First, study the role and function of education and clarify its essence (1 ~ 7 chapters);
Second, discuss the purpose of education and various abilities as the purpose (Chapter 8 ~12);
Third, teaching methods and contents (chapter 13 ~ 17);
Fourth, the part about education and value (18 ~ 2 1 chapter);
Fifth, the philosophical discussion part about education.
The contents of this book are difficult to introduce one by one. So we have to use Dewey's own words to explain what kind of views his famous experimental school, University of Chicago, has followed in practice, and at the same time introduce some basic concepts that are generally considered to be of great significance to understanding his whole thought.
(1) Life and life
"The so-called creature is able to conquer and control the power to kill itself for its own activities. The so-called life is the process of renewing oneself by promoting the environment. " The word "life" is used to refer to all experiences of individuals and races.
"... the so-called' life' includes habits, systems, beliefs, success or failure, entertainment and occupation. "
(2) Environment
"The word' environment' or' living environment' not only refers to the surrounding individuals, but also refers to the specific continuous relationship between the surrounding things and the individual's own initiative." "This aspect of people also changes, which is the real environment of individuals." "The social environment will arouse some impulses ... let everyone participate in activities ... and form a tendency of rational and emotional activities in it."
(3) rational or intellectual
"The idea of something ... is to predict the process and possible results of its effect on us and our effect on it."
"The so-called sharing the same ideas with others, being concentric with others, and truly becoming a member of a social group by doing so is to give things or behaviors the same value as others."
"That is to say, what makes us related to his (others') actions is the same situation. As a result, our behavior is controlled by society. " "If you think that language ... is a typical connection, you can understand that the basic means of rule is impersonal, but something that moves others' reason." "The so-called intelligence ... is the ability to understand things from the way they are used. The so-called social intelligence ... is the ability to use materials to understand things in common situations. The so-called intelligence ... is the method of social control. "
(4) Interest
"The so-called interest means that in all purposeful experiences, objects-whether they are felt or imagined-can make people tempted." The word "interest" means: ① the overall state of dynamic development; (2) all kinds of objective results we foresee and want; (3) People's emotional tendency ... Once we underestimate the position of interest in education, we will first exaggerate the second meaning of the above three meanings ... We will be divorced from the development of all objective things ... and we will be reduced to a state that is only related to individuals. This is a wrong view. "
(5) Experience
"Experience is an attempt in initiative and a forbidden result in passivity. These two experiences are interrelated ... "
"Simple activities do not constitute experience, but scattered, centrifugal and consumptive activities. As a trial experience, it is accompanied by changes. However, if this change is not consciously related to the reaction of the results produced by the change, it is just a meaningless change. When an activity continues to go deep into the forbidden result, when the change caused by action is reflected in our own change, when this simple change makes sense, it becomes an experience. "
"The so-called thinking or reflection is to determine the relationship between what we tried and what happened." "Without some thinking factors, it is impossible to produce meaningful experience." "It is very important that the quality of experience changes when the thinking implied in experience is explained clearly. We can call this experience a reflective experience. "
Dewey said, "We use the word' experience' in exactly the same sense." On this occasion, comparison is life. For experience, the principle of continuity through renewal is also correct. As the renewal of physical existence and the re-creation of beliefs, ideals, hopes, happiness and misfortune practices and systems, they are all included.
"Any experience is continued through the renewal of social groups." "In the broadest sense, education is a tool to continue social life." Education is inevitable for the continuation of life, whether it is individuals or society.
As a special environment, institutionalized schools must be based on the above viewpoints. The same is true of the choice of teaching materials and the research of methods. When these views are carried out, the usual disadvantages of schools-all kinds of evils that have been produced because of the separation of spirit and body-can be eliminated.