Progressive Education Essay

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Traditional and progressive aims of education take into consideration the needs of the student; the teacher and the curriculum however both of these methods of educating have very different approaches to meeting them. Traditional aims of education take on a more conservative approach whereby students are expected to be docile, receptive and obedient and the teacher is seen as an authoritative figure. Progressive education is seen as a child centered approach to education, which aims to promote freedom for the individual.

The Traditional aim of education is often seen as a ‘teacher-centered’ approach to education where the teacher learner relationship is irrelevant. In the traditional aim each child is treated the same way and are expected to be equally ready to learn the prescribed content. In this approach individual student differences are not acknowledged, this can be seen by the way all students must complete standardized testing to measure abilities and achievements. “Instead of better education, we are getting cheating scandals, teaching to bad tests, a narrowed curriculum, lowered standards and gaming of the system” (Collins 2010). The traditional approach to education aims to prepare students for life in the workforce, and as stated by Deetz (1992) “the educational institution… trains for occupational success”. It is in this way that the capitalist nature of the traditional approach can be seen, whereby the students are exploited and the teacher holds all the power and knowledge. This idea is explore by Marxists who “split the social world into two opposing halves- those who have power and those upon whom power is exercised” (Tait 2012). It is in this way that by having power exercised upon them and being docile and pass...

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...ted and conservative due to its reliance on teacher centred learning where the teacher assumes an authoritative figure and the student is docile and submissive. This type of education aims to train the students for life in the workforce but it’s exploiting nature whereby the teacher assumes a position of power often causes adults taught by this method to be submissive and obedient. On the other hand the progressive approach to education is more learner centred, and has more reliance on a student-teacher relationship. This method has a philosophical approach to learning though which the learner is encouraged to ask questions and reflect in order to acquire knowledge. This is a more democratic approach to learning which ensure that everyone has the ability to further their knowledge, and are therefore able to reason better as adults leading to a well-informed society.

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