Response to The Tyler Rationale
Growing up as a child I have always been more creative. With my schooling I always excelled with the subjects where I had more freedom to be creative, such as English or art. Subjects that there was no right or wrong answer as long as you had some sort of idea to support your theory. The subjects I struggled with growing as a child were math, science, and social studies for they are subjects where the answers are already set for them. Subjects like the ones I listed above are very much followed under the Tyler rationale. For they already had a set goal that they expected to meet. I often learn differently too from what is expected in the school system. I do not do well with tests and if a teacher didices that’s how they want to test my knowledge about a subject then it would not really show what I know. I had a high school teacher who always told me that the test I had written did not really show what I know and she could just tell by talking to me.
The major limitations with the tyler rationale and why it makes it impossible is because this gives children no creative freedom. With the Tyler rationale the teaching along with the assignments are very one way. This gives the students no freedom to learn the way they will excel in. In the article it quotes the Tyler rationale stating “What educational purposes should the school seek to attain?”(Mark K. Smith, p.4), however not educational purpose is relative. Along with this point not every student may attain every educational purpose. Every student has their own way they learn best and by using the Tyler rationale this only benefits a handful of students that learn best in the way that is set. The students this does not benefit sets them up for failure which can lead to many other self identity problems.
Some of the benefits of the Tyler rationale is that they do research about what students need in school and “Diagnosis of need” (Smith, p.4) of what is needed. This does make a set way of learning better if what is needed is probably diagnosis. This can also lead to change for the better of what is being taught, how knowledge is being taught, and what ways should knowledge be taught. By having teachers stop and think about what is needed of their students would very much benefit their students. So overall the tyler rationale is not necessarily the best way to look at students’ learning but it can benefit in some ways.
