NEH Enduring Questions Course on the Aims and Value of Education

FAIN: AQ-51099-14

Pomona College (Claremont, CA 91711-4434)
Gizem Karaali (Project Director: September 2013 to February 2017)

The development of a first-year seminar that would examine philosophy of education from Plato and Rousseau to contemporary views on the purpose of education.

The development of a first-year seminar that would examine philosophy of education from Plato and Rousseau to contemporary views on the purpose of education. Mathematics professor Gizam Karaali of Pomona College develops a course for first-year students on two related questions: What is good education and what is education good for? The course readings draw on educational philosophy and history, pedagogical theory, and fiction from a variety of cultures, disciplines, and historical periods. Karaali organizes the course into nine units around topics such as contemporary controversies and the purposes of higher education; historical foundations of education and schooling in the United States; philosophical foundations; contemporary controversies about homeschooling, for-profit education, online education, and MOOCs; and early child education philosophies. Other topics include the educational functions of the arts, humanities, and mathematics, respectively. The final unit concentrates on the purposes of a liberal education. Readings include Plato's Republic and Meno; and writings on education by Locke, Kant, Rousseau, Mill, Whitehead, and Dewey; Piaget, Erikson, and Montessori; Confucius, Gandhi, and Tagore; and Freire and Foucault. Course work involves up to one hundred pages of weekly reading, for which students are required to create discussion questions as well as lead in-class and online discussions. Additional assignments include writing projects demanding comparative analysis, focused research, and self-reflection. Plans for dissemination include the presentation by the project director of her course materials and findings at selected conferences on arts and humanities education.

Associated Products

What if ... math were not required in K-12 education? (Article)
Title: What if ... math were not required in K-12 education?
Author: Gizem Karaali
Abstract: Math teacher Paul Lockhart writes in A Mathematician’s Lament that the current state of mathematics education is analogous to a nightmare. Math in K-12 is taught out of context, without regard to intellectual need and curiosity, and in a uniformly linear fashion. School math often leaves out the cool stuff, the fun stuff, the naturally interesting and absolutely fascinating parts, and focuses almost exclusively on what can be tested. Students are “assessed” regularly and classified into those who can and those who cannot do math. Various entities whose existential purposes have nothing to do with the education of the nation’s future generations pontificate recklessly about how best math teachers should perform their craft. And so we get students who arrive at college with no idea what math really is about...
Year: 2015
Primary URL: http://magazine.pomona.edu/2015/fall/what-if/
Primary URL Description: What if ...
Format: Magazine
Periodical Title: Pomona College Magazine
Publisher: Pomona College

On Grades and Instructor Identity: How Formative Assessment Saved me from a Midlife Crisis (Article)
Title: On Grades and Instructor Identity: How Formative Assessment Saved me from a Midlife Crisis
Author: Gizem Karaali
Abstract: In recent years, I have cultivated an almost pathological resistance to grading. Here I explore the reasons why and describe how I eventually recovered. In particular, I propose that although grading, or more explicitly, effective assessment of student learning, is a challenging component of a mathematics instructor’s job description, reflective use of formative assessment can substantially relieve the pressure, as it allows the instructor to focus on what matters most: student learning and growth. To this end, I describe my experiences with formative assessment in a diverse selection of courses (ranging from calculus to introduction to proofs to mathematics for liberal arts). I conclude that formative assessment can help an instructor move toward a more intentional pedagogical stance, and a more constructive professional identity.
Year: 2018
Primary URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/10511970.2018.1456495
Primary URL Description: The web page for the online version of the article.
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: PRIMUS (Problems, Resources, and Issues in Mathematics Undergraduate Studies)
Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Math Education: A Messy Problem (Article)
Title: Math Education: A Messy Problem
Author: gizem.karaali@pomona.edu
Abstract: "The current state of math education in America is certainly not ideal, writes Gizem Karaali, but mathematicians, researchers, policy makers and others are working on it -- and it is definitely a problem worth working on."
Year: 2016
Primary URL: https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2016/05/02/math-education-deserves-support-and-attention-essay
Primary URL Description: Online article.
Secondary URL: http://mathinvermont.blogspot.com/2016_05_01_archive.html
Secondary URL Description: Reprint in Vermont Council of Teachers of Mathematics Newsletter, May 2016.
Format: Other
Periodical Title: Inside HigherEd
Publisher: Inside HigherEd

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