Progressive education can fail to build upon past frameworks of student knowledge, according to Dewey, because of its scattered syllabus, based on student whims of the moment, while a student was still gaining self-knowledge and self-mastery.
Progressive education has some other inherent structural problems, such as the difficulty of evaluating and assessing the learner. If the student sets the terms of the learning process, how can the teacher evaluate whether the student is right or wrong? Students may also have very unbalanced interests. Dewey's dislike of dualism may be linked to his opposition of pure progressive education -- what about a student who does not like math, for example, and would not learn her multiplication tables unless compelled, preferring to use the time to do striking and brilliant art? The teacher could miss a critical window of learning opportunity, and it is necessary to learn certain basic skills to function on our society. Dewey would stress that the teacher show the girl how to learn about math through using art supplies, for example. In Dewey's model, students may learn different skills in different ways -- not all students learning to read would be reading from the same book, for example, but the teacher still imposes some structure upon the student in the progressive learning format. The role of a progressive teacher is purely a facilitator, while in Dewey's classroom; the teacher has a more active role in learning about the student and guiding the student to reach certain self-directed goals.
Perhaps the most important argument in favor of Dewey's approach as opposed to the progressive approach, is that quite often it is necessary to do unpleasant things to learn a task that one has high aptitude in -- for example, learning a language is boring at the beginning, even for a student interested in geography, because it involves a great deal of memorization, and a student in a progressive classroom might resist this task. But with a good teacher, the student can eventually flourish, and build upon his or her existing knowledge in French culture or Spanish music to attain a greater level of mastery...
Dewey's theory of education was the essential forerunner to "experiential learning" currently proposed by humanistic psychologists as ideal. Students are not "empty vessels" waiting to be filled by a teacher who knows whatever is worth knowing. They bring to school knowledge of language and culture as well as a set of individualized experiences. The need for students to be involved and to participate actively in their own learning is greater
growing recognition of the changing educational needs of college students, particularly those attending community colleges. In response to this awareness, reform efforts have been implemented in order to meet the needs of students. As reform efforts have been considered, increasing attention has been directed toward assessing the influence of learning styles on academic performance. The term 'learning styles' has been used to refer to the ways in which individuals
Who Should Play a Part in Developing Curriculum for Schools and Why?IntroductionOne of the first things to leap out at the reader of John Dewey�s description of schools in Utopia is the fact that he gives primacy of place to parents�meaning that only those married people who have had children of their own are allowed to have positions of authority in the �schools� or assemblies where children learn from their
Adult Learning: Andragogy Adult learning as a concept was first introduced in Europe in the 50s (QOTFC, 2007). But it was in the 70s when American practitioner and theorist of adult education Malcolm Knowles formulated the theory and model he called andragogy. He defined andragogy as "the art and science of helping adults learn (Zmeryov, 1998 & Fidishun, 2000 as qtd in QOTFC)." It consists of assumptions on how adults
John Dewey and Charles Prosser were both instrumental figures in American educational philosophy and pedagogical theory. Both Dewey and Prosser were pragmatists, but each proposed a fundamentally different function for public education. Dewey stressed the importance of education for fostering civic duty and promoting democracy; Prosser remained more concerned with the role education would play in preparing children for vocational careers. Although both Dewey and Prosser believed education should be
In grade four white males performing "At or Above Basic" math skills is stated at 90% while black males were performing at only 59% "At or Above Basic" skill levels. White males in the "At or Above Proficient" skills level is stated at 49% with black males in this category stated at a mere 13%. The following labeled Figure 2 shows the statistical report of NAEP (2005) in relation to
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