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Introduction

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--

Selma Wassermann

"The Teacher As Decision Maker"

This course is offered for pre-service and in-service teachers vho vish

to participate in the examination of the the decision making processes of teachers and

the kinds of influences that bear upon these processes.

One of the important aspects of professional functioning

is

the autonomy of

professionals to arrive at decisions based upon their sound professional judgment.

The ability to examine and interpret data, to analyze assumptions, and to project

In some professions, a variety of pressures -- political, social, emotional,

personal, temporal -- serve to influence professional judgment and consequently,

decision making. Such influence may have a deep and pervasive effect upon the

degrees of freedom and emotional health of professionals, upon their beliefs and

values about the profession itself, and upon their subsequent professional practice.

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This course uses contemporary film and readings to raise levels of awareness

about factors influencing teachers decision making through examination of certain

critical incidents in teaching. Films, books, journal articles and written case studies

are supplemented by focused group discussions through which the many facets of

educational decision making may be more critically examined. It is through this

process

that

students become more critically aware of personal decision making in

their own professional/educational contexts.

1.

To promote greater understanding of and appreciation for the various and

cognitive and affective factors

perceived and real consequences of decisions

personal beliefs and values underlying decisions

•• assumptions upon which decisions rest

real and perceived risks of deciding

the process of deliberation

the pressure of peer groups

assertiveness and avoidance in decision making

•• "vital lies and simple truths

"

-- the art of self deception in decision making

the impact of decisions on the SELF

2.

To promote awareness of the relationship between decision making and personal

empowerment

3.

To enable students to use increased understanding to inform personal decision

making, thereby promoting more critical awareness of personal decision making

4.

To increase personal tolerance for the risks in decision making and for the

5.

To develop more effective strategies to aid in decision making

3

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Course Requirements

[1]

Attendance and participation

Students are required

to

attend class

sessions

regularly and participate actively

in all parts of the program.

[2] Readings

Students are required to read, in addition to the required readings, at least two

other books listed in the outline, plus all duplicated materials distributed in class.

(Readings marked with a double asterisk will be distributed in class.)

[3] Case study analyses

Students are required to submit two case study analyses based upon either

written or film cases. The analyses may follow the format of case study questions;

they may focus on selected case study questions; or they may depart from case study

questions altogether, following the writer's own approach. The most important

aspect of case study analyses, whichever format is chosen, is the writer's ability to

apply intelligent analysis to the critical issues in the case.

[4] Journal

Students are required

to

keep a journal of personal insights, comments and

reflections throughout

the

course. Journals are to be submitted at least twice. While

they are read by the instructor, their contents are never evaluated.

[5] End of semester summative project

Students are required

to

write a case study of a personally experienced,

professional incident that represents growing awareness of the student! s own behavior

in decision making contexts and shows how this awareness has been informed by

course experiences.

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Students are evaluated on the

basis

of their fulfillment of course requirements.

The folloving

criteria are used in the final evaluation:

the degree to vhich the student has satisfied course requirements, based

upon the instructor's evaluation

the quality of the

student's

york

vith demonstrated excellence in quality of performance

requirements and/or less than demonstrated good quality in performance

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Required Reading:

1981. Ann Berlak and Harold Berlak, Dilemmas of Schooling. London: Methuen,

Selma

Wassermann,

"The Teacher As Decision Maker," Teacher Education,

Spring, 1972.**

Selma Wasserrnazm, "Teaching Strategies: What's Important? Childhood

Education, Fall, 1988.**

Weeks 1-2

Issue: Conform? Or dare to be different? -- Teaching content that contravenes

the law

Critical questions:

** What are a teacher's options with respect to choosing what to teach?

Should teachers always stay within the established curriculum guidelines?

** When is it all right to extend the curriculum beyond those guidelines?

** Who should make curriculum decisions?

Case #1 [flltnJ: ThFwrft the Wind

Case #2: ThvrngoJMLLaConner

Related Readings:

David Bercum and Douglas Wertheimer. A Trust Betrayed. The Keegstra

Edward B. Jenkinson, "The Nev Aga of Schoolbook Protest," Phi Delta

1967. John T. Scopes & James Presley. Centre of the Storm. Nev York: Holt,

---

Issue: Conform? Or dare to be different? -- Acting in opposition to

administrative directives

Critical

questions:

** What are a teacher's options in deciding about what curriculum experiences

are best for his or her students?

** Should teachers always obey the administrative directives?

When is it all right to take the decision into your own hands?

Cnse #3 [?tLmJ: Cotwac1r,

Cuse #4: "fltj 1rIetuL Connie"

Related Reading:

Pat Conroy. The Water is

Wide.

School. New York: Random House, 1969.

Daniel Fadar. The Naked Children. New York: Macmillan, 1971.

Ned Hentoff. Our Children Are Dying. New York: Viking Compass Books,

1970.

James Herndon. The Way It Spozed to Be. New York: Simon & Schuster,

Jonathan Kozol. Death atan Early A

ge.

Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1967.

Herbert Kohl. Thirty-Six Children. New York: New American Library,

York: Harper & Row, 1980.

Neil Postman and Charles Weinrtner. Teachin

g

New York: Delacorte Press, 1969.

7

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need

Critical questions:

What are a teacher's options

vith

respect to deciding to develop nev

curriculum that is more appropriate to student needs?

** Should teachers alvays teach

vith

the materials that are officially issued?

When

is

it all

right

Who should choose curriculum materials for the students in one's class?

Caw

#5

[liLtnJ:

S4vtc

Case

# 6: "Ga.rtj"

Related Readin:

Sylvia Ashton-Warner. Spinster. Nev York: Simon& Schuster, 1962.

Sylvia Ashton-Warner. Teacher. Nev York: Simon & Schuster, 1963.

Sylvia Ashton-Warner. Myself. Nev York: Simon & Schuster, 1967.

Sylvia Ashton-Warner. Spearpoint. Nev York: Knopf, 1972,

Sylvia Ashton-Warner. I Passed This Way. Nev York: Knopf, 1979.

Lynley Hood. Sylvia!

A

Biography. London: Penguin Books, 1988.

8

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S ? .

Weeks

J

Issue:

Daring to make a difference? Or,

"they

won't let me." -- The joys and

pains of teaching

Critical questions:

** What expectations do we have for our students?

How are our decisions influenced by

those

expectations?

What administrative constraints impede our actions in behalf of students?

**Hov are our classroom practices influenced by administrative constraints?

What prices do teachers pay when professional judgment must give way to

practices imposed by outside authorities?

Case

#7

[Film]: Sttm4 and

T)vLi,ver

Case #8: "The

f4thocitliwtáent"

Ernest Boyer. High School. A Report on Secondary Education in America.

Nev York: Harper Colophon, 1983,

George Dennison. The Lives of Children: The Story of the First Street

School.

Philip W. Jackson. Life in Classrooms. Nev York: Holt Rinehart, 1968.

Paolo Freire. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Nev York: Herder & Herder,

1970.

John Goodlad. A Place Called School. Nev York: McGraw Hill, 1984.

John Holt. How Children Fail. Nev York: Dell Publishing Co., 1964.

Bel Kaufman. Up the Down Staircase. Nev Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1964.

Stanley Milgram. Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View. Nev

York: Harper & Row, 1980,

David Oven. High School. Nev York: Viking, 1981.

Neil Postman and Charles Weirzgartner. Teaching As A Subversive Activity.

New York: Delacorte Press, 1969.

Theodore Sizer. Horace's Compromise: The Dilemma of the American High

School. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1984.

Patrick Welsh. Tales Out Of School. Nev York: Penguin Books, 1987.

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.

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S

Issue: Daring to make a difference? Or, "The personal cost

is

too great.

0 --

Personal sacrifices teachers make

Critical questions:

What personal sacrifices are teachers called upon to make in the normal

course of their work?

What personal sacrifices do teachers make in behalf of extraordinary

students in extraordinary

circumstances?

Should one's professional work involve personal sacrifice?

Are the prices teaches pay too great?

Case

#9

[?tttnl: A Tcst of Love

Case #10: "The 1)a4J 1, Crüd

i,n

J(clowna"

Sylvia Ashton Warner, Spinster. Nev York: Simon & Schuster, 1962.

Arthur Combs, ed. Perceiving, Behaving, Becoming. ASCD Yearbook,

1962. Washington, DC: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development,

1962,

Pat Conroy. The Water Is Wide. Boston: Houghton Mifflin,

1972.

School, Nev York: Random House, 1969.

Daniel Fadar. The Naked Children, Nev York: Macmillan, 1971.

Delacorte, 1974.

Don Hamachek. Encounters With the Self. Nev York: Holt, Rinehart, 1971.

Ned Hentoff, Our Children Are Dying. Nev York: Viking Compass Books,

1970,

Jonathan Kozol, Death at an Early Age. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1967.

Dan Lortie. Schoolteacher. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1975.

10

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. ? .

Issue: Daring to make a difference? Or, "creating students in my own

image."

Critical questions:

What kinds of teacher actions empower students as individuals?

What kinds of teacher actions promote student conformity?

** What satisfactions do teachers get when students emulate them?

** What satisfactions do teachers get when students are liberated?

** What does it take for a teacher to allow the liberation/empowerment of his

or her students?

Case #11 [?ttinl:

E4uw,tf,n9

Cam #12: "TheP[à.j"

Houston

A.

in The New York Times Book Review, March 22,1987.**

November, 1986, pps. 58_65.**

Phi Delta Kappan, February, 1986.**

Bernard Johnston. The Literature of Learning. New York: Holt, Rinehart,

Through Literature. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1972.

George Orwell, Such, Such Were the Joys. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1945.

Louis D. Rubin, Jr. (editor) An Apple for My Teacher: Twelve Authors Tell

About Teachers Who Made the Difference. North Carolina: Algonquin Books of

Chapel Hill, 1987.

Muriel Spark, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. London: Penguin, 1968.

Richard Yates, "Doctor Jack-o'-Lantern," in Eleven Kinds of Loneliness.

New York: Delta Books, 1982.

11

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Issue: Daring

to

make a difference? Or, "How much do I believe in myself

and in what lam doing?"

Critical questions:

** On what issues am I prepared

to

compromise?

On what issues amlprepared

to

** How much do Ibelieve in myself and in what! am doing?

On what issues would Ibe willing to put my job on the line?

believe in?

What personal gains do I make for my taking a stand on the issues I deeply

Case #13 L?ttml: PassIonfor Life

Since this is the last class, there are no related readings or written case

Information on teachers' decision-making processes can be found in the ERIC

ED 231 786

CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION: Teacher Decisions for

Establishing a Learning Community Classroom. Joyce Putnam. 58 pp.

ED 243 846

A GROUNDED THEORY STUDY OF TEACHERS' DECISION MAKING. Walter

ED251 439

CURRICULUM DECISION MAKING AND THE BEGINNING TEACHER. Report

ED 251 449

TEACHERS' THOUGHT PROCESSES. Occasional Paper No. 72. Christopher M.

Clark and Penelope L. Peterson. 159 pps.

12

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.

ED 251 451

A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY OF THE PREACTIVE AND INTERACTIVE

DECISION MAKING OF AN EXPERT CLASSROOM TEACHER. Research Series

ED 251 808

BEGINNING TEACHERS: Hov Do They Make Decisions About

Reading s ?

ED 257 806

THE STRUCTURE OF SCHOOL: Teachers and

Authority.

Robert E. Reir. 37 pp.