Pde2011 l6 john dewey

JOHN DEWEY

Dewey as a neo-HerbartianDewey as a progressive educator

Education, Dr F.Long 2

John Dewey 1859-1952

• Born Burlington, Vermont 1859• Father was storekeeper, John’s

main educator• At 16 University of Vermont,

discovers philosophy• Founds laboratory school in

Chicago in 1896 with his wife• Taught at Columbia, NY from

1904 to 1930

3 Dr F.Long, Education






The teacher’s role focused on the child

• To keep the spirit of inquiry– from becoming blasé from over-excitement– from becoming wooden from routine– from being fossilized through dogmatic instruction– from being dissipated by random exercises upon trivial

things

• “to keep alive the sacred spark of wonder and to fan the flame that already glows.” (EE, p.34)


Dewey’s educational aims

• Social Aims: – to promote democratic participation in society– To raise the quality of social interaction

• Pedagogical Aims– Intelligence. Not acting blindly or according to

impulse or in imitation of what is seen but acting from the self with purpose and direction

– Freedom. The ability to observe and judge on the basis of the observation

Headings in Democracy and Education (1916)• Education as social renewal (Chapter 1)• Education as social function (Chapter 2)• Education as direction (Chapter 3)• Education as growth (Chapter 4)• Preparation, unfolding and formal discipline (Chapter 5) • Education as Conservative and Progressive (Chapter 6)• The Democratic Concept in Education (Chapter 7).....• The Nature of Subject Matter (Chapter 14)

“When engaged in the direct act of teaching. The instructor needs to have subject matter at his fingers’ ends; his attention should be upon the attitude and response of the pupil.” pp. 190-1

Philosophy Dr F.Long 11

Teaching as relation (How we think? 1910/1933)

• To be avoided: cast-iron external schemes that replace “the personal mental movement of the individual” (Chapter 5)

• Child’s attitude is constructed out of teacher responses

• Has individual traits and habits that need to be studied by teacher

• “Everything the teacher does, as well as the manner in which he does it, incites the child to respond in some way or other …” (Chapter 4)


The Logic of Inquiry (1938)

• Confusion. Indeterminacy. The situation is obscure and there are conflicting ideas about it.

• From indeterminacy, we come to the formulation of the problem.

• A type of mental construct arises, a form of theory that arises from practice – a hypothesis

• Testing the hypothesis: the hypothesis is compared to / contrasted with other conceptual schemes and an experiment is designed to test it (Inquiry, p. 112)

• Hypothesis turns into an operational idea – an idea that can do something

Definition

• Inquiry is the controlled or directed transformation of an indeterminate situation into one that is so determinate in its constituent distinctions and relations as to convert the elements of the original situation into a unified whole

• John Dewey, The Logic of Inquiry (1938), p. 104

Dewey’s educational philosophy

Pedagogical

Social/ political

The School and Society

Democratic Context


• Herbart’s Method: 5 steps– Preparation (ask for previous

experiences, thoughts)– Presentation of new content

– presented with utmost care and logic (representation by learners)

– Association – informal conversation to link new knowledge to old, multiply links

– Generalisation ; what general principle might arise from this new learning? Extend the learning

– Application to different contexts of what is learned

• Dewey’s method: 5 Steps• Confusion. The teacher

introduces the confusion usually by skillful questioning

• -learners attempt to formulate the problem or problems

• Hypothesis. A type of mental construct arises, a form of theory that arises from practice – a hypothesis

• Testing the hypothesis: an experiment is designed to test it (Inquiry, p. 112)

• Operational Idea – the well tested hypotheses lead to operational ideas


Contrasts

• Traditional– “Dogmatic” knowledge

compartmentalised and disconnected from child’s experience

– A “diet of predigested materials” (Experience and Education, p. 46)

• Progressive– “the beginning of instruction

shall be made with the experience learners already have” (EE, p.74)

– “expansion and organization of subject-matter through growth of experience” (EE,p.74)

– Social situations• Progress marked by a

continuous spiral (EE,p.79) – a laboratory research


First Key word: Interest

• Interest– Avoid drudgery– Avoid routine– Avoid the teacher’s ideas alone or ideas for

their own sake– Promote spontaneous activity like playing– Promote doing and enjoying“Education is development within, by, and for

experience” (EE, p.28)


Second Key Word: Experience

• Experience “Every experience is a moving force” EE, p.38)– Avoid callousness– Avoid entertainment– Avoid disconnections– Promote Interaction of subject areas– Promote Interaction of pupils– Promote Continuity of learning, (reinforcement) from

earlier understanding to later understanding


Third Key Word: Discipline

• Think of teaching and learning together as an activity• Think of this activity as a game. How are the rules of

this game infringed?• Participants submit to the rules for the sake of the

activity• There is no arbitrary authority

“the control of individual actions is effected by the whole situation in which individuals are involved…” (EE, p.53)


Main points• Like Herbart, Dewey wants to set learning on a

proper psychological footing: All learning is purposive, directional, connected to the learner’s life

• Links education to society and the democratic process. Do you understand how this link is made in Dewey’s system?

• Desire has been replaced by discipline in most traditional schools. How does Dewey propose reversing this? How could the new structure be disciplined?

• Learning situations. How different are these from traditional ways of approaching the curriculum?

‘democratic’ knowledge

I believe that the only true education comes through the stimulation of the child’s powers by the demands of the social situations in which he finds himself. Through these demands he is stimulated to act as a member of a unity...

In order to know what a power really is we must know what its end, use, or function is; and this we cannot know save as we conceive of the individual as active in social relationships.John Dewey, My Pedagogic Creed
