Discussion question
Please discuss your thoughts
regarding the following statement by Noddings, "several thinkers today
recommend a combination of cognitive and character approaches. Alarmed by what
seems to be a growing tendency in youth toward socially unacceptable or harmful
practices, educators are taking a new, more appreciative look at
Aristotle" (p. 13).
Due to the fact that you read
Experience and Education, I thought it would be beneficial to look at Dewey
from another lens.
On page 30, you will find the
following paragraph. Please discuss your thoughts regarding the paragraph.
School and Society, he described
the fourfold interests of children: making things (construction), finding out
(inquiry), expressing themselves artisitically, and communicating. Many
educators believe that these four interests can be used to create a rich
elementary school curriculum and that there is no need to divide the day up
artificially into disciplines such as English, history, and so on. In the
course of pursuing their own interests, children can learn a great deal about
the traditional disciplines if teachers arrange appropriate experiences for
them.
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First student's discussion
Jennifer Coyle,
Character
education is more important in classrooms than it ever has been before. Common
traits that were being taught and reinforced at home are not being addressed at
all and it falls on the schools to pick up that teaching- whether it is our
place or not is another story, but we do it because the skills are important in
the formation of these young students. Our corporation adopted Character Counts
several years ago- we no longer have seperate lesson that teach the 6 traits
but they are embedded in all we do. We begin each day saying the character
counts pledge...teachers have business size cards with the traits
(responsibility, caring, citizenship, caring, fairness, respect) and adults in
the building can give those out to students if they observe that behavior. Once
a student has collected one of each card they are "knighted". (our
mascot is the Knights). Our principal dresses up like a king, sceptor and all
and knights the students in front of the whole school for their use of good character.We
have 2nd/3rd graders and they LOVE it. Parents come in, the newspaper, its a
big deal. They also get their picture on the wall dressed as a knight. It may
seem silly but it is amazing how students strive to get knighted (and teachers
don't hand out cards lightly, it has to be more than an ordinary
behavior)
The inquiry method of teaching is popular today in the elementary
school, it is a very progressive form of instructing where the students start
with a question and work towards finding the answer. It is used most often with
science or social studies topics but is integrated into literacy instruction. I
believe the use of the four fold interests can make a rich and effective
experience for students but it cannot be used exclusively. With the focus on
standardized testing some skills do not lend themselves as well to this
approach. Students would be engaged and actively learning which is what all
teachers want but you do have to be careful of any extremes, any absolutes. I
love to watch the teachers in my buiding integrate subjects together. This
cross-curicular instruction helps students see the information and apply it
more effectively, not just in isolation. I prefer to teach this way, but it is
difficult to integrate all topics. Problem solving/critical thinking are two
areas our students struggle and they can be taught creatively but sometimes
math just needs to be taught as math..there are standard to be covered and
mastered. You can still use some of the four fold interests within the subject
area but it may not be to the extent that was discussed in the chapter.
Second student's discussion
Paige Anderson,
Paige – I think you’re right in terms of Dewey’s idea
of fourfold interests. I think he wants educators to think of the bigger
picture, and not be stuck in the “we have to teach_____” mentality. As I
was thinking about this, I think one of the projects at Rose-Hulman might
further illustrate. We have a concrete canoe competition through the
Civil Engineering department. Through this competition, students are
designing a canoe made out of concrete (construction), figuring out how to make
concrete float and why it will float (inquiry), designing the canoe to reflect
their personality (artistic expression), and working as a team to accomplish
this task (communication). So rather than teach the students about the
principles of concrete and principles of floatation/physics (sorry, that’s as
scientific as I get!), they learn these principles through a more interesting
venue than a traditional lecture. These interests can then carry over to
another project, and in the case of communication, carry over into life in
general.
Third student's discussion
Jina Hackman,
I
would have to agree with the modern thinkers in philosophy... that a
combination of cognitive and character education is needed in today's era of
education. Perhaps it would depend on the particular schools or areas of
schools for this to be true. I know that in the school system where I
teach, with poverty increasing, our teachers and all staff include character
education as much as possible. Many of our students come to us with a
lack of experience in social and character education. Society has changed
and some of our children are not receiving the proper modeling of positive character
development. If parents are not introducing and reinforcing good moral
development, than I feel it is necessary for the schools to participate in that
development as much as possible.
I'm
not exactly sure that children can learn all they need to know within the
framework of the fourfold interests. The disciplines of English, reading
and math serve as such a backbone for a child's education. I feel that
thinking and problem solving is a critical component of a child's education and
I think it is hard to teach. Teachers can certainly arrange appropriate
experiences for their students, but that doesn't mean that their background
experience and social readiness is where it should be. Currently in my
school, we are putting a strong emphasis on teaching thinking and problem
solving. It has taken a lot of professional development for our teachers
to model their thinking and problem solving so that the students can begin
doing it more on their own.
Fourth
student's discussion
Sarah Forbes,
I have mixed feelings
about the idea of character education. On one hand, like Aristotle,
character education can be an important part of a student’s growth.
Especially given that some situations will be first encountered in the school
setting. Take, for example, plagiarism. It is unlikely that a child
would knowingly go around trying to pass off another’s idea as his/her
own. Yes, children repeat what they hear, but they typically do not claim
authorship. In schools, especially higher levels, the opportunity to pass
off others’ ideas as one’s own increases. Thus, even in higher education
we need to teach students that this is wrong. Not only do we need to
teach that it is wrong, but also why it is wrong, and how to avoid plagiarism
in the future (i.e., we need to educate them on the proper citation of
ideas).
On the other hand, what
is the trade-off by focusing time and attention on character education?
There is so much content that needs to be covered that adding in character
education decreases the amount of time that can be spent on other topics.
At Rose-Hulman, we spend about 45 minutes with the freshmen talking about
ethics during New Student Orientation. In spite of this discussion, we
have too many students, in my opinion, making unethical decisions their first
year. This leads me to believe that the session is not very beneficial in
preventing unethical behaviors. What is the alternative? An entire
class on ethics, an extended session, a series of workshops? If we
implement any of these ideas, what are we taking out of the schedule to
accommodate?
I also feel, like
Aristotle, that parents should begin the process of teaching character/moral
values. I realize this is an idealistic picture, and that all too many
children have parents who are either not in a position or not willing to take
responsibility for some facets of their child’s educational experience.
As for the fourfold
interests of children, I think Dewey has the right idea in spirit, from the
perspective of higher education. A trend that is starting to
receive attention is the idea of competency-based degrees. That is,
rather than learning specific subjects, you learn the competencies that
interconnect/transcend the subjects. So the idea of not “divid[ing] the
day up artificially into disciplines” (p. 30) has a lot of merit for college
students. I think that higher education also has the advantage of freedom
in the classroom. That is, they are not as bounded and can incorporate
active learning techniques, which is how I see Dewey’s ideas of construction,
inquiry, artistic expression and communication. Given what we know about
Dewey, I do not think he would advocate for everyone to completely abandon the
idea of disciplines. That would be an either-or he warned against. I
do think he is encouraging us to think outside the box in ways that might
facilitate the learning process.
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