Our Learning Community was assigned to examine John Dewey’s Pedagogic Creed. Pedagogic Creed means one’s beliefs on teaching. For John Dewey this meant splitting up his belief into three articles. First, John Dewey stated that education has both psychological and sociological components. Psychology is the basis from which to begin, the child’s psychological ability should be examined and realized how exactly their abilities can be turned into their role in social service for society. Their role in society is where sociology comes into place, because sociology is the study of how society influences the world around us. Dewey emphasized that neither psychology nor sociology can exist without the other, in regards to their role in education. Dewey also stated in his first article, “what education is” that educators should make students apart of a community so they have a sense of belonging and obligation to group. I thoughout this was an interesting point, because in another education course I am currently taking, The ADolescent and YOung Adult; we are discussing the importance of belonging to an adolesectn. IN this stage of their development, it is vital adolescents feel like they belong to a group. Dewey believed community was a good way to relate to their surroundings, community is also a good way for students to feel important.  In Dewey’s second article, “what the school is”, Dewey stated school is primarily a social institution. Schools should focus on the process of living right now, not preparing for a hypothetical future. The future is not definite and ever changing, therefore it is more logical to prepare students for right now. This version of present life should be simplified, however, in accordance to the grade level of the student; the student should be able to understand the concept without too much conflict. On another point, school should not be creating completely new and foreign ideas, school should deepen values from home life. The teacher shouldn’t give restrictions on education, the teacher should select influences which affect child. Therefore, the child has the freedom and forms the ability to grow and learn independently. Finally, in article three, “The subject matter of education” Dewey reinforced ideas previously aforementioned. Such as, the subject matter should correspond with current events in children’s life. In reference to the communities children should be placed in, all academic subjects should refer back to their social community/ real life. This way, life is very real and relevant to the child.

Our LC chose to focus on the ways that Dewey’s teaching relates to different types of schools such as Montessori and Lab Schools. These schools can be very child centered and challenge the students to relate to the world around them. To organize our projects we created a google doc to outline our work, and presented a slideshow to display our work. Both are shared with you under the title of “lc 1”

My contribution to the design of the learning experience is as follows. We decided upon a time where we could all meet and discuss the layout of our project. I opened up the google doc and created the outline of our thoughts as we talked. We decided the makeup of our project would focus on key points of Dewey, the structure of his essay, three other examples of current structures which relate to Dewey, and then finally a Kahoot to review and engage our fellow students. Finally we would have a discussion on what everyones thoughts or concerns were. Among our LC we decided who would do what part of the project and then split up to work independently. I created the layout of the design and began working on my portion. I read through Dewey’s essay again, keeping in mind what I needed to focus on, and annotated thouroughly. My portion of the project first included giving a brief summary of Dewey’s esssay and main points. The next portion I was in charge of focused on Montessori schools and relating them back to Dewey’s essay. The idea of discussing Montessori’s schools was mine, I had grown up around a Montessori school, based on what I have heard they sounded like something Dewey may have been on board with. I did further research on the pro’s and con’s of Montessori schools and related these points back to Dewey’s essay. I then contirubted by leading the conversation of the classroom requesting a question or a comment from everyone. The website I used for research on Montessori is cited on the google slide and I will attach the link here as well.

Meinke, Hannah. “Exploring the Pros and Cons of Montessori Education.” Rasmussen College, 4 Nov. 2019, www.rasmussen.edu/degrees/education/blog/pros_cons_montessori_education/. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this reading and project. Completing the learning experience project really deepened my understanding of what Dewey was stating. As a future educator I will try to enforce the ideas given by Dewey which I believe are the most applicable and important.

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