Mindanao University of Science and Technology
Bachelor of Technical Teacher Education
Reaction Paper
On
John Dewey’s Hypothesis on Education
Submitted by:
G-one T. Paisones
Submitted to:
Fe Coming
Introduction
John Dewey was born on October 20, 1859, the third of four sons born to Archibald Sprague Dewey and Lucina Artemesia Rich of Burlington, Vermont. The eldest sibling died in infancy, but the three surviving brothers attended the public school and the University of Vermont in Burlington with John. While at the University of Vermont, Dewey was exposed to evolutionary theory through the teaching of G.H. Perkins and Lessons in Elementary Physiology, a text by T.H. Huxley, the famous English evolutionist. The theory of natural selection continued to have a life-long impact upon Dewey’s thought, suggesting the barrenness of static models of nature, and the importance of focusing on the interaction between the human organism and its environment when considering questions of psychology and the theory of knowledge. The formal teaching in philosophy at the University of Vermont was confined for the most part to the school of Scottish realism, a school of thought that Dewey soon rejected, but his close contact both before and after graduation with his teacher of philosophy, H.A.P. Torrey, a learned scholar with broader philosophical interests and sympathies, was later accounted by Dewey himself as “decisive” to his philosophical development. [Richard Field]
In 1894 Dewey joined the newly founded University of Chicago (1894–1904) where he developed his belief in an empirically based theory of knowledge, becoming associated with the newly emerging Pragmatic philosophy. His time at the University of Chicago resulted in four essays collectively entitled Thought and its Subject-Matter which was published with collected works from his colleagues at Chicago under the collective title Studies in Logical Theory (1903). During this time Dewey also initiated the University Of Chicago Laboratory Schools where he was able to actualize his pedagogical beliefs which provided material for his first major work on education, The School and Society (1899). Disagreements with the administration ultimately caused his resignation from the University, and soon thereafter he relocated near the East Coast. In 1899, John Dewey was elected president of the American Psychological Association. From 1904 until his death he was professor of philosophy at both Columbia University and Columbia University's Teachers College. In 1905 he became president of the American Philosophical Association. He was a long-time member of the American Federation of Teachers. [Wikipedia]
John Dewey On education (Source: Wikipedia)
Dewey's educational theories were presented in My Pedagogic Creed (1897), The School and Society (1900), The Child and the Curriculum (1902), Democracy and Education (1916) and Experience and Education (1938). Throughout these writings, several recurrent themes ring true; Dewey continually argues that education and learning are social and interactive processes, and thus the school itself is a social institution through which social reform can and should take place. In addition, he believed that students thrive in an environment where they are allowed to experience and interact with the curriculum, and all students should have the opportunity to take part in their own learning.
The ideas of democracy and social reform are continually discussed in Dewey’s writings on education. Dewey makes a strong case for the importance of education not only as a place to gain content knowledge, but also as a place to learn how to live. In his eyes, the purpose of education should not revolve around the acquisition of a pre-determined set of skills, but rather the realization of one’s full potential and the ability to use those skills for the greater good. He notes that “to prepare him for the future life means to give him command of himself; it means so to train him that he will have the full and ready use of all his capacities” (1897, p. 6). In addition to helping students realize their full potential, Dewey goes on to acknowledge that education and schooling are instrumental in creating social change and reform. He notes that “education is a regulation of the process of coming to share in the social consciousness; and that the adjustment of individual activity on the basis of this social consciousness is the only sure method of social reconstruction” (1897, p. 16).
In addition to his ideas regarding what education is and what effect it should have on society, Dewey also had specific notions regarding how education should take place within the classroom. In The Child and the Curriculum (1902), Dewey discusses two major conflicting schools of thought regarding educational pedagogy. The first is centered on the curriculum and focuses almost solely on the subject matter to be taught. Dewey argues that the major flaw in this methodology is the inactivity of the student; within this particular framework, “the child is simply the immature being who is to be matured; he is the superficial being who is to be deepened” (1902, p. 13). He argues that in order for education to be most effective, content must be presented in a way that allows the student to relate the information to prior experiences, thus deepening the connection with this new knowledge.
At the same time, Dewey was alarmed by many of the "child-centered" excesses of educational-school pedagogues who claimed to be his followers, and he argued that too much reliance on the child could be equally detrimental to the learning process. In this second school of thought, “we must take our stand with the child and our departure from him; it is he and not the subject-matter which determines both quality and quantity of learning” (Dewey, 1902, p. 13-14). According to Dewey, the potential flaw in this line of thinking is that it minimizes the importance of the content as well as the role of the teacher.
In order to rectify this dilemma, Dewey advocated for an educational structure that strikes a balance between delivering knowledge while also taking into account the interests and experiences of the student. He notes that “the child and the curriculum are simply two limits which define a single process. Just as two points define a straight line, so the present standpoint of the child and the facts and truths of studies define instruction” (Dewey, 1902, p. 16). It is through this reasoning that Dewey became one of the most famous proponents of hands-on learning or experiential education, which is related to, but not synonymous with experiential learning. He argued that “if knowledge comes from the impressions made upon us by natural objects, it is impossible to procure knowledge without the use of objects which impress the mind” (Dewey, 1916/2009, p. 217-218). Dewey’s ideas went on to influence many other influential experiential models and advocates. Many researchers even credit him with the influence of Project Based Learning (PBL) which places students in the active role of researchers.
Dewey not only re-imagined the way that the learning process should take place, but also the role that the teacher should play within that process. According to Dewey, the teacher should not be one to stand at the front of the room doling out bits of information to be absorbed by passive students. Instead, the teacher’s role should be that of facilitator and guide. As Dewey (1897) explains it:
The teacher is not in the school to impose certain ideas or to form certain habits in the child, but is there as a member of the community to select the influences which shall affect the child and to assist him in properly responding to these influences (p. 9).
Thus the teacher becomes a partner in the learning process, guiding students to independently discover meaning within the subject area. This philosophy has become an increasingly popular idea within present-day teacher preparatory programs.
As well as his very active and direct involvement in setting up educational institutions such as the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools (1896) and The New School for Social Research (1919), many of Dewey's ideas influenced the founding of Bennington College in Vermont, where he served on the Board of Trustees. Dewey's works and philosophy also held great influence in the creation of the short-lived Black Mountain College in North Carolina, an experimental college focused on interdisciplinary study, and whose faculty included Buckminster Fuller, Willem de Kooning, Charles Olson, Franz Kline, Robert Duncan, and Robert Creeley, among others. Black Mountain College was the locus of the "Black Mountain Poets" a group of avant-garde poets closely linked with the Beat Generation and the San Francisco Renaissance.
Advantages on Dewey’s Theories
In the book of John Dewey in titled Democracy and Education; he cited that “education is neither a process of unfolding from within nor is it a training of faculties, resident in mind itself. It is rather the formation of mind by setting up certain associations or connections of content by means of a subject matter presented from without” which means that education is the formation of life, because for John Dewey education is life itself. Dewey’s focused primarily on the learning experience by the students as their knowledge achievement and the teacher’s act only as motivator and facilitator in a class. This would lead to the birth of Progressive Education Curriculum theory which the main theme is the total learning experience attained by the students.
Dewey’s theory direct to the origin of the “Child-centered principles of education,” which the child’s interests are the primary objectives and purposes of the school in coping with the school’s visions, missions and goals to be with in reach or would attained. Many of the modern school establishment used progressive type of education curriculum in dealing with millennium students; and their guiding philosophy was base chiefly on the work of John Dewey.
Progressive Education Curriculum is in right tract of new-era trending of global competency and the age of new and high technology. An instituting and founding new course which is in demand in the community and is fitted to the student’s needs and interest will open-up possibilities in realizing progressive education curriculum’s output to the society.
One of the concerns of John Dewey is that, the need of educational reconstruction to the traditional conjecture of education; hence there is a rapid and substantial transformation of traditional educational syllabus. Although John Dewey did not totally eradicated the traditional educational curriculum but he gives the fuller extent of meaning to the dynamic elements of it (e.g. the role of teacher and learner).
One of his (Dewey) paramount sayings is that “Education is a social process; education is growth; education is not a preparation for life but is life itself.” meaning that education is not only a process but an existence within the process. Many of us see education as hindrance to our life and the grass weeds of burden to our pleasures. As we were going to swim the deep of Dewey’s thought, then he goes on saying that this is happened because to the traditional system of teaching. I am really finding it hard to be not in favor with Dewey’s assumption because for me, all of his assumption is true. Because in the traditional system of teaching, the learners acts only as passive receivers of data or just like a parrot that tells only what the teacher’s saying. Unlike in the progressive type of education, the learners act as an active receivers of data or just like an eagle that goes beyond what the teacher’s saying, and soar high in the boundless of knowledge. With the razor claw of experience and skills, the learner should saw on his/her perspective that school is education and education is a life.
I am strongly convinced with the idea of John Dewey that “The very problem of mind and body suggests division; I do not know of anything so disastrously affected by the habit of division as this particular theme. In its discussion are reflected the splitting off from each other of religion, morals and science; the divorce of philosophy from science and of both from the arts of conduct. The evils which we suffer in education, in religion, in the materialism of business and the aloofness of "intellectuals" from life, in the whole separation of knowledge and practice -- all testify to the necessity of seeing mind-body as an integral whole.” As morally motivated type of person; the moral ethnics of an individual should not be separated on his/her acquired knowledge.
Reactions on Dewey’s Theories
I am not one of the critics of the work of John Dewey on the matter of education as shown by my writings above but I have many clarifications on his works in a question-outline form.
Dewey said, “The child is simply the immature being who is to be matured; he is the superficial being who is to be deepened; his is narrow experience which is to be widened. It is his to receive, to accept. His part is fulfilled when he is ductile and docile.” A while ago, we are dealing with Dewey’s theory which emphasized on the child’s interest as the life foundation of new education curriculum. As Dewey said that the child is expected to “develop” this or that fact or truth out of his own mind. He is told to think things out, or work things out for himself, without being supplied any of the environing conditions which are requisite to start and guide thought. Hence, Dewey emphasizes that the child is an active agents in acquiring knowledge base primarily on the child’s interest. Then, why did he say that in maturing and widening the child experience or the gaining of knowledge, the child should be ductile and docile to fulfill this purpose? Docile means a passive obedient or as Webster’s definition which means, easy to manage. Indeed, the role of the child here is merely a passive receiver not the contemporary and dynamic receiver or active learners. I think the problem here is not the contradiction of Dewey’s propositions but the usages of word out of context.
Another statement of Dewey is that “Interests in reality are but attitudes toward possible experiences; they are not achievements; their worth is in the leverage they afford, not in the accomplishment they represent.” The primary motivating factors of learner’s interest in the field of science are the achievements of scientist and the advent of high technology gadgets in our milieu. Why John Dewey proposed the idea that “Interests in reality are but attitudes toward possible experiences; interest are not on achievements”
Conclusions
School should follow the idealisms of John Dewey’s propositions on a progressive education system which emphasizes of a child-centered curriculum base institution.
According to Dewey excellent education should have both a collective purpose and reason for the individual learners. For Dewey, the long-term substance, but so does the short-term quality of an educational experience. teachers are liable, thus, for providing learners with experiences and competent knowledge that are immediately precious and which progress and permit the learners to contribute to humanity.
Traditional education system as proposed by the traditionalist viewer of curriculum is lacking of planning approach in understanding the students needs and designing curricula overly focused on content rather than content-process and to the learners interest.
Therefore, in order to the school in providing proficient product of learners in coping with global competition of technology, the school should follow the idealisms of John Dewey on education.
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