Book Description

Laurel Tanner examines closely the practices and policies of Dewey’s Laboratory School from their inception to the current day. Dewey’s Laboratory School: Lessons for Today provides a wealth of practical guidance on how schools today can introduce Deweyian reforms the way they were originally—and successfully—practiced. It is filled with fascinating excerpts from the school’s teachers’ reports and other original documents. It will be an indispensable text in graduate courses in foundations, curriculum and instruction, early childhood education, instructional supervision, and philosophy of education and for professors, researchers, and general readers in these fields. Selected Topics: Dewey’s Developmental Curriculum—An Idea for the Twenty-First Century • Dewey’s School as a Learning Community • What Have We Learned from Dewey’s School? • Looking at Reform the Dewey Way “The most readable account published of Dewey’s Laboratory School and its lessons for American schools today.” —Elliot W. Eisner, Chair, Curriculum Studies and Teacher Education, Stanford University School of Education “In this fascinating account of the Dewey School, we can almost imagine ourselves as teachers in those fabled classrooms.” —Vivian Gussin Paley, Author and teacher “Laurel Tanner has written the book we should have had decades ago.” —John I. Goodlad, Co-Director, Center for Educational Renewal and President, Institute for Educational Inquiry “Tanner highlights what can be learned today from the setbacks and successes of John Dewey and the teachers at the [Laboratory School at the] University of Chicago.” —Lilian G. Katz, Director, ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education