The
writing in this post is based on the readings of John Dewey’s My Pedagogic
Creed as well as John Dewey: A Significant Contributor to the Field of
Educational Technology by Peter Rich and Thomas C. Reeves.
The Need for a Guide
John Dewey put a great focus on
“learning by doing.” Sometimes though, people
forget or ignore that an expert or instructor should be alongside to
guide. If the instructor is gone, the
students fumble about trying to reinvent everything for the first time
again. The instructor is there to guide
the students in discovery and show how the wheel became invented without the
years that it took to perfect it. It
seems like we can focus on technology that allows students to do everything on
their own. Even though technology can be
very useful in bringing the experience to the student, we must not forget that
there will need to be a guiding hand for productive learning to be accomplished
while motivation still exists for most, at least until students are proficient
enough to learn on their own.
School is
the community where we put students to develop their sense of wonder and
goals. Like a guide, the teacher knows a
goal and a means for the lesson. A child
left with all of the technology of an expert is of no use unless they have some
sort of goal in mind. When students are
older, we give them wire, batteries, and lightbulbs and ask them to figure it
out. Because they have a framework for
setting their own goals (e.g. lighting the bulb), the students can puzzle out
their own means through prior knowledge (e.g. electricity flows through wires,
bulbs need electricity to light). Even
still, we have teachers there to provide guidance for those who have not
discovered their own means yet and to facilitate the thought.that brings the
discovery about. For even younger
students, doing the same task would likely result in broken glass. As learners, we will flounder until we have a
purpose for our technology, and a teacher is there to help the learners learn
about purpose, starting by giving it to them, then weaning them off of their
need for aid.
Concrete Foundations
for Learning
Dewey seems
to express that we should not teach something to a student unless they have
some exposure to it. We should found
every teaching on concrete experience.
Students who learn to read should experience the need of reading. Students who study science should experience
the oddities of this world and see what we are working with. Students should be taught the use of
knowledge before they are taught it. As
with current pedagogy, students must begin with concrete thinking before
abstract thinking can be developed. As
technology is concerned, students should experience the importance of a subject
and thus technology before we can teach them how to use the technology properly. The student must experience, do, and learn in
the process.
The importance of
Context
We have to
introduce a concept so that students have an understanding of it before we
define it with a “symbol.” An example of
this shoddy work is the word “energy.”
Many people use it, but few could define it in a way divorced from the
ethereal nonsense it has become. Students
can learn a word and throw it around like an adult, but to use it effectively,
the student must understand the meaning of the word. We must be sure we are ready to explain the
purpose of the concept and what it entails before we consider teaching students
a new word. If we don’t, all thunder and
no lightning is what we can expect.
The Powers of
Knowledge and Emotion
Teachers
should keep an eye open for interest because that is when students recognize
their own powers. When you can
understand your world, manipulate it, and predict what it will do, you
recognize the power of that knowledge and skill. If we can help students find and keep that
sense of power, we have a citizenry that is motivated to improve and
learn. A citizenry that is truly free.
Even though
he was not aware of psychological research into generating beliefs, Dewey
believed that beliefs and feelings can be developed by actions first. As teachers, we should facilitate students to
do correctly and goodly, and students will value the actions as part of their
identities. From the identity, feeling
and emotion come, and from them a passion for the right and good stays.
Difficulties and
Confusion
One of my
greatest confusions is what Dewey means by “social life” and “science.” Social life has become a phrase that
encapsulates your relationships divorced from work and civic
responsibility. His idea seems to be an
all encompassing concept that covers every way that our life is social. This seems to be the same situation that I am
in with his idea of science. It seems to
be more than the discipline and body of knowledge, but the very method of
science itself. Because of this
different meaning, understanding Dewey can be difficult though rewarding task.
