The book, which started its journey as a research article but later turned into a book, examines the educational problems experienced in the Music Departments of Fine Arts High Schools in Turkey through the views of the music teachers working in this school in a provincial city and discusses the results with a generalizable approach, mainly from the perspective of music teaching. Although Fine Arts High Schools have been extensively studied in the music education literature, studies focused on the problems experienced in these schools are quite limited. The data of the study were obtained from a single study group instead of a sample selected from the population. Some problems are strongly related to the socio-cultural and socio-economic variables surrounding the school. These two justifications should be interpreted as the results are not generalizable. However, it should be emphasized that some of the results obtained in this study regarding common and non-intervening elements for all Fine Arts High Schools in Turkey such as the criteria for appointment of administrators, teacher-student selection method, curriculums, and textbooks may be generalizable. In this context, the study is considered important in terms of drawing attention to the current problems experienced in these schools and providing results that will help to make a comparison between the school where the research was conducted and other Fine Arts High Schools.

Although the month is March and not November, it is never unseasonable to count up the blessings for which it is well to be thankful. In fact, from the standpoint of education, the spring is perhaps the appropriate time to perform this very pleasant function. As if still further to emphasize the fact that education, like civilization, is an artificial thing, we have reversed the operations of Mother Nature: we sow our seed in the fall and cultivate our crops during the winter and reap our harvests in the spring. I may be pardoned, therefore, for making the theme of my discussion a brief review of the elements of growth and victory for which the educator of to-day may justly be grateful, with, perhaps, a few suggestions of what the next few years may reasonably be expected to bring forth.

And this course is all the more necessary because, I believe, the teaching profession is unduly prone to pessimism. One might think at first glance that the contrary would be true. We are surrounded on every side by youth. Youth is the material with which we constantly deal. Youth is buoyant, hopeful, exuberant; and yet, with this material constantly surrounding us, we frequently find the task wearisome and apparently hopeless. The reason is not far to seek. Youth is not only buoyant, it is unsophisticated, it is inexperienced, in many important particulars it is crude. Some of its tastes must necessarily, in our judgment, hark back to the primitive, to the barbaric. Ours is continually the task to civilize, to sophisticate, to refine this raw material. But, unfortunately for us, the effort that we put forth does not always bring results that we can see and weigh and measure. The hopefulness of our material is overshadowed not infrequently by its crudeness. We take each generation as it comes to us. We strive to lift it to the plane that civilized society has reached. We do our best and pass it on, mindful of the many inadequacies, perhaps of the many failures, in our work. We turn to the new generation that takes its place. We hope for better materials, but we find no improvement.

20. yüzyılın başından itibaren, öğrenme-öğretme anlayışımızı şekillendiren sayısız pedagojik kaynak ve bilimsel veri üretilmiştir. Öğrenme hakkında 100 yıl öncesine göre çok daha fazla bilgimiz olduğu açıktır. Ancak bilgi sınıflara aktarılamadığı, öğrencilerin hayatına dokunamadığı sürece değer kazanmaz. Bu anlamda, ‘öğretmenler bu bilgileri ne kadar uygulamaya koyabilmektedir? sorusu önem kazanmaktadır. Eğitim araştırmalarının kayda değer bir çoğunluğu bu soruyu cevaplamaya uğraşmaktadır. Cevabı bulma çabalarının devam edeceği konusunda elimizde güçlü kanıtlar da vardır. Amerikalı eğitim psikoloğu Spencer Kagan, yapısal yaklaşımıyla bu temel soruya uygulamada karşılığı olan bir cevap üretmiştir. Kagan yapıları, işbirlikli öğrenme konusunda teoriği pratiğe başarılı bir şekilde aktarabileceğimiz etkili bir çözüm sunmaktadır.

Bu kitap, Spencer Kagan tarafından geliştirilen ve işbirlikli öğrenme tekniklerinin önemli bir bölümünü temsil eden Kagan’ın İşbirlikli Öğrenme Yapıları’nı merkeze almaktadır. Kagan tarafından 280’in üzerinde yapı geliştirilmiştir. Giriş niteliğindeki böylesine bir çalışmada yapıların tamamını ele almak mümkün görünmemektedir. Bu nedenle kitap, Kagan’ın Yapısal Yaklaşımı’nı tanıtan genel bir çerçeve sunmakta; araştırmalarda ve eğitim uygulamalarında öne çıkan bazı yapıları tanıtmakta; eğitimcilere ve araştırmacılara katkı sağlayacağı düşünülen ilgili araştırmaları tematik bir bakış açısıyla serimlemektedir.

Though many people may think the ideals put forward are entirely beyond the average teacher, and cannot be put into practice in ordinary schools, I can thus point at least to one institution in which I have seen many of the suggestions made in this book actually carried out. It may be that some of them are, at present, beyond most schools; but they will be recognised and practised as soon as teachers realise them as desirable, and have a proper understanding of the importance of their office.

Most of the recommendations apply, I think, to all countries, and to all religions, and are intended to sound the note of our common brotherhood, irrespective of religion or caste, race or colour. If the unity of life and the oneness of its purpose could be clearly taught to the young in schools, how much brighter would be our hopes for the future! The mutual distrust of races and nations would disappear, if the children were trained in mutual love and sympathy as members of one great family of children all over the world, instead of being taught to glory only in their own traditions and to despise those of others. True patriotism is a beautiful quality in children, for it means unselfishness of purpose and enthusiasm for great ideals; but that is false patriotism which shows itself in contempt for other nations. There are, I am told, many organisations within the various nations of the world, intended to inspire the children with a love for their country and a desire to serve her, and that is surely good; but I wonder when there will be an international organisation to give the children of all nations common ideals also, and a knowledge of the real foundation of right action, the Brotherhood of Man.

1. KRISHNAMURTI