PROGRESSIVISM Use matter as a tool for understanding and ordering students’ experience.
AIM OF EDUCATION
◦To promote democratic and social living.
TEACHING METHODS
◦Learning centers ◦Cooperative learning ◦Student-led and -initiated discussion.
FOCUS IN THE CURRICULUM ◦Subject are interdisciplinary, integrative and interactive. Curriculum is focused on students’ interest, human problems and affairs.
CURRICULUM TRENDS
◦School reforms, relevant and contextualized curriculum, humanistic education.
CURRICULUM EMPHASIS
◦Student interests and needs; democracy; morality; social development.
ROLE OF EDUCATION
◦Knowledge leads to growth and development of lifelong learners who actively learn by doing.
ROLE OF STUDENTS
◦Participate in formulating the purposes that are the basis for the studentcentered curriculum.
ROLE OF TEACHERS
◦Act as a facilitator for student learning. ◦Determine student interests for developing curriculum.
Progressivism
Progressivism ◦ The student’s world is the focus and starting point of education. ◦ Learning is an active, democratic and social process. Knowledge is constructed by the student as they experiment and solve problems.
◦ The teacher is a facilitator and guide. School is a reflection of the wider world.
Further Reading
Progressivism ◦ The student’s world is the focus and starting point of education. ◦ Whole Child focus ◦ Active rather than ive learning. Experimentation, discovery
Constructivism / Experimentalism / Pragmatism / Bruner
Progressivism (Pragmatism or Experimentalism) ◦Why teach? ◦Progressivist teachers teach to develop learners into becoming enlightened and intelligent citizens of a democratic society. They teach learners so they may live fully NOW not to prepare them for adult life.
Progressivism ◦ What to teach? ◦ Need-based and relevant curriculum. This is a curriculum that “responds to students’ needs and that relates to students’ personal lives and experiences.” ◦ More concerned with teaching the learners the skills to cope change. Change is the only thing that does not change. ◦ Natural and social sciences. Teachers expose students to many new scientific, technological, and social developments, reflecting the progressivist notion that progress and change are fundamental.
Progressivism ◦ How to teach? ◦ Progressivists teachers employ experiential methods. They believe that one learns by doing. (John Dewey) ◦ Problem-solving method makes use of the scientific method. ◦ “Hands-on-minds-on” teaching methodology (e.g., field trips during which students interact with nature or society). Teachers also stimulate students through thoughtprovoking games and puzzles.
5.PROGRESSIVISM ◦ developed from pragmatic philosophy Concept of progressivism ◦ contemporary reform movement in educational, social, and political affairs.
◦ Dewey viewed the school as a miniature democratic society in which students could learn and practice the skills and tools necessary for democratic living.
Progressivism and Education ◦ the skills and tools of learning include problem solving methods and scientific inquiry. ◦ Learning experiences include cooperative behaviours and selfdiscipline ◦ schools can transmit the culture of society while it prepares students in the changing world. ◦ This philosophy places emphasis on how to think and nor what to think.
◦ Progressive education focused on the child as the learner rather than on subject, emphasized activities and experiences rather than verbal and literary skills and encouraged cooperative group learning activities rather than competitive individualized lesson planning. Progressivism and Aim of Education: ◦ To promote democratic social living.
Progressivism and Curriculum ◦ The curriculum is interdisciplinary in nature.
◦ Books and subject matter were part of the learning process rather than sources of ultimate knowledge. ◦ Curriculum is based on student's interests, involves the application of human problems and affairs.
John Dewey (1859-1952)
• was an American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. • Theories focused around practices of practicality; pragmatism
John Dewey (1859-1952)
1. Education is life, not preparation for life 2. Education is growth 3. Education is a social process 4. Education is a continuous reconstruction of experiences
He wanted the children to get something out of their education. Through experiments the children got to interact and see new learning hands on.
John Dewey (1859-1952) ◦ Education is learning by doing ◦ The center of education is the child’s own social activities ◦ The school is primarily a social institution
Implications of Dewey’s Theory 1. The child is made the center oft the educative process. 2. The aims of education are formulated in of child growth and development rather than mastery of subject. 3. The theory of self-activity is the basis of all learning. 4. The school curriculum is organized in of activities and projects.
Implications of Dewey’s Theory 5. School activities are correlated or integrated with real life outside the school. 6. Informal control is exercised in the classroom. 7. Socialized teaching-and-learning or group process or shared activity is utilized. 8. Thinking and reasoning, rather than memorization, are emphasized in the educative process.
Implications of Dewey’s Theory 9. Evaluation is made an integral part of the educative process. 10. Guidance and counseling are essential parts in education. 11. The school is used as an agency to develop democracy.
Aims of Deweyan Philosophy of Education ◦Character Development ◦Well-adjusted Personality ◦Growth
6) THE PHILOSOPHY OF PROGRESSIVISM -This philosophy is closely related to the Pragmatic philosophy of education. -According to this educational philosophy, the child grows and develops as a whole through his own experience or through self-activity. -Outstanding leaders; Horace Mann Stanley Hall Francis Parker John Dewey
-From the Progressivists, learning is an active process, in which the learner himself is definitely involved. This point of view state that the learning process is essentially experiencing, doing, and understanding. -This concept calls for active doing which involves the mind, the body and the emotion of the individual.
-In other words, learning is in itself a natural experience. This simply means that the child learns what he lives, accept it to live by, and that he learns this response in the degree that understands and accepts it.
THE OUTSTANDINGCHARACTERISTICS OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF PROGRESSIVISM ARE THE FOLLOWING:
a) The child is made the center of the educative process, and not the subject matter. b) Learning by doing and experiencing are emphasized in the educative process. c) Thinking and reasoning are well emphasized.
d) The school curriculum is based on activities and projects that are in line with the pupils’ needs and abilities. e) Individual differences are recognized by this school of philosophy. Each individual is considered as a unique individual. f) Emphasis is in group planning, discussion, and self-expression, creativeness and responsibility. This concept is based on the principle that learning is a social process.
g) Evaluation is based on the flexible standards or that grading must be based on the normal-probabilitycurve. This means higher standard for the bright and lower standard for the slow pupils.
h) Guidance is made an integral part of teaching and learning in this school of philosophy of progressivism.