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6-17-14
1. Abstract
Deweys chapter highlights the importance of experience and how the continuity of
situations influences current situations and understandings. Dewey asserts that experience is
not taken into priority in the public educational system. He asserts that, every experience
enacted and undergoes modifies the one who acts and undergoes, while this modification
affects, whether we wish it or not, the quality of subsequent experiences. (p. 35).
Dewey clearly defines experience as having both an objective (external) condition and internal
condition. For example, a child under the guidance of a teacher might stack unifix cubes into a
tower of 10. Objectively, the child completed the task, but internally, the child might not know the
significance of 10 or as to why the teacher asked them to stack the blocks into 10. In the context
of experience, Dewey posits that environmental factors can highly affect situations. He defines
these factors as interactions and states they can be other people, objects or sources outside an
individual which give rise to experience. (p. 40).
Dewey takes his theory on situations on step further and points out that experiences lead to a
continuum of experience. Each person carries with them the wealth of experience that theyve
encountered. This continuum, when taken into the context of education means, the future has
to be taken into account at every state of the educational process. (p. 47). Additionally, Dewey
coins the term Collateral learning that is characterized by the continuum of situations that one
experiences and the emotional reactions, attitudes, and preferences that are produced based
on those past experiences. For example, a student may exhibit negative collateral learning in
regards to subtraction, because they never learned to decompose numbers and it causes them
frustration when attempting the algorithm.
2. Concept Summarized
Number as a composite unit is the understanding that numbers are composed of other
numbers, can be expressed with Arabic number symbols and have a written number that
corresponds. In addition, Arabic number symbols such as 2, do not simply linguistically mean
two, but rather 2 units of one.
Correlated learning really stuck out to me and made my think of my experience within my own
classroom. At times I get flustered and stressed when a lesson is not going well and when it is
clear that students are not understanding the concept. With time, Ive learned to step back and
reflect upon what went wrong in the lesson instead of keep pushing forward despite my
students frustration and stress. Dewey confirms this is correlated learning theory, that beyond
what a student grasps in any given lesson, more important is the attitude of liking or disliking
that they come to associate with that topic. Another concept that stood out to me in this chapter
was Deweys definition of growth, and how it is similar and different to the growth we talk about
in our schools. His understanding of growth challenged my own definition and continues to have
me think about how it impacts our work as educators.
2. Concept Summarized
Number as a composite unit is the understanding that numbers are composed of other
numbers, can be expressed with Arabic number symbols and have a written number that
corresponds. In addition, Arabic number symbols such as 2, do not simply linguistically mean
two, but rather 2 units of one.