Understanding Education Through the Eyes of John Dewey

In John Dewey's piece entitled My Pedagogic Creed, one is quick to notice the direction of his attention in terms of education. I found it interesting how he believes that education begins almost at birth, and I would agree. As humans, it is in our nature to constantly be taking in tons of information from our environment. From there, our brains make sense of this information and turn it into useful pieces of knowledge, understanding, or awareness. It's important to me to recognize everyone as a learner, no matter where their skill set may lie, and I think Dewey clearly points this out in the first section of his text. We are natural learners, eager to take in and make sense of information, but how do educators fit into this learning process?

Dewey continues on to say "...the only true education comes through the stimulation of the child's powers by the demands of the social situations in which he finds himself." Here, I believe he is referring to the difference between passive and more active learning, or at least my understanding of both types. At birth, the way we are acting as learners is more passive, more innate, while in social situations, we must consciously assess the situations, or pay close attention to details expressed, and learn to act accordingly, often in a way that is deemed "acceptable" by the society that we are in. Dewey describes these two different sides of the "educational process" as the psychological (basic learning from your environment) and the sociological sides. This sociological side incorporates how the child, as an individual, works with and among those in their society in order to increase social welfare. One thing I never thought about, was how these two sides were dependent on each other. For example, the individual must have some understanding of their surroundings in order to learn to function in a social situation with others. In other words, in order to learn to function with others in a society, the individual must have certain actions developed in response to the constant intake of knowledge of their environment and themselves, for others to respond to, and for the individual to learn from those responses. It actually seems like a somewhat circular model of learning.

In the next section of his piece, he explains that schools and educators act as a social institution, which sets the stage for the "social situations" mentioned in the quote above. This is where the teacher fits into the equation, and I believe that my current teaching philosophy follows fairly closely with Dewey's. He states "...that education which does not occur through forms of life...is always a poor substitute for the genuine reality..." For me, this means that we must incorporate and use the knowledge and information around us in order to really teach and learn. As stated before, we are constantly accepting information from around us, and I believe in order to educate, it is our job as teachers to make our content relevant to students. When content is relevant, students will connect with it, forming some deeper understanding being able to form a relationship between the information provided and how it affects them, as well as how they can use it in their daily lives. As a math teacher, it may  not be that students will need to be able to pull the pythagorean theorem out at the grocery store, but they could recognize the appearance and usefulness of triangles in the structure of the store, or the effectiveness of wet floor signs to remain standing. Being able to see the pervasiveness of mathematics in their current and active lives, they will be able to interact with the subject as if it were a social situation, in which it is in action throughout their day, changing the way they see the world and how they interact with the world.

As a side note: I've noticed that I've been using knowledge and information interchangeably, and that makes me want to define them more precisely. I never considered myself talented in the art of defining words...but here's my attempt. The difference between knowledge and information is the way it is compartmentalized. Knowledge is acquired with more cognition than information perhaps? Or maybe knowledge is gained from information?
I wonder...what is the difference in your opinion between knowledge and information?

This reading really helps to support my motivation in finding ways to relate math to everything in my students' lives. Whatever they may be interested in, there is a way to connect math, and I believe that if students and people can recognize this, they would understand the importance of mathematics and the beauty of understanding it. Just as reading and writing allow you to connect with others and reflect on your experiences, mathematics allows you to connect and understand your world. My goal as a teacher is to present this idea to students in a meaningful and relevant way...