Response to Dewey Articles

     For our class tomorrow, we were supposed to read two articles. The first was written by Peter Rich and Thomas C. Reeves, and is about John Dewey's thoughts on how a classroom should be structured. The authors state that Dewey believes that traditional objectivist teaching (teacher stands in front of class and lectures) is impractical and inefficient, and that learning best happens when students can learn through experience. The authors also state that while some educators have taken this kind of education to mean that the teacher is almost excluded, Dewey believes that the teacher should still be included in a student's education, and that the relationship between students and teachers is essential. The second article was written by Dewey and is about his pedagogic creed. Here, Dewey also states that since students live in a world of social situations, education should be focused on teaching students how to be an effective part of the social community.
     Reading through these articles, I can't help but wonder how I managed to learn anything. Thinking back to my experiences learning in high school and in college, most of my classes were structured in the objective way that Dewey calls inefficient. I think that objective teaching persists because as a teacher, preparing a lecture and standing in front of a class just talking is easy. To prepare some activity in which the students would be interacting with each other and experiencing the subject matter is too risky, so most teachers want to take the easy way out. I think that as a teacher-in-training, understanding that objective teaching is a poor way of teaching is important. Finding ways to allow students to learn through experiences is a challenge that I want to accept and a challenge that more teachers should also accept.
     Thinking about Dewey's comments on community, I am reminded of the CPR's (circle of power and respect) that we have been learning about with Scarlett Middle School. CPR's allow for a greater sense of community, and I think that they embody what Dewey wrote about in his pedagogic creed. Again, I think that CPR's or other community building techniques are things that teachers don't want to do because they take time and effort. Understanding that community and social interactions are key to learning is another important idea that we as teachers-in-training should recognize and try to put into our own practices.