W.H.キルパトリックにおける民主主義の教育と興味中心の教育
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概要
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W. H. Kilpatrick was a leader of the progressive education movement and is famous for his book "The Project Method". This book was written in 1918 and his standpoint of view in this book was the Interest-centered curriculum. Since then his educational theory have been understood as the interest-centered education. However, his concept of "interest" was understood stereotypically among educational activists. Some educationists miss-interpreted Kilpatrick's theory as a way of spoiling children and others interpreted it simply as a way of socializing children. The followers who made interpretation in a latter manner regarded "interest only as a means of education. To improve these misunderstandings he tried to explain his own theory not by using the other concepts but of "interest" even after his theory was criticized for interest. The question is why he didn't change his usage of the word "interest" for the cause of his purpose. The original aim of this paper is to argue this question. Kilpatrick said that the purpose of education in the democratic society was to build up the democratic character in children. So, we should understand the essence of his interest-centered education by thinking of his idea of democracy and democratic education. According to his idea of democracy, democracy is an ideal of life and is beyond achievement. He referred to the efforts and the process as democracy and it includes the purpose and the means of life. As we know, in the democratic society, the education must pursue democratic ideals by democratic ways. To strengthen his idea of democracy, he added the concept of freedom and respect, and said "freedom is essential to democracy, but it may show a truer regard for all the factors involved to say that respect for personality." He stated that the freedom, which includes respect for personality, is "freedom to be one's best self, " and it is the essence of democracy. So we could say that democracy is to respect for one's own personality and other personalities, and to Improve one's own life as well as other lives This process of Improvement is the education itself that he insisted on. This is the reason why his idea of democracy includes education. And to respect personality, we must think much of the interests one has now. Then we must develop their interests into more democratic ones. Kilpatrick thought that the interest-centered education was appropriate from the psychological point of view. He stated that "the process of achieving or building character is that of effectively accumulating and organizing successive learning." And he insisted that we learn what we accept and act in the degree of acceptance. Interest makes it easier for people to accept anything and what to accept and to learn should be democracy. We must note that democracy is a dynamic, changing, and progressive concept. The author's conclusion is like following : l) Kilpatrick thought that the best way to accept, to learn democratic value, and to build the democratic character were to improve each interest into more democratic one. 2) in his theory of democratic education, from both aspects of democratic society and individual learning, it is necessary to value interest. 3) Kilpatrick regarded interest as the thing which connects an individual with the progressive society and then he insisted on interest-centered education.
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