Values in Education: Notes toward a Values Philosophy. Perspectives in American Education.

Overview & Synopsis

This study of educational values, one of a five-volume bicentennial series on major facets of American education, discusses the fluid and incalculable nature of the teacher learner experience, the centrality of values in human nature, and the psychology-oriented nature of modern educational theory. The book is divided into four chapters. The first chapter, "Growth, Change, and Values," explains how environment affects learning and it explores the importance of establishing coherent educational values. The second chapter, "The Realm of Theory," explores basic human needs which should be considered when creating an educational value system, and it discusses American education's present dependence on psychology. Chapter three, "The Heavenly and Earthly Cities of Education," discusses reasons for various types of discontent with education, investigates educational politics, and questions whether human development or socioeconomic improvement is the proper concern of education. The last chapter, "Toward a Values Theory," reviews traditional and modern educational theories and provides guidelines for a values synthesis. The author concludes that the goal of education should be to learn how to establish an education for the whole person in his/her life span. (Author/DB)