of education Negative: •
Students take more on the passive role on their education

1. Progressivism focuses on real-world problem solving and individual development. Learning

is an active, democratic and social process. Knowledge is constructed by the student as they
experiment and solve problems.
2. 3. The main principle is that humans are social animals who learn best in real- time activities
with other people.
3. 4. Strong emphasis on problem-based learning to develop solving and analysis skills.
4. 5. Instructors should focus on providing students with the necessary skills and knowledge to
survive and to succeed in our competitive society.
5. 6. Strong emphasis on problem-based learning to develop solving and analysis skills. •
means experienced-based learning • or learning by doing • or learn best in real-time activities
• or human knowledge should be linked to practical social experiences • or practice of new
education.
6. 7. Role of Teachers • As a facilitator or guide. • Determine student interest. • Involve students
in curriculum development. • Stimulate direct learning process.

Progressivism is where teachers believe that each child is unique and will
learn individually based off what is significant for that person's life to know and
understand. As a progressivist teacher they will guide and coach in the
classroom. In the classroom the teacher will have a lot of group work to have
students work together to find curiosity and feed off what one already knows.
The teacher will also be able to tend to children more one on one, allowing
time to help each child meet their own needs. This type of environment
promotes curiosity, fun, and is a safe place for children to explore their own
minds without being told they are wrong. Another thing about a progressivist
teacher is that they use a lot of real life examples, they are preparing children
for the "real world." Still allows the children to incorporate structure with the
class constructing their own knowledge. This theory is based off student
direction.

Existentialist education could happen in a variety of classroom settings: a round conference table, an
empty room, under a tree. Because the teacher is a facilitator of learning and self-reflection, rather
than a didactic authority, a setting that places learners and teacher on an equal footing is ideal. A
circular arrangement of learners and teachers promotes discussion and ensures that everybody in the
classroom can be a participant. Because providing exposure to different experiences is a key part of
the teacher’s role, an existentially-designed class might travel to different locations.

Franklin Bobbitt

Bobbitt believed that curriculum should start with outlining what the student
needs to know in what he called objectives. Next it was necessary to develop
activities that the students do to achieve the objective. Bobbitt emphasized
having students complete activities in order to learning.

The use of objectives was somewhat revolutionary. Bobbitt was heavily

influenced by science and behaviorism with their focus on observable change.
Bobbitt brought this idea of observable change into education in his
development of objectives.

Bobbitt also developed several guidelines for developing objective. Some of

the more prominent ones are in the list below.

 Objectives should be practical

 Objectives should prepare students for adulthood
 Involve the community in developing objectives
 Sequence objectives by grade level

These concepts were completely groundbreaking in providing a framework for

curriculum development. Now educators had an approach, even if it was not
perfect, for developing curriculum for students.

W.W. Charters

Charters was also a behaviorist like Bobbitt. He developed a method for

selecting objectives based on social needs. After developing or selecting
objectives, Charters encouraged analysis to see how objectives are applied in
the classroom. This idea of assessing the implementation of objectives
providing the groundwork for curriculum evaluation.

Charters viewed the curriculum as scientific. In his view, curriculum was a

collection of goals that the students needed to achieve in order to have
competency. This idea has always been a part of education but Charters
stated it specifically and made it clear .

Bobbitt and Charters Legacy

Educators are indebted to the work of Bobbitt and Charters. These men laid
down the idea of objectives. The concept of objectives would blossom into
goals, aims, standards, learning outcomes, indicators, and benchmarks.
Though all these terms are confusing the really are at heart just different
forms of objectives depending on the level of specificity.

Bobbitt and Charter also introduced the idea of learning experiences. These
are the things the students do to learn. Again this led to such concepts as
experiential learning, hands-on activities, authentic assessment, and more.
Action-based learning is the norm today.

Lastly, Bobbitt and Charters were some of the first proponents of consulting
the community in developing curriculum. In other words, a needs assessment
was necessary before determining what to teach. Consulting stakeholders is
now considered best practice in education.

Bobbitt and Charters influenced in education continues to this day. They

provided the foundational concepts of many standard operation procedures in
education. The world of education would be different today if not for the work
of these two men.
Kilpatrick developed the Project Method for early childhood education, which was a form
of Progressive Education that organized curriculum and classroom activities around a subject's
central theme. He believed that the role of a teacher should be that of a "guide" as opposed to an
authoritarian figure. Kilpatrick believed that children should direct their own learning according to
their interests and should be allowed to explore their environment, experiencing their learning
through the natural senses.[1] Proponents of Progressive Education and the Project Method reject
traditional schooling that focuses on memorization, rote learning, strictly organized classrooms
(desks in rows; students always seated), and typical forms of assessment.

For Kilpatrick, education was about the social development of the child rather
than their cognitive development through the mastery of content. This is not
saying that the mind did not matter. The emphasis was on learning to think
and not focusing on what to think.

The curriculum should come from real-life and not compartmentalized subject
matter. This idea calls for a need for an integrated curriculum that stressed
maximum student participation. These beliefs led Kilpatrick to create a unique
form of teaching.

The Project Method

Kilpatrick’s Project Method is a blend of behavioral psychology and

progressivism. It was behavioral in that student behavior was observed but it
was also progressive in the focus on child-centered learning. The four steps of
the Project Method are as follows.

1. Purpose
2. Plan
3. Execute
4. Judge

Teachers first need to decide what are they trying to do. Next, the need to
develop a plan for achieving these objectives. The development of observable
goals is clearly the behavioral aspect of this method. Execution involves the
implementation of the the plan. Last is judge, the teacher assess the success
of the plan. Again, assessing the students and curriculum is a behavioral
aspect of the Project Method.

The progressivist aspect of this method was the constant revision of the
curriculum based on student need and interest. The curriculum was
developed jointly with the students. This was a core belief of Kilpatrick that
students should be leaders in the development of their learning as nothing
would motivate them more. This also led to the development of decision-
making skills.

It is important to remember that the Project Method was not a rigid method but
actually a philosophy. The steps in the method were really just an idea of
approaching a child-centered learning experiencing.

In the early 1920s Rugg published articles in which he called for the different
branches of the social studies—history, geography, economics, and political
science—to be taught as part of an integrated, coherent program that would
be more meaningful for students and less burdensome for teachers. Rugg
also believed that the best way to engage students in social studies was to
approach the material from a social-justice perspective, so he advocated
focusing the curriculum on students’ investigations of social problems.