PROGRESSIVISM

Use matter as a tool for

understanding and
ordering students
experience.
AIM OF EDUCATION

To promote
democratic and
social living.
TEACHING METHODS

Learning centers
Cooperative learning
Student-led and -initiated
discussion.
FOCUS IN THE CURRICULUM

Subject are interdisciplinary,

integrative and interactive.
Curriculum is focused on
students interest, human
problems and affairs.
CURRICULUM TRENDS

School reforms, relevant

and contextualized
curriculum, humanistic
education.
CURRICULUM EMPHASIS

Student interests and

needs; democracy;
morality; social
development.
ROLE OF EDUCATION

Knowledge leads to growth

and development of lifelong
learners who actively learn
by doing.
ROLE OF STUDENTS

Participate in formulating
the purposes that are the
basis for the student-
centered curriculum.
ROLE OF TEACHERS

Act as a facilitator for

student learning.
Determine student interests
for developing curriculum.
Progressivism
Progressivism
The students world is the focus and starting point of education.

Learning is an active, democratic and social process. Knowledge is

constructed by the student as they experiment and solve
problems.

The teacher is a facilitator and guide. School is a reflection of the

wider world.

Further Reading
Progressivism
The students world is the focus and starting point of education.
Whole Child focus
Active rather than passive learning. Experimentation, discovery

Constructivism / Experimentalism / Pragmatism / Bruner

Progressivism (Pragmatism or Experimentalism)
Why teach?
Progressivist teachers teach to develop learners
into becoming enlightened and intelligent
citizens of a democratic society. They teach
learners so they may live fully NOW not to
prepare them for adult life.
Progressivism
What to teach?
Need-based and relevant curriculum. This is a curriculum that
responds to students needs and that relates to students
personal lives and experiences.
More concerned with teaching the learners the skills to cope
change. Change is the only thing that does not change.
Natural and social sciences. Teachers expose students to
many new scientific, technological, and social developments,
reflecting the progressivist notion that progress and change
are fundamental.
Progressivism
How to teach?
Progressivists teachers employ experiential methods. They
believe that one learns by doing. (John Dewey)
Problem-solving method makes use of the scientific
method.
Hands-on-minds-on teaching methodology (e.g., field
trips during which students interact with nature or society).
Teachers also stimulate students through thought-
provoking games and puzzles.
5.PROGRESSIVISM
developed from pragmatic philosophy
Concept of progressivism
contemporary reform movement in
educational, social, and political affairs.
Dewey viewed the school as a miniature
democratic society in which students could
learn and practice the skills and tools
necessary for democratic living.
Progressivism and Education
the skills and tools of learning include problem solving methods and
scientific inquiry.
Learning experiences include cooperative behaviours and self-
discipline
schools can transmit the culture of society while it prepares students
in the changing world.
This philosophy places emphasis on how to think and nor what to
think.
 Progressive education focused on the child
as the learner rather than on subject,
emphasized activities and experiences
rather than verbal and literary skills and
encouraged cooperative group learning
activities rather than competitive
individualized lesson planning.

Progressivism and Aim of Education:

To promote democratic social living.
Progressivism and Curriculum
The curriculum is interdisciplinary in nature.
Books and subject matter were part of the
learning process rather than sources of
ultimate knowledge.
Curriculum is based on student's interests,
involves the application of human
problems and affairs.
 John Dewey
(1859-1952)
was an American
philosopher, psychologist,
and educational reformer
whose ideas have been
influential in education
and social reform.
Theories focused around
practices of practicality;
pragmatism
John Dewey (1859-1952)

1. Education is life, not preparation

for life
2. Education is growth
3. Education is a social process
4. Education is a continuous
reconstruction of experiences
He wanted the children to get
something out of their
education. Through
experiments the children got to
interact and see new learning
hands on.
 John Dewey (1859-1952)

Education is learning by doing

The center of education is the childs own social activities
The school is primarily a social institution
Implications of Deweys
Theory
1. The child is made the center oft the
educative process.
2. The aims of education are
formulated in terms of child growth
and development rather than
mastery of subject.
3. The theory of self-activity is the basis
of all learning.
4. The school curriculum is organized in
terms of activities and projects.
 Implications of Deweys Theory
5. School activities are correlated or
integrated with real life outside the
school.
6. Informal control is exercised in the
classroom.
7. Socialized teaching-and-learning or
group process or shared activity is
utilized.
8. Thinking and reasoning, rather than
memorization, are emphasized in the
educative process.
Implications of Deweys Theory
9. Evaluation is made an integral
part of the educative process.
10. Guidance and counseling are
essential parts in education.
11. The school is used as an agency
to develop democracy.
Aims of Deweyan
Philosophy of Education
Character Development
Well-adjusted Personality
Growth
6) THE PHILOSOPHY OF
PROGRESSIVISM
-This philosophy is closely related to
the Pragmatic philosophy of
education.
-According to this educational
philosophy, the child grows and
develops as a whole through his own
experience or through self-activity.
-Outstanding leaders;
Horace Mann Stanley Hall
Francis Parker John Dewey
-From the Progressivists, learning is an
active process, in which the learner
himself is definitely involved. This
point of view state that the learning
process is essentially experiencing,
doing, and understanding.
-This concept calls for active doing
which involves the mind, the body
and the emotion of the individual.
-In other words, learning is in itself a
natural experience. This simply
means that the child learns what he
lives, accept it to live by, and that
he learns this response in the degree
that understands and accepts it.
THE OUTSTANDINGCHARACTERISTICS OF
THE PHILOSOPHY OF PROGRESSIVISM
ARE THE FOLLOWING:

a) The child is made the center of the

educative process, and not the
subject matter.
b) Learning by doing and
experiencing are emphasized in
the educative process.
c) Thinking and reasoning are well
emphasized.
d) The school curriculum is based on
activities and projects that are in line
with the pupils needs and abilities.
e) Individual differences are
recognized by this school of
philosophy. Each individual is
considered as a unique individual.
f) Emphasis is in group planning,
discussion, and self-expression,
creativeness and responsibility. This
concept is based on the principle
that learning is a social process.
g) Evaluation is based on the flexible
standards or that grading must be
based on the normal-probability-
curve. This means higher standard
for the bright and lower standard for
the slow pupils.

h) Guidance is made an integral part

of teaching and learning in this
school of philosophy of
progressivism.