John Dewey and Education Reform
Changes in education in the first half of the 20th Century focused on three main areas. One, the explosion in the field of social science (sociology, psychology, etc.) impacted education theory and practice. Two, issues of equity, race, and gender became increasingly important. Three, one man, John Dewey, transformed all areas of education, especially curriculum, instruction, and teacher preparation.
The rise of the social sciences at the college and university level impacted American public schools in two primary ways (aside from the impact of Dewey). First, it can be seen in the Gary Model for schools. Second, it influenced new testing that focused on intelligence with the Stanford-Binet Test being the most popular.
Devised by the Superintendent of Schools William Wirt in Gary, Indiana, this model sometimes is known as the "platoon" system. While adopting new designs in school layout and teacher preparation, the core of the Gary Model was curricular in nature. The primary grades followed a work-study-play program. "Work" in this system actually meant job related skills; "study" was the traditional academic subjects; and, "play" embraced the growing emphasis on activity for physical and mental health. This approach became even more structured in the secondary grades where students were "tracked" into one of two paths: academics or shop. Students that were deemed college bound followed the academic track and the others took courses in a variety of vocational areas to gain an employable skill for after graduation. The Gary Model was criticized by some for pidgin holing students as one thing or another, but it proved to be very popular and cost effective, so over two hundred cities and thousands of schools used it.
The growth of psychology as a field of study impacted public schools in terms of brain research. The most direct impact was the creation of various testing methods to determine intelligence. The most popular test used by public schools was the Stanford-Binet Test. Originally designed by a French psychologist, Alfred Binet, the test was modified by a another psychologist at Stanford University. Originally designed to measure mental retardation, the test was revised and used to determine "mental age" of students which eventually evolved into the IQ measure we are all familiar with. While a useful tool in measuring intelligence, it was just one of many factors that impact student success and achievement.
Begun during the Americanization movement, issues of gender and race were still being addressed. During the first half of the 20th Century the number of schools for African Americans exploded. Legal segregation that resulted from the Plessy v. Ferguson case set the stage for this. Equally important though was the improved economic situation of many African Americans that moved north during the Great Migration of the WWI and 1920s era. While still receiving lower wages than whites, many African American families could afford for their children to not work and thus attend school. Facilities and textbooks were subpar, but it was a school none the less. Schools began to accommodate and adjust to the massive amount of immigration of the era by developing English as a second language courses. Equity had far to go but education tended to lead the nation in these efforts.
John Dewey is probably the single most influential person in terms of public education of the 20th Century. Many of the curricular and instructional trends of the past fifty years owe much to Dewey's ideas. Dewey was part philosopher, part psychologist, and part educator. All three combined to form the Dewey method. He wrote five significant books on education, focusing on how children learn, curriculum, school structure and administration, teacher preparation, and how schools fit into a broader society.
One consistent theme in his works is that school is a social animal, meaning that they are a platform for social change whether it be a focus on equity or a emphasis on science over faith. Along those lines, Dewey said that the student should have a say in their education. Classrooms should not be a place where the curriculum is delivered but a place where students can "interact" with it. Dewey dedicated one book to the theme of Democracy and Education. He stressed that schools should not just be a place to obtain content knowledge but also an environment where students learn to live. As a result, the inclusion of life skills in the curriculum was, in Dewey's view, as important as the traditional academic subjects. Dewey believed schools were a place where broader societal change could occur, because young minds could be moulded and influenced (yes, I know, scary thought).
Another Dewey influences is the notion that students must interact with the curriculum and connect it with their own prior knowledge in order to better internalize it, although Dewey did recognize that there is a fine line between curricular freedom and classroom chaos. Dewey believed there was a place for traditional, direct instruction complemented with "hands on" project based learning (sometimes referred to as experiential learning). Within this curricular delivery system the teacher became more of a coach than an instructor. Their job was to facilitate and guide, not to lecture and direct.
All change is greeted with opposition and those changes and reforms discussed here had their opponents, but that does not detract from the fact that practically every education reform and quick fix after Dewey's death is based on his ideas. The sole exception may be the "high stakes" testing and curricular standards movement of the past twenty years.
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