Breaking with Everyday Experience for Guided Adventures in Learning. Occasional Paper No. 140 [electronic resource] / Robert E. Floden and Margret Buchmann.
Educators are under almost constant pressure to make schooling relevant to the lives of their students. Students, however, who are never exposed to the realms of possibility beyond their own immediate experience hardly have an equal opportunity to enjoy the benefits of education, since everyday expe...
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| Format: | Electronic eBook |
| Language: | English |
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Distributed by ERIC Clearinghouse,
1992.
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| Summary: | Educators are under almost constant pressure to make schooling relevant to the lives of their students. Students, however, who are never exposed to the realms of possibility beyond their own immediate experience hardly have an equal opportunity to enjoy the benefits of education, since everyday experience tends to reinforce social inequalities. Students who are encouraged to assimilate new information into preexisting conceptions are unlikely to appreciate the insights offered by the academic disciplines. Teachers should be wary of introducing new ideas by pointing out their relation to everyday concepts and ways of thinking, because separation from everyday experiences favors reflection. Instead, school instruction should lure students to new capacities and understandings through unfamiliar subject matter. These adventures in learning can occur with guidance from a teacher, but without initial clarity about their purpose and promise. Possible objections to having schools provide breaks from everyday experience may arise from a desire for meaningfulness in instruction, may be based on research in cognition, or may be drawn from Dewey's philosophy of education. However, all these potential sources of objection can be seen as ultimately supporting the need for breaks from everyday experience: breaks that are necessary for children if they are to reap the benefits of schooling. (Author/AC) |
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| Item Description: | ERIC Document Number: ED350075. Availability: Institute for Research on Teaching, College of Education, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824-1034 ($3). Sponsoring Agency: Department of Education, Washington, DC. ERIC Note: Toner marks on cover page. Supersedes ED 278 665. |
| Physical Description: | 32 p. |