PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION

Synthesis 6

The term progressive education is worth preserving as an organizing concept for the
myriad of terms that have gained momentum since the 1980’s. These “new” forms of
learning are inspired by the work of Dewey and other early progressive educators, and
preserve key themes such as educating “the whole person” (Kolb and Kolb, 2005, p. 205),
“learning-by-doing” (Revans, 1982, p. 20), democratic responsibility (National Task Force on
Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement, 2012), and “real-world” application (Hmelo-
Silver, 2004, p. 239). For this reason, the nuances between these pedagogies often overlap
and can be characterized by hair-splitting differences that likely arise simply because the
bodies of literature describing individual terms develop in isolation despite appearing to draw
from many of the same philosophical underpinnings.
One of the benefits of progressive education is that teachers recognize and honor the
creativity and passions of individual students. Educators do not simply teach students
information and expect them to memorize it and get perfect scores on tests. Instead, they have
their students engage in active hands-on learning through projects, experiments, and
collaboration with peers. In this way, students can pursue topics and subjects they are
passionate about.
John Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) and John Dewey (1859–
1952) are the guiding minds of progressivism. Rousseau maintained that
people are basically good and that society is responsible for corrupting
them. He supported education in nature, away from the city and the
influences of civilization, where the child’s interests (as opposed to a
written set of guidelines) would guide the
curriculum.
John Dewey proposed that people learn best by social interaction
and problem solvin. Dewey developed the scientific method of problem
solving and experimentalism. As a result of the varied opinions emerging
from the movement, progressivism was not developed into a formalized,
documented educational philosophy. Progressivists did, however, agree
that they wanted to move away from certain characteristics of traditional
schools. In particular, they were keen to remove themselves from the
textbook-based curriculum and the idea of teachers as disseminators of
information, in favor of viewing teachers as facilitators of thinking.
For progressive education, experience serves as the source from which knowledge
emerges. Because progressive education is concerned with the emergence (as opposed to
transmission) of knowledge, the learner must undergo a transformative experience. The
nature of the transformation lies in the way the learner is changed by knowledge gained and
the way that existing knowledge is changed through the learner’s contributions. Experience
pertains to individual learners as well as teachers and collectives. Inner experience will be
discussed later in terms of reflection, while
experiences among other people will be discussed
later in terms of participation.
“Learning by doing” is a central characteristic
of progressive education. Although learning is a
valuable end in itself, action remains key to both the
learning process and learning outcomes. The final step
of progressive learning models generally involves
putting new knowledge to use. When this is achieved,
the action taken also represents a critique of prior
knowledge, allowing participants to bring new perspective to that which was already known
while adding to that body of knowledge. The characteristic of action preserves the value of
understanding knowledge development as continuous engagement, rather than a static
commodity exchanging hands. That is, understanding knowledge as always already existing
for human subjects, rather than existing apart from human subjects awaiting discovery by
remote observers.\
Using progressive education as an organizing concept, the authors identify five
common characteristics of contemporary pedagogies: experience, temporal, action,
participation, and reflection. As the concept of progressive education is at times seemingly
elusive, a targeted review of this body of literature benefits educators and professionals
invested in supporting an intentional trajectory for higher education—one that is informed by
both relevant history and a clear picture of current trends. Commonly championed
pedagogies and approaches such as applied learning and interprofessional collaboration can
be described through the prism of the five unifying characteristics, punctuating the
overarching role of progressive education in the 21st century.
Further, a clearer articulation of the landscape of progression
education supports intentionality in future pedagogical
innovation.
In an effectively run progressive school, where the
mission, philosophy, and applied attitude tells kids they are
trusted and cared about, where issues of discipline are
routinely discussed, responded to, and worked out together,
much more often than not, more responsive young people
who better understand how to settle down to study, when to
relax and why that’s a good thing, show respect for others of all ages, and handle the nature
of growing up and all its concomitant pressures is the result. It’s not that it works all the time,
because nothing does, but there is a manner of success born of treating people as thinking,
caring human beings able to grow in positive, disciplined ways, that begets people who are
thinking, caring human beings who actually do grow in positive, disciplined ways.

Submitted by: Wennie B. Aquino