Introduction John Dewey was an American philosopher. His work revolved around ideas about education and society, strongly influencing the progressive educational movement in the first half of the twentieth century. Later in his career Dewey distanced himself from progressive education, criticising it for being too reactionary. Dewey saw a polarisation of some of the elements of education, and he tried to unify these aspects through his theories. This is illustrated most simply in the titles of some of his writings:The Child and the Curriculum (1902), Democracy and Education (1916), Experience and Education (1938). He was not averse to revising his theories to make them relevant to an ever changing society. Central to his philosophy was that education and maturity should not be imposed upon children: 'Growth is not something done to them; it is something they do' (Dewey, in Cohen and Garner, p.156). A Brief History Dewey was born in Vermont in 1859. His family were farmers, but Dewey pursued an academic career. He received his PhD in 1884, and began teaching philosophy at the University of Michigan. He married one of his students, Alice Chipman, and she collaborated with him on many of his educational projects. In 1894 they moved to Chicago. Here, Dewey set up his most well-known educational project, the Laboratory School. It was 'designed to facilitate education, experimentation and research into new methods of teaching and learning' (Cohen and Garner, p.265). He recorded his work at the school in My Pedagogic Creed (1897), which explained his philosophy of education. In 1904 he relocated to Columbia University, New York City, and continued to write about educational practices until his death in 1952. His writings span a period of sixty years. Dewey's Theories - how children learn Like the other great educational pioneers before him, Dewey partitioned childhood into different stages of development. The first stage was from the ages of four to eight years. He believed that during this period the key factors for successful learning were play, conversation, physical activity and storytelling. Wirth writes that Dewey selected these areas of learning because they 'gave the child a growing command of methods of inquiry and experimental action at an elementary level' (p.104). The inquisitive nature of children was central to Dewey's concept of how they learned. As Pound explains, he thought that children, like scientists, were full of curiosity. He recognised that a child's mind is not static: 'In truth his learnings and achievements are fluid and moving. They change from day to day and hour to hour' (Wirth, p.61). Dewey believed that a child's curiosity, combined with the provision of valuable experiences, was the recipe for successful learning. He stated that 'every experience lives on in further experiences' (p.27). According to Dewey, the early years should be spent learning through play that was relevant to real life. Like Froebel, he hoped this would bring home and school life closer together: 'When play is part of a regular school programme, the whole pupil is engaged, the artificial gap between life in school and out is reduced' (Dewey in Cohen and Garner, p. 136). Dewey took this concept further than Froebel, encouraging schools to be an active part of the wider community. 'Participation in, rather than preparation for life, became the watchword for education' (Rusk, p.312). Dewey's theories - the role of the teacher Dewey had strong opinions about the role of the adult in education. He criticised the old, traditional methods for forcing knowledge onto children from the outside. Equally, he believed that the free-activity approach of the progressive movement had become too fundamental in its enthusiasm to break away from the past. He wrote of this new method: 'I have heard of cases in which children are surrounded by objects and materials and then left entirely to themselves, the teacher being loath to suggest even what might be done with the materials lest freedom be infringed upon' (p.71). Peters states that Dewey was keen to show his method did not pigeon-hole teachers in the role of spectator. Rather, he believed that the skill of a good practitioner lay in balancing adult direction with the children's freedom to explore. He advocated that this should be done through some adult control over what was available to the children, to 'determine the environment of the child, and thus by indirection to direct' (Dewey in Cohen and Garner, p.213). The practitioner was to be open-minded and look ahead to further learning opportunities. He advised that planning was not to be prescriptive, but follow children's learning in being fluid and flexible. The teacher's observations of individual children, and their understanding of the group as a whole, should be brought together with the children's own interests and suggestions to inform planning: 'The plan, in other words, is a cooperative enterprise, not a dictation' (Dewey, p.72). Dewey was also keen for teachers themselves to continue to study their profession: 'They need, in short, to become permanent students of education' (Wirth, p.54). Linking Dewey's theories to today's practice Dewey's approach to children's schooling had a profound influence on the modern education system in America, and in the UK. Pound points out that the 1967 Government's Plowden report reflected Dewey's wish that education should be grounded in the present: 'It is a community in which children learn to live first and foremost as children and not as future adults' (p. 22). Dewey himself was not in favour of political and administrative control over teachers and their curriculum. He advised that they should 'not be tolerant of small-minded or paternalistic administrators who would deny them the chance to work with imagination and integrity' (Wirth, p.71). This has been a complaint heard many times about frequently changing guidelines in more recent years. Dewey acknowledged the constant movement and change in education as necessary, but he warned against outright rejection of what went before. He believed in moderation between the old and new ways, or good practice could be lost in the name of progress. This advice seems most relevant to the current swing in and out of fashion experienced by the method of teaching phonics to assist reading and writing. Dewey's more balanced and open-minded role for the teacher has led him to be 'credited with developing the notion of reflective professional practice' (Pound, p.22). His theories on how children learn also have a bearing on today's methods. In particular, his understanding that children learn through the layering of worthwhile experiences echoes Chris Athey's research on 'schemas'. She found evidence to show that children learn when their interests are extended through carefully chosen related activities and experiences. Conclusion Dewey's educational philosophy has had a lasting effect on teaching practices. He attempted to forge a new way between the traditional and the progressive movements and developed a liberal, rational, creative approach to teaching. He was as much an educator of practitioners as he was of children. Links with other educational pioneers Friedrich Froebel, 1782-1852 Chris Athey, current educationalist References The Doctrine's of the Great Educators, 4th Edition, Robert R Rusk, Macmillan, London, 1969 Essays on Educators, R.S. Peters, George, Allen and Unwin, London 1981 How Children Learn, Linda Pound, Step Forward Publishing, Leamington Spa, 2005 Experience and Education, John Dewey, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1st published 1938, this edition, 1997 Readings in the History of Educational Thought, A. Cohen and N. Garner, University of London Press Ltd, London, 1967 John Dewey as Educator, Arthur G. Wirth, John Wiley and Sons Inc, New York, 1966
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