Hilda+Taba

= Hilda Taba //(December 7, 1902 - July 6, 1967)// =

**Biographical Information:**
==== Hilda Taba was born on December 7th, 1902 in [|Kooraste, Estonia (Russia)]. She was the first of nine children born to her father Robert Taba who was the schoolmaster at the elementary school she would attend (Krull, 2003, p.2). She would later graduate from Voru High School for Girls in 1921, with hopes of becoming an elementary school teacher. But instead she would attend the University of Tartu and begin studying economics. She ultimately changed her major to history and education before graduating from the University of Tartu in 1926. ==== ==== Hilda then moved to the United States to complete her master’s degree at Bryn Mawr College in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, which was solely made possible by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation (Krull, 2003, p. 3). During her graduate studies she began surveying American educational literature, which introduced her to the works of Bode and the philosophy of progressive education (Krull, 2003, p.3). After completing her graduate work in one year, Taba began attending Columbia University in 1927 for her doctorial studies in educational philosophy (Costa & Loveall, 2002, p. 57). During her doctorial studies she would have the opportunity to meet world renowned psychologist E.L. Thorndike and philosopher Jon Dewey just to name a few. ==== ==== After completing her dissertation in 1931, Taba returned to Estonia and applied for professorship at Tartu. After not being elected to the professorship she decided to return back to the United States shortly after, a decision that practically saved her life because most intellectuals were “eliminated” after the Soviet takeover in 1940 (Hergesheimer, 2004, p. 7). Once back in the states Hilda became an assistant professor of education at Ohio State and then later the University of Chicago before becoming full professor of education in 1951 at [|San Francisco State University] until her death in 1967 (Hergesheimer, 2004, p. 7). ====

**Hilda Taba**  While at San Francisco State University (1951-1967)  [|USC Museum of Education: Hilda Taba]

Main concentration was in [|social studies curriculum] and formation of concepts.

 * She was involved in the Intergroup Education Project (1945), New York City.
 * Progressive Education

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 * notion of a “spiral curriculum”
 * ==== the three-level organization of content: //(// // facts, organizational ideas, key ideas) //====
 * ==== [|Inductive Model] teaching strategies for the development of: //( concepts, generalizations, applications) //====
 * [|Inductive Reasoning]
 * ==== Application of Generalizations ====

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Bibliography:

 * 1) //(1932)// The Dynamics of Education
 * 2) //(1936)// "Social Sensitivity"
 * 3) //(1962)// Curriculum: Thoery and Practice
 * 4) //(1971)// Teachers' Handbook to Elementry Social Studies: An Inductive Approach, 2nd Edition
 * 5) //(1945)// Democratic Human Relations: Promising Practices in Intergroup and Intercultural Education in the Social Studies
 * 6) //(1950)// With Focus on Human Relations, A Story of an Eight Grade

**Other Important Facts:**

 * She took part in the [|Eight Year Study].
 * Her principle doctorial advisor was [|William H. Kilpatrick (1871-1965)] a colleague of John Dewey.
 * Took part in [|UNESCO] seminars in Paris and Brazil.
 * (1948-1951) headed the Center of Intergroup Education at the University of Chicago.
 * She is often credited for developing part of the foundation of modern curriculum theories and cited by many cotemporary authors.
 * [|The Hilda Taba Award] is given by the Califonia Council for the Social Studies to a teacher whose contributions are “significant and enduring” in social studies education.
 * Heavily influenced by John Dewey's work.
 * Hilda Taba did not receive recognition in Estonia until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
 * Here ideas are deemed significant at the University of Tartu (Estonia), brought about by [|Edgar Krull].

[|The University of Tartu (Estonia)]