John Dewey Education Is Life Itself Analysis

DEWEY THEORY Dewey’s theory emphasizes the need to learn by doing. He believed that human beings learn through a 'hands-on ' approach. He believed that ‘to prepare the child for the future life means to give him command of himself; it means so to train him that he will have the full and ready use of all his capacities ‘and this truly can only be achieved through a hands on approach. Dewey’s theory emphasized the fact that a teacher centred curriculum, plan, and teach in many cases causes children to look away from learning but a child centred plan curriculum and learning where the child’s strengths and interest are built on.

Piaget and Maslow: Teaching the whole child Exceptional educators keep their fingers on the pulse of what their students need, in order to teach them effectively. Examining Piaget and Maslow’s theories, and applying them to the classroom will facilitate achieving this goal. Considering Piaget’s focus on development, and Maslow’s prioritization of human needs, one can integrate these ideas into classrooms and lesson plans that are optimized for student success.

Does learner-centred teaching motivate learners to learn? What is learner-centred teaching? Learner-centred teaching, which at times referred to as student-centred teaching and learner-centred instruction, is a key concept in constructivism; a theory in which "learners construct and reconstruct knowledge, in order to learn effectively" (A. Attard, E. Di Ioio, K. Geven, 2010). Students are the protagonists in learner-centred teaching, unlike teaching-centred teaching in which teachers take the centre stage. In learner-centred learning, students "construct knowledge through gathering and synthesizing information and integrating it with the general skills of inquiry, communication, critical thinking, problem solving and so on" (Perumal, 2015).

However, the Learner Centered theory uses informal subjective diagnosis as opposed to criterion referenced assessments. Learner Centered ideology incorporates both developmental and constructivist learning theories meaning children create their own learning experiences appropriate for their developmental maturity and according to their own pace. Important to realize, this places teachers in the role of a facilitator. Teachers must observe and analyze student needs and interests, set up the environment, and then flow between student and environment to assist student learning. Consequently, students are provided a carefully planned menu of activities that they can choose from.

He argued schools exist to teach students ‘how to live a life.’ In this sense, Dewey emphasized education as a tool of not only teaching knowledge accumulated by the predecessors but also how to acknowledge one’s potential and maximize it to the fullest. This can be seen explicitly as he quotes “to prepare him for the future life means to give him command of himself; it means so to train him that he will have the full and ready use of all his capacities.” (Dewey, 1897, pp. 77-80)

Bruner Piaget influenced Bruner on his research about Child development, he believed that learning is an active process and that learners need to develop their own knowledge and ideas using their current or previous knowledge. The effective instruction includes: • Personalized: instruction should relate to learner’s experiences that motivates the student to learn from within one’s self. • Content Structure: Content must be designed so it can be easily grasped by the student. He also called this aspect a “Spiral curriculum” building thinking and learning skills over time to make it deeper and more complex, builds on itself. • Sequencing: An important aspect of material presentation.

Philosophy of Education (a) Identify one idea that you associate with Dewey’s philosophy of education, which you feel can be illustrated by drawing on your own experience of teaching and learning, e.g., the idea of the school as a community, the idea that young children have the trait of plasticity, etc. Explain Dewey’s idea as clearly as you can, using quotes and references to commentators as appropriate. Then give a concrete example of that idea in practice (it should be something that you have observed in a school or college setting); The idea that young children have the trait of plasticity is an idea of Dewey’s that I feel can be illustrated by drawing on my own personal experience of teaching and learning. When talking about plasticity

It is crucial to understand Piaget’s theory of learning; he believes that this is as a dynamic development as information is formed from the individuals themselves. Kamii (1974) emphasizes on the idea argued by Piaget which is that intellectual development is that children must be allowed to do their own learning (Halpenny and Pettersen, 2014, p. 152). To substantiate, Anne Marie Halpenny and Jan Pettersen (2014, p. 153) supports this statement in how educators can acquire and assimilate the concepts in educator’s pedagogy by claiming, that ‘active learning’ within allowing children to explore the environment is is the greatest approach for children to acquire knowledge. This suggest, that the responsibility of educators is to construct certain methodologies within their pedagogy to be able to adapt and develop aspects of Piaget’s theory to offer a learning situation where children are offered to cogitate and consequent to having children have the ability to develop as themselves. In addition to this, using Piaget’s theory in the approach of understanding that primary children from year 3 to year 6 would be distinguished as concrete operational individuals.

Pictures, concrete objects, are appropriate methods that are used on classroom as teaching aids. Field trips, computers, calculators are also used as realists method of teaching. Education should pass on, confirmed and the organizational structures which give importance to those truths. As with the idealists’ planned task for parents, realists expect parents to give in their children to teachers, as instructors better comprehend the reality and the techniques that are vital for better comprehend the reality. Those who understand the laws which administer noticeable phenomena.

The teacher therefore has to come up with creative and innovative ways to teach children and to always actively involve the learners for learning to be maximized. She can do this by relating the content of this focus area to the child’s actual world and also by bringing concrete objects to touch and feel, or even pictures. The influence of Beginning knowledge on children: This kind of knowledge can only benefit children since it forms the basics of their entire schooling career. They start becoming critical thinkers by questioning things that happen around them, and acknowledging why things happen in a certain way.

I think there are many reasons the teachers should understand the Development Appropriate Practices prior to implementing creative activities to young children in the classroom. A teacher’s role in the Developmentally Appropriate classroom is to create an environment that promotes learning. Also, they are a facilitator and enabler. According to Kostelnik (1992), "...developmentally appropriate classrooms are active ones in which both teachers and students learn from one another. " From that view, the teacher must understand the three core components of DAP and what Development Appropriate Practice means so she/he can apply it in the classroom.