Content area

Full text

Headnote

Abstract

The debate between progressivism and traditionalism has reached an impasse. No educational institution exists that is purely progressive or purely traditional in its educational approach. At the same time, no school exists that has managed to escape the influences of either theme. Nonetheless, the traditional system of teaching may have worked well for many students over the last 100 years; however, research shows that the industrial epoch's "factory-based" approach to education is failing to serve the needs of 21st century students, let alone special education students. What follows is a discussion of the characteristics of each theme and its overall impact on special education students.

Keywords: special education, inclusion, progressive education, traditional education, Franklin Bobbitt, John Dewey, Individualized Education Plan (IEP), Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), exceptional children

Introduction

The debate between progressivism and traditionalism has reached an impasse. This battle in curriculum is "a root cause of significant troubles in education" and has been a rift for over a century (Lackéus et al., 2016, p. 779). No educational institution exists that is purely progressive or purely traditional in its educational approach. At the same time, no school exists that has managed to escape the influences of either theme. Nonetheless, the traditional system of teaching may have worked well for many students over the last 100 years (Sullivan & Downey, 2015); however, research shows that the industrial epoch's "factory-based" approach to education is failing to serve the needs of 21st century students (Berrett, 2012; Silva et al., 2015), let alone special education students. This review aims to compare and contrast the themes of traditionalism and progressivism under the light of special education in order to determine the theme that best meets the needs of special education students.

Before beginning the conversation on traditionalism and progressivem, let's first define special education. As stated by Heward (2013), "Special education is individually planned, specialized, intensive, goaldirected instruction" (p. 33). Carrying this definition forward, what follows is a discussion of the characteristics of each theme, how it aligns with the fundamental definition of special education, and its overall impact on special education students.

Traditionalism

Franklin Bobbitt, a self-proclaimed pioneer of the field of education, wrote of thoughts and ideas that introduced some of the early traditions...

Show less