Class 2 / IDS 3920 / Spring 2004

Informed and engaged citizens are essential to the creation of a civil and sustainable society.  The University values the development of the responsible self grounded in honesty, courage, and compassion, and committed to advancing democratic ideals.  Through service learning requirements, the University engages students in community involvement with time for formal reflection on their experiences.  Integral to the University ’s philosophy is instilling in students an environmental consciousness that balances their economic andsocial aspirations with the imperative for ecological sustainability.
 
~ From the Florida Gulf Coast University Principles

Reading

State of the World 2003 Chapter 2 Watching Birds Disappear"

Please read John Dewey's Experience and Education, 1938.  Chapters 1, 2, 3, 5, 8 (pp. 17-50, 61-65, and 89-91).

Some questions to think about . . . (and, perhaps, write about . . .)

• What elements of your education have been “traditional”?  What elements of your education have been “progressive”?
•  How important has experience been in your own education?
•  What is experiential education?
•  Is experience essential to ecological literacy?
•  In what ways might Dewey’s ideas guide us in our exploration of a
  sustainable future?
•  What is a philosophy of education?  Do you have one?
•  What is education?

Paper 1 : Educational Reflections
 

Paper One is due.  It will be graded pass/fail and should be three pages in length, double-spaced, typed. Your paper shall be evaluated according to the criteria presented by the assessment rubric and by your section instructor.

Reflecting upon your own education in both formal (schooling) and non-formal (scouting, church, family, experience) settings, think about your education as it relates to the philosophy of experience of John Dewey.  What have been the most important influences in your education?  School?  Church?  Television and the Internet?  Who has shaped your education?

Write a brief reflective essay of three typed, double-spaced pages on important educational events and/or ideas in your life.  Using specific citations from John Dewey's Experience and Education (1938), select ideas to which you can relate in terms of your educational experience.  Connect his philosophical notions to examples from your experience. This is more than a recounting; it is an opportunity to consider your educational experience in light of reading John Dewey.  As a first assignment and a personal exploration, the essay will be graded pass/fail.  It will help your instructor get to know you as a writer and as a learner.
 

Journaling

Locate a journal in which you can reflect, write, draw, record, and otherwise creatively process your experience in the Colloquium.  It is our expectation that you will use your creative journal regularly.  For now, find a size and shape you like and bring it to the field trip.  You may wish to write a reflection on the first class.  You may wish to do some prewriting of your essay.  You may wish to respond to nature . . .  Do at least one entry this week.
 

Field Tripping

We will meet at National Audubon Society's Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary on
Immokalee Road in Naples.
 
  Directions to Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary
 

 

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