John Dewey - My Pedagogic Creed PDF

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Notes from My Pedagogic Creed by John Dewey, pulled from Curriculum Studies Reader...

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John Dewey - My Pedagogic Creed TLDR: A journal article written in the early years of his career, My Pedagogic Creed presents an overview of Dewey’s thoughts on education at the time including: ‘what education is,’ ‘what school is,’ ‘the subject-matter of education,’ ‘the nature of method’ and ‘school and social progress’. Dewey’s theoretical approach is a functionalist approach to learning emphasizing genetic psychology and social context. In this view, education is driven by children’s interests and social motivation; the teacher’s role is to organize, monitor and facilitate this natural learning process. Dewey thought of school as the ideal driving force to social progress, if education encourages independent thought and integrates children into their communities. In this context, curriculum cannot be unnaturally divided into subjects or prescriptive, but provides children with opportunities for guided real-life experiences. Context:  Published in 1897 whereas his seminal work ‘democracy in education’ was published in 1916 and his work continued into the 1930s Article One - What Education Is:  “All education proceeds by the participation of the individual in the social consciousness of the race”  Other words - education only comes through stimulation of child through social situations whereas the child sees themselves w/in context of welfare of group o Simple example is learning to talk  ALL education follows this process, can only either differentiate it in a direction or organize it o Children are an “Inheritor of the funded capital of civilization” - very Bourdieau w/knowledge as “intellectual and moral resources” o “Education comes through stimulation of child’s powers” o “Education… continually shaping the individual’s powers”  Two sides of education process, neglecting either results in “evil results” o Psychological - Children have inherent drive to learn  Therefore teaching that is NOT led by child initiative is “a pressure from without” and while a desired outcome may be produced, no learning occurred and friction is created  If teaching happens to coincide w/child interest some learning may occur  Sociological - teacher should understand child within current and past social conditions, w/vision of future social conditions Quote demonstrating pragmatism: “We are told that the psychological definition of education is barren and formal - that it gives us only the idea of development of all the mental powers without giving us any idea of the use to which these powers are put.” The “forced and external process” of education limits the “freedom of the individual to a preconceived social and political status”.  Dewey believes society is currently using education to the next generation in its own image rather than transforming or progressing (progressive education).

An old thought that is continually reframed as a new one: “It is impossible to prepare the child for any precise set of condition” because it “is impossible to foretell definitely just what civilization will be twenty years from now”  Note that he uses this statement w/the phrase “economically and efficiently” indicating education as capitalist tool to train the future workforce == Children’s inherent drive to learn is understood through “what they are capable of in the way of social service” Article Two - What School Is: == social institution where “agencies are concentrated that will be most effective” in child “inheriting resources of race” and to use those resources “for social ends”  School should represent life; it should be intrinsically valuable to the child - anything else tends to “cramp and deaden” o BUT then says school should simplify life (which children cannot yet comprehend, they would be overwhelmed, disintegrated or become “unduly specialized” o This goes along w/his earlier mention of education as needing to organize learning “Education is a process of living and not a preparation for future living” “As such simplified social life, the school life should grow gradually out of the home life; that it should take up and continue that activities with which the child is already familiar in the home”  School should reproduce social activities “is such ways that the child will gradually learn the meaning of them”  Guidance is “the only way of giving a background of past experience to the new ideas given in school”  Transmissive schooling (although this term is not used here) is not educative because it isn’t life experience, but artificial things to do often meaningless to child  Moral training in school = working w/others in unity and thought (collaboration)  Child should be simulated and controlled o Control should NOT come from teacher but from community = school must be accepted as social life o Role of teacher is NOT to produce desires outcomes but select influences (stimuli) and assist child in their response  Grading/exams - useful ONLY when they test “fitness for social life” reveal where they need help Article Three - The Subjectmatter of Education: == social life = basis of concentration and correlation in education  We “violate the child’s nature” by introducing them to specialized studies too early o Science: nature is a unity only through human activity

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Cannot be introduced in objective form as ‘new’ experience, but should relate to their experience Literature: is a social experience, should be valued for use in communication not as an end goal History: has value through phases of social life and growth “When taken simply as history it is thrown into the distant past and becomes dead and inert” Child can only learn “social heritage” through performing activities involved “Cooking, sewing, manual training”

“There is, therefore, no succession of studies in the ideal school curriculum. If education is life, all life has, from the outset, a scientific aspect, an aspect of art and culture, and an aspect of communication.”  There are no proper guidelines of reading/writing for one grade level  “The process and goal of education are one in the same”  To set up any standard for education is to “deprive the educational process of much of its meaning” depending on external stimuli Article Four - The Nature of Method: “Is ultimately reducible to” “the order of development of the child’s powers and interests”  This means… o ACTIVE v passive o EXPRESSIVE v impression o MUSCULAR DEVELOPMENT before sensory  Cannot expect children to understand causality without experiencing it  Symbols are necessary but alone they are “meaningless and arbitrary ideas imposed from without”  The image: what a child gets from a subject is the images which he forms w/regard to it o Effort should be seeing the child forms proper images o Time should be spent training child’s imagery, making it vivid and relating to that which he experiences o Note - believe for ECE this highly relates to play-based learning; children WANT to pretend and interact w/each other and especially reproduce social situations; SES is seen as non-essential but helpful subject when actually it might be the key to all learning  Interests: show growing power and capacity - educator should carefully observe o Humoring (limits?) or repressing interests is to suppress their curiosity o Note: consider, trying to teach children the names of different weather patterns by showing them photos of weather every day or singing a song versus taking to them about the weather on a daily basis (this is EASSY bc they will be talking about it) o To attempt to arouse emotion inorganically is “unhealthy and morbid”  Emotions will come if we “secure right habits of action and thought” how does this relate to SE curricula?

Our education system suffers from “deadness” “formalism and routine” and “sentimentalism” Article Five - The School and Social Progress:  Education is the way to social progress and reform o Reforms based on outward pressure (law etc) will fail o Education builds social consciousness  This is both individualistic and socialistic - schools must combine o Recognizes individual character formation o Recognizes that character formation should be formed in relation to others “Through education society can formulate its own purposes” and “shape itself” efficiently  Those interested in education must continue to assert to others that education is the point of social progress

Emphasizes importance of unity of science and art Role of teacher = formation of proper social life !!!! Teacher is always “prophet of the true God”  ...