My Blog on Progressive Education...or not

[Jane Baker]

Hello all!
I created a blog to try to get at the meaning of Progressive Education. Any and all thoughts would be most appreciated! Help me not give up Blogging after three posts!
Jane

[Bill Ivey]

I think terminology of any sort tends to get loaded down with connotations and expectations over time (c.f. "liberal"). That said, this definition of "progressivism" from Wikipedia (as of 9:10 PM on Dec. 18, 2007) works for me: "Progressive education is a pedagogical movement that began in the late nineteenth century and has persisted in various forms to the present. More recently, it has been viewed as an alternative to the test-oriented instruction legislated by the No Child Left Behind educational funding act." That honors its origins while tying it to the present. "Constructivism," then, would be one of a variety of progressive approaches, maybe?

[Fred Bartels]

Does it make sense to use "constructivist" instead of "progressive" for what Curt and Laurie are describing. Is "progressive" perhaps too tied to a particular period of history? Fred

[Curt Lieneck]

Here's a link to another discussion on this topic posted to the Progressive Educators' Network

http://tinyurl.com/yonhft

This group has a mailing list and a conference.

Agree with others that the meaning is diluted. Pretty much any school that isn't doing high stakes standardized testing with young kids claims to be progressive.

Those better trained than I in educational philosophy can probably come up with a better academic definition that might be useful.

The hopelessly concrete, dumbed-down version that's guided my practice in many years here on Dewey's old stomping grounds goes like this:

- kids are built for learning about things that matter to them
- they much prefer finding things out for themselves
- they yearn to be connected to something much bigger than themselves, to matter to others
- my job is to create the best opportunities I can find for them to do that

Like I said, hopelessly concrete, but putting a lesson plan through this kind of sieve has helped me keep my eye on the progressive ball.

[Laurie Bartels]

Hi All,

On the surface, progressive connotes something that is different (from what we consider traditional) and is presumably moving forward (as opposed to becoming even more traditional). And as I think Josie alluded earlier, the meaning for these words is very fluid, changing along with the times.

It would be an interesting exercise to try and define progressive at this point in time. (Thanks, Jane, for setting us up for this ;-) I posted the link to the movie as but one example of a progressive school. The school in the movie is project-based, where the students have tremendous control and choice over what they study, as compared to more typical schools.

Jane, are you interested in a set of generalized, philosophical responses or move concrete applications (such as: project-oriented)? I could go off in either direction ;-)

Cheers, Laurie

[Fred Bartels]

Josie, I love your pencil use qualifications. :-) Fred

[Josie Holford]

In terms of the "progressing towards what?" aspect: - clearly progressive educators were, and are, an idealistic bunch and that indicates direction based on trust and the expectation of growth and change.

However, a good starting point might be trusting that students can learn to use the tools of technology responsibly. i.e. if you give them pencils they won't necessarily use them to stab each other in the eye all the time. Or something like that.

[Jane Baker]

Hello Josie and Laurie and Fred,
Yes indeed the word progressive has lost a whole lot of it's meaning. It's sometimes hard to get past the connection with the auto insurance company...it sounds like the soup ProgressO...and as Fred pointed out, progressing towards what? It seems a new word is needed not a new definition? I'm off to view the video and will comment as soon as a little thought has formed in me little itty bitty brain.

[Josie Holford]

Sounds like you are enjoying a nice wintry mix. We've been having that too:sleet, hail. snow, patchy fog, freezing drizzle, rain, freezing rain, rain mixed with sleet, wind, sunny intervals and ice pellets. And now snow on snow. Makes any kind of progressing quite difficult.

- Yours in progressive weather chat, and thanks for the link. - J

[Laurie Bartels]

Hi Josie,
I definitely agree with all of your comments, especially your last sentence.

Is anyone reading this discussion familiar with project based learning? In particular, this site: http://www.edvisions.coop/

The movie is worth watching as it provides a wonderful insight into a "progressive" form of education. Will be curious to hear what others think after viewing it.

Cheers on this snowy-turned hail day,
Laurie

[Josie Holford]

Hi Jane: I already posted this to your blog:
Here's a thought - a Hebrew proverb:
"Do not confine your children to your own learning, for they were born in another time."
I sometimes think the watchword of progressive educators is: "We're progressive, we don't change."
That's very unfair of course.
Trouble is - the word progressive has been drained of meaning over the decades. To say you are a progressive school gives everyone else the ability to define who you are because the meaning has become so fluid. And then there's the wonderful phrase "progressive tradition".
All but the very extreme traditional schools can be considered progressive by the standards of even a few years ago. And that tends to leave progressive educators high and dry in trying to define what they mean by the word and the practice. However, I do think there are defining characteristics and they have to do with a way of thinking and believing rather than a specific set of practices.