A Study On John Dewey's View Of Teacher

John Dewey,an outstanding American philosopher and educator,who is known as "the shaper of the American spirit".His philosophical and educational thought has attracted extensive attention of scholars all over the world.He established his own theory of education on the basis of empiricism and functionalism psychology;meanwhile,by critizingthe traditional education,he proposed three classical philosophical proposition of education:education as a necessity of life,growth,and the reconstruction of experience,which maintainedchild-centered theory.Dewey not only regards promoting personal growth and constructing the democratic society as his goal but also attempts to reshape teacher's role,highlight the function and status of the teacher as well as endow them with sacred responsibilities.Dewey's view of the teacher has vividly drawn the new image of modern the teacher,and he expects the teacher to be the reflective,critical and democratic professionals.Up to now,people still can gain enlightment from Dewey's view of teacher in the theory and practice of education,especially in teacher education and teacher professional development.In this paper,Dewey's view of teacher is mainly elaborated and analyzed from the following six parts:Part ?: Introduction.Theorigins,research purpose,research significance,literature review,definition of key concepts and research methods are all included in this section.Part ?: It is discussed that the historical background and theory basis of Dewey's educational thought and his view of the teacher.The overall architecture of Dewey's education theory is analyzed so that the consistent relationship between his theory and views of teacher can be explained explicitly.The necessity of the formation of Dewey's view of teacher is proved by this means.After that,theoretical support of this study is gained by concretelyanalyzing the dimensions of view of the teacher.Part ?: teacher's role.This paper maintains Dewey advocates that the teacher should have multiple roles,that is,a teacher is an initiator and reflective thinkerof teaching activities,a leader of cultivating students' ability of thinking and enlightening wisdom of children,a practitioner of "child-centered theory" and lifelong researcher.Through in-depth comprehending of the specific role played,ateacher could integrate various role specialties into his or her teaching.Thus,the multiaspect of view of teacher's role is gradually forming.Part ?: the function and status ofteacher.Dewey believes that a teacher mainly plays a role in motivating interest of children and the development of experience,transforming and reorganizing knowledge,and coordinating and guiding society.In terms of the status of the teacher,it is mainly reflected in having relatively free academic rights and high social status.Part ?: teacher's responsibility.This part primarily discusses three majorresponsibilities that the teacher should possess due to their qualification of leadership.They are imparting knowledge and motivating students' love for knowledge;cultivating modern citizens with intellectuality;reforming society and making it democratic.At the same time,this part also briefly discusses the freedom of the teacher.From Dewey's prospective,where there is the responsibility of the teacher,there is the freedom.Part ?: evaluation and analysis.This paper makes a prudent analysis and evaluation of the main features,significance and shortcomings of Dewey's view of teacher,and tries to explore its enlightenment to the today's educational theory and practice.