12 INVITED CHAPTERS
making, parent participation, and by stimulating the ‘absorbent mind’ of the child to the
fullest, through exploration and discovery; that skills and understandings were perfected as
the need occurred. She too urged the “discovery of the child” such as that advocated by
Rousseau (1762) in Emily, and to make a careful study of pupils; proposing what is feasible,
and continually thinking and worrying about the relationships.
Robert Coles (1993) also argued how service-learning activities could stimulate student
learning, in many realms, particularly the affective.
Dewey viewed the mind and its formation as a communal process, and that individuals
were an inextricable part of society. For him, learning was not the teaching of mere facts, but
integrating knowledge and skills fully into the lives of students as persons, citizens, and
human beings (Dewey, 1910; 1915). Learning by doing was the key, and these ideas led to the
controversial progressive education movement in the 1930’s as a reaction to what was thought
by many to be the “lock-step” education of the early years. I urge you to read the reports on
the famous yet controversial Eight-Year Study, which supported many of these ideas (Aikin,
1942).
Dewey and his colleagues such as Counts, Rugg, and Parker, among others, also wanted
to see the intellect broadened, with problem solving and critical thinking as the skills, rather
than the memorization of lessons and information. To them, the past experiences of the
students enhanced the learning of new information...a situation we all find ourselves in when
preparing future school leaders...they are not “tabula rasa” or blank tablets, as once thought.
Most students, especially ours in education leadership preparation, are bursting with diverse
experiences that will enable them to be successful in building quality schools, in consort with
the experiences of their teaching, fellow students, and administrative colleagues. The trick for
us is how to create learning activities that foster the power of these social relationships in
learning.
The work of Trump, Goodlad, Sizer, Wigginton, Greene and Debra Meier among others,
are well known current examples of these so-called “progressive education” efforts...whole
language, experiential education, alternative schools, model schools, multi-age grouping,
schools without walls, cooperative learning, flexible scheduling, individualized education,
deep curriculum, team teaching, non-graded schools, etc. These all have their roots in
‘progressive education,” but with a strong emphasis on learning contrary to what many of
their critics charge.
Dewey would no doubt be appalled at the current regimes of mechanization and
standardization that dominate our schools at present...all quite contrary to the work of these
early scholars who were railing against these same issues in the schools going back at least a
century ago! No more “one size fits all” education in their views of learning and education. In
fact, it seems more like “one size fits few”!
All of this of course brings controversy with parents and policymakers, as it should!
Educators should be leading these discussions, however, rather than leaving it to legislators
and think-tank thinkers to decide for us. And they have and still are!
My favorite scholar-practitioner related to learning was a man with whom I studied in the
late 1970’ s, Malcolm Knowles, a University of Chicago Ph.D grad, and a believer that the
teacher should perform the function of “process designer and manager of learning.... both of
which required: relationship building; needs assessment” involvement of students in planning;
linking students to learning resources, and encouraging student initiative. In his own classes,
he formed “inquiry teams” which developed, explored, presented and discussed the content to
be learned. He had become a “confirmed facilitator of learning.... replacing getting my
rewards from controlling students, with getting my rewards from releasing students”