John dewey * * * john dewey * * is an important representative of early American functionalism psychology, and he is a famous pragmatic philosopher, educator and psychologist. He was born in Vermont and studied in university of vermont. Later, he studied under Herman of Hopkins University.
John dewey * * * john dewey, 1859- 1952 * * is the most famous pragmatic philosopher in the United States. 1879 graduated from university of vermont, and later received his doctorate from Pierce, a graduate researcher at Hopkins University. Since then, he has taught at the University of Michigan, the University of Chicago and Columbia University. He came to China to give lectures around the May 4th Movement, which promoted the spread of pragmatism in China. The main philosophical works are Transformation of Philosophy * * 1920 * * Experience and Nature * * 1925 * * * Seeking certainty * * 1929 * * and so on.
1884 Dewey taught at the University of Michigan and the University of Minnesota after receiving his doctorate. 1886, he published the first American and Japanese psychology textbook, which was very popular at that time. From 65438 to 0894, he taught at the University of Chicago for ten years. This decade has a great influence on psychology. He taught at Columbia University from 65438 to 0904 and retired from 65438 to 0930. There, he no longer studied psychology, but applied psychology to education and philosophy and publicized his pragmatic philosophy and pedagogy thoughts.
I am afraid that none of the modern American educational thinkers and pragmatic philosophers can be compared with Dewey's educational thoughts and practices in the United States and even the world, and have far-reaching influence and unparalleled contribution. Dewey is not only a philosopher, educator and psychologist in the 20th century, but also a so-called liberal who actively promotes social reform and advocates democratic political ideals in the United States. He is also a practitioner of people-oriented educational thought. His thoughts not only formed the American * * * Experimentali * * * * * * * philosophy system after pragmatism, but also indirectly influenced the implementation and theory of new education, the so-called progressive education. Because he has been engaged in writing and teaching all his life, his students live in different parts of the world, and his influence is incomparable to others. His disciple Hu Shi was a famous scholar in China in the first half of the 20th century and a member of the New Culture Movement. Dewey * * * john dewey * * was born on 18591October 20th. This year is also the year when Charles Darwin 1809- 1882 * * *, a British evolutionist, published his masterpiece The Origin of Species. Dewey was born into a middle-class grocer's family. Because Dewey's hometown is Burlington, Vermont, New England, the people's living habits, being good at autonomy, advocating freedom and believing in democracy can be said to be the traditional spirit of the colonial areas in New England.
John dewey's Theory of Educational Essence
The first point is that "education is growth". He believes that education can make children's instinctive ability grow continuously, and those educators must provide necessary conditions for children's growth. In his view, children have great dependence and plasticity, so they have strong learning ability. But because of this, the education of children should be gradual and should not be rushed.
Dewey believes that the purpose of education is dissolved in the process of education. Education is not to let children forcibly absorb social things, but to let human innate ability grow better.
The second theory is that education is life. Dewey believes that children's education begins with life. Life can provide a lot of nutrition for children's growth. The essence of life is survival, and striving to survive is the process of growth. The relationship between education and life is just like the relationship between nutrition and physical life. The education of children must be combined with the immediate life, and children should be adapted to the whole living environment, so as to receive education better.
The third viewpoint of Dewey's theory of educational essence is that education is the reorganization and transformation of experience. He believes that experience is the foundation of education, and children grow up in life and learn from life experience. And constantly combine and transform the original experience to become the nutrition you need, which is the best state of education. In Dewey's view, the process of experience is a process of constant revision. Experience is no longer an invisible thing, but a kind of behavior and action, which guides the growth direction of children.
John dewey's Philosophy of Education
Dewey clearly pointed out in his famous educational book Democracy and Education that "the purpose of education is to enable individuals to continue their education, not to seek other purposes outside the educational process, so that education becomes an accessory to such other purposes." This "teleology" really makes people dare not accept it easily. It must be remembered that the education he said here is inseparable from the democratic society he pursues in his mind. For him, especially in the social environment at that time, he embodied an American spirit-personal development itself is the ultimate goal.
He said: "Education itself has no purpose. Only people, parents and teachers have a purpose. " It is obviously a misunderstanding if we interpret his words as that education has no purpose. He "just hopes that people will not obliterate the essence and present life of children and adolescents because of the development of social efficiency." He doesn't want education to be an accessory to other purposes, so he interprets the purpose of education as: "When a person shoots, his purpose is to aim the gun at it. But this object is just a symbol, let's focus on the activities that * * * wants to carry out. " The ultimate goal of shooting is not the mandarin fish itself, but the symbol that makes the aiming action concrete and meaningful. Similarly, the educational process itself has the complete significance of developing individual endowment, and the goal of education is only as a guide and guidance.
In fact, he does not deny that education must have a "good educational purpose". The characteristics of these purposes are as follows: they must be based on the internal activities and needs of individuals; Must be able to translate into practical methods and cooperate with the activities of the educated; Educators should guard against the so-called common and ultimate goal. In fact, the orientation of contemporary education really swings between two educational purposes: one is to "make the educated become stereotyped products" and the other is to "finally improve the innovative ability of the educated".
Based on the emphasis on the educated themselves, Dewey opposed the traditional indoctrination education method. He pointed out, "Some people regard the senses as a mysterious package, thinking that we can let knowledge pass through this package, and the outside world can input knowledge into our hearts, thinking that as long as we stare at the books and let the children listen to the teacher forever, we can seek the secret of perfecting knowledge." He believes that the indoctrination education method is not real education, because "education is growth": "The first condition for growth is the undeveloped state, but the word' for' has positive significance, not just nothingness or lack." He is convinced that this immature state is full of initiative and potential, and can not be fully developed by indoctrination.
For Dewey, creating sufficient conditions for learners to "experience" is the key to education: "The so-called experience is originally a kind of" active and passive "* * active-passive * * * thing, not a" cognitive "* * * * thing", Dewey "regards experience as the interaction between subject and object, organism and environment. He advocates that learners can learn from activities through this * * * progressive * * educational mode, and experience itself refers to the interactive process between the learning subject and the recognized object. But he added: "The value of experience depends on whether we can perceive the relationship or causality caused by experience. "Not every experience has educational value, but the interpretation of the subject gradually formed in the process of experience is the key. To this end, Dewey also pointed out that it is the function of education to cultivate learners' self-learning ability. He said: "On the other hand, the experience of educational function can increase the ability to command later experience." He called the cultivation of this ability "transformation", so he said "education is transformation".
To sum up, Dewey advocates that the implementation of teaching methods should closely follow the learner-centered premise, especially in the early stage of children's education, "do more work in the sense of sociology and psychology", and then slowly turn to "systematic and technical knowledge" in the later stage. As Burnett Joel. Burnett * * * said in 1979 about American educational practice, "Dewey's pedagogy could not be widely used at that time or in schools at that time. Because teachers have never been trained in this kind of education, schools do not have the manpower and material resources in this area, and parents and politicians do not support Dewey's pedagogy. "
We can't deny that Maritain's criticism of Dewey-style education is noteworthy; He believes that "when people forget to teach the object * * * * the object to be taught * * * and the priority of the object * * * the priority of the object * * * *, when the worship by means is not purposeful, and the worship by means without purpose is only confined to the psychological worship of the subject, mistakes arise."