A guide for developing a daily schedule for a seventh and eighth grade school

63 Pages·02.92 MB·English

by  McMillin, Ivan A

A GUIDE FOR DEVELOPING A DAILY SCHEDULE
FOR A SEVENTH AND EIGHTH GRADE SCHOOL
A Project
Presented to
the Faculty of the School of Education
The University of Southern California
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Master of Science in Education
hy
Ivan A. McMillin
August 1950
UMI Number: EP46456
All rights reserved
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This project report, written under the direction
of the candidate*s adviser and approved by him,
has been presented to and accepted by the Faculty
of the School of Education in partial fulfillment of
the requirements for the degree of Master of
Science in Education.
Da ..
Adviser
Dean
TABLE OP CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE NATURE OP THE PROBLEM..................... 1
Description of the situation ................... 1
Statement of the problem ....................... 2
Authority for the development of the scope
and importance of the p r o b l e m ............... 2
Scope and delimitation of the problem........... 5
Definition of technical terms and words ........ 6
Importance of the problem ....................... 7
Organization of the chapters of the report . . . 8
II. PROCEDURES ................................ 10
Emergence of the p r o b l e m ....................... 10
Development of the bibliography.......... 11
Determination of a selected bibliographical
list by random sampling..................... 11
How reliability and validity were achieved . . . 11
III. SIGNIFICANT FACTORS INVOLVED IN THE DEVELOPMENT . . 13
OF A DAILY SCHEDULE . . . -....................... 13
Objectives of the s c h o o l ....................... 13
Flexibility of the schedule..................... 17
Curriculum of the s c h o o l ....................... 19
Integration of subjects ....................... 20
Pupils--a factor in schedule-making ............. 25
iii
CHAPTER PAGE
Teachers -- a factor in schedole-making . . . . 28
Time — a factor in schedule-making... 31
Buildings -- a factor in schedule-making . . . 32
Summary................................. 34
IV. QUALIFICATIONS OF A GOOD DAILY SCHEDULE.. 38
Esprit de corps of pupils and teachers . . . . 38
Realize the goals of the school........ 38
Utilize all resources ....................... 41
Summary................................. 43
V. CONCLUSIONS ................................ 46
VI, RECOMMENDATIONS FOR DEVELOPING A DAILY SCHEDULE
FOR A SEVENTH AND EIGHTH GRADE SCHOOL. 51
BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................... 55
CHAPTER I
THE MATURE OP THE PROBLEM
The purpose of this study is to formulate a sound
basis upon which can be built a daily schedule for a seventh
and eighth grade school.
This chapter will present a description of the situ­
ation from which the problem emerged, a statement of the
problem, the authority for the development of the scope and
importance of the problem, the scope and delimitation of the
problem, a definition of technical terms and words, the
importance of the problem, and the organization of chapters
of the report.
Description of the situation. The writer is to be
the principal of a newly constructed seventh and eighth grade
school. As this will bring about an entirely new situation,
there will be no formally used plans or experiences by which
to be guided.
In the past the seventh and eighth grade pupils have
attended school along with fifth and sixth grade pupils.
• * *
Each class of pupils had a homeroom teacher who instructed
them for all subjects except industrial arts, music and art.
The new school is composed of sixteen rooms only ten
of which are regular classrooms. There is an arts and crafts
2
room, a music room, a library, a general science laboratory,
. a. woodshop and a homemaking roonu There are shower and locker
rooms for boys and girls’physical education, but no gymnasium.
There will be special teachers for all the special classrooms
mentioned above in addition to a teacher for each regular
classroom. In addition to these teachers there will be one
instrumental music instructor and a part time nurse. The
estimated number of pupils will be 567. Two hundred eighty-
two eighth grade pupils and two hundred forty-five seventh
grade pupils.
The large number of pupils and the size and number
of classrooms available makes it almost essential that some
form of a so-called departmentalized daily schedule be pre­
pared to utilize all rooms and all teachers to the greatest
advantage.
Statement of the problem. It was the purpose of this
study to present a guide for developing a daily schedule for
a seventh and eighth grade school. This study *has to do only
with setting up basic factors which will aid the schedule
maker in formulating his plan of action, and to determine
what qualifications prove the value of a daily schedule.
Authority for the development of the scope and im­
portance of the problem. A sample of authoritative literature
3
on daily schedule-making revealed that the writers did stress
the importance for plans of' action in the making of schedules
for school programs.
Rittenhouse-^- specifies.that significance of the problem
will be recognized from a consideration of the various groups
to which it would be of interest to know what educators are
thinking in schools in regard to daily schedules. These
groups are: (l) school administrators, and curriculum workers,
(2) teachers in service, (3) teachers in training, and (4)
society.
A need for study is brought out by Rittenhouse when
she states:
Progress in any line demands a study of
what has been done by successful workers in
that field, with a view to adopting the points
of advantage and avoiding or correcting the
weaknesses observed.
Rittenhouse^ goes on to say it is therefore important
to know what competent authorities think about the daily
schedules.
Ruth Rittenhouse, "A Critical Analysis of Daily
Schedules in Progressive Elementary Schools,” Unpublished
Master*s thesis, University of Southern California, Los Angeles,
1937, P. 2.
2 Rittenhouse, Loc. cit.
3 Rittenhouse, Loc. cit.
Harrington said:
The most important administrative act which
the executive in a large junior-high school has
, to perform, is the construction of the program' ,
for his school.'4'
The influence of the program is so great that all
personnel and even the community are affected by it.
In the preface to Langfitt's book he has this to say:
How to organize efficiently that complex
social institution, the school, is a major
problem of every administrator. To use to best
advantage all existing resources, to promote
the ends for which the school is supported,
and to minimize as far as possible the limi­
tations of the teaching staff, the school plant,
and other factors are aims of professional
procedures in construction of the daily schedule
. . . .During the past few years the professional
writings on organization as related to schedule-
making have greatly increased. Much of the
material, however, is scattered through many
books, magazine articles, special investi­
gations, and other publications not readily
available to the worker in the field.-5
In the text of his book Langfitt gives this topic
even more space:
In a general way the techniques used in
the construction of the daily schedule have
evolved largely on the basis of the Individual
experience of the person making the schedule.
Even today it is usual to find that the
principal employs a general method of procedure
Harold Leontine Harrington, Program Making for
Junior High Schools (Mew York: The Macmillan Company, 1930),
P. 1
^ Emerson R. Langfitt, The Daily Schedule and High
School Organization (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1938),
p. v.
5
which is based upon a narrow experience in a few sched­
ule situations. . . .It seems quite appropriate for a
book on the daily schedule to treat the problem from
a broad, inclusive point of view^and to make readily
available much of the theory and many of the successful
practices.6
Devilbiss indicates the problems importance by saying,
"One of the most important duties of a high school principal
is that of preparing the schedule for the operation of the
school's program."7
The above quotations, presented by the authorities in
the field of education, are samples of the thinking on the
importance and scope of the problem of schedule-making.
Scope and delimitation of the problem. In order to
arrive at a practical solution of the main problem of this
study, it was necessary to be concerned primarily with the
elements that essentially go into making up the daily sched­
ule . There was no attempt to study the entire phase of
scheduling as to the theory, planning and the mechanics
involved.
The problem gives rise to several questions. What are
the significant factors to be considered in planning a daily
6 Ibid., p. 9.
^ .Wilbur Devilbiss, "Criteria of a Good Master Sched­
ule *M National Association of Secondary School Principals.
National Education Association, Washington, D.C., 31:31*
November, 19^7.