1. PRAGMATISM/PROGRE
SSIVISM
“Emphasis upon how to think rather than what to think”
“Education should be life itself, not a preparation for living”
2. AIM OF EDUCATION
Since growth is the characteristic of life, education
is all one with growing; it has no end beyond itself
Freedom and responsibility
3. SCHOOLS SHOULD…
Foster habits of thought, invention, and
initiative that will assist people in becoming
all they can be
5. Era of Reform
• Scientific revolution
• Industrial revolution
• Civil rights
• Election
• Questioning attitudes fostered by the Enlightenment
• Naturalistic humanism
• Idealism vs. Realism
6. Criticized Traditional School Practices
• Authoritarian teacher
• Exclusive reliance on bookish methods of instruction
• Passive learning by memorization of factual data
• Four-walls philosophy of education that attempted to
isolate education from social reality
• The use of fear or physical punishment as a form of
disciplines
7. PROGRESSIVE
EDUCATION…
was both a movement within the broad framework of
American education and a theory that urged the liberation
of the child from the traditional emphasis on rote
learning, lesson recitations, and book authority.
8. John Dewey
1859 – 1951
Born in Burlington,
Vermont
Died because of hip
fracture
Parents:
Archibald Sprague
Dewey
Lucina Artemesia Rich
Birth Order: 3rd of 4
Siblings
9. 1879 – graduated from University of Vermont
1880-1884
HS teacher for 2 yrs at Oil City, PA
Elem teacher for 1 yr at Charlotte, Vermont
Received his PhD from Johns Hopkins University (1884)
1884-1894
Instructor & Assistant Professor of Philosophy at University of
Michigan
1894 – 1904 (University of Chicago)
Head of Department of Philosophy
Two (2) years Director, School of Education
1896-1904
Laboratory School in University of Chicago
1904-1930
Department of Philosophy at Columbia University
1941
Approved 6-year experiment for progressive method of education
10. • One of the nation’s intellectual giants
• Chief spokesman for the progressivists movement.
• Democracy and Education (1916) is perhaps the single
most important book on education ever published in his
country
• Dewey was a social activist.
• He campaigned for democratic education and schooling,
and for causes such as women’s right to vote, welfare,
and teacher’s tenure.
• He was a firm believer in teachers’ organization.
11. Nature and Experience
• Nature and experience are not two different things; rather,
experience itself is of nature
15. Problem-solving
• Real-life situations
encourage problem-solving
ability in a
practical setting.
• Education should be
experimental.
• new things to learn
• different things to
experience
16.
17. Two-fold value
• An important piece of
knowledge is learned
• The skills of inquiry
and self-sufficiency are
developed, which will
benefit individuals for
years to come
18. • “Project-approach” by
Kilpatrick
• group learning
• Projects should be
chosen by students as
much as possible
through individual and
group discussion.
21. • There should be no
gap between child’s
area of interest and
important subject
matter.
22. • There should be focus
on process because
ends should not be
divorced from means.
• When one views what
a child learns as fixed
and ready made,
attention is directed
too much on outcome.
23. • Diversified curriculum
• Problem-centered
activities
• Attacks the problem in
diverse ways according
to their interests and
needs
• Traditional disciplines
are not ignored but
are used for a
knowledge background
of the problem.
24. Evaluation of students
• All questions of the grading of the child and his promotion
should be determined by reference to the SAME
STANDARD.
• Examinations are of use ONLY so far as they test the
child’s fitness for social life and reveal the place in which
he can be of the most service and where he can receive
the most help.
27. Therefore…
• Constant attention must be given to linking life
experiences with other experiences.
…This is where the TEACHER’S ROLE becomes crucial.
28. Training is not the same thing as
education
• Children can be trained through behavioral conditioning to
like or avoid things without understanding why they
should do so.
• Most habits of animals are the result of training, but
humans, unlike horses, have a wider range of
understanding and can act on that understanding.
30. TEACHERS SHOULD
SERVE AS…
Knowledgeable guides and resources for
students, not as taskmasters who just drill
students in subject matter.
31. Pragmatists believe that children have an
inherent motivation to learn, and that
the teacher should capture and use the
motivation that already exists.
32. TEACHER SHOULD…
establish a proper learning environment in
order to STIMULATE desired intellectual and
emotional growth among students
33. Example
• Using their interest
as their starting
point, students find
that textiles are an
enduring feature of
human history.
39. • Many educators felt that their approach to education was
not rigorous enough; that we needed to get back to
the “basics”
• Misinterpretation; an occasional lack of specificity in
pragmatism makes it difficult to apply
• Permissiveness
• Deprecates the acquisition of knowledge and waters
down the curriculum by taking a piece of this and a bit of
that discipline without ever fully exploring either in depth,
catering to students’ interests and slighting the basic
disciplines they need
40. Because…
• Some progressive reforms were sometimes implemented
too hastily and without adequate preparation of teaching
staffs.
• Some reformers did not completely grasp the essential
ideas of the changes to be made.
• Dewey’s name often was invoked but his works seldom
studied, and many progressive zealots took his ideas out
of context.
• Some educators have interpreted Dewey to mean that the
intellectual and cognitive sides of education are
unimportant.
41. FACT!!!
• Dewey placed intelligence and thinking in a central
position in his philosophy.
• Though… He thought that intelligence is developed in
purposeful activity dealing with problems and arriving
at solutions.
• He DID NOT ignore books, subject matter, and the need
for periodic drill.
• He simply rejected the assertion that these are the most
important things in education.
42. TRIVIA!
• Pragmatism/progressive education was identified with
radical social reform.
• For many educators, it was detrimental to associate
pragmatist ideas into conservative and traditional schools.
…In as sense, therefore, elements of pragmatism came in through
back doors of schools, and this factor helps explain why pragmatist
ideas and methods often are used (and misused) but are not always
identified with the philosophy of pragmatism.
43. • Rejects traditional
values in favor of
values that are
uncertain,
changeable, and
impermanent
44. FACT!!!
• Pragmatists, such as Dewey, DID NOT believe that
traditional ideas and values should be rejected out-of-hand
but should be carefully studied.
…one cannot afford to rely only on hand-me-down values and
that people should be seeking new ideas and values in
every area of human activity
45. • It supports the idea that schools should maintain an
experimental approach to learning.
…and what such critics fail to realize
• This does NOT mean that ideas and methods, no matter
how ancient in origin, are to be scrapped automatically.
• New ideas and methods should be developed and
implemented when they help to better solve perplexing
human problems
46. • The type of educator
needed for progressive
education needed to be
exceptional, that is,
extremely capable and
highly educated in
several disciplines.
• It is doubtful that a
sufficient number of such
persons could be prepared
and retained today,
particularly considering the
level of financial outlay
society seems willing to
provide for education.
47. PRAGMATISM/PROGRE
SSIVISM…
does not mean that valuable traditions are to be
disrespected or discarded; rather, it means that we must
learn to solve pressing problems intelligently, rather
than rely mindlessly on traditions.
Editor's Notes
Education is the process by which culture is transmitted across generations by the communication of habits, activities, thoughts and feelings from adults to the young
Without this social life will not survive
Education should not be viewed merely as schooling in academic subject matter, but as part of life itself
Other environment that the child encounters- such as family and work should be coordinated in meaningful ways
Children lives are as important to them as the lives of adults to adults. Individuals should be educated as social beings
Growth as an enlargement of the capacity to learn from experience and to direct future experience in a meaningful way
We grow to meet life’s challenges
Humans need to go beyond a quest for the meaning of life and seek meaning in their present day, actual life circumstances
All people should have the fullest and finest life possible – kilpatrick
Consequences of their action
Seeking out processes and doing things that work best to help us achieve desirable ends
Laboratory school in Chicago
Education is a process of experimentation because there are always new things to learn and different things to experience
Albumen is a characteristic feature of an animal food which corresponds to starches in vegetables
Important lesson in nutrition
In some cases, the teacher has no definite idea what the utcome will be
Ambitious projects
HISTORY traditionally is taught as something students should study simply because it is good for them, yet it might be remote and alien to their own experiences
It should enable students to connect their own experiences, customs, and institutions with those of the past.
Divorcing history from the present is a grievous error because it robs historical study of the capacity to provide intelligent insight into the present.
Democratic citizens = Schools which students have no choice, judgment and decision-making
Independent or group
Books, periodicals, fieldtrips guest experts etc.
Learning activities should be used to convey ideas and help students develop understanding and skill, and educational settings should be provided where students can act on and test these understandings and skills
Drill and recitation have occasional uses but are not the central function of teaching
The teacher’s role is not to direct but to advise.
He or she suggests sources and helps students discover other ways of pursuing the project.
Meet the interests and interests of the child
This sometimes has been interpreted to mean letting children do anything they want, but “needs and interests” do not necessarily mean the dictates of whim.
Wants to build an airplane. Math and physics to discuss the airfoil, people’s dream of flying and actual realization of flying
Meeting the needs and interests of students does not always mean waiting for students to suggest a topic, because often they are unaware of their needs and interests
A properly prepared and motivated teacher will make suggestions and arouse student interests to help launch new learning projects
A significant part of that environment is the subject matter in order to break it down into elements that students are able to connect with their own experiences.
This involves using students’ present interests and life situations as starting points to show how knowledge has bearing on their lives.
Teaching becomes a process of helping students identify problems and study organized knowledge in order to understand how social life developed from the past, what things need to be maintained, and what needs to be changed.
Impact of textiles on human history
How people in early cultures solved problems of survival
How textile manufacturing is a major issue in today’s global economy
Making garments out of natural fibers was a major advance for pre-historic cultures
The silk trade was a point of contact and conflict between the Greco-Roman world and ancient China
Wool and linen competition was an important stimulus in Europe’s industrial revolution
Cotton was central to the issue of slavery in the American Civil War
Rather than teachers merely imparting knowledge and students passively receiving it, pragmatists want active teachers and students.
The students’ action involves questioning, seeking information and knowledge of the conditions that affect them, and growing in the understanding and ability to manage their lives and to participate fruitfully in society
Teaching-learning process should be active, exciting and ever-changing.
Although projects might motivate some students for group work, individual projects might have to be provided for others
Downgrading individualism in his advocacy of cultural pluralism
Downgrading a systematic study of academic disciplines, in particular, mathematics and science
Rigorous - strictly applied or adhered to
Deprecates - express disapproval of
Therefore, they were more interested in the practical use of pragmatist ideas than having those ideas identified with the philosophy of pragmatism/progressivism.
Perplexed - completely baffled; very puzzled
One who possesses breadth and depth knowledge
Understands current conditions that affect the lives of students
Knows how to organize and direct student investigations
Understands psychological development and learning theory
Provides a supportive environment in which students can learn
Possesses a refined understanding of school and community resources that are available for teaching and learning