Social+Changes

1960-1980

Trends of early model education still evident in its resistance to changes based on popular culture, social trends and emerging ideas. Young adult literature, for example, failed to gain much notoriety in its early stages of the 1960s. Writer’s workshop began in this period as well, yet again this new style of learning created problems due to lack of structure. Although national image and culture began to change dynamically, education still resisted most trends that incorporated the student as an individual. While the ideas were planted in the educational system, studies still focused on formulaic instructional methods. Writer’s workshop, for instance, would grow into a somewhat misunderstood practice during this period. These decades saw the beginning of social changes brought on by popular media, culture, and ideology. Though education began to adapt to these changes, the factory-style of learning maintained a strong constant in American education.

1980-1995

This period saw a rise in innovative teaching in part due to the acceptance and awareness of drastic demographic changes in American society. The typical sentiment of a “white” America began to fall apart as the number of foreign immigrants continued to surge. Even the youth of America started to develop experiences that ran counter to classical models of learning. The view of Europe, for example, changed drastically from the World Wars to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Young adult literature began to gain acceptance in school as popular culture continued to evolve with each generation. This encouraged the use of new instructional models and differentiated learning styles. Process-based was one of the few methods that turned into student-centered activities. Education was forced to adapt to the rapid changes in culture and social norms.

1995-2010

Over the last ten years the demand for student-centered curriculum emerged as a major concern in the face of an educationally failing nation. The inclusion of new demographics – ELL, ESL, SPED students – led to classrooms with dramatic spectrums. Teachers were instructing students of varying culture, social and personal characteristics with little to no set curriculum that applied to every student. Parental involvement in schools created constant demands for immediate and effective reforms. Problems began to arise as teachers both contemporary and classical teaching models failed to affect change on standardized assessments. While teachers are being encouraged to develop unique curriculum, laws such as NCLB demand results from testing. Teacher’s effectively begin “teaching to the test” and resorting back to a worksheet mentality. Research is increasingly supportive of differentiated curriculum that uses multiple methods such as workshops, process based-activities, and project-based learning; it is difficult for many teachers to implement these models in their classrooms, however, when students falls across such a wide spectrum.