（外国语言学及应用语言学专业论文）杜威与美国教育的实用性.pdf

摘要 本文着力分析美国教育的主要特点, 探求其对美国著名哲学家和教育学家约翰杜 威先生的教育理论的具体应用 19 世纪末 20 世纪初美国经济发展飞快需要一种新的教育当时, 美国涌现 出不同学派的教育理论, 包括约翰杜威的实用主义教育理论, 威廉钱德勒巴格莱的要素 主义理论和罗伯特梅纳德赫钦斯的永恒主义教育理论在这些理论当中杜威的实用主 义教育理论最具影响力杜威通过对美国实用主义哲学和机能主义心理学进行认真研 究逐渐形成了实用主义教育理论该理论主要论述教育与生活教育与成长以及学校 与社会的关系杜威认为教育不是为生活和成长做准备教育本身就是生活就是成 长学校不是学生学习功课的场所而是一个积极的社会生活的形式他考虑个人在社 会发展中的基本需求鼓励个性思维的灵活性创造性和实用性他的教育理论使人们 从一个新的视角去看待教育 本文通过具体分析美国教育各方面诸如课程设置教学方法和教学过程的实例 说明美国教育是以实用性为基本特色美国教育对杜威理论的应用是非常具体和有效 的例如美国学校通过趣味课程和各种课外活动应用了杜威的教育是生活的观 点通过充足设施多种机会及开放环境应用了杜威的教育是成长的观点通过 设计教学法及与社会紧密结合应用了杜威的学校是社会的观点 总之美国教育通过有效应用杜威的教育理论而呈现其实用性的特色美国教育在 教学科研实践中促进了个人兴趣, 潜能及创造力的发展, 并形成了民主开放的教育环 境希望美国教育对杜威理论的应用能够给中国教育一些启发和经验同时期待美国教 育能够通过适当借鉴其他教育理论而得到更大提高 主题词杜威 实用性 教育 美国教育 英文摘要附后 abstract this study analyzes the main features of american education and explores its application of the educational theory of john dewey, the famous american philosopher and educator. in late 19th century and early 20th century, the united states underwent a rapid economic growth, which called for a new form of education. during that time, different schools of american theories on education in the united states emerged, including pragmatism of education contributed by john dewey (1859-1952), essentialism of education by william chandler bagley (1874-1946), and perennialism of education by robert maynard hutchins (1899-1977). among these groups, deweys educational theory is the most influential. having carefully studied american philosophy of pragmatism and psychology of functionalism, dewey gradually formed his educational theory focusing on the relationship between education and life, education and growth, and school and society. according to him, education is not the preparation for life and growth, education itself is life, is growth; and the school is not a place for students to learn lessons, but somehow a genuine form of active community life. he considers the basic needs of individuals in the social development and encourages flexibility, creativity and practicality in individual thinking. his educational theory enlightens people to look on education from a new perspective. this thesis presents and analyzes data regarding different aspects of american education, such as the curricula, the teaching method and the teaching process. it claims that american education features practicality and that its application of deweys educational theory is very specific and effective. for instance, it has applied deweys view of “education is life” through interesting curricula and various kinds of social activities; it has applied deweys view of “education is growth” through sufficient facilities, different opportunities and open environment in the schools; it has applied deweys view of “the school is society” through the project method in teaching and close connection with society. on the whole, american education features practicality by effectively applying deweys educational theory. it has promoted personal interests, potential and creativity in its teaching and research practice, and formed an open and democratic educational environment. it is hoped that the way american education applies deweys educational theory may provide some enlightenment and experience to chinese education. it is also expected that american education can make further improvement through applying other educational theories to some extent. key words: dewey, practicality, education, american education a e k n o w l e d g e m e n t t h i st h e s i sb e g a nn e a r l yo n ey e a ra g o ，a n di ti st h er e s u l to ft h ei n s p i r i n ga n dt h o u g h t f u l g u i d a n c eo fm ys u p e r v i s o rd r x i n gj i a n y u d u r i n gm a n ye m a i la n dt c l e p h o n ed i s c u s s i o n s ，d r x i n gp r o v i d e da l o to fv a l u a b l ea n dc o n s t r u c t i v ec o m m e n t s w i t h o u th i se n t h u s i a s t i ch e l pa n d e n c o u r a g e m e n t ，t h et h e s i sc o u l dn o th a v eb e e nc o m p l e t e d 1w o u l de x t e n d ，f r o mt h eb o t t o m o f m yh e a r t ，m yg r e a t e s tt h a n k st oh i m 1w o u l da l s oe x t e n dm ys p e c i a lt h a n k st om sl iz h e n gf o ra l l h e rs u p p o r ta n d e n c o u r a g e m e n td u r i n gt h ew h o l ep e r i o do fm yw o r k f i n a l l y , 1w o u l dt h a n ka l l t h ew r i t e r sa n de d i t o r si nm yr e f e r e n c e sl i s t ，f r o mw h o m ，i o b t a i n e dl o t so fi n f o r m a t i o na n de n l i g h t e n m e n ti nt h ep r o c e s so fw r i t i n gt h i st h e s i s 2 dewey and practicality of american education chapter 1 introduction this chapter discusses the aims of the study and the methodology adopted, and presents the structure of the thesis. 1.1aims and method of the study according to the u.s.a.-customs and institutions, american education deserves credit for its remarkable accomplishments and it surpasses almost every other nations in teaching basic academic skills to nearly everyone and offering unlimited educational opportunity to those who are capable of advanced studies (deng, 1988: 182). it is true that so far american education works well in many aspects, and people from all over the world come to the united states for better education. people may be interested in what kind of feature american education has and how it works. as i understand it, the educational theory of john dewey, the famous american philosopher and educator, plays an important role in the practice of american education. deweys educational theory focuses on the relationship between education and life, education and growth, and school and society. according to him, education is not the preparation for life and growth, education itself is life, is growth; and the school is not a place for students to learn lessons, but somehow a genuine form of active community life. he considers the basic needs of individuals in the social development and encourages flexibility, creativity and practicality in individual thinking. his educational theory enlightens people to look on education from a new perspective. this study analyzes the main features of american education and explore its application of deweys educational theory. american education applies deweys educational theory in many aspects, such as the interesting curricula in elementary and secondary schools, the good facilities in the schools, 3 the various choices in the community colleges for the growth of people in different stages, the open environment in the universities for creativity and individual growth, the project method widely used in teaching and close connection with society. this thesis intends to explore these by presenting and analyzing facts and examples. qualitative method is adopted for the analysis. 1.2 structure of the thesis this thesis comprises four chapters. chapter 2 discusses deweys educational theory in terms of its origin, social background and main views. chapter 3 discusses the main characteristics of american education in general and explores in details how american education applies deweys educational theory. chapter 4 presents conclusion of this study. 4 chapter 2 deweys educational theory since late 19th century, different schools of american theories on education in the united states have emerged, including pragmatism of education contributed by john dewey (1859-1952), essentialism of education by william chandler bagley (1874-1946), and perennialism of education by robert maynard hutchins (1899-1977). among these groups, deweys educational theory is the most influential. this chapter discusses its origin, social background and main views. 2.1 origin in the university of vermont, dewey studied philosophy as major, and then began to be interested in psychology and obtained his phd by a thesis entitled “kants psychology” in john hopkins university. after graduation from hopkins university, he began to teach in the university of michigan, the university of chicago, and the university of columbia. it was in the university of michigan that he began to be interested in education, which was later on one of his main focuses. he established the chicago experimental school and wrote many works on education, such as democracy and education, the school and society. his educational theory mainly originated from american philosophy of pragmatism and psychology of functionalism. 2.1.1 american philosophy of pragmatism in 1878, charles peirce first introduced pragmatism into philosophy in his article entitled “how to make our ideas clear”, claiming that “to develop a thoughts meaning, we need only determine what conduct it is fitted to produce: that conduct is for us its sole significance” and “to attain perfect clearness in our thoughts of an object, then, we need only consider what conceivable effects of a practical kind the object may involve-what sensations we are to expect from it, and what reactions we must prepare.” (giles, 2000: 25) william james developed peirces idea and wrote his famous book entitled “pragmatism” which gave further 5 explanation of philosophy of pragmatism. he emphasized two points: one is the meaning of truth. according to him, “true ideas are those that we can assimilate, validate, corroborate and verify.” and “the truth of an idea is not a stagnant property inherent in it. truth happens to an idea. it becomes true, is made true by events.” (giles, 2000: 88) the other is complete empiricism, which can be clearly seen in his words “for us the strengths is in the outcome, the upshot, the terminus. not where it comes from but what it leads to is to decide.” (giles, 2000: 208), and “i am, therefore, myself a complete empiricist so far as my theory of human knowledge goes. i live, to be sure, by the practical faith that we must go on experiencing and thinking over our experience, for only thus can our opinions grow more true.” (giles, 2000: 207) john dewey studied james works very carefully and introduced the principles of pragmatism into the field of education. according to him, the nature of education is life experience. in his works on education, the word “experience” was always mentioned and emphasized. 2.1.2 psychology of functionalism william james was also the founder of psychology of functionalism. his famous work entitled “principles of psychology” greatly influenced people at his time and till now. in his work, james gave detailed explanation of the concept of the stream of consciousness and presented four characters in consciousness: 1) every “state” tends to be part of a personal consciousness. 2) within each personal consciousness states are always changing. 3) each personal consciousness is sensibly continuous. 4) it is interested in some parts of its object to the exclusion of others, and welcomes or rejects-chooses from among them, in a word-all the while. he emphasized that consciousness is in constant change, for it is obvious and palpable 6 that our state of mind is never precisely the same. every thought we have of a given fact is, strictly speaking, unique, and only bears a resemblance of kind with our other thoughts of the same fact. when the identical fact recurs, we must think of it in a fresh manner, see it from a somewhat different angle, and apprehend it in different relations from those in which it last appeared (giles, 2000: 175). according to him, the order of our study must be analytic. a student who loves the fullness of human nature will prefer to follow the analytic method, and to begin with the most concrete facts, those with which he has a daily acquaintance in his own inner life (giles, 2000: 171). dewey also introduced james principles of psychology in his educational theory and paid more attention to the interests and psychological needs of the students. according to him, education should follow the interests and psychological needs of the students and encourage their creativity. since the interests and psychological needs of the students are changing constantly, education should keep up with the change. in other words, education should be in change. education is not static, but dynamic, in growth. 2.2 social background in american history, the period from late 19th century to early 20th century is of great importance, because a new united states was coming into being during this period. the social life of the united states underwent a deep change. with the rapid development of science and technology, the united states became an economic power in the world. meanwhile, the united states was facing many problems, such as the big quantity of immigration, the enlarged difference between the rich people and the poor people, the economic depression and the social contradictions (shan, 2001: 47). this section focuses on the economic environment and the educational environment, under which john deweys educational theory mainly originated. 2.2.1 economical environment since late 19th century, the united states underwent rapid economic development, which provided big opportunities for the development of american education. many new inventions, 7 new equipments and transportations came into being. in 1900, with its total industrial output making up 30% of the world output, the united states became the largest economic power in the world (shan, 2001: 48). and from 1865 to 1914, the gnp of the united states increased by 600% (shan, 2001: 48). apart from the rapid industrialization, the united states went into a large scale of agricultural development. the total amount of agricultural equipments increased from 0.49 billion u.s. dollars in 1890 to 1.7 billion u.s. dollars in 1914 (shan, 2001: 48). however, at the same time, the united states also experienced many depressions, especially the great depression from 1929 to 1933. it put forward many questions to the government, the thinkers and also the educators, who had to think them over and find out solutions. under this context of economy, dewey realized that a new society was coming into being, which called for the formation of a new education. since more and more creative people were needed for the continuous development of technology, and more and more practical and comprehensive people were needed as well for the equilibrium growth of the country, dewey developed his educational theory encouraging creativity and practicality. 2.2.2 educational environment american education underwent the confrontation between traditional education and progressive education and developed in the direction of seeking the practicality in education. 2.2.2.1 traditional education in the 19th century, the herbartian principles of teaching were very popular in germany, which regarded the textbooks-teaching the most important. in late 19th century and early 20th century, these principles were introduced to the united states by democa, who established herbart club in 1892 advocating the herbartian principles (shan, 2001: 179). according to these principles, the teaching materials are compulsory, the curricula are independent, the school management is very strict, and the relationship between the teachers and the students is teaching and absorbing. the task of the teachers is to try their best to have their students memorize the lessons and gain good marks. under these circumstances, the creativity and 8 initiative of students gradually reduced and the student became a kind of industrial product of the school. although the herbartian principles also pay attention to the interests of the students sometimes, but the purpose is rather studying how to effectively pour the knowledge into the brains of the students than discovering and developing the creativity of the students. 2.2.2.2 progressive education also in late 19th century and early 20th century, another so-called “progressive education movement” emerged. according to john a. beineke, there were dramatic changes in art, science, and technology during the first two decades of the twentieth century. as industrialization continues, scientific breakthroughs brought into question not only how men and women viewed the world, but also the very nature of reality itself. planck, einstein, freud, picasso, and braque were introducing novel and unique approaches for looking at and understanding the world. it was during this period, before the united states entered into the great war, that ideas related to the child-centered movement of progressive education began to emerge (beineke, 1998: 77). the representatives were colonel francis parker and william heard kilpatrick. they strongly criticized the traditional education and advocated a kind of education, which is student-centered, and uses selective teaching materials, comprehensive curriculum and flexible management. parker, considered by many the father of progressive education, had become well- known through lelia e. partriges book “the quincy method”, which related to parkers experiences in quincy school (beineke, 1998: 22). kilpatrick read partriges book on parker and began immediately to introduce even more progressive practice to the school, implementing new methods of teaching math and initiating field trips to study nature (beineke, 1998: 23). according to kilpatrick, the strongest motivating factor in a human being is a desire for recognition. other things being equal, they would rather have recognition that brings approval than recognition that doesnt bring approval. if a child cant get recognition for being the best boy in the class hes apt to try to get it being the worst (beineke, 1998: 26). kilpatrick also wrote in his diary that the natural exercises of the f