Should school have a social function and should technology be 'in the mix'? I think that the focus of school should be academics and learning. I think the social function is simply a byproduct of this process: students learning together. I think it is an essential byproduct, but needs not to be a focus as it will come naturally.
Democracy in the classroom seems strange. I don't get why I have seen the two terms seem to come together so much since starting this program...it feels a little like propaganda. I suppose it makes sense in a civics class, but in Science and Math? It does not seem relevant to certain subjects.
Teaching is about seeking a center of balance that is constantly changing...I like that idea...I think it gets to one of the core reasons why I want to teach. Searching for balance. It is a challenge because it is always changing. I like that.
Do I change my practice to help the students that struggle? I am sure I will try. But I don't think it will be easy. If things don't work; I will not continue to do them.
I wonder what "democracy in the classroom" really means... it seems like it's naturally a dictatorial system, as long as your students don't have the right to walk out on you and you have the right to dictate the agenda.
ReplyDeleteI suppose if you relinquish some of the control it becomes a "benevolent dictatorship"... but still not a democracy!
It must be a physics thing but I don't really get the democracy in the classroom thing either. When I heard some classmates talk about it seemed they were advocating voting for classroom policies and the like. I don't get that. There is a difference in my mind between letting the students know the standards and letting them know that the classroom will not work without some basic agreement on those standards. But we can't vote on it. We can pretend and vote on tangential
ReplyDeletethings but bright kids see through that. In an indirect way public education is an exercise in American democracy in the sense that we give everyone a chance but the classroom itself is rather practical. I would not want to go much further than that.
I take your point, Pete...good catch. When it comes down to it, democracy has certain connotations that may result in our misunderstanding Dewey's message. I think more of challenging ourselves to find ways for students to be recognized as individuals--how can their interests be reflected in the work done in the classroom? I also think that Dewey wanted to remind us to attend actively to the social dimension of the classroom space, which might point us in the direction of small steps like involving students in determining the rules of classroom conduct.
ReplyDeleteAs a science educator, though, I think you would find Dewey to be a kindred spirit who saw in the scientific method a kind of authentic (and yes, democratic) approach to engaging with and making meaning from the world.
In his “How We Think,” Dewey articulates his “Five Phases of Reflective Thought” (1910), which take us on a "not-necessarily-linear" journey that starts with what he calls “suggestions,” an internal process of seeking responses to a “disturbed and perplexed situation.” To put it another way, we draw from our experiences and our observations. These lead to a more careful reckoning of the possible causes of the phenomenon, which leads in turn to the crafting of a hypothesis that forms the basis of measured action and simultaneous observation of the situation. The final phases are what Dewey labels reasoning and testing the hypothesis by action, which leads to a decision, to the taking of an action of some kind. The observable results of the action may lead us back into a cycle, where we re-approach the problem armed with new data leading to a new hypothesis which must be worked through (Dewey, 1910). In short, the core of the scientific method. Dewey wrote of the artificiality of “ready-made” problems, where the parameters of the problem are known or are apparent to us, making a distinction between a task and something more genuine, something with much richer educative potential. “Mere facts or data are dead, as far as the mind is concerned, unless they are used to suggest and test some idea, some way out of a difficulty” (Dewey, 1910, p. 106). Here is the recognizable core of Dewey’s beliefs about education, where the forming of authentic questions lies at the heart of the learning process.
Here's more in case it is of interest...
Pete, I think it's important in any discussion that spans topic areas for everyone to agree on definitions of concepts. I took Dewey's concept of the "social life of the child" to mean that how each child makes meaning to create learning is influenced by their socialization. And because school takes up such a large part of a child's life I don't think we as teachers can escape the fact that we play a significant role in this socialization. I think that Dewey, however, would caution that we should not impose our own "socialization" on the child, but rather help them make sense of their own, insomuch as this promotes learning.
ReplyDeleteAs far as how democracy matters in science, I see that science should be taught as a democracy of ideas. By this I mean that all ideas are welcome, no matter their source, as long as they can be proven using the scientific method. We should encourage our students not to discard ideas which seem strange or accept ideas on faith, but rather to seek out scientific proof. This is why, i believe, religion belongs in a completely separate realm from science.
Kind of along the lines of what Jeff and Bill said, I think "democracy" in this context is too broad of a term. Likely, Dewey and his ilk were really just trying to express the idea of students having the right to independent though, the right to take what they will from the education we give them and use that to create who "they" want to be, rather than who we tell them they should be.
ReplyDeleteI definitely feel you that it is an endless process of finding that balance and pushing further. But that is half of the excitement of teaching that we never know what to expect and there is no formula to success. In light of the idea of democracy in the classroom I am also unsure. More so, I think it is the focus that we live in a social culture where we have to work together and cooperate. Thats the basic gist of what I get from the idea.
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