John Dewey

1. John Dewey Father of Progressive Education

2. Background on Dewey • 1859-1952 Born in Burlington, Vermont • Went to the University of Vermont and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1879 • Received Ph.D from Johns Hopkins University • Married twice with six kids • Major books: “Democracy and Education” (1916), An introduction to the philosophy of education. • “How We Think” (1933), A restatement of the relation of reflective thinking to the educative process • “Experience and Education” (1938), Outline a philosophy of experience and its relation to education

3. Theories of Progressivism • Believes that education should be “democratic” • Active participation for all citizens in social, political and economic decisions • Respect for diversity • Development of critical, social and engaged intelligence • Allows citizens to understand policies and participate within a community

4. Pedagogy of Dewey • “I believe that the only true education comes through the stimulation of the child's powers by the demands of the social situations in which he finds himself.” • “I believe that this educational process has two sides - one psychological and one sociological; and that neither can be subordinated to the other or neglected without evil results following.” • “Psychological understanding of the child must be the basis of education; without it the educative process will fail.” -John Dewey, My Pedagogic Creed

5. Application of Dewey in the Classroom • Can be applied by: • Encouraging group interaction and cooperative learning • Engendering a sense of democracy by giving the students equal opportunities • Allowing the students the opportunity to control some of the material • Designing lessons to promote diversity

6. Encouraging group interaction and cooperative learning • “Active participation of citizens” can be applied by: • Engaging students in hands-on activities • Assigning students into random groups • Making the students responsible for group projects

7. Engendering a sense of democracy by giving the students equal opportunities • “Allowing citizens to understand policies and participate within a community” can by applied by: • Making sure all voices are heard, not just those that know-it-all. • Make the room safe for every student to have an opinion.

8. Allowing the students the opportunity to control some of the material • “Development of critical, social and engaged intelligence” can be applied by: • Give the students choices as to what they can study. • “The fallacy consists in supporting that we can begin with ready-made subject matter of arithmetic, or geography or whatever, irrespective of some direct personal experience of the situation.” –John Dewey, Democracy and Education

9. Designing lessons to promote diversity • “Respect of Diversity” can be applied by: • Designing lessons that encourage thinking beyond your community • Helping to advance student self-efficacy • Recognize the multitudes of abilities and interests in the classroom

10. An Example: The Group Project • Have a class form random groups • Assign a broad topic: people/place/time • The group themselves will decide what it is they will research by vote • The group assigns roles to group members • The groups must create something that is representative of their democratically chosen topic

11. Citations • http://www.uvm.edu/~dewey/articles/proged.html • http://www.slideshare.net/CPappasOnline/educational-progressivism • http://wilderdom.com/experiential/JohnDeweyPhilosophyEducation.html#Resources • http://www.notablebiographies.com/De-Du/Dewey-John.html • http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-dewey.htm • Dewey, John. Democracy and Education, New York, NY; The Free Press, 1916