Transcript You May Ask Yourself

You May
Ask Yourself
An Introduction to Thinking Like a Sociologist
Dalton Conley
SECOND EDITION
Chapter 13
Education
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What Is Education?
• Education is the process through
which academic, social, and
cultural ideas and tools are
developed.
• Unfortunately, not all students
emerge successfully from this
system.
What Is Education?
• Some problems include:
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– functional illiteracy: the inability
to read or write well enough to
function in society
– innumeracy: having insufficient math
skills to function in society
Learning to Learn or Learning to
Labor? Functions of Schooling
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• The two main functions of schools
are to educate students and to
socialize them.
– Schools teach general skills, such as
reading, writing, and arithmetic, as
well as specific skills needed for the
workplace.
– Human capital refers to the knowledge
and skills that make someone more
productive and bankable.
Learning to Learn or Learning to
Labor? Functions of Schooling
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• Schools transmit values, beliefs,
and attitudes that are important to
society.
Learning to Learn or Learning to
Labor? Functions of Schooling
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• This hidden curriculum serves to
form a more cohesive society but
has also been used to impose the
values of a dominant culture on
outsiders or minorities.
Learning to Learn or Learning to
Labor? Functions of Schooling
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• Schools have been described as
sorting machines that place
students into programs and groups
according to their skills,
interests, and talents.
• Critics argue that this sorting
process is not based solely on
merit and that ultimately it serves
to reproduce social inequalities.
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Do Schools Matter?
• The 1966 Coleman Report showed that
two primary factors – family
background and peers – explained
differences in achievement among
schools, rather than differences in
school resources as had been
expected.
• Since the 1980s, it has been shown
that smaller class sizes have a
positive impact on student
performance.
Do Schools Matter?
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Interview, Steven Morgan
Steven Morgan discusses a study that
suggested that students attending
Catholic schools outperform students who
attend public schools.
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Do Schools Matter?
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• Private school students
perform better academically
than their peers at public
schools, in part due to
academic and behavioral
differences.
What’s Going On inside
Schools?
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• Tracking is dividing students into
different classes according to
ability or future plans.
• In practice, tracking has a number
of negative effects and may be more
beneficial for those who are
already privileged.
What’s Going On inside
Schools?
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• The Pygmalion Effect, or selffulfilling prophecy, is the
process that occurs when
behavior is modified to meet
preexisting expectations.
Higher Education
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• In 1910,
over age
• In 2004,
over age
3 percent of men and women
25 had a college degree.
28 percent of men and women
25 had a college degree.
Higher Education
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• Credentialism
– overemphasis on credentials, such as
college degrees, for signaling social
status or job qualifications
– As more and more people meet the
qualifications for certain types of
jobs, employers upgrade the
requirements in order to weed out more
people.
Higher Education
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• The Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT)
has been shown to accurately
predict a student’s potential for
college success.
• However, critics argue that there
are other equally good predictors
that don’t share the SAT’s
downsides.
Inequalities in Schooling
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• Sociologists are still interested
in understanding the achievement
gap between white an minority
students. This has often been
attributed to class, but other
theories circulate.
Inequalities in Schooling
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• The achievement gap between girls
and boys has been closing in many
academic measures, but women are
still earning less money than men,
leading sociologists to investigate
it further.
Inequalities in Schooling
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• Studies show that family size,
spacing between siblings,
gender, and birth order can
all affect educational
outcomes.
Inequalities in Schooling
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• Socioeconomic class, race, and
ethnicity are often
intertwined and clearly affect
educational outcomes.
Concept Quiz
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1.
What are the two primary functions of
schools?
a) teach basic skills and impart knowledge
b) educate and socialize students
c) develop students’ social capital and train them
for specific jobs
d) develop students’ human capital and integrate
students of diverse backgrounds
Concept Quiz
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2.
What is tracking?
a) a system of measuring student achievement in order
to evaluate the effectiveness of teaching methods
b) a system of dividing students into different
programs of study according to their abilities or
interests
c) a type of longitudinal study that follows a
particular group of students for several years in
order to observe changes in their academic
performance
d) a type of study that looks at the same category of
students, for example, freshmen in high school,
each year for several years in order to observe
changes in academic performance
Concept Quiz
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3.
A ________ response to the question of why
there has been a significant increase in the
number of high school and college graduates
in the United States over the past century
might point to the simple rules of supply and
demand: a need for a more educated workforce
has encouraged more people to stay in school
longer.
a) symbolic interactionist
b) conflict theory
c) functionalist
d) Marxist
Concept Quiz
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4.
Affirmative action can best be defined
as _________.
a) a set of policies that grant preferential
treatment to a number of particular subgroups
within the population
b) a set of policies that promote the advancement of
minorities to the detriment of society as a whole
c) a set of policies designed to maintain the status
quo and the privileged position of the dominant
group
d) a set of policies that privilege diversity over
individual ability and preparedness
Concept Quiz
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5.
A parent’s decision to become actively
involved in the Parent Teacher Association
at his or her child’s school may be
related to that parent’s level of
________.
a) cultural capital
b) understanding of the purpose of the Parent Teacher
Association
c) social capital
d) desire for his or her child to succeed
Concept Quiz
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6.
Which of the following statements about
changes in the boy-girl achievement gap
during the past 30 years is true?
a) Girls now score higher than boys on the math and
verbal section of the SAT.
b) Boys from all backgrounds have lost ground to
girls in most measures of educational achievement.
c) Boys now score higher than girls on English and
foreign language Advanced Placement (AP) exams.
d) Girls have caught up with boys in most measures of
educational achievement.
Discussion Questions
1. Of your parents, think of the person with
the highest education. How far did he or
she go in school?
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a)
b)
c)
d)
didn’t finish high school
graduated from high school
some college
college graduate
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Discussion Questions
2. What kind of school did you attend (for
the majority of the time) before you went
to college?
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a) public school
b) private school
c) home school
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Discussion Questions
3. What is your highest educational goal?
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a)
b)
c)
d)
associate’s degree
bachelor’s degree
master’s degree
doctorate
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Topeka High School students hang out after class. Even after the
Supreme Court outlawed segregation in Topeka, it still took more
You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
than 40 years for the schools to become fully integrated.
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Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi
You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
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How do schools train us to be good workers? What are
some of the other functions of education?
You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
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Boarding schools like the Carlisle Indian Industrial School
were dedicated to inducing Native American children to
abandon their traditional cultures.
You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
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You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
Six Aborigine girls are put up for adoption in a 1934 newspaper.Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
An overcrowded school in Brooklyn (left) and students in art class
You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
at an elite Manhattan private school.
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Why do studies find that Catholic schools are the most
successful in preparing students academically?
You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
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A second-grade teacher in Phoenix gives remedial help in
English to students whose first language is not English.
Creating separate remedial classes is an example of tracking.
What are the benefits and consequences of tracking?
You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
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Steven Morgan. To see an interview with Morgan, go to
wwnorton.com/studyspace.
You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
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Researchers have found that some teachers are more effective than
others. However, identifying what qualities make a good teacher
has been much more difficult. What methods might a sociologist use
to explain why award-winning teachers such as Clyde HashimotoYou May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
(left) or Linda Alston (right) succeed where other teachers fail? Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
What are some of the best practices that Donald Langlois and Charlotte
Rappe Zales identified in their research on effective teaching? Why
You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
might these teaching styles be more effective than others?
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Figure 13.1 A Century of Higher Education Rates
You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
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Amanda Hecker, a high-school senior in New Jersey, was one of
the students who learned that the College Board had scored her
SAT incorrectly. Why do critics question the validity of tests
You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
like the SAT for judging college admissions?
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A pair of future presidents: George Bush carries his infant son
George W. Bush on his shoulders at the Yale University campus.
George W. Bush would later attend Yale (like his father). Why do
you think legacy students receive preferential treatment when You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
applying for college?
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A high-school student meets with a private college admissions
consultant. Children from wealthier families benefit from being
able to devote additional resources to help position their childrenYou May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
to succeed at school.
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Bill Cosby speaking to parents at a Compton, California, high
school. Why are his lectures about black underachievement
controversial?
You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
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Figure 13.2 Educational Attainment Based on Race, 2007
You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
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A predominately Maori classroom in New Zealand. The Maori are
an example of a stigmatized minority that has lower IQ test scores
and lower educational and occupational outcomes. However, these
outcomes vanish when these students move out of cultures that You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
stigmatize them.
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Why might the size of a family and the space between its
children’s ages affect achievement scores and grades?
You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
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Breanna Walton joins the line for recess at a Washington, D.C.,
private school. She is one of about 1,700 low-income students in
Washington attending a private or parochial school through the You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
nation’s first federal voucher program.
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This concludes the Lecture
PowerPoint Presentation for
Chapter 13: Education
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