John Dewey integrated two ideas into his foundation for educational philosophy. He stated that the educator should consider the inner qualities of the student, the "psychological insight into the child's capacities, interests and habits" (p. 6) and the "sociological" aspect which is "the stimulation of the child's powers by the demands of the social situation in which he finds himself" (p. 3). The focus of the classroom are activities constructed by the teacher with the inner qualities in mind to make education effective.
Dewey seems very contemporary in his understanding of the methods needed. He stated "the active side precedes the passive in the development of the child-nature; that expression comes before conscious impression; that the muscular development precedes the sensory; that movements come before conscious sensations; I believe that consciousness is essentially motor or impulsive; that conscious states tend to project themselves in action" (p. 12).
Dewey further stated that it was a mistake to place a student "into a passive, receptive or absorbing attitude" (p. 13). In this idea he and Freire had the same concept of what is true education. Dewey held that real education takes place within the mind of the student. "What a child gets out of any subject presented to him is simply the images which he forms with regard to it [in his mind]" (p. 13). "If nine-tenths of the energy at present directed towards making the child learn certain things were spent in seeing to it that the child was forming proper images, the work of instruction would be indefinitely facilitated" (p. 13). Dewey was asking educators to construct the teaching environment to assist the student to learn and then to assess quickly and accurately if learning has taken place, and re-teach in another way if needed. This sounds very much like what is being suggested by our administrators and professional learning communities.
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