Collection Type and Integrated Type Curricula in Systems of Higher Education. An Empirical and Theoretical Study

Abstract

The study aims at uncovering basic structural characteristics of contem porary higher education seen in its relation to society. Two types of higher education, the collection type or firmly structured system and the mteg rated type or loosely structured system, are contrasted theoretically and empirically. The empirical study, which was carried out in two radically different Danish university disciplines (Medicine and Danish), has a sup portive function in relation to the chief aim of the work, which is theory development. The analysis distinguishes between four levels: society, institution, teaching situation and the level of the individual. Marked differences between the two systems are found on every level, among which structural boundanes for teaching methods are accounted for, as well as differences m the personalities of the two groups of students. The relations between the four levels are traced. The manifest and the latent structural characteristics of the systems are described.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bernstein, B. 'On the Classification and Framing of Educational Knowledge', in Class, Codes and Control. Vol. 3. Towards a Theory of Educational Transmissions, pp. 85-115. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London 1975.

Douglas, M. Purity and Danger. An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo , Routledge & Kegan Paul, London and Henley 1966.

Durkheim, E. & Mauss, M. 'De quelques formes primitives de classification. Contribution a l'etude des représentations collectives', L'année sociologique, VI (1901-02), pp. 1-72.

Habermas, J. Technik und Wissenschaft als 'Ideologie', Suhrkamp Verlag , Frankfurt am Main 1968.

Habermas, J. Legitimationsprobleme im Spätkapitalismus, Suhrkamp , Frankfurt am Main 1973.

Jacobsen, B. De højere uddannelser mellem teknologi og humanisme. En uddannelsessociologisk analyse, Rhodos, Copenhagen, 1981.

Kuhn, T. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 2nd ed. University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1970.

Lewin, K.A. Dynamic Theory of Personality, McGraw-Hill, New York 1935.

Schatzmann, L. & Strauss, A.L. Field Research. Strategics for a Natural Sociology, Prentice-Hall, Inc, Englewood Cliffs, N. J. 1973 .

10.

Schilling, W.R. 'Technology and International Relations', in International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. Vol. 15, pp. 589-598, Macmillan, N.Y. 1968 .

11.

Sklair, L. Organized Knowledge. A Social View of Science and Technology, Paladin, St. Albans

Herts

1973.

12.

Snow, C.P. The Two Cultures and a Second Look, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1964 (orig. 1959)).

13.

Weber, M. Wirtschaft und Gesellshaft. Grundriss der verstehenden Soziologie , Mohr, Tubingen ( 1972 (orig. 1921)).