PROGRESSIVISM

 Why teach –
 To develop learners into becoming enlightened and intelligent citizens of democratic society.
 This group of teachers teaches learners so they may live life fully NOW not to prepare them for
adult life.
 What to teach –
 Need-based and relevant curriculum - a curriculum that “responds to students’ needs and that
relates to students’ personal lives and experiences.”
 Progressivists accept the impermanence of life and the inevitability of change.
 Change is the only thing that does not change. Hence, progressivist teachers are more concerned
with teaching the learners the skills to cope with change.
 Instead of teaching facts and bits of information that are true today but become obsolete
tomorrow, they rather focus teaching skills or processes in gathering and evaluating information
and in problem-solving.
 Emphasis on “natural and social sciences”
 Students are exposed to many scientific, technological, and social developments, reflecting the
progressivist notion that progress and change are fundamental.
 Students solve problems in the classroom similar to those they will encounter outside of the
schoolhouse.
 How to teach –
 Experiental methods – Problem-solving method which makes use of scientific method.
 One learns by doing.
 For John Dewey, the most popular advocate of progressivism, book learning is no substitute for
actual experience.
 Other “hands-on-minds-on-hearts-on” teaching methodology used are field trips during which
students interact with mature and society.
 Thought-provoking games and puzzles.

--The Teaching Profession – P. Bilbao, Ed.D., B. Corpuz Ph. D., A. Llagas, Ed.D., G. Salandanan, Ph.D.

Believing that people learn best from what they consider most relevant to their lives, progressivists center their
curricula on the needs, experiences, interests, and abilities of students. Progressivist teachers try making school
interesting and useful by planning lessons that provoke curiosity. The students interact with one another and
develop social qualities such as cooperation and tolerance for different points of view. John Dewey wanted
students to learn through action and being involved in the processes that will get to the end product. He wanted
the students to work on hands-on projects so learning would take place, rather than memorization.

--https://www.siue.edu/~ptheodo/foundations/progressivism.html
--https://www.slideshare.net/ekimnyl/progressive-methods-of-teaching