I had never read anything about the life and work of John Dewey before this assignment. I must say that I almost instantly intellectually fell in love with the man. The reasonableness of his arguments and the clear way in which he justifies his statements is inspiring. In particular his ability to recognize that partial progress is not a solution or reason to stop seemed right on the money to me. All to often educational reforms seem to take the form of a partial fix taken as the full solution. Then people wonder why it didn't work when a useful reform was expected to be the end all solution to a series of problem that it can help but not completely change. Dewey's quote about "experience (not) occurr(ing) in a vacuum" is a very eloquent way to express the social aspect of many of the philosophies of learning we have discussed. This theme was more clearly articulated in his pedagogic creed statement. I also appreciate boldness of statement and actually saying what you mean. Anyone who will call something "stupid" outright and then clearly and convincingly justify that characterization in their immediately following statements in near and dear to my heart.
The article on Wikipedia and Google seemed to be useful because of the perspective that it was written from. It acknowledge the strengths and flaw of each and contrasted them with the same objective view of more traditional sources of information. There was clearly a focus on knowing when and how to effectively incorporate these resources into ones teaching. I particularly found the comparison of Wikipedia to the Encyclopedia Britannica interesting. It has been my experience that there is much more controversy over the accuracy of Wikipedia in the humanities than in the sciences and math. I believe this is because it is easier to agree on the wording (or equations, numbers, and figures) of more concrete scientific and mathematical concepts than it is in disciplines that more heavily rely upon language to describe the central ideas. I would be interested in hearing responses from some science and humanities people on this.
Kiwi, Dewey's boldness of statement was in the Pedagogic Creed was something I also admired. I really enjoy it when someone puts oneself out there by clearing taking a stand on issues, especially when one shows clear reasoning for their positions. I may not agree with everything Dewey says he believes, but at least his clearly articulated creed gives thoughtful points which can be discussed and debated.
ReplyDeleteI am crushin' on Dewey too! I've heard a lot about wikipedia humanities controversy which I will from now on call "The Great Wikipedia Scandal" because it sounds cool and historical (like Teapot Dome Scandal, which I had forgotten the details of until I read the wikipedia entry).
ReplyDeleteApparently, a fierce 'battle for middle-earth' sized kerfuffle has been going on over the wikipedia entry for "portmanteau." There was some crazy postmodernist wikipedia fight over the word 'malamanteau." You can read a little bit about it here: http://thetvrealist.com/gossip/Malamanteau-Wikipedia-Controversy-2482082.html
I didn't even know the humanities were having "battle for middle-earth" sized kerfuffles about anything on Wikipedia -- how funny!
ReplyDeleteThere are controverisal topics on the sciences too -- I haven't looked recently to see what Wikipedia has to say about climate change and the IPCC, but that would be an interesting thing to check.
Thanks for bringing out the point about mistaking partial progress is not a solution or reason to stop trying. We are caught in that cycle in so many endeavors and especially in education reform. There is so much emotion, unsupported opinion and political infighting that there is seldom any patience to see something through or to make minor adjustments as we go along. But education as a human endeavor is tremendously complicated and it will often take a few iterations to get things right.
ReplyDeleteA thought about the controversy over the accuracy of Wikipedia vs World Book: is Wikipedia maybe viewed as more accurate because it's easier for people get online to read (and complain about) Wikipedia than it is to go to the library for World Book? Or could another factor be that people tend to believe that just because something is printed it automatically has greater validity.
ReplyDeleteI admit that Dewey's use of "stupid" endeared him greatly to me, too. Your thoughts about partially-implemented reform are right on the mark based on what I've seen over time. Human change takes time, and that is rarely granted to children or their teachers -- but when we anchor our work in evergreen values and beliefs, we are more likely to succeed.
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