John Dewey's Pedagogic Creed, a series of articles published in 1897, has an astounding connection to teaching principles in this century. In particular, I found his stance on individuality inherent in teaching and relational aspects to social context closely related to issues of accessibility and standardized testing practices, as well as acting as a proponent of active learning.
Dewey's focus on active learning has parallels to engagement and interactive elements in online teaching practices. I found Dewey's focus on learning as a core part of social context reflected the current practices of engaging in active participation in online teaching, particularly in addressing the needs of online students for a socially-based connection with peers and teachers. Dewey's discussion of the two sides of learning, psychological and sociological, bore out as well when focusing on active learning practices in online teaching. Many of the activities I have created developing interactive elements in an online learning environment have focused primarily on cognitive development, which I'm likening to Dewey's psychological teaching side. In my forays in higher education, both as a student and a staff member, I have only seen equal measurement being given to sociological connection in learning (online and otherwise) in fields like social work, where a more holistic view of the student and the environment, both home and on campus, is taken into account when developing curriculum.
I also found Dewey's continued reference to children's "powers" an interesting reflection on proposed inherent interests, skills, and strengths in individuals. Though I think some of the context of powers and service to community to reflect ideals more attributable to the 1800's, what I found very transferrable to modern teaching was the practice of standardized testing, and how that is an inherently flawed system that removes the individual nature of learning and ignores the disparities in modern education and unequal accessibility. Additionally, Dewey's mention of social service, how a child can be of service to society, had I thought more parallels to trade schools than more traditional avenues of academia. Though I largely agree with Dewey's progressive take on education, I think the image he had for education in the 1800's would need a serious upgrade for today's students. Social structures are much more fluid, for instance, and our baseline for how we measure educational foundations would need to be re-defined on an enormous scale before further study could be done on developing educational material that better balances cognitive development and sociological application.
Hi Susannah, when I read your this reflection, I obviously feel that the thought and structure of this reflection is so clear. I like the structure. In additional, I also think that the changes of the world are so quickly that it seems that new events or technology are born at every time. The measure, methods, means, and even define of education also will meet the change or redefined in order to adapt to new technology. Hence I think that we need to study more present knowledge and explore the new unknow domain. I am looking forward to learn from you in this semester.