Psychological Theory and Educational Reform

Download or read book Psychological Theory and Educational Reform written by David R. Olson and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2003-06-16 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For well over a century educational reformers have looked for a breakthrough in the sciences of psychology and pedagogy that would dramatically improve the effectiveness of schooling. This book shows why such an ambition is an illusion. Schools are institutions which attempt to balance the needs of a bureaucratic society that funds them with the personal goals, interests, hopes and ambitions of the students who enroll in them. Reform efforts attempt to realign that balance without any clear conception of how the two are related. This book offers a theoretical account of the relation between the minds of learners and the institutional structure of the school that would account both for the ways that schooling remakes minds and societies and why such institutions are resistant to change.