This past week I have had the responsibility of reading and analyzing John Deweys pedagogic creed. Dewey believed that learning is best done threw experience. Dewey started a lab school in Chicago. A lab school is an experiential learning place. They are also known as demonstration schools. It’s a place where teachers are encouraged to experiment with different teaching styles. Everybody learns in different ways. people learn through seeing things, hearing things, or doing things. I learn through experiencing things. When I study I act things out or right them down to help me memorize them. Instead of learning through real world experiences that you might encounter. Instead of teaching a math equation that the students are gonna forget after the test, teaching a math problem about how to pay taxes or take care of a business would be much more beneficial to the student. The student should be able to take what they learn in the class room and apply it to the real world. He wanted the students to want to learn.
In our leaning community we chose to emphasize three major points, Lab schools, the no child left behind act, and Montessori schools. I already spoke about lab schools, so I will dive into the no child left behind act. The no child left behind act is based off all state testing scores. If a schools average is below the norm for a certain amount of years, their budget will be cut. I believe that intent of the act was good, but it has not produced the same outcome. If the school has low scored it might be because their budget is already low, so taking more money away doesn’t make sense. If they gave them more funding, the test scores might go up. We also looked up Montessori schools. A Montessori school is a place where the student decides what they learn. They are based off the students. If the students want to learn about squirrels, that’s what they will learn about. I don’t think Dewey would 100% agree with this. I think Dewey would want a little more structure. I think a Montessori would be great for young kids. It would be fun for them and they would want to learn. As kids get older I believe they need more structure. As a student figures out their passion in life, I believe they should have more structure.
Our group decided that we were all going to take one of the main points and explain it to the class. My topic was lab schools. I researched what lab schools were. I think lab schools would be very beneficial for young students that want to figure out how they learn. I think everyone needs to know how they learn, this will be their backbone all throughout school. They should always be able to rely on their learning style. I went to the University of Chicago’s website for the lab school that Dewey created to learn more about lab schools. I also went to a website called “The Conversation”. This told me in depth what a lab school was. The history, how they developed, and their practices. This was my main source of information.
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