GMIT EXAMINATIONS 2014/2015

Continuous Assessment No 2: TUTORIAL PAPERS

Programme:

DTE

Year:

Module:

Professional Studies

Internal Examiner(s):

Dr. Pauline Logue Collins

Kevin Maye

External Examiner(s): Dr. Elaine McDonald

Mr. Tom Rowan
Submission [TO BE CONFIRMED]
TUTORIAL PAPERS

Regular tutorials will take place in term one. Full participation expected. Any 3
tutorial papers are to be submitted to moodle (dropbox). They must be typed on
the formal GMIT Tutorial template (see below).
Instructions to Candidates:
Precise topics, dates, times & locations for tutorials will be agreed with students
in advance and reading distributed in advance, where required.

DTE4 Professional Studies - TUTORIAL PAPERS

Name of Student:
Article/Reading:
Date of Submission:

Toms Spellman
Curriculum Ideologies
05/12/2014

1. CONCISE SUMMARY OF READING

This article deals with how education has developed over the years and
three curriculum ideologies including Classical humanities, liberal
progressive and vocational modernism ideologies.
Classical humanism: The author describes the history of education
during the medieval period in Europe. Education was closely linked to
religion. Books were written in Latin and read by priests. Libraries were
part of monasteries and schools were generally associated with
monasteries or cathedrals.
The idea of the canon played a key role in developing an idea that was
central to the classical humanist philosophy of education. Learning
therefore meant learning about the ideas of Greek and Roman classical
writers and religious writers of antiquity. The list of works drawn up from
this was known as great books and were compiled into the Bible. A list of
non religious books were collected and drawn up and these were known as
the humanities.
Churchmen believed they understood the word of God and were not to be
questioned. Teaching became a process of reading form great books. This
was the classical humanist philosophy of education.
Liberal Progressivism: This period was known as the enlightenment.
It was a revolution of thinking in Europe and was based more around
discovering the world in which we live. There was more of a focus on the
future than the past. The focus shifted from a canon of great historic
books to people being active in making their own future. It was believed
that rational thinking and science could play a key role in progress. They
also focused on freedom and rights of an individual which has helped
shape our modern world including education. There was also a greater
emphasis on the idea that the process of education for the learner should
be a process of guided exploration of the world, rather than the

acceptance of other peoples beliefs.

Vocational Modernism: Education was changing in the mid 1800s.
Before education was for only those who could afford it, but by this stage
it was moving towards a situation where the government would provide
education for all young people. American writer David Snedden argued
that the existing forms of education which he called liberal education
were not related to a persons ability to learn a livelihood. This ideology
focused on creating workers aiming to improve society as a whole.
2. CRITICAL REFLECTION

The author gives a comprehensive account of the curriculum ideologies

presented in the texts. It provides an informative account of the history of
education in Europe from 500AD. It is presented in sequence of their
happenings and the language used is easy to comprehend and
understand. I do believe, the information provided is clear and concise,
which provides a solid overview of the ideologies. However, I would
recommend referring to more literature in this area for a more detailed
insight on each ideology.
From my reading of the paragraph on classical humanism, I am delighted
to see how much education has progressed since then as I believe in a
holistic and democratic approach to learning. The classical humanist
approach consisted of churchmen who believed that they knew and
understood Gods word and therefore it was seen as being highly
disrespectful to question them. I believe in an inclusive education where
students are allowed to question and critically analyse new information.
However, in Ireland today, education is still strongly linked to religion
which I believe to be a good thing.
As the next paragraph moves on to Liberal Progressivism I could relate
to this as it is similar to my own personal philosophy of education, and
therefore suitable called the Enlightenment! I think the focus should
always be on the future and not to dwell on the past unless to learn from
ones mistakes. This was the same concept as the liberal progressivism
approach. In one way, I can relate this to the new Junior Cycle reform that
is currently taking place in Ireland. The department is trying to focus more
on students thinking for themselves and critically thinking. This is outlined
in the 24 statements of learning provided by the National Council for
curriculum and Assessment. Additionally, I think the author links very well
to the previous one as the text moves fluently from one time era to
another.
The author then outlines vocational modernism, which in my opinion is, in

a way related to Institutes of Technology in Ireland, where students are

trained on working for a workplace. One statement in this article that I
found thought provoking was in relation to liberal education where
Snedden stated it was just that it prepared people to be consumers
rather than producers. Pondering on this statement, it made me realise
that we will not progress but merely be repeating ourselves and earning a
living is just as important as being able to appreciate poetry and books for
example.
Education is always changing. The way we teach today will not necessarily
be the way we will teach tomorrow. This in my opinion is a good thing.
Hopefully in years to come there will be more curriculum ideologies that
new and improved for the better learning and educating of students.
Conclusively, the article is well laid out and clear and logically structured.
It allowed me to gain further understanding of the ideologies that were
touched on last year as part of my course. If I was to make one
recommendation for this article, it would be to provide sources of further
research as I found the text interesting and its obvious aim was to provide
a clear and concise overview of these three curriculum ideologies.

3. LIST OF REFERENCES
NCCA: Towards a framework (New Junior Cycle Reform)