1. Dewey 2 What does child-centred mean?Supporting a reading of Experience and Education chapters 1-3

2. Child centredness: how simple? It certainly means putting the child at thecentre of the learning event Does it mean something else besides this? 3. Deweys educational philosophyPedagogical The School and SocietySocial/ political 4. Democratic Context4Dr F.Long, Education 5. Herbarts Method: 5 steps Deweys method: 5 Steps Preparation (ask for previous Confusion. The teacher experiences, thoughts)introduces the confusion usually Presentation of new content by skillful questioning presented with utmost -learners attempt to formulate care and logicthe problem or problems (representation by learners) Association informal Hypothesis. A type of mental construct arises, a form of theory conversation to link new that arises from practice a knowledge to old, multiplyhypothesis links Generalisation ; what Testing the hypothesis: an general principle might arise experiment is designed to test it from this new learning? (Inquiry, p. 112) Extend the learning Operational Idea the well Application to differenttested hypothesis leads to contexts of what is learned operational ideas 6. Johann Friedrich Herbart 1776-1841 Influences on Method: Childs experience is the key starting point Childs interest must be aroused Childs experience then needs instruction The presentation by Teachers is key to the re-presentation of learners The childs representationsDr F.Long, Education6 7. Lev Vygotsky (1896 1934) Zone of Proximal Development (Zaretskii,2009)Dr F.Long, Education7 8. We show the child how the problem should be solved andlook to see whether or not, imitating what hes been shown,he completes the problem. Or we begin to solve the problem and allow the child tocomplete it. Or we give him problems that are beyond the bounds of hismental age to solve in collaboration with another, moredeveloped child, or, finally, we explain to the child the principles for solving theproblem, pose a leading question, break the problem downinto pieces for him, and so forth. In short, we ask the child to solve problems that are beyondthe bounds of his mental age using one form of collaborationor another (Vygotsky as cited in Zaretskii, 2009, p. 76) Zaretskii, V. K. (2009), The Zone of Proximal Development: What Vygotsky Did NotHave Time to Write, Journal of Russian & East European Psychology 47(6), 70-93. Dr F.Long, Education8 9. Chapter 1 Some contrasts: The education is development from within or formation from without (p. 17) Formation from without: Transmit past knowledge to present generation for future use(habits of knowledge, conduct, school organisation) Textbooks a central feature, teaching quality significant Development from within: Cultivation of individuality (p. 19), internal discipline, learningfrom experience, vital appeal, dynamic aims and materials To locate subject-matter within experience (p.20) Deweys new educational foundation: the childs experience 10. Chapter 1: Query Main Fault of Progressivism: to constituteitself negatively as a reaction againsttraditional schemes and methods rather thanpositively To define itself by means of what it standsagainst rather than what it stands for What does it stand for? 11. Chapter 2 What is educative experience? Miseducative experiences Cause a rut so the same behaviour is repeated without variation Cause enjoyment but in a careless way Disconnected experiences dispersive, disintegrated, centrifugalhabits (p. 26) Linking learning to boredom A philosophy of education? Constituted by a plan for deciding upon Subject-matter (p. 28) Methods of instruction and discipline Social organisation of the school 12. Chapter 3 The nature of experience Emotional as well as intellectual attitudes (p.35) Growth leading to flourishing (p.35) lego? A spoiled child? (p.37) dynamic system Experience - a moving force for the good (p.38) The guidance of the mature person (p.38) Experience linked to objective conditions (p.39), environing conditions (p.40) Example of feeding a baby (p.41) meeting of internal and external conditions (p.42) The two principles of continuity and interaction (p.44) What education can prepare for the future? (p.49) 13. Contrasts Traditional Progressive the beginning of instruction Dogmatic knowledgeshall be made with the compartmentalised and experience learners already disconnected from have (EE, p.74) expansion and organization childs experienceof subject-matter through A diet of predigestedgrowth of experience materials (Experience(EE,p.74) Social situations and Education, p. 46) Progress marked by acontinuous spiral (EE,p.79) a laboratory researchEducation, Dr F.Long 13 14. Summary Words: Interest Interest Avoid drudgery Avoid routine Avoid the teachers ideas alone or ideas fortheir own sake Promote spontaneous activity like playing Promote doing and enjoyingEducation is development within, by, and forexperience (EE, p.28) Education, Dr F.Long14 15. Second Summary 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 understandingEducation, Dr F.Long 15 16. Third Summary Word: Discipline Think of teaching and learning together as an activity Think of this activity as a game. How are the rules ofthis game infringed? Participants submit to the rules for the sake of theactivity There is no arbitrary authority the control of individual actions is effected by the whole situation in which individuals are involved (EE, p.53) Education, Dr F.Long16 17. Main points Like Herbart, Dewey wants to set learning on aproper psychological footing: All learning ispurposive, directional, connected to the learners life Links education to society and the democraticprocess. Do you understand how this link is made inDeweys system? Desire has been replaced by discipline in mosttraditional schools. How does Dewey proposereversing this? How could the new structure bedisciplined? Learning situations. How different are these fromtraditional ways of approaching the curriculum?Education, Dr F.Long17 18. democratic knowledgeI believe that the only true education comes through the stimulation of the childs 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 Creed18 Dr F.Long, Education 19. Definition Inquiry is the controlled or directedtransformation of an indeterminatesituation into one that is so determinatein its constituent distinctions andrelations as to convert the elements ofthe original situation into a unifiedwhole John Dewey, The Logic of Inquiry (1938), p. 104