Dewey+Project+Group+3

Dewey Project Group 3 (Laura, Kim and Katie)

Laura's material starts here Chapter 3 - Waste In Education pages 63-94 Chapter 3 is about school itself as an institution, in relation to society and to its own members - the children. Dewey says

Schools have external parts of the school system - school board, Superintendent, building, engaging and promotion of teachers
 * all waste is the result of a lack of organization
 * the motive behind organization is promotion of economy and efficiency
 * the primary waste is that of human life

"The fundamental organization is that of school itself as a community of individuals, in its relations to other forms of social life."

Dewey believed that all waste is due to isolation.

Page 65 shows Chart 1 which illustrates the isolation in schools

__Kindergarten__
 * union of the nursery and the philosophy of Schelling (play and games that moms carry on with their children)
 * has elements that came from actual study of child life - a continuation of nursery - it has remained a life bringing force in all education
 * the Schellingesque factors made an obstruction between kindergarten and the rest of the school system - this brought about isolation
 * the ideal of kindergarten was the moral development of children, rather than instruction or discipline (content) - an ideal sometimes emphasized to the point of sentimentality

__Primary School__
 * grew out of popular movement of the 16th century (invention of printing and growth of commerce) it became a business necessity to know how to read, write, and figure (math skills)
 * primary school aim was utility - learning not for the sake of learning, but because they gave access to careers in life

__Grammar School__
 * study of language in the higher sense
 * at a time of renaissance, Latin and Greek connected people with culture of past, with Roman and Greek world
 * more liberal then the University
 * purpose - key to old learning
 * object - primarily culture, secondarily discipline

There was a liberal element in college which extended downward and grew into the academy and the high school.

__ Two products of the 19th century __
 * 1) Technical Schools
 * 2) Normal Schools

__Technical Schools__
 * schools of technology, engineering
 * mainly the development of 19th century business conditions

__Normal School__
 * arose because of the necessity for training teachers
 * idea partly of professional drill and partly that of culture

There are 8 different parts of a school system (represented in chart 1) The problem in education - administrative side - how to unite different parts.
 * all occurred at different historical times
 * have different ideal views
 * have different methods
 * the parts were never melded into a whole, some isolation still exists

__Normal Schools Vs College__
 * Normal School is between high school and college.
 * Normal School objective was to train __how__ to teach, rather than __what__ to teach.
 * College objective was __what__ to teach, not __how__ to teach.
 * Dewey believed that in this division between what to teach and how to teach, each side suffers from the separation.

Laura's material ends here

__Elementary__
 * has "crowded up" and taken subjects of old New England Grammar School

__High School__
 * pushed it's subjects down to 7th,8th grades

__7th/8th Grades__
 * These grades are all that is left of old grammar school
 * Partly a place where kids go on learning what they have already learned (read, write, figure)
 * Partly preparation for high school
 * in some parts of New England - named Intermediate School

Dewey believed, "The great problem in education on the administrative side is to secure the unity of the whole, in the place of a sequence of more or less unrelated and overlapping parts, adn thus to reduce the waste arising from friction, reduplication, and transitions that are not properly bridged."

Page 73 shows diagram 2 -"the only way to unite parts of the system is to unite each to life" (There is a description of the diagram on pages 72-75)

__Problems with schools__
 * isolation of school from life
 * student has inability to utilize the experiences he gets outside of school when at school
 * student is unable to apply in daily life what is taught at school

__Role Of School (according to Dewey)__
 * should be organic connection between school and business life
 * school is not meant to prepare child for any particular business life
 * should be a natural connection of the everyday life of the child with the business environment around him
 * child should study subjects not as isolated things by themselves, but in their reference to the social community

__ Chart 3 (page 81) __
 * to show what the school must become to get out of its isolation and secure the organic connection with social life
 * technical skills respond to child's need of action, of expression, of desire to do something, to be constructive and creative, instead of simply passive and conforming
 * need balance between social and individual sides

Dewey Quote: "What we want is to have the child come to school with a whole mind and a whole body and leave school with a fuller mind and even healthier body".

Dewey does not include "gymnasium" in his charts. He believes that there is active life in 4 corners of the diagram - a constant physical exercise

Dewey considers gymnasium proper - to deal with the particular weaknesses of children and their correction, this will attempt to build up the thoroughly sound body as the abode of the sound mind

Dewy also includes a recitation room - In the library, chart 3A a place where children bring their experiences, problems, questions, facts they have found -discuss them so that new light may be thrown upon them - accumulated wisdom of world - symbolized in library

Chart 4 is the symbolic upper story of the ideal school

Dewey believed that if you relate the school to life, all studies are of necessity correlated

__ Dewey's Lab School __
 * we don't expect to have other schools imitate what we do
 * it is a working model
 * it's a demonstration of the feasibility of the principle

Kim presenting chapter 4

Chapter 4 - The Psychology of Education pages 95-115 Dewey believed: "A school cannot lose sight of this apect of its work, since only by attending to it can the school retain the confidence of its patrons and the presence of its pupils.  __ University: __
 * most important part is the scientific
 * the contribution it makes to the progress of education
 * laboratory of applied psychology
 * a place for the study of mind (hence the term "laboratory school" - that Dewey ran)
 * not a norml school
 * not for training of teachers
 * centers on education of the child in light of mental activities and modern psychology
 * "The assumption of an educational laboratory is rather that enough is known of the conditions and modes of growth to make intelligent inquiry possible and that it is only by acting upon what is already known that more can be found out:.

Contemporary Psychology Vs. Psychology of Former Days
 * 1) Early Psychology -
 * The mind is individual, social interaction not important to learning
 * Learning has a specific, set way
 * A psychology of knowledge and intellect, unchanged by emotion
 * Facts, laws, & information are the main part of the curriculum (rote memory)
 * The mind was the mind and was the same no matter what age
 * 1) Contemporary Psychology
 * The mind is a function of social life, cannot function by itself
 * Intellect = "sphere of sensations and emotions"
 * Curriculum taught as factual, but uses analysis to further learning. (Through small groups, projects, social interactions, ect..)
 * The mind is now ever growing/changing
 * Goes through different stages of learning and interests

"To refuse to try, to stick blindly to tradition, because the search for the truth involves experimentation in the region of the unknown, is to refuse the only step which can introduce rational conviction into education."

The stages of Elementary growth: 1. About 4-8 years old // Goal is for students to go to school to have new experiences outside their norm, create a new understanding, and reformulate it into their own life. //
 * socially direct and centers around their interests
 * Expresses self through activity (play, games, stories, imagination, and conversation)
 * At an early age they associate with the things closest to them and as they age they expand outward
 * They learn through experiences (cooking, shopwork, modeling, etc)

2. About 8-12 years old
 * Activity now needs to accomplish something
 * Focus on skills and results
 * Finding practical and appropriate subject matter can be difficult
 * Example: American History-Period of Colonization
 * Present in a large amount of detail (tools, clothing, foods, lifestyles)
 * Correlation made between social processes and reality
 * Student relates lesson to "life" instead of history
 * Lessons are made up of factual/historical pieces and followed up by experimental pieces(active investigation)
 * Balance needs to be created between lines of work and personal interest
 * Curriculum is taught over a broad range of topics, without much depth

Important to control experience: command of social symbols, language Which is:
 * Traditional or three R's curriuculum is based on them
 * The subjects are social
 * They provide the tools to lead learners on their path, the individual can only do so much alone

Conditions to be observed in their introduction:

These conditions are:
 * A problem relating to the three R's is recognition of the conditions and adaptations of work to them
 * The child needs their own experiences, which should come from a variety of different means
 * These experiences will cause the child to use different resources to answer questions they have about the subject matter
 * This gives them intrinsic motivation

The Problem here is:
 * The child needs a lot of opportunities to explore, socialize, observe in a variety of experiences
 * They need the motivation to search for answers on their own, and not rely on this information, but to use it along with their own capabilites

**Introduce activity directly through: occupational work, scientific observation, experimentation, and so on, as part of the child's experience, not as isolated studies. __Present it in a progressive way!__ Increasing experience leads to:
 * In the early years, there is a definite result by which to measure progress
 * When taught young they'll view the task as power and not a burden
 * Alteration needs to be given to school programs and also the time devoted to studies
 * One subject may be more focused on at times

3. Comes at the boarder of secondary
 * Comes when the child has sufficient, direct, and various forms of reality
 * They have mastered the methods, tools of thought, inquiry and activity
 * It is thought that students can be brought from this period with a larger outlook on life