In article four it is mentioned that the image and interest of a child are important factors during the education process. I also think that they are a very important nature of children, which should be paid attention to by educators. But it makes me confused about how to assign the time for lessons and paying attention to the nature of children such as image and interest.
Even I think that the basic knowledge gets from lessons is similarly important to serve child’s nature. In the field of study, this knowledge is like a stair leading to a deeper research field. Only when the children master the knowledge of the current stage, they can arrive at the next step. Hence I think that it’s important to pay attention child’s image and interest and teach the foundation knowledge. But I don’t know how much time is allocated
to each of them.
Hi Xiaojiao,
To your question, I don't have a specific answer for it. But since we all grow up in China and in a Chinese education environment, we have to admit that we always push our kids to learn more knowledge at the same pace, which I think is not appropriate. Because every kid has their own special ability. Focus on their school works too early will ignore kids' competence. I think this is the most important thing we need to think about as Chinese parents. We do want kids successful in their school, the most important is we hope our kids develop all way around. I hope this will make you think and find a good way when you…
Hi, Xiaojiao,
Your post reminds me that the experience I had. That was a time when I observed in a Montessori class. What I noticed was several children played in groups/individually and the teacher made notes about that. Then the teacher created specific questions for each child according to what the teacher had observed, and then asked questions and guided them to play deeper and learn more from what they were doing.
This is an ideal situation because there were only about 5-6 children in the class, the teacher was capable to provide the best educational guidance and plans for individuals. However, as you mentioned, if it's in a larger group setting, it would be difficult to monitor all children…
Hi Xiaojiao, I completely agree that Dewey omitted some very important logistical details. And part of me wants to say, "Well, it's a very general manifesto on his views on education overall, so maybe that level of detail is not needed?" However, Dewey does go into that level of detail--in explaining why sewing, cooking and manual training should be taught over classical subjects like history, literature and natural sciences. What sort of interests and strengths of the child is he even referring to? And, as you said, how would this level of differentiation even work? Dewey is talking about classrooms with multiple students, I would imagine, not one-on-one tutoring, which is very different from teaching. This actually makes me want to…