instead of narrow and specialized. When confronted with specialized education the child tends to lose perspective: "[Dewey] argued against false separations of mind and body or individual and society" (Ozmon and Craver, 1999, p. 163). Education should be an integrative process, supported by the student's experience in society.
A child-centered philosophy emphasizes student interests. This philosophy is sometimes described as the attitudinal approach to learning: "Advocates of attitudinal objectives . . . tend to favor student initiative with teacher guidance in selecting objectives, learning activities, and appraisal procedures" (Ediger, 1996, p. 3). The benefit of this approach is that the student is involved in the development of the curriculum and is less likely to be burdened with learning material that is totally external to his or her experiences.
Teachers assess the child's interests essentially by listening and observing in the classroom, engaging in a true dialogue of instruction. Teachers must first understand how children learn. Neither the teacher nor any other entity can motivate learning. Teachers can use instructional materials and learning activiti
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