Today's week focused on
John Dewey. First, I asked myself...who is this guy?? After reading about him
(after a quick wiki search) and as I read along I could definitely see traces
of his experience and education shaping his ideas and thoughts. John Dewey was
an educational reformer and psychologist who was born 1859 and died 1952 (good
life span). He spent much of his life working to incorporate democracy into the
classroom. His goal was to create a civil society. While reading, "My
Educational Creed" I stumbled upon a really beautiful quote: "In sum, I believe
that the individual who is to be educated is a social individual and that
society is an organic union of individuals. If we eliminate the social factor
from the child we are left only with an abstraction; if we eliminate the
individual factor from society, we are left only with an inert and lifeless mass”. This quote made me smile a little because although he
stressed the psychological aspects of learning heavily throughout his
writing he stated, early on in "My Educational Creed" that,
education in his opinion, had two sides: a psychological side and a
sociological side. I felt that this quote revealed the importance of
this relationship quite simply.
Dewey's Creed should be
a quote book because he states some very significant things that
I really found myself pondering
and understanding better after I finished reading. As a future
science teacher I felt intrigued by his criticism of science
education. He explains that because science is so objective it is extremely
difficult and challenging to tackle. Dewey professed many thoughts against didactic teaching and I completely
agree with him but; unfortunately, our educational system is designed to be
didactic for certain professions for example: medicine. Having had been pre-med--majority of my classes were designed to be classes that encouraged students to swallow a huge amount of material and regurgitate it back. A good pre-med student
is a good regurigitaor. So why is this the case? How could it be different? Is
it possible to change? These are things I ponder.
You bring up a great point with the pre-med track! While I was reading your post, I kept thinking about how all subjects are didactic in some sense. For writing papers, we need to be aware of grammar and spelling. For history, there are just certain things we need to remember like the Fall of Rome. Unlike China and Japan, our education system is created around knowing different facts, and it is the reason we have tests so society knows they are well educated.
ReplyDeleteI would love a different system for the upcoming students, but like you, I have no idea what a new system would look like. I think others in charge of education are also at a loss because anything they bring out will be loved and hated at the same time. So, although I think it is possible, I don't think it will be possible for a long time into the distant future.
Your blog made me reflect on my own college and teaching experience and the didactic method. We've been learning in our program that teachers just don't present a bunch of facts to the students and expect students to remember, learn and understand all the material. My big question is why is this pedagogy predominately used still in college? Nearly all my college classes were lectures from professors and an occasional discussion section taught by GSI. What will it take for educators to scrap this method and try to teach "the right way"?
ReplyDeleteSara,
ReplyDeleteI agree with your belief that education has two components, those components being both psychological and sociological. Emotion and socialization have such a huge affect on students in the educational system. How we feel and how we are able to interact with teachers, peers, and administrators predicts much of how we handle academic situations. From personal experience I know how important it is to feel accepted and comfortable in a classroom. I believe not enough educators stress the importance of socialization and social interaction between people, as human beings we need social interaction to live happily whether that be minimally experienced or not it needs to be considered. My only worry is that elite universities and educational institutions will continue to value academic excellence over social and emotional competence. Not to say that they do not consider it to be important, but I have met many people at this university who have difficulty connecting to others and feeling a part of a community, hopefully this will change so that education can too.
Becky