0615+Curriculum

Dewey’s //The School and Society//

This was a lot to read, I know. It’s the price of a summer semester. Had this been a regular 16-week semester, we would have broken the text up and dealt with each section more specifically. Note that the first part of this page helps you as you read. The actual discussion guide for your initial response is listed at the bottom.

Here are some points to consider as you read (or following your reading of) the text:

Here are some key concepts that appear in this text. We won’t be able to address them all within the discussion, but it is important that you consider them as you work to understand Dewey’s ideas about school, society, and curriculum:
 * Ideas to “know” from this text**

· Occupations · Work (in schools) · Center of gravity (in relation to curriculum) · Fourfold interests of the child · Drawing out vs. pouring in ·  Imagination · Mind as a social achievement · Continuity within the curriculum · Correlation of curriculum · Reflective (vs. spontaneous) attention

Dewey was influenced by his times. Among the major influences, consider the possible role of the following in the formation of his ideas regarding school and society:
 * Things to consider**

· Herbartians · Industrialization · Charles Darwin’s work · Influence of child-study movement (Pestalozzi, etc.)

To fully understand what Dewey is saying, you need to be able to grasp what he identified as the ultimate aim of education. What was it?

Dewey tends to throw in “digs” toward others in the field that had a habit of either attaching him or falsely associating him with others (most often associating him with the more hard-core child-centered theorists). For example, in The School and Social Progress section he refers to knowledge being liquefied. This could very well be a response to the humanists of the time.

You may find that while reading Dewey is a challenge, there are some great quotes. I would recommend that you skim initially, highlight the good quotes, and then go back and review the big ideas around those quotes. Here is a page if you'd like to include some of your favorite quotes from the reading. It may help others in class as well.

Dewey Quotes

 * For your Discussion: **

This text offers a framework for Dewey’s image of curriculum – a framework we will see enacted in the Chicago Lab School as we read Tanner’s book later. While there is much to digest here, it is very important that you can identify the main points he makes. To that end, identify key elements regarding Dewey’s image of curriculum according to the following points:

· The aim of education · The relationship between school and society · The manner in which the nature of the student should influence the curriculum · The organization of the curriculum to honor the points above

This response will take some thinking and writing before you submit your response. Try to make your response a coherent (ideally 2-3 paragraph) articulation of ideas after you’ve worked through them – not a spewing of what you think it might be.