Dewey+Project+Group+1

Dewey Project Group 1 (Michelle and Matt)

Chapter 1 The School and Social Progress

-"Knowledge is no longer an immobile solid; it has been liquified. It is actively moving in all the currents of society itself." -pg. 25

Prior to Dewey's World

1. Cavemen: hunters and gatherers 2. Only privileged had access to manuscripts, knowledge was limited to those who had higher social status, priesthood

Dewey's World

1. Industrial Revolution: printing made available to the masses, knowledge made commercial 2. Locomotive and telegraph: frequent, rapid, cheap, intercommunication 3. Travel: freedom of movement, allowed for exchange of ideas 4. Intellectual revolution: marked change in attitude of individual 5. These changes require schools to adapt 6. Division of 'cultured' people and 'workers' 7. 'Workers' view education as irrelevant to daily life; just as a means to an end; a tool to get bread and butter 8. Schools should provide individuals with effective self direction tools in order to strengthen the community as well 9. School should be reflection of the community 10. "Acquiring information and storing up maximum information becomes competitive, helping others is frowned upon." 11. School should be: child's habitat, directed living, mini community, embryonic society

Our World

1. Ever-changing curriculum 2. Incorporation of technology 3. Keeping up with student's pace/use of technology 4. Challenge to keep learners engaged/see relevance of school 5. "Death of education, but the dawn of learning." 6. Professional Learning Communities 7. Global ability to resource/reference knowledge 8. Political views of teachers, parents, students, administrators, school board, community, etc.

Chapter 2 The School and the Life of a Child

-"The moment children act they individualize themselves; they cease to be a mass and become the intensely distinctive beings that we are acquainted with out of school, in the home, the family, on the playground, and in the neighborhood." -pg. 33

Schools back then were: uniform passive en masse "I talk, you listen" center of gravity was outside the child background experience was irrelevant

Dewey wanted them to be: education means "drawing out" the sun about which the appliances of education revolve: the center about which they are organized home life to be carried over into school intensely active, express impulse and then through criticism, question, and suggestion bring to conciousness of what has been done and what needs to do relevant to student's interest and understandings (egg example: lesson is not just to boil for 3 minutes but to experiment and compare the boiling water levels, the properties of the egg and investigate own conclusions) Interest met in: conversation or communication, inquiry or finding out things, making things or construction and movement, artistic expression direction given to student impulses