Dewey's+Experience+and+Education


 * EDU 215 Classroom Observations K-12**
 * Here's a [|wikipedia entry] on John Dewey that you might find useful**
 * Here's a link to the entry on John Dewey in the** [|Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]

“The main purpose or objective is to prepare the young for future responsibilities and for success in life, by means of acquisition of the organized bodies of information and prepared forms of skills which comprehend the material of instruction. Since the subject-matter as well as standard of proper conduct are handed down from the past, the attitude of pupils must, upon the whole, be one of docility, receptivity, and obedience. Books, especially textbooks, are the chief representatives of the lore and wisdom of the past, while teachers are the organs through which pupils are brought into effective connection with the material. Teachers are the agents through which knowledge and skills are communicated and rules of conduct enforced.” What avail is it to win prescribed amounts of information about geography and history, to win ability to read and write, if in the process the individual loses his [sic] own soul: loses his appreciation of things worth while, of the values to which these things are relative; if he loses desire to apply what he has learned and, above all, loses the ability to extract meaning from his future experiences as they occur?
 * Here are questions to prepare for class discussion:**
 * Dewey’s //Experience and Education//**
 * Part I: Chapters 1-3**
 * Chart out arguments __for AND against__ the ideas about education in the following excerpt from “Traditional vs. Progressive Education.” Think about your own educational history and what you value about what you have learned (and learned about learning).**
 * Chart out arguments __for AND against__ the following excerpt from “Criteria of Experience.” Think about your own educational history and what you value about what you have learned (and learned about learning)**

1. Explain the criticism Dewey is making about traditional education when he writes that “…that which is taught is thought of as essentially static. It is taught as a finished product, with little regard either to the ways in which it was originally built up or to changes that will surely occur in the future.” (19) What is Dewey saying is the problem with this kind of learning?

2. In “Criteria of Experience,” Dewey writes, “…we live from birth to death in a world of persons and things which in large measure is what it is because of what has been done and transmitted from previous human activities.” (39) To what extent is this true in the schools you have visited so far? What about at Warren Wilson?


 * PART II: Chapters 4-6** John Dewey’s //Experience and Education//

1. Contrast the teacher’s role in running a classroom (managing behavior as well as curriculum) in a traditional education setting to the role or duties of a teacher in a progressive setting

2. Contrast freedom of intelligence with freedom of movement. What are the advantages to the school that allows or encourages such freedoms? What’s the danger of removing external controls on a person’s behavior?

3. Why does Dewey think it is inadequate to just follow the impulses of the learner? What job is the teacher supposed to do?


 * Part III chapters 7-8** John Dewey’s //Experience and Education//


 * 1) What’s the difference between a traditional educator and a progressive educator in Dewey’s idea about the “long look ahead” that is required? Who has the harder job?


 * 1) Take a close look at Dewey’s description of the method of scientific experimentation and inquiry. Be ready to talk about the challenge to progressive educators when Dewey writes, “Failure to give constant attention to development of the intellectual content of experiences and to obtain ever-increasing organization of facts and ideas may in the end merely strengthen the tendency toward a reactionary return to intellectual and moral authoritarianism.”


 * 1) In his closing comments, what does Dewey think are the greatest dangers about adopting (or half-adopting) the progressive education model he advocates?