Societal Factors Impact on Higher Education

Two societal factors which continue to have the greatest impact on higher educational administration are: (1.) the individual differences among students and (2.) the pressure on educators to teach an increasingly diverse population of students. The work of John Dewey, in what came to be known as "progressive education," and currently, the work of Howard Gardner in the field of "multiple intelligences," will guide the discussion. The historical development of the above factors, relative to the historical development of higher education, will be discussed. In addition, the manner in which the relationship between these two factors and higher educational administration influences one's personal and professional growth will be covered.

Some common factors relating to individual differences among students are the following: one's social class, sex, the effect of the peer group, and the cultural values instilled by the family and larger culture. As one might expect, attitudes toward higher education are less favorable among lower-class pupils than among those from higher socio-economic classes. Students from wealthier families generally place a greater emphasis on the need for higher education and strive to attain good grades. According to Turner (1979), "They also have more accurate concepts of their scholastic abilities and higher vocational aspirations than lower-class young people" (p. 305).

Traditionally, girls have been more concerned with getting good grades, regard

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hool library to be the most important element in a school's curriculum. Students need to learn according to their own interests, and teachers need to allow students the freedom to learn on their own, with minimal guidance: For John Dewey (1910), the term "teaching" was regarded as similar in form to the term "selling." That is, one could not teach unless someone learned, just as one could not sell unless someone bought. Teaching and learning were regarded as reciprocal concepts. Although it was possible to learn without having been taught [as with a library research report], one could not be said to have taught unless someone had learned. (Eisner, 1994, p. 158) The above statement is radical in nature because Dewey is not classifying what goes on in a classroom as "teaching," unless students have learned. Of course, measuring what students have learned is always a challenge, and all the more challenging if a standard objective measurement is not used in favor of a more subjective, critical analysis of a students overall body of work, i.e., a student work portfolio. Dewey realized that rigid curricula would lock teachers out of creative ways of teaching. He called a teacher's ability to be flexible in his or her planning, "F

Category: Psychology - S