Floyd Grant Robinson (2 January 1931 – 18 December 2023) was a Canadian teacher, education theorist and curriculum developer. He wrote many works on the topics of stimulating complex thinking and the importance of education across the entire lifespan. Robinson is most notable for his work done while at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) between 1965 and 1991.
During his time at OISE the major goal of Robinson's applied research was to foster problem solving, critical thinking and other forms of complex thinking in elementary and secondary school learners and post-graduate students. In retirement his interest broadened to facilitate inter-agency collaboration in support of comprehensively defined human development and empowerment.
Education and personal life Robinson was born and raised in Humberstone, Ontario, in a family of four brothers, all of whom became secondary school and/or university teachers. He obtained four university degrees, the most influential in his professional work being a master's degree in pure mathematics from the University of Toronto and a Ph.D. in educational psychology from the University of Alberta. In 1955 he married Mary Lucy Ruggiero, a RN (Registered Nurse) from Port Colborne, and together they had four children and five grandchildren. From 1972 onward, the Robinsons resided at their rural property in mid-northern Ontario.
Robinson died on 18 December 2023, at the age of 92.
Career Robinson began his professional career as a secondary school teacher of mathematics and physics. After completing his doctorate in 1959 he became, in succession, the Research Director of The Canadian Teachers' Federation and the first Director of The Canadian Council for Research in Education, – the latter founded to promote the establishment of a research presence and influence in educational practice.
When the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education was created in 1965, Robinson became the founding Head and professor of the Department of Applied Psychology.Watson, Cicely. (2007). "The Origins and Early Days of OISE". Retrieved on 31 December 2017 from https://sce.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/Ontario_Institute_for_Studies_in_Education_(OISE) In 1968 Robinson elected to work in OISE's Field Centres and until retirement was successively Head and Field Professor in the Niagara, Northeastern Ontario, and Mid-northern Ontario Centres. He believed that the best chance of improving education occurred when field-based education professors determined by sustained, on-site contact, the learning objectives of educational practitioners (teachers, principals, consultants, superintendents) and the practical schema they were employing to achieve them. This understanding then enabled the academic to help practitioners use research results and theoretical concepts to both upgrade and better achieve their goals. It was part of Robinson's professional code that he always volunteered to risk being the first to teach any proposed new intervention.
Over his more than two decades in the field, Robinson formalised his approach in a comprehensive system that is recognized for "the powerful procedures it contains for developing and analyzing curriculum... rooted in a clear conception of inquiry and problem solving".John P Miller, Wayne Seller (1985). Curriculum, perspectives and practice. Longman. pp218-221. . Several hundred of Robinson's publications have been disseminated.
After his formal retirement in 1991, Robinson was a volunteer learning consultant with professionals in health, education, adult literacy and a variety of other social service agencies that saw the need to introduce formal curriculum design concepts into their increasingly pro-active (educational) professional work. Working from the principle that the collective mission of these agencies should be to foster the optimal development of community members, an ongoing thrust was to develop the robust conception of a fully functioning human being that was needed to cumulate the impacts of their individual programs.
Research in education In 1963 Robinson became the founding Director of the Canadian Council for Research in Education (CCRE), an organisation whose function was to initiate, develop and encourage research in education in Canada.Fleming, W.G. (1972).Educational Contributions of Associations: Ontario's Educative Society, Volume 7. University of Toronto Press, p120.
Robinson believed that applied research could address the current problems in education, his chief criticisms being that school curricula were out-of-date and subject to convulsive change, the teaching process was flawed and children were not achieving their full potential as learners. He proposed a schema for improvement that combined basic and applied research, the goals of education and the process of implementation and evaluation. Canadian Council for Research in Education., & Canadian Home and School and Parent-Teacher Federation (1965). Educational research, a parent's concern. Ottawa: Canadian Council for Research in Education.
Through speaking engagements and CCRE publications he campaigned for the establishment of provincial educational research bodies to undertake this needed development.J. Bascom St. John (1964, February 20). "Co-ordinating Education Research". The Globe and Mail, p7.F.G. Robinson (1965). Educational Research in Canada: An Analysis of Potential, Current Status and Needed Development. Ottawa: Canadian Council for Research in Education. This coincided with a growing movement spearheaded by Education Minister Bill Davis to establish an independent institute of educational research combined with a graduate school of education in Ontario.Fleming, W.G. (1972).Supporting Institutions and Services: Ontario's Educative Society, Volume 5. University of Toronto Press, pp226–235.
It was Robinson's major point in a provocative keynote speech delivered to the annual meeting of the Education Week Committee in April 1965, which caused sharp disagreement amongst the assembled delegates."Failure of Education to Fit the Needs of Society Criticized by Researcher". (1965, April 10). The Globe and Mail, p.3. The following day, a government source announced Davis's plans to develop an institute for educational research and study."Plan Institute Of Research On Education". (1965, April 10). The Globe and Mail, p.3.
At the end of that year Robinson was invited to join the new institute, named The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. Education historian W.G. Fleming later wrote of CCRE: "The departure of Robinson from the directorship at the beginning of 1966 constituted an irreparable loss".Fleming, W.G. (1972).Educational Contributions of Associations: Ontario's Educative Society, Volume 7. University of Toronto Press, p123.
Despite his relative youth (35) and lack of university academic experience, Robinson was appointed a full professor in the School of Graduate Studies at the University of Toronto upon joining OISE. The professorship was awarded on the grounds of his previous contribution to the profession of educational research.
School Learning When Robinson was recruited to OISE in 1965, he was offered a department headship. The department best suited to his qualifications (a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology) was the one dealing with school learning, which he named the Department of Applied Psychology.
For the next two years, he spent his energies recruiting staff and determining the structure of the intended learning program. At the end of that time, the department had grown in size from two to 24 staff, and was functional and ready to admit students. It had also recruited some outstanding staff, most notably the American psychologist and psychiatrist David Ausubel, who put OISE on the educational map the very day it started to enrol students by publishing, in a prestigious research journal, a critique of Piaget's theory of stage development.David P. Ausubel and Pearl Ausubel. (October 1966). "Cognitive Development in Adolescence". Review of Educational Research Vol. 36, No. 4. Washington: American Educational Research Association. Retrieved on 10 December 2017.
In 1967 Robinson resigned from OISE to pursue an ambition to write something scholarly. An opportunity to do this came almost immediately when Ausubel asked him to co-author a revision of his already-published book on educational psychology,Ausubel, David P. (1963). The psychology of meaningful verbal learning. London: Grune & Stratton. . phrasing it in a language more congenial to classroom teachers. The resultant textbook, School Learning: An Introduction to Educational PsychologyAusubel, David Paul, and Floyd G. Robinson (1969). School learning: an introduction to educational psychology. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. . was published in 1969. It interpreted Ausubel's theory of 'meaningful verbal learning' in the context of education. Subsequent editions were published in Britain (1971), Australia (1972), Romania (1973) and Japan (1984).
Inquiry training In 1968, the textbook with Ausubel completed, Robinson was recruited to OISE once again, this time as a Field Professor at the institute's newly created Niagara field centre.Brison, David (October 1985). Research and development at OISE. Orbit Vol. 16/No. 3, 20. Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/orbit1985v16i3oise His condition was that he would be allowed to pursue projects that would be of immediate practical educational benefit and would be free from the normal academic teaching and administrative duties.
Robinson rejoined OISE at a time when there was a growing public and political clamour to dissolve the institute. Its critics contended that OISE was a useless or at best ineffective construction of the Conservative government that needed to be eliminated, reduced, or amalgamated with the Faculty of Education.O'Malley, Martin (1970, April 11). "Just ask OISE". The Globe and Mail, pA3."A horrible example of waste in education" (1970, April 11). The Globe and Mail, p.6.Hampton, Edna (1971, October 6). "Liberal as education minister would close research institute". The Globe and Mail, p5.
His first major opportunity to demonstrate OISE impact arose with the publication of Living and Learning, the result of a Royal Commission on elementary education in Ontario, one of whose two major recommendations called for students to learn from their own inquiries instead of just being passive absorbers of teacher-disseminated knowledge.Alberta Teachers' Association., Hall, E. M., & Dennis, L. A. (1969). Living and learning: The report of the Provincial Committee on Aims and Objectives in the Schools of Ontario ; observations and recommendations. Edmonton: ATA. Teachers were struggling with this new emphasis and when the director of education for a municipal school system approached OISE Niagara Centre for help, Robinson led the design of an innovative inquiry training program and demonstrated it in classrooms.
Building upon Ausubel's concept of advance organizers, Robinson created an advance organizer for inquiry (later named the General Problem Solving Model)Robinson, F. G., Tickle, J., & Brison, D. W. (1972). Inquiry training: Fusing theory and practice. Toronto: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education based roughly on John Dewey's model of problem solving. The program identified six models for inquiry: logical/quantitative analysis, comparison, cause-effect reasoning, correlational study, decision making, and case study—a sequence defined by increasing uncertainty about the truth of conclusions. Robinson arrived at the models by first studying his own approach to problem solving and then testing the validity of these models with his own four children conveniently spaced in their ages.