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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 5 page book review on Patricia H. Hinchey's text Finding Freedom in the Classroom: A Practical Introduction to Critical Theory. The writer summarizes the author's argument, describes principal themes, discusses these themes and their implications for education and offers a positive endorsement of the book. The writer feels that Hinchey's purpose in writing this text is to help teachers see the need to switch from a positivist to a constructivist view of education. No additional sources cited.
Page Count:
5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khhinch.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
philosophy text, not an explicit pedagogical guide that instructs teachers on a step-by-step process of how to institute critical theory and constructivism into their classrooms. Rather what Hinchey goes to
great pains to convey to her readers is something much more complex, as her goal is to help her readers nothing less than a total change in their worldview. In
other words, Hincheys purpose in writing this introduction to critical theory is to help teachers see the need to switch from a positivist to a constructivist view of education. To
accomplish this task, Hinchey has to first describe what critical theory is as a foundation for constructivist instruction and also help the reader understand what it is replacing and why.
Hinchey begins by describing the problems with the positivist paradigm, which promotes the status quo, explaining how this is usually followed simply out of force of habit. She writes
that "When we do what weve always done out of unquestioned habit, what were actually doing is operating on a blueprint designed by someone else" (Hinchey, 2004, p. 8)(All subsequent
citations refer to this text). Hinchey makes the point that it is ridiculous to do something merely because it has always been done. The example given to illustrate this point
discusses student teachers who assign homework simply to be assigning homework, not for any specific goal or purpose. The student teachers are bored with creating homework assignments, the students are
bored doing them, as one student teacher admits, "...its really busy work...," not surprisingly, many students do not do the assignments (p. 9). Essentially, in the first chapters, Hinchey
offers a description of the rationale behind the machine-like pedagogy of the Industrial Age, explaining how and why educators put an emphasis of nurturing "robot-like work habits suitable only for
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