Progressivism :: Teaching Education Essays

ProgressivismProgressivists trust that people learn best from what they subscribe most relevant to their lives. Therefore, the curriculum should be centered around the experiences, interests, and abilities of students. Teachers should mean lessons that arouse curiosity and push the students to a higher level of knowledge. In addition to reading textbooks, the students must learn by doing. Students should often go the classroom for fieldtrips during which they interact with nature or society. Teachers should also stimulate the students interests with thought-provoking games. Students should be encouraged to interact with one another and to let hearty virtues such as cooperation and tolerance for different points of view. Also, teachers should feel no compulsion to focus their students attentions on one discrete discipline at a time, and students may be responsible for learning lessons that combine some(prenominal) different subjects.Progressivists emphasize in their curricul um the study of the natural and social sciences. They believe that teachers should expose students to many new scientific, technological, and social developments, reflecting their notion that patterned advance and change are fundamental. Students should also be exposed to a more(prenominal) democratic curriculum that recognizes accomplishments of women and minorities as well as white males. In addition, students should solve problems in the classroom similar to those they will encounter outback(a) of the schoolhouse they will learn to be flexible problem solvers.Progressivists believe that education should be a perpetually enriching process of ongoing growth, not merely a preparation for adult lives. They also deny the essentialist judgment that the study of traditional subject matter is appropriate for all students, no matter of interest and personal experience.