Hunter, Madeline Cheek (1916–1994)

views updated Jun 08 2018

HUNTER, MADELINE CHEEK (1916–1994)

Madeline Cheek Hunter, professor of educational administration and teacher education, was the creator of the Instructional Theory Into Practice (ITIP) teaching model, an inservice/staff development program widely used during the 1970s and 1980s.

Hunter entered the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), at the age of sixteen and, over the course of her career, earned four degrees in psychology and education. In the early 1960s Hunter became principal of the University Elementary School, the laboratory school at UCLA, where she worked under John Goodlad. She left the school in 1982 amidst controversy over her methods, but continued at UCLA as a professor in administration and teacher education. She also continued to lecture and write, and by the time of her death at the age of seventy-eight, Hunter had written twelve books and over three hundred articles, and produced seventeen videotape collections.

Hunter's influence on American education came at a time when public schools were criticized widely for falling test scores, increasing dropout rates, and discipline problems. Hunter claimed that her teaching methods would transform classrooms into learning environments, allow the dissemination of more knowledge at a faster rate, and use positive reinforcement and discipline with dignity to greatly reduce disruptive behavior. Her seven-step model and related educational theories, outlined in her extensive writings, lectures, and videotape series, gave teachers strategies for controlling their classrooms and planning their lessons. Administrators used the model as a way to assess the effectiveness of their teachers.

Hunter defined teaching as a series of decisions that take place in three realms: content, learning behaviors of students, and teacher behaviors. Content refers to the specific information, skill, or process that is appropriate for students at a particular time. Content decisions are based upon students' prior knowledge and how it relates to future instruction; simple understandings must precede more complex understandings. Decisions regarding learning behaviors indicate how a student will learn and show evidence of that learning. Because there is no best way for all students to learn, a variety of learning behaviors is usually more effective than one. Evidence of learning must be perceivable by the teacher to ensure that learning has occurred. The third area of decision-making, teacher behavior, refers to the use of principles of learning–validated by research–that enhance student achievement.

In order to successfully implement Hunter's methods, teachers undergo extensive professional development that conveys the types of decisions they must make. Training includes viewing videotapes that demonstrate effective decision-making in the classroom, and the Teaching Appraisal for Instructional Improvement Instrument (TAIII), administered by a trained observer or coach, which diagnoses and prescribes teacher behaviors to increase the likelihood of student learning.

Hunter's method of direct instruction, generally referred to as the Madeline Hunter Method, includes seven elements: objectives; standards; anticipatory set; teaching; guided practice; closure; and independent practice. Behavioral objectives are formulated before the lesson and clearly indicate what the student should be able to do when the lesson is accomplished. Standards of performance inform the student about the forthcoming instruction, what the student is expected to do, what procedures will be followed, and what knowledge or skills will be demonstrated. The anticipatory set is the hook that captures the student's attention. Teaching includes the acts of input, modeling, and checking for understanding. Input involves providing basic information in an organized way and in a variety of formats, including lecture, videos, or pictures. Modeling is used to exemplify critical attributes of the topic of study, and various techniques are used to determine if students understand the material before proceeding. The teacher then assists students through each step of the material with guided practice and gives appropriate feedback. Closure reviews and organizes the critical aspects of the lesson to help students incorporate information into their knowledge base. Independent practice, accomplished at various intervals, helps students retain information after initial instruction.

Although the Hunter Method was widely used during the last quarter of the twentieth century, it has not been without its critics. Based on behavioral psychological theory, some educators concluded that it is mechanistic and simplistic and is only useful–if at all–to teach the acquisition of information or basic skill mastery at the cost of stifling teacher and student creativity and independent thinking. Others deplore the use of the Hunter Method as a lockstep approach to instructional design. The Hunterization of teaching has even led some districts to require teachers to utilize the Hunter approach and base their teacher evaluation instruments on it. Hunter herself lamented this misuse of her methods and claimed that there was no such thing as a "Madeline Hunter-type" lesson. A significant body of criticism questions her claims that her method could enable students to learn more at a faster rate and improve student achievement. Several studies, most notably the Napa County, California, study, indicate little, if any, evidence to justify her claims.

Proponents point to Hunter's clear and systematic approach to mastery teaching. They argue that, rather than being prescriptive, Hunter provides a framework within which teachers can make decisions that are applicable to their own classrooms. Rather than being simplistic or superficial, Hunter's method is straightforward and uses a common language that classroom teachers can easily understand. Although Hunter's method may be easy to implement, it may also be complex in its application, depending upon the specific objectives of the teacher.

During the height of her popularity, Hunter's ITIP Model for mastery teaching was formally adopted in sixteen states and widely used by many others. Hunter is regarded by many as a "teacher's teacher" for her ability to translate educational and psychological theory into practical, easy-to-understand pedagogy, and her influence on classroom teaching techniques is still evident in the twenty-first century.

See also: Teacher Education.

bibliography

Gibboney, Richard A. 1987. "A Critique of Madeline Hunter's Teaching Model from Dewey's Perspective." Educational Leadership 44 (5):46–50.

Hunter, Madeline. 1967. Teach More–Faster! El Segundo, CA: TIP Publications.

Hunter, Madeline. 1979. "Teaching Is Decision Making." Educational Leadership 37 (1):62–65.

Hunter, Madeline. 1982. Mastery Teaching. El Segundo, CA: TIP Publications.

Robbins, Pam, and Wolfe, Pat. 1987. "Reflections on a Hunter-Based Staff Development Project." Educational Leadership 44 (5):56–61.

Slavin, Robert E. 1987. "The Hunterization of America's Schools." Instructor 96 (8):56–60.

Marilyn Heath

Encyclopedia of Education HEATH, MARILYN

Madeline Cheek Hunter

views updated May 23 2018

Madeline Cheek Hunter

Influential American educator Madeline Cheek Hunter (1916-1994) developed a model for teaching and learning that was widely adopted by schools during the last quarter of the 20th century.

Madeline Hunter was one of two daughters born to Alexander Cheek, grandson of a Cherokee Indian. He had been orphaned at eight years old and had to drop out of school to work. Eventually he became a barber and, as a result of hard effort and intelligence, owned shops all over the United States and Canada. Her mother, Anna Keis, was the daughter of a Bohemian nobleman and a peasant woman.

Madeline's family originally lived in Canada where she was born. Her father was an avid hunter who liked Canada because "the duck hunting was better there." As Madeline was a "sickly" child, the family ultimately moved to California to avoid the terrible Canadian winters in Saskatchewan. Although they returned to Canada from May to October for many years, most of her schooling was in California. She and her father became naturalized United States citizens when she was about 14 years old. There was never a question that she and her sister would receive an education, a privilege denied her parents.

In junior high school she was placed in an experimental school to test some of Stanford University professor Louis Terman's psychological theories on intelligence. The school used her to score intelligence tests. Hunter later reported that, "As a result of that 'chore' and the stimulation from an outstanding school psychologist and teacher, Christine Cook, I became interested in human intelligence. That and classical ballet were my passions in life." As a 16-year-old (1932) she entered the University of California at Los Angeles as a combination pre-medicine and psychology major while continuing her ballet dancing. Eventually she had to choose between going to South America on tour with the Ballet Russe or finishing her degree. After choosing the latter, she discovered that limited eye-hand coordination would deny her the chance of a career as a neurological surgeon.

Two additional events influenced her choice of a career in school psychology. The first occurred many years before when waiting to be assigned to her seventh grade classroom in junior high school. Unknowingly, she would be assigned to an experimental class. While sitting in an auditorium, she watched as nearly every other student's name was called first and left for an assigned classroom. The feelings of hurt associated with a child being labeled last or dumb was not forgotten in her later works. As a consequence, a theme that runs consistently throughout her career is the need to give positive reinforcement to students in schools—"Never put a kid down, always build the kid up." A second defining moment that shaped her thinking occurred after graduation during her first work experiences at Children's Hospital in Los Angeles and at Juvenile Hall. From these situations she soon concluded that interventions in helping children in such situations were "too little, too late." She knew she needed to turn to children in schools and work there on the preventative side rather than the remedial side.

During World War II she married an engineer, Robert Hunter, who continued to work at Lockheed Aviation until his retirement. In 1944 they had a daughter, Cheryl, whose later career was that of a film editor, and in 1946 they had a son, Robin, who later became a school principal. When the children no longer needed a mother at home, Madeline went back to work full time in education, holding a series of positions in Los Angeles, namely, school psychologist, then principal, followed by director of research, and finally as an assistant superintendent who was used for "trouble shooting" difficult situations in the inner city, often involving multicultural groups. After 1963 she was associated with the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), first at the University Elementary School and later as a professor in the College of Education. During those years she worked closely with her colleague John Goodlad and was given the opportunity to implement her educational model in that laboratory school setting. She was named one of the hundred most influential women of the 20th century and one of the ten most influential in education by the Sierra Research Institute and the National Women's Hall of Fame.

Dissatisfaction with the quality of instruction in American schools during the 1970s and 1980s led many educators to call for fundamental changes. Madeline Hunter's model was turned to by many as a solution, and eventually it was implemented in 16 states formally in the 1980s and was widely used in others. Her education model is a "teacher decision-making model that is applicable to any mode or style of teaching, to any learner, and for any objective." Her method enables teachers to understand how particular behaviors can be attained by a student and how those desirable behaviors can be transferred and repeated in new situations.

A brief list of instructional and curricular decisions an English teacher might make in preparing for class are: (1) What can the students do as a result of this class? (2) What skills or information will the students need for attaining what they need to learn? (3) What learning behaviors can the teacher facilitate in the students which will result in the highest probability of being satisfying and successful? and (4) How will the teacher artistically use research and intuition to make students' satisfying achievement more probable?

By using her pre-medical background and her work in psychology, Hunter skillfully translated research from academic disciplines into teacher language and educational practice. She argued that teaching is like ballet or surgery; that is, teachers have to automate many behaviors so they can perform them artistically at high speed when a situation requiring them arises. As a consequence of applying her model, students learn behaviors that they can creatively transfer into new situations.

In response to a question asking her to assess the current educational situation in the 1990s, she said, "I believe the future of education is bright! We are beginning to unlock the mystery of the human brain and how it processes and learns. We, now, can enable teachers to use that knowledge to accelerate that learning process. No longer is teaching a 'laying on of hands.' It has become a profession that combines science with art to create a better and a more productive world for humankind." She died in 1994.