Quotations: School and Learning

«School imparts knowledge that directly or indirectly serves to solve everyday problems and gives people a picture of reality; it (school) develops interests and values which help people to order and orient their behaviour. Action schemata, operations and concepts and the world knowledge to which they are linked have exactly this function, on the one hand in the cognitive domain and on the other hand in the sphere of interests and motives, as soon as their structures become bestowed with value and get intrinsically interesting.» (1983a, 353)

«If school learning is properly understood, it provides man with a repertoire of means for action and thinking, with the help of which he can master problems and situations that otherwise leave him helpless and disoriented. (...) We have said it over and over again: The teacher must adopt the idea that action schemata, operations and concepts are instruments for mastering new problems. Knowledge acquisition does not mean 'furnishing the mind', we must not understand its contents statically. Knowledge has a tool nature.» (1983a, 353/354)

«In ‘Democracy and Education’, John DEWEY (1916) has given schools the task of shaping the experience of the upcoming generation in a simplified, socially balanced environment, as one cannot ‘impart’ experience. For teaching, this means guiding the students towards independent experience instead of teaching them theories.» (1986d, 306)

«If, when setting a problem, one does not tie in concepts and ideas which the student readily possesses, if the data to start with do not suffice, then the seeking and exploring does not lead to the desired results; one becomes lost, and some students refrain from making any effort.» (1951/1976, 95)

«What shape does a didactic unit take in school practice when the student is personally researching and seeking? As we have seen, it begins with a problem which is posed in the course of practical activities, either in real work in the school garden, workshops and suchlike or with other school work (fictitious problem of practical action). The task is discussed together until it is clear and vivid in the student’s mind. The students then begin to search for the solution themselves.» (1951/1976, 99)

«After seeking independently, the groups or the individually working students should always report on the results, and now the teacher has the opportunity to step in by revising and supplementing the data found. These reports which the teacher checks are of great importance because the weak students or those with little interest often do not come to the desired result in the course of independent seeking. The reports of their schoolmates and the amendments of the teacher then help them to keep up again.» (1951/1976, 99/100)

«School needs to constantly keep in mind that we ‘learn for life’ and therefore that what ultimately count are the achievements which the person accomplishes in the reality outside of school.» (1968b, 163)

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