The New "ism" in Teaching

I have read 2 of the required chapters in John Dewey's Experience & Education and the writing is so relevant that it is difficult to believe the text was written 70 years ago. It makes me recall Tyack and Cuban's grammar of schooling. Are we so set in our ways as educators that improvement becomes very difficult?

While the author is addressing traditionalism vs. progressive-ism, it seems equally applicable to the new ism in teaching, constructivism. The new math standards, and I assume other disciplines as well, draw heavily from the constructivist learning theory. Summarized, this learning theory states that students "construct" new knowledge from their experiences, rather than being told information from a teacher.

I agree with the author that as a future teacher I want the experiences my students have to be agreeable and have a positive effect on further experiences. The challenge I see is how to do that in a strictly constructivist atmosphere. A constructivist classroom is one that moves at a very slow pace as students develop basic theories and understand them. Students develop a deep understanding of material in this atmosphere. The vex is the larger amount of material that is included in any one classroom standard and the associated pace a classroom must keep, to include the required material. This is compounded by standard end of course testing, that is used to judge students and teachers.

Here are my questions for the class to consider:

1. Is there a philosophy of experience and education - how do new teachers develop one?

2. How can we follow the author's advice to take the best of each 'ism' and develop it into a teaching style?

3. Who decides what the best of each 'ism' is?

4. As future teachers, will we have time, resources, and support from administration to develop changes to our instruction based on the interests and feedback from each group of new students in our classes?

5. As future teachers, how do we try to keep grounded and not abandon our current work and jump on the next 'ism' band wagon. How can we work to try to determine what is worth adopting from the new theories? How often are new theories put forward?

6. How many years does it take to 'perfect' a classroom plan so that only minor changes are needed from year to year?

7. Is a teacher's work ever done?