John Dewey

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If there is a fun yet effective method for improving performance in reading, math, science and social studies, surely it should be undertaken. Research shows that there is an encouraging correlation between art and academic subjects. A report by Americans for the Arts states that “young people who participate regularly in the arts (three hours a day on three days each week through one full year) are four times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement, to participate in a math and science fair or to win an award for writing an essay or poem than children who do not participate.” (Hwang Lynch, 2016).
This is very closely linked to everything the government wants from our children and everything that is demanded from schools in
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Dewey studied in the way in which children learn most effectively. He determined that only through hands-on activity do students truly learn. He distinguished between traditional schools and progressive schools. Dewey criticised that traditional schools were ineffective means of education where students were instructed to absorb information like sponges. Traditional schools were far too structured for his liking. For Dewey, all learning happened through experience and he strongly believed that the experience was the key to the transmission of knowledge. Experience is unique to each learner; every learner will take an experience in its own …show more content…
Dewey believed that teachers can set up rules but they should not limit children’s freedom, in the way traditional classrooms have done in the past. Students should be allowed to move around freely and engage in the learning in a way that feels comfortable and makes students happy. At the same time, students should realise that there are certain guidelines and rules that you must follow in order to learn, grow and become an overall better person through engaging in the experiential learning activity. Dewey writes in an ‘Experience with Education’ “learning activities should be flexible enough to permit free play for individuality of experience and yet firm enough to give direction towards continuous development” (Dewey,

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