Otto Peters on Distance Education

The Industrialization of Teaching and Learning

Desmond Keegan, Desmond Keegan

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781135092597
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Éducation
• Subtopic: Éducation générale

Otto Peters is widely recognised as one of the world's leading authorities on distance education. His theory of distance education as the most industrialized form of education is the most original and far reaching analysis of distance education yet produced. This book brings together the best of Peters' work, most of which has not been previously available in the English language. Drawing on German sociologists and philosophers of education from Weber and Tonnies to Heimann and Schultz, Peters builds up an impressive analysis of the advantages and defects of the industrialization of education. The essays in this collection cover the historical development of teaching and learning at a distance, from the correspondence schools of the 1950s through to distance education in the post-industrial societies of today. The book also includes a fascinating account of Peters' central role in the foundation and running of the FernUniversitat, the German Open University.

Part I
Data collection

1 Distance education by
correspondence schools (1965)

Peters completed Der Fernunterricht: Materialien zur Diskussion einer neuen Unterrichtsform (Distance training: materials for the analysis of a new form of teaching) in 1964, and it was published by Beltz in 1965. The book has 537 pages. It treats government distance training, the provision of distance education for children and the achievements of private correspondence schools throughout the world in the 1950s and early 1960s. Detailed analyses are given of France, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Japan, South Africa, Australia, Canada, the USSR, the German Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany. The book opens with a 66-page overview from which this extract is taken, and concludes with 162 pages of tables, statistical analysis, eferences and research documentation.

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DEFINITIONS

The term ‘distance education’ is predominantly used in its narrower meaning. It then refers to instruction by the exchange of letters between teacher and student, a process in which the contributions of both are usually based on specially prepared and methodically developed printed course material. This form of distance education is practised in most of the correspondence schools.

The wider meaning of the term is derived from the word ‘distance’. It indicates more generally any form of instruction in which it is necessary to bridge a distance between teacher and student, which can be achieved not only with the help of letters and printed course material, but also by other technical media such as telephone, radio, television, audio and video cassettes, as well as by newer electronic media.

In both definitions — and this is of great importance, as it separates distance education from other forms of influencing people by giving information — instruction means a methodical process of imparting knowledge with the following characteristics.

• The contents of the instruction are chosen taking into account didactical and methodical considerations.

• The indirect contact between teacher and students is continued until the end of the instruction.

• There are possibilities for the teacher to influence the learning behaviour of the students.

• The learning of the students is measured and graded.

Self-instruction and self-study, which have been often used as synonyms for distance education, have none of these characteristics. There is, however, an intermediate stage between distance education and self-instruction, if, for instance, a student reads a series of methodically developed study materials. Such a form of instruction corresponds to face-to-face teaching in which only the teacher speaks — limiting himself or herself exclusively to the presentation of teaching material.

Supervised distance education has been used by schools which lacked teachers of certain subjects. In this case a student sits in the classroom at regular hours, studies course units and communicates with his teacher in the correspondence school somewhere else. The student — and others who might be studying different courses — is supervised by a teacher who, as a rule, does not interfere with the teaching-learning processes which are taking place under his eyes.

STUDENTS

As distance education is practised in many subject areas and in many countries it is difficult to describe features which are common to all students. However, if one tries to find out why they decide to enrol in distance study courses it is easy to see that most of them do so because they are prevented from attending regular day schools. If we categorize the respective impediments, the distance students can be assigned to the following groups:

Group 1: Students who have to work for a living in order to support themselves and often also their family: workers who want to complete their primary or secondary school education; workers, skilled workers, and technicians who want to improve their vocational qualification; agricultural labourers who intend to move into a town and therefore wish to prepare themselves for a new occupation; workers in occupations which come to an end and who, therefore, need retraining; immigrants who wish to obtain the citizenship of their new country and have to acquire specific knowledge about it.

Group 2: Students who live in sparsely settled areas: children of farmers in isolated areas, for instance in Canada and Australia.

Group 3: Students who live too far away from the nearest day school of their own nationality: children of diplomats, missionaries, military personnel abroad, children of experts employed in developing countries, children of persons in itinerant trades, sailors, boatmen, children of immigrants who are to be instructed in their mother tongues.

Group 4: Persons who are unable to attend regular schools for health reasons: sick persons who are bedridden, handicapped persons, children who have to stay in hospital for some time. Group 5: Persons who are hindered from attending regular schools by the state: prisoners, children and juveniles in reformatories.

Apart from these five groups, there are distance students who do not come into this category. They might well be able to attend regular schools but prefer to enrol in distance education courses. Some do it in order to supplement the instruction of their regular school or to raise their level of general education; gifted students do it in order to reach an advanced level and still other students do it in order to find out whether they fit into a specific vocational pattern so as to clarify vocational options. Finally, there are also teachers who study courses at a distance in order to inspire and prepare themselves for teaching.

Usually there are fewer students who wish to complete their secondary education in order to obtain entrance qualification for institutes of higher learning. Many more students intend to improve their vocational qualifications. Generally speaking, both groups belong to the higher ranks of workers and the middle ranks of salaried staff — those wide, intermediate sections of the population in industrialized countries which wish to improve their conditions of life and to climb socially. They are interested in information and eager for knowledge. Many of them can be characterized by the fact that The Reader's Digest recruits its readers among them. It is not coincidental that many correspondence schools like to place their advertisements in this magazine, where they have proved to be most successful.

Students who enrol in distance education do not live predominantly in rural areas — although this is widely assumed as there is usually a lack of specialized schools in country areas. On the contrary, they typically dwell in big cities and overcrowded industrial regions. It is only there that many differentiated possibilities for employment and promotion prospects inspire the students to learn, that the competitiveness of industrialized production urges them to take the initiative, and that the urban environment and atmosphere provides for additional incentives.

Most students are between twenty and thirty-five years old, which means that they are adults. Their educational standard is, as a rule, above the average of the respective age group — and not lower, as again is often assumed by those who consider distance students as disadvantaged persons.

What are the motivations of distant students? The strongest one is certainly the ambition to climb socially, to change from a blue-collar job to a white-collar job. They seek economic security. This motivation is activated when the students have clear ideas of the job they want to have and when the competences they have developed so far will help them to reach it. Furthermore, this motivation is supported by the fact that these students are adults who are able to judge their life chances more realistically than, say, students in secondary schools. They are conscious of the importance of their educational goals and of the consequences of reaching them.

There might be more hidden motivations. Some students decide to engage in distance education in order to protest against their parents who insisted on certain vocational training for their children. Through distance education they want to remedy early wrong decisions. The ‘ambitious wife’ can also be a powerful source of motivation. Sometimes, there is a revolt against discrimination in their daily work which distant students hope to escape by striving for better jobs. The great number of distant students in developing countries can perhaps be explained by similar motives.

The advertising departments of correspondence schools systematically exploit such motivations and reinforce them by creating an image of distant students which is certainly far beyond reality but nevertheless appeals to them. According to them, distant students belong to the ‘intellectual elite’ of the work force, have ‘better chances’ when applying for a new job, obtain a ‘higher income’, enjoy ‘more prestige’ and look forward to a ‘happy future’. Sometimes the advertisements contain pictures under the headline: ‘Formerly an employee with a low income — now a leading personality’, showing all those present at a meeting of directors listening attentively to the former distant student. Another picture visualizes the success of the distant student who himself, travelling with an attractive young wife in a large sports car in a holiday paradise, is obviously able ‘to afford anything’. The distant students will, of course, lower their sights depending on their maturity and life experience. But more or less subconsciously such advertisements may encourage them in their striving for success.

The motivations of distant students are also influenced by the way in which they are looked upon by society. This differs considerably from country to country, and depends on the achievements of the correspondence schools and the social structures and traditions of a given country — whether they are, for instance, capitalist or socialist. The scale of possible attitudes reaches from condescending pity and derision for the poor guys who turn themselves into drudges in order to climb the social ladder, to the firm conviction that the economic future of society depends on the qualification of numerous distant students who work and study at the same time. In the first case, distant students appear to be strange characters and outsiders, showing all the disadvantages of the self-educated; in the second case, they are considered the blue-eyed boys of the nation.

An attitude has also emerged which is located midway between these two extremes. Thus distant students are persons who take the initiative in the planning and pursuit of their careers, who have considerable will-power and perseverance in mastering a difficult task, and who are often praised for their stamina.

TEACHERS

In distance education, courses are usually written for an arbitrary number of students. This shows the importance of the qualification of the teachers. A bad course written by one teacher which will be studied by 10,000 students will do more harm that the oral instruction of the same teacher in a classroom. Therefore, correspondence schools try to employ teachers whose competence is higher than average. Large correspondence schools with highly differentiated course programmes employ teachers who have not only studied their subjects at a university but who also teach at institutes of higher learning: graduate engineers, businessmen, and teachers. On the other hand, they also employ experienced practitioners, leading experts and managers coming directly from the world of work.

Little is known about the educational qualifications of these teachers. Generally speaking, their competencies are mainly subject-orientated. Often they are experts in a limited field only. Educational and didactical knowledge are, as a rule, missing. Some correspondence schools like to employ experts with a special reputation or persons who have become popular — mainly for advertising purposes. A correspondence school in Paris, for instance, took pride in employing a general as well as an opera singer, and in the United States ‘famous artists’ founded a correspondence school in order to offer tuition in painting and writing.

On the other hand, there are correspondence schools in which teachers have not passed the examinations for which they prepare their students. As there are often no public regulations about the educational training of teachers at correspondence schools, these institutes may become places in which ambitious outsiders can stand the test as well as in which arrogant know-nothings can do a lot of harm.

As a rule, a correspondence school has a small staff of full-time and a great number of part-time employees. Many of the part-time employees are teachers in the state school system. They work as authors of course material and as correctors of assignments. Correspondence schools are happy with this arrangement as they can tell their students that they are taught by ‘real’ teachers. And the state schools profit from it as well, as their teachers gain new insights in the methodology of teaching when writing course material and communicating with the distant students after having corrected the assignments. Experienced teachers can often also be found in the permanent staff of correspondence schools. Usually they are unable to work in state schools because they are retired, ill or have had to leave their schools for other reasons. Among them is also a number of younger, well-trained teachers who found that they could not cope with a normal class situation as they cannot get along with larger groups of students. They find teaching at a distance much easier and more rewarding.

The work of the teacher in distance education differs from face-to-face teaching in a classroom through the increased division of labour. This principle is fundamental in industrialized production processes. Its application to the process of instruction has therefore caused considerable resistance and, mainly emotional, opposition. Division of labour, however, is not alien to our schools and universities, although they postulate a special pedagogical relationship between teacher and student and deduce from this a holistic concept of instruction. Usually the long- and medium-term plans for instruction are developed by special teams of experts, special subjects are taught by special teachers and the final evaluation of the learning outcomes of the students is often decided upon by meetings of all teachers in a given school. Nobody objects to a pro...