Although a new idea to me, it is very clear that scientific management contributes to a large part of my life. Fredrick Winslow Taylor discusses this idea in his book The Principles of Scientific Management. He exemplifies the theories behind it and how it works through various positive examples of its use in the workplace. Taylor showcases the main principle behind scientific management in the four main duties of management (15-16):
First. They develop a science for each element of a man's work, which replaces the old rule-of-thumb method.
Second. They scientifically select and then train, teach, and develop the workman, whereas in the past he chose his own work and trained himself as best he could.
Third. They heartily cooperate with the men so as to insure all of the work being done in accordance with the principles of the science which has been developed.
Fourth. There is an almost equal division of the work and the responsibility between the management and the workmen. The management take over all work for which they are better fitted than the workmen, while in the past almost all of the work and the greater part of the responsibility were thrown upon the men.
As a Biological Sciences major one of my class requirements is to take Chemistry for two semesters. It’s evident that scientific management has played a key role in setting up and teaching the course. You can see through the four duties how this type of management has played a role.
The first of the four duties involves how the material is to be taught. The head honcho is the American Chemical Society who clearly states what information is needed to be learned by students. They are like the owner and boss of a company who determines what work needs to be done. They also create a standardized test that is given to all chemistry students at the end of the two semesters. This is their way of making sure that all students have learned the appropriate amount of material that they see fit. The next person below the ACS is the professor. It is there job to determine how they are going to teach the material so the students can learn the material and pass the ACS exam. There are many different ways of teaching material that the professors could possibly use. There are advantages and disadvantages to each so it is there job to determine which method is best. This would be the “develop a science for each element of a man's work” part of the first duty. Setting guidelines for material that needs to be learned is a crucial part of scientific management.
Although not as clear the second duty of selecting students is also shown in University chemistry. There is no test that weeds out the students who are better apt to learning chemistry, but the students who do take it tend to be better at sciences. It’s unusual for someone to take Chemistry unless their major requires it and if you’re going to be a Biology or Chemistry major to begin with you would need to take lots of science classes. This in itself makes the majority of the class people who prosper at sciences. Teachers also tend to make the first test or quiz difficult enough that those who fail or do badly drop the course. In the end you generally end up with the students who will do best in the course.
The rest of the second, third and fourth duties are shown together rather harmoniously in the chemistry classes. The cooperation between the teacher and students is constant as the professors teach the material as best as they can to the students while the students attempt to learn this material. There is time for questions so any misunderstandings are taken care of. There are also available recitations and office hours for students to have one-on-one time with the teachers. Students must work outside of class by reading and studying the material present while professors also have to do work outside of the classroom by preparing their lectures and grading assignments and tests. With this amount of work there tends to be an equal distribution between the professor who acts as the manager and the student who acts as the workman.
As a student with no job the majority of my time is taken up by classes and studying for those classes. There is clear scientific management that goes into the development and teaching in those classes to ensure the maximum learning potential of each student. Chemistry classes are a prime example, but these ideas go into my other classes as well. Scientific management thus plays a huge role in my everyday life.
3 comments:
This is a weird and interesting premise, which caught me a little off guard. It's weird because, in a sense, everything that takes place in any class is only a portion of part 2 (in which the management teaches the workers). I'm not saying that you're crazy, but you need to pose some relevant challenges to yourself.
For instance:
Everything in Scientific Management is done for greater efficiency, which is measured numerically - tons of pig iron moved, number of bricks laid. What outcomes are rendered efficient in a chemistry class? Is there a "product" which can be measured at all?
Another example:
Under scientific management, most or even all instruction is *individual* instruction. Chemistry classes, on the other hand, are often very large indeed, not to mention impersonal (focusing on lab work might possibly be helpful here?).
In other words, I'm skeptical of your analogy, but I don't think it's insane. You need to ask yourself tougher questions in order for it to work...
Although a new idea to me, it’s evident that scientific management contributes to a large part of my life. Fredrick Winslow Taylor discusses this idea in his book The Principles of Scientific Management. He exemplifies the theories behind it and how it works through various positive examples of its use in the workplace. Taylor showcases the main principles behind scientific management in the four main duties of management (15-16):
First. They develop a science for each element of a man's work, which replaces the old rule-of-thumb method.
Second. They scientifically select and then train, teach, and develop the workman, whereas in the past he chose his own work and trained himself as best he could.
Third. They heartily cooperate with the men so as to insure all of the work being done in accordance with the principles of the science which has been developed.
Fourth. There is an almost equal division of the work and the responsibility between the management and the workmen. The management take over all work for which they are better fitted than the workmen, while in the past almost all of the work and the greater part of the responsibility were thrown upon the men.
As a Biological Sciences major one of my class requirements is to take Chemistry with lab for two semesters. By breaking the idea down to its raw components it’s clear that scientific management has played a key role in setting up and teaching the course.
The first of the four duties involves how the material is to be taught. The goal of a class is to have students learn as much information as possible. The head honcho is the American Chemical Society who clearly states what and how much information is needed to be learned by students. They are like the owner and boss of a company who determines what work needs to be done. As opposed to a job where the goal is to move a specific amount of boxes the goal of information learned is harder to quantify. They do this by creating a standardized test that is given to all chemistry students at the end of the two semesters. This is their way of making sure that all students have learned the appropriate amount of material that they see fit. In other words it’s their way to make sure students are working to their full potential and fulfilling the quota of amount learned. The next person below the ACS is the professor. It is there job to determine how they are going to teach the material so the students can learn the material and pass the ACS exam. There are many different ways of teaching material that the professors could possibly use. There are advantages and disadvantages to each so it is there job to determine which method is best. This would be the “develop a science for each element of a man's work” part of the first duty. Setting guidelines for material that needs to be learned is a crucial part of scientific management.
Although not as clear the second duty of selecting students is also shown in University Chemistry. There is no test that weeds out the students who are better apt to learning chemistry, but the students who do take it tend to be better at sciences. It’s unusual for someone to take Chemistry unless their major requires it and if you’re going to be a Biology or Chemistry major to begin with you would need to take lots of science classes. This in itself makes the majority of the class people who prosper at sciences. Teachers also tend to make the first test or quiz difficult enough that those who fail or do badly drop the course. In the end you generally end up with the students who will do best in the course.
The rest of the second, third and fourth duties are shown together rather harmoniously in the chemistry classes. The cooperation between the teacher and students is constant as the professors teach the material as best as they can to the students while the students attempt to learn this material. There is time for questions so any misunderstandings are taken care of. There are also available recitations and office hours for students to have one-on-one time with the teachers. The labs are where the main one-on-one attention is placed. Labs groups are set with everyone doing different things. A lot of one-on-one instruction is required to get you going in the right directions. Questions tend to be constant so these interactions are very normal. Students also must work outside of class by reading and studying the material present while professors also have to do work outside of the classroom by preparing their lectures and grading assignments and tests. With this amount of work there tends to be an equal distribution between the professor who acts as the manager and the student who acts as the workman.
As a student with no job the majority of my time is taken up by classes and studying for those classes. Although the university Chemistry class isn’t at first seen as a traditional sense of scientific management if you break apart the principles you can see where the connection is drawn. The main goal of scientific management is to improve productivity and decrease “soldiering” which is seen in the development and teaching in the Chemistry classes to ensure the maximum learning potential of each student. Chemistry classes are a prime example of scientific management seen in an unconventional way. Scientific management thus plays a huge role in my everyday life.
I think defining the outcomes in terms of "information learned" is a good idea. But does anyone scientifically determine how much students can learn? You don't provide any evidence to this effect, certainly. Similarly, you basically assert that each professor is responsible to create their own science (of teaching), without really demonstrating this actually takes place. Certainly *I* don't know any professors who are particularly scientific about their teaching (although I don't know any chem professors...).
Your second point, about the scientific selection of students, is better argued, but still doesn't seem complete. I think focusing on *weeding* more narrowly might have worked here.
Your discussion of the remaining points is brief and underdeveloped. Which isn't to say that it's wrong. I remain skeptical myself - mostly because Taylor's teaching is so thoroughly one-on-one. Discussing the relevant parts of Taylor would have helped a *lot* here.
Your revisions are moving in the right direction, but they seem to be narrowly guided by my initial critiques, rather than by a thorough attempt to make your claim convincing - both your evidence and your use of Taylor could be more convincing.
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