John Dewey's Theory Of Education Summary

As we accept as true and seek out to improve and change today’s system of education, we would do well to ask, “What is education?” most of them are accepted that, in the 21st century children and adults alike. – George Washington carver, 1864-1943, scientist, botanist educator. According to educational philosopher John Dewey (1916),. Education in its general sense is any form of learning in which the knowledge, skills, and habits of a group of people are transferred from one generation to the next through teaching, training, or research. “Education frequently takes place under the guidance of others directly or indirectly. Any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts may be considered education” (Cronk, 2012).

In his book he pinpoints the process of oppression and sources of liberation. According to his viewpoint, the main thing to liberate from oppression is none other than bringing of critical awareness and the creative thinking process in the individual. He insists this can only be possible in a new type of education which make the partnership between the teacher and the student inseparably.

Freire starts his book with a prologue which introduces the idea of developing a critical consciousness in the minds of oppressed.ie: students. Furthermore, he introduces the matter of the fear of freedom in the oppressed who are influenced by being flooded in the situation of oppression. Those people must have a glance on outside themselves, understand the situation and start to thinks about their world. This happens through dialogues in education.

Freire states human and their lifestyles become changing day by day very rapidly. In fact, education is about in-parting knowledge based on one’s belief, truth and justification with the purpose of surviving in this changing world. Highly educated people are well recognized and given high reputation in the society. Hence, teaching is a process of sharing information between the

Freire is completely against this system of banking education as it lacks critical and creativity for the students. It is feasible for the oppressed (teachers) to be conscious but not moved from where they are, because the liberation does not commence unless the situation of the oppressed is changed. This is fully teacher-centered approach and it is rather concerning nowadays. This the traditional method of teacher learning process as it demolishes the creative ability of the students in which they are not conducting any group work, class work or homework.

Freire continues his analysis in such a way that the educational system mirrors the oppressive society as the whole: the students are oppressed by being completely denied of the opportunity to think for themselves, and therefore grow and progress through the levels of the model of the critical consciousness. In Maldives the medium of instruction, content and culture in the old curriculum is the idea of a few; elites of the society. Their language, culture and the facilities needed in education are different in all the manners compared to majority in Maldives. As a result, like other countries students