John Dewey’s Educational Philosophy: Child-Centered Learning

Posted on Dec 8, 2024 in Social sciences

Introduction

This text is taken from one of the fundamental works of J. Dewey, The Child and the Curriculum, in which he outlines part of his educational theories and some of the basics of his theory experimentally. It was written in the early twentieth century. John Dewey was an American philosopher and educator of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century who had a great influence on both American and European pedagogy of his time. He was a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Chicago, where he started a laboratory school. He was influenced by the theories of Hegel, Darwin, and Peirce. Dewey is considered to be within the mainstream of the New School and has great relevance in many of the trends that developed in Europe and America during the twentieth century. The second half of the nineteenth century was a time of great change, especially in American society. Industrialization and increased immigration meant the country brought together all kinds of people with different backgrounds and cultures. The emergence of new social and economic classes, as well as emerging technological development, made it necessary to consider changes in education that addressed the new situation.

Analysis of the Text

Main Ideas

  • Education has to focus on the child, not the subject matter.
  • Learning is active; it requires the active involvement of the student.
  • The lives and experiences of children are not subject to a program.
  • There is an opposition between:
    • Discipline: focus on the curriculum.
    • Interest: the child is the center of the curriculum.

Internal Structure

Dewey makes a development that contrasts two theories: the subject matter as the center of the program of education and that which places the children themselves at the center of education. He concludes that the materials are just a tool that, thanks to the child’s activity, contribute to their education. There is a final conclusion in which two terms are contrasted again: Discipline and Interest.

Explanation of Terms

Interest: A key word in Dewey’s theory, it is the foundation of his teaching because education is essential in the individual’s participation in society, and this cannot be carried out without real interest from individuals themselves.

Commentary

Study of the Problem

a) Ideological Context that Frames the Text

The New School offers a substantial change in education. Focused on teaching academic subjects in which individuals had a passive role in the acquisition of knowledge that was marked by teachers and educators, it will now consider the child as an active element in their own education; the child is the center itself. The child will be educated to be an involved and active element in a real society of which they are a part. Each child is considered as an individual who can learn and develop through their own action. The interest of the child that lives in your immediate environment is the center of learning, and the program only serves as a tool and material means that the child develops self-actualization. The program is not the center of learning, but something that exists for the development of the subject.

b) Environmental Influences

The author, a university professor, soaking up the refreshing streams of the time, saw the need for educational change to adapt to the changing and diverse society in which they lived. As a university professor involved in experimental theories, he developed them and created his school laboratory to develop his educational theories. American society, full of immigrants and composed of people of many races, cultures, and ideologies, needed a school and a different education to understand the individual as being in development with characteristics, qualities, interests, and needs. From Hegel, he takes into account all his approaches to reason, considering the means of achieving greater stability and security. From Darwin, he uses the biological model and his conception of fit between the organism and the environment. From Peirce, he uses the value of the knowledge applied to reality.

c) The Author’s Influences on Other Components of Their School

The progressive school in the U.S. comes at the end of World War I, and that is the American correspondence of the New School in Europe. It hinges on Dewey’s philosophy and attempts to transform society through education. It has multiple fans and an impact on the educational ideas of its time, and it influences later theories throughout the twentieth century, both in America and elsewhere in the world.

Conclusion

Summary of Key Ideas Found in the Test

The center of education is the child, and the programs have to be always at the service of self-realization as a person and a member of a society. Learning has to be always active and from the child’s interests. The educator should always opt for the child, focus on their desires, interests, and opinions, and let them build their own learning, providing tools for its development, but never imposed iron discipline, but by subordinating everything to the student’s own life, which is the engine of development and learning.

Measurement

The need for educational change that arises from the social changes during the second half of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries led philosophers and educators interested in the issue to believe that the traditional education system, focusing on the program, the teacher, and a discipline in learning that left no room for the development of the subject as an individual actor involved in their own learning, gives rise to new theories based on radically different approaches to those in force until then. The individuality of the subject, their ability to be partners in their own education, and interest in developing capabilities that will facilitate their integration into society as an individual able to make valid and valuable contributions to the world in which they live, promote the desire to focus more and more education on the subjects themselves and less on educational programs that are seen as a mere instrument of which the learner is served according to their interests for their own personal development. Although Dewey’s approaches were valid in the changing context of the time, they may seem at the moment too extreme and far from the reality of the school of American society at the time because it does not pass the experimental stage. We will have to expect similar moves by others who are more practical and immersed in the school reality to test its validity and appropriateness.

Text Analysis and Commentary

1. Text Classification

a. Nature of the Text. Types:

  • Historical and legal (law, decree, constitution, treaty).
  • Historical and circumstantial (speech, parliament, proclamation, newspaper article, etc.).
  • Historic literature (reports, letters).
  • Historiography (written by an author after the fact).

b. Circumstances of the Text:

  • Exact or approximate date of the text and historical moment of the text.
  • Date on which the author writes and what they write about.
  • Spatio-temporal circumstances of the historical moment related to the text.

c. Author of Text:

  • The specific identity and personality.
  • Location and circumstances (contemporary or later).
  • Possible honesty or deception by the author.

2. Analysis of the Text

a. Sort and Set the Thematic Content of the Text.

  • Define proper names, technical terms, institutions, etc.

b. Capturing the Depth and Thematic Meaning of the Text.

  • Classification of essential ideas.
  • Regroup and express the issues contained in the text.

c. Interpret and Clarify the Content of the Text.

  • Explain the author’s thought.
  • Clarify the fundamental and secondary.

3. Comment on the Text Itself

a. Situation, Comment, and Link the Text to the Historical Process Referred To

b. Place and Comment on the Text in its Historical Context. Show What it Contributes to the Knowledge of the Time, Characters, or Specific Historical Problems.

v. Criticizing the Text in Relation to the Theme. Authenticity, Accuracy, Interpretation, Possible Errors.

4. Conclusions Regarding the General Characteristics of the Text and the Topic

Model Text Commentary: History – Teaching

0. Initial Stage (After): Reading and understanding the text.

1. The Text

1.1 The Text and Context

Value of text with the global context: time, author, their ideas, work, etc. Chronology.

1.2 Form

Language. Vocabulary. Concepts. Meaning. Style. Gender. Sources. Reliability. Translation.

1.3 Content

Analysis of the ideas of the text from the point of view of history-teaching. Theme or problem. Central ideas. Motivations. Influences. Contributions. Originality. Impact.

2. The Commentary

2.1 Critical Study

Criticism of it and of its approach. Critique of language. Criticism of the ideas and the author’s conclusions. Overall assessment: progress, regression, breakdown, etc.

2.2 Conclusions

Personal assessment. Term and topicality. Personal contribution to the topic or problem.

3. Bibliography

The author, about the author. About that time, on the subject, etc.

First Party

a. Analysis of the Terms:

  • Historical overview of key terms.
  • Meaning in the author who says.
  • Style of the author.
  • Study of new terms that appear in the text.
  • Value of the written language of the work in order to clarify the ideas expressed.
  • Analysis of the terms in order to place the work chronologically and to determine the authorship.
  • Possible interpolations and errors of translation and interpretation.
  • Translation of the text to comment and justification thereof.
  • Summary and explanation of the main ideas contained in the text.

b. Analysis Method:

  • Classes of methods historically used in the treatment of the subject matter.
  • Analysis of the method used by the author.
  • Analysis of the use of it that the author makes in the text.
  • Value method for the processing of the item in question.
  • Presupposes the method that is going to prove?

v. Location of the Text

  • Relation of text to the context.
  • Relationship of context with the work.
  • Relationship of the work with the joint thinking of the author.
  • Production stage of the author’s work belongs to.
  • Evolution of the author’s thinking and potential contradictions inherent in their systems.
  • Author’s relationship with his age, school, or line it can be framed in.

Second

a. Idea or Key Ideas Discussed in the Text:

  • Study the problem posed by the author.
  • History of the problem and other formulations of the same.
  • Originality of the author.
  • Some personal, social, economic, political, and religious influence on the author’s ideas.
  • Importance of ideas in the text regarding the general thinking of the author.
  • Influence on the author’s ideas from other fields of knowledge.
  • Post-interpretations of the text.
  • Author-influence within their school.
  • Influence on the history of pedagogy.

b. Critical Study:

  • Critical to the problem.
  • Criticism of the way of putting it.
  • Criticism of the underlying assumptions.
  • Criticism of the method.
  • Critical language used to express.
  • Criticism of ideas.
  • Critique of the influences on ideas.
  • Critical to the conclusions.
  • General and critical thinking of the author.
  • Critical-historical interpretations of the text, works, writer.
  • Criticism of the school or educational ideological line in which it can be framed.

c. Conclusions:

  • Present value of the problem and proposed solution.
  • Personal assessment of the problem.
  • Personal assessment of the author’s conclusions.
  • Personal contribution to the treatment and resolution of the problem.
  • Bibliography of the author. Main work editions and translations.
  • Bibliography on the author.
  • Literature on school-or philosophical path that can be framed in.
  • Literature on the problem posed in the text.
  • Literature on the main solutions that have historically been given to the problem.