Seduced by Numbers: Positioning “Teaching by Numbers” in Context

Abstract

The trajectory of education in the United States hinges on recognizing the contrasting influence of two prominent educational theorists, Edward L. Thorndike and John Dewey. Lagemann brilliantly encapsulates this idea in The Plural Worlds of Educational Research (Lagemann, 1989), stating that “one cannot understand the history of education in the United States during the twentieth century unless one realizes that Edward L. Thorndike won and John Dewey lost” (p. 184). Having taken a statistical approach to education, Thorndike paved the way for measurable learning outcomes and standardized testing which shaped the course of American education. Even more so, the ideas of standards and accountability have permeated the schooling system to its core. In his book Teaching by Numbers: deconstructing the discourse of standards and accountability in education (Taubman, 2009), Peter Taubman unravels educational reforms and guides the reader through the multifaceted dynamics of the audit culture. In this polyvocal project, we intend to investigate how and why the current educational system has become fundamentally driven by data, provide an overview of its history rooted in the military origins of Instructional Design, and shed light on why educators are likely to accept the data-driven audit culture.