Dewey's Thinking Research Articles

Paradigma Filsafat John Dewey dalam Pendidikan Inklusi

Education is a right for all citizens without discrimination. Everyone has the right to a decent living, including children with special needs. However, education in our country still underestimates the presence of children with disabilities. Many educational institutions refuse to accept children with special needs (ABK). In line with Dewey's thoughts, a Western pragmatic philosopher said that every boy and girl has the same right to get a decent education. Strengthened State law article 31 paragraph 1 concerning the right of all citizens to receive education. This research aims to analyze the relevance of Dewey's thoughts to inclusive education and to educate readers that children with special needs also have the right to receive adequate education. This research uses a library study method by collecting various information through journals, books, newspapers, and other media. The results of this research show the relevance of John Dewey's thinking to inclusive education

Radical Democracy and Sacred Values: John Dewey's Ethical Democracy, Sheldon Wolin's Fugitive Democracy and Politics of Tending, and Cornel West's Revolutionary Christianity

Radical Democracy and Sacred Values: John Dewey's Ethical Democracy, Sheldon Wolin's Fugitive Democracy and Politics of Tending, and Cornel West's Revolutionary Christianity

A filosofia da educação de John Dewey: entre o pragmatismo e a democracia

O filósofo estadunidense John Dewey influenciou fortemente as teorias educacionais no Brasil. Conforme o grande educador brasileiro Anísio Teixeira, pensar a educação a partir de Dewey, requer subordinar-se à premissa democrática que fundamenta sua filosofia da educação, haja vista a estreita relação entre educação e democracia presente em suas obras. No entanto, se faz necessário compreender o que possibilitou ao pensamento do filósofo estadunidense enfatizar tal relação, e apostar em uma educação democrática. Assim, o objetivo do presente ensaio foi buscar investigar como o pragmatismo se configurou como condição fundamental para o pensamento de Dewey acerca da relação educação e democracia. Concluímos que foi o pragmatismo que possibilitou a Dewey fabricar sua filosofia da educação voltada não somente para uma educação democrática, mas uma educação para a democracia.

Dewey as Virtue Epistemologist: Open-Mindedness and the Training of Thought inDemocracy and Education

In epistemology today, the intellectual virtues are receiving renewed attention. Contemporary normative virtue epistemology suggests that a key task of philosophy is not only to study the nature of knowledge and thought, but to promote good thinking. While not regarded as a standard thinker in the tradition of virtue epistemology, Dewey thought like this too. In fact, study of the virtues that make for good thinking plays a key role in Dewey's educational thought, most notably in Democracy and Education. In this paper, I reconstruct Dewey's work on ‘the training of thought’ in Democracy and Education as a form of virtue epistemology. I give particular attention to Dewey's thinking about the virtue of ‘open-mindedness’ and highlight the touchpoints and differences between Dewey's conception of open-mindedness and contemporary accounts.

Prior Learning Assessment: Does Dewey's Theory Offer Insight?

AbstractThis chapter evaluates Dewey's thinking in relation to the theorization of Prior Learning Assessment (PLA). It compares Dewey's concepts with ideas from social realism, Vygotsky, and cultural historical activity theory, illustrated by PLA research in South Africa.

Dewey in the World of Experiential Education

AbstractThis chapter considers whether John Dewey's writings about experiential education are relevant to modern‐day conceptions of adult experiential learning. It highlights how some of the threads of Dewey's thinking are still pertinent, but much more complex.

THE PARADOX OF RACE AND CULTURE IN DEWEY'SDEMOCRACY AND EDUCATION

Democracy and Educationwas Dewey's magnum opus on education, the work in which he pulled together decades of research and thinking on schooling in a democratic society. It was also the work in which Dewey explicitly and implicitly affirmed his theories on race and cultural development. In this intellectual history, the author argues thatDemocracy and Educationrepresented a transition in Dewey's thinking on race and culture, away from his previous concerns with psychological-sociological stage theory toward his expanded focus on cultural pluralism as an essential component of democratic life. As a result, Dewey presented a contradictory perspective on race and culture that both depicted nonwhite societies as previous steps in the universal stages of development, but also valued racial and cultural diversity as necessary elements of his theory of cultural pluralism. The juxtaposition of Dewey's pre-1916 concern with genetic stage theories and his post-1916 concern for cultural pluralism created a paradox in his views on race and culture, one with which educators are still struggling today.

Religion and the “Religious”: Cormac McCarthy and John Dewey

ABSTRACT This article brings Cormac McCarthy's novels into discussion with Dewey's thinking, particularly with an eye to the distinction, made famous from A Common Faith, between religion and “the religious.” In this work Dewey argues for emancipating what is genuinely religious from all that is adventitious to it—above all, anything wedded to ideas of the supernatural—so that “the religious aspect of experience will be free to develop freely on its own account.” He concludes by highlighting the need to make explicit and militant “the common faith of mankind”—which lies in the recognition that “the things in civilization we most prize are not of ourselves” but “exist by grace of the doings and sufferings of the continuous human community in which we are a link.” While McCarthy's novels share Dewey's broadly anti-supernatural and anti-ecclesiastical commitments, there are some areas of divergence between the two that allow us to reflect critically on the distinction between religion and “the religious.” Most significantly, whereas Dewey aims to discern the intrinsic quality of the religious apart from what is adventitious to it, McCarthy focuses on the historical givenness of religious practices so as then to imagine their repurposing and radical transformation.

Dewey and the Dilemma of Race: An Intellectual History, 1895-1922

This historical study traces how John Dewey, like most of his contemporaries, struggled with the major dilemma of how to reconcile evolution, pedagogy, democracy, and race. In an original and provocative presentation, the author seeks to capture Dewey's original meaning by placing him in his own intellectual and cultural context. Fallace argues that Dewey created an ethnocentric curriculum at the famous University of Chicago Laboratory School (1896-1904) that traced the development of Western civilization and pointed to it as the cultural endpoint of all human progress. However, in the years following the First World War, Dewey reconstructed his orientation into an interactionist-pluralist view that recognized how a diversity of cultures was a necessity for democratic living and intellectual growth. Dewey and the Dilemma of Race is the first comprehensive intellectual biography to trace the development of Dewey's educational views. Filling an important gap in our understanding of Dewey's thinking on culture and race, this book will be of interest to a broad range of educators, historians, philosophers, and scholars.

듀이 십진분류법(DDC)의 기원론에 대한 연구

Dewey가 1873년에 제안한 'Three Genetic Paper'은 '시스템(문헌분류법)의 이점(The Merits of the system)' '도서관 분류법시스템, 즉 구조와 사용법(Library Classification system)' 그리고 '우리 도서관에서의 특별적용(Its Special Adaptation to our Library)'이다. 3개의 기원논문은 전체가 1.800여개의 단어로 구성되어 있는데, 그중 절반이 '시스템(문헌분류법)의 이점'이며, 520개 단어가 '도서관 분류법시스템, 즉 구조와 사용법'이며, 그 다음으로 '우리 도서관에서의 특별적용(Its Special Adaptation to our Library)'에 관한 것이 가장 짧아서, 350개 정도로 정리되었다. 'Three Genetic Papers'의 내용은 1876년에 발행된 DDC초판의 서문을 형성하는데 그대로 반영되어 분류법 이론의 근간이 되었다. According to Wayne A. Wiegand in the 1998, he research to The "Amherst Method": The Origins of the Dewey Decimal Classification Scheme. Although a debate about the origins of the Dewey Decimal Classification Scheme has been going on for generations, historical consensus remains elusive. This paper contributes information to the historiography on the origins of the scheme: 1) by grounding an account of Dewey's thinking as he was crafting the DDC on an analysis of a large body of sources than previous classification historians have consulted; and 2) by expanding and deepening historical understanding of the contextual forces influencing on the classification structure. Because the DDC idea as it first occurred to M. Dewey in Amherst in 1872-73 is an important in the history of library development in the world. He outlined the first draft of his decimal scheme and submitted it to the Amherst College Library Committee on 8 May 1873. This paper analysis to "Three Genetic Paper", that is 1) The Merits of the System, 2) Library Classification System, 3) Its Special Adaption to our Library.

Learning from east to west and west to east

PurposeParallel with increasing awareness of importance in learning during the last few decades, numerous theorists from various disciplines have tried to shape ideas concerning learning seen from their perspectives. One negative consequence of these efforts has been observed as increased confusion and disputes among the theorists as well as practitioners due to “lacking of common ground” in their search on learning. Hence, the aim of this paper is to explore some critical aspects of learning, among others, root thinking, meaning of learning, nature, processes and outcomes of learning in order to identify possible common ground(s) in between various schools of thought.Design/methodology/approachThrough a literature survey the characteristics of learning in terms of the processes, the nature and the outcomes of learning are investigated. Besides the chosen contemporary literature on learning, ideas and philosophies of John Dewey (1859‐1952) and Confucius (551‐479, BC) have been explored in order to identify possible root thinking in the West and in the East.FindingsIt is found that not much new knowledge has been accumulated since Confucius and despite multiple schools of thought in current research, the majority of western theorists base their ideas on Dewey's thinking. The meta learning wheel has been suggested to be a common ground for learning.Originality/valueThe originalities of this paper are: both contemporary as well as classic literatures in learning are investigated; both Western and Eastern literatures are investigated.

Ethnics and Ethnographers:Zora Neale Hurston and Anzia Yezierska

Ethnics and Ethnographers:Zora Neale Hurston and Anzia Yezierska1 Lori Jirousek (bio) In the early twentieth century, the new social science methods of participant-observation and social survey promised to yield an unprecedented depth of information through sustained direct contact between researcher and subjects.2 Approaching social scientific study as both observer and observed, two ethnic American writers, Zora Neale Hurston, an African-American migrant from the rural South, and Anzia Yezierska, a Jewish immigrant from Poland, offered unique perspectives on these new methods. Specifically, they challenged participant-observation—the practice of living among, observing, and recording a studied culture and its member informants—and the resulting text, ethnography. When Hurston developed her 1935 African-American folklore collection Mules and Men, she produced a hybrid text that transcended mere ethnography.3 Preparing the manuscript, Hurston wrote to her mentor, anthropologist Franz Boas, "full of tremors," fearing he would refuse to write the preface to a book containing so much "unscientific matter." To persuade him, she insists that the "conversations and incidents" that contextualize the folk tales "are true" ("To Franz Boas," 30 August 1934). This conflict between narrative and ethnographic truth also plagued Hurston's contemporary, Anzia Yezierska, who similarly diverged from the ethnographic standards of her mentor, the philosopher and educator John Dewey. Yezierska's struggle to develop an ethnographic text likewise "true" to its informants emerges most explicitly in her 1932 novel All I Could Never Be, which recreates Yezierska's experience on a Dewey-led ethnographic team studying Philadelphia's Polish immigrants. The Yezierska figure, Fanya Ivanowna, challenges her Deweyesque supervisor: "I wonder if I shall ever learn your scientific method of approach. It seems to me that you must feel first what [End Page 19] people love and admire—to know them" (AICNB 80). Yezierska's comments closely mirror Hurston's remarks on a 1934 Rosenwald fellowship application, in which Hurston explains that successful ethnographic collection "must be done by individuals feeling the material as well as seeing it objectively. In order to feel and appreciate the nuances one must be of the group" (qtd. in Kaplan 165). Envisioning a thorough participant-observation, both writers suggest that overemphasizing objectivity can prevent successful ethnography. Intervening in ethnographic exchange presented a crucial opportunity for Hurston and Yezierska to promote intercultural understanding. However, both authors felt ambivalent about the participant-observation that placed them in ambiguous relationship with their home cultures. Within their ethnographic texts, they carefully narrated the participant-observation process itself to reveal its problems and possibilities. Sometimes collaborating and other times conflicting with their ethnographic mentors, Hurston and Yezierska struggled to develop an accurate representation of their informants. The texts that these two ethnic ethnographers produced offer multiple layers of insight, illuminating different cultures, exploring standards for adequate textual representation of informants, and, overall, investigating the potentials for ethnography in ways that forecasted contemporary anthropological concerns. For Hurston and Yezierska, ethnography needed to maximize the personal involvement with informants and serve the native communities. Often called the father of American anthropology, Hurston's mentor Franz Boas helped to found Columbia's anthropology department in 1901, and this strong advocate of participant-observation also challenged racial hierarchies and promoted cultural relativism. Hurston studied anthropology with Boas through Columbia's Barnard College, graduating in 1928, and he advised her on fieldwork among Florida's rural African Americans. Yezierska's mentor John Dewey became Boas's colleague, joining Columbia's philosophy department in 1904. Dewey emphasized empirical study of individuals and their social environment and championed self-directed education. While Yezierska graduated from Columbia's Teacher's College the year he arrived, she later would return to Columbia to audit Dewey's 1918 graduate seminar in social and political philosophy, beginning a relationship that proved pivotal both personally and professionally: Dewey-based characters surface continuously in her fiction as both mentors and romantic interests.4 Besides their institutional affiliation, the two Columbia mentors shared intellectual interests. As Dewey's biographer George Dykhuizen observes, Boas had a "marked influence on Dewey's thinking" and helped to guide him "further toward the cultural anthropology that would be such an important feature of his later philosophy" (123). Though not an anthropologist...

Retrieving possibilities: confronting a forgetfulness and deformation of teaching/learning methodology

This paper draws on data collected in a one‐year research project focusing on elucidating theory/practice relations in learning to teach. As a teacher educator I grapple with the nature and role of teaching methodology. The notion of method, with its implied order and certainty, is confronted alongside prospective teachers throughout their coursework and student‐teaching experiences. Reflexivity is considered essential to this research process, providing a means to address the interface between the empirical data collected alongside student‐teachers and its interpretations. In this regard I draw on the historical writings of Dewey (1904, 1910, 1938) and Bakhtin (1990, 1993), found to provide insights into theory/practice relations. Through Dewey's thinking, bearings are retrieved that reorient teaching/learning methodology toward neglected needs and opportunities in learning to teach. Through Bakhtin's early aesthetic essays, a language is retrieved that addresses forgotten assumptions central to reformulating teaching methodology. This paper pursues the necessary character of a teacher preparation course fostering a mode of method that is radically different from the technical one. It is a mode of method that attends to the voices of prospective teachers in schools confronting the nature of learners and learning, teachers and teaching. It is a mode of method that reminds all involved in the schooling process of the power of teaching/learning restored to its participatory and complex nature.

Becoming John Dewey: Dilemmas of a Philosopher and Naturalist. By Thomas C. Dalton. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2002. xiv, 377 pp. $45.00, isbn 0-253-34082-9.)

If Alexis de Tocqueville was right in saying that Americans have not been an especially philosophical people, they have nevertheless had their philosophers. Clearly, John Dewey is considered one of America's most important philosophers. Dewey lived more than nine decades, contributing to education, to philosophy, in particular, to pragmatism, and to liberal social thought, especially in the interwar years. Over the years many of Dewey's students and associates have offered us their interpretations of him. More recently, several professional historians have weighed in with serious scholarly contributions, especially Robert Westbrook and Alan Ryan, whose biographies have provided sorely needed historical information and perspective. And recent work in the history of education suggests that Dewey's career in education was short-lived and not particularly influential. That leaves us with Dewey as philosopher. Thomas C. Dalton presents what he believes is a fresh view of Dewey as a philosopher and social thinker with strong ties to psychology and the sciences; Dewey subsumed culture under nature as the product of natural forces, not as a countervailing force to natural processes and structures after the fashion of the “dual synthesis” social scientists and evolutionary theorists of the interwar era. Dalton claims that he is presenting a whole intellectual biography that includes all the people and experiences that truly influenced Dewey's thinking instead of a mere parade of books that Dewey published. Thus we learn about the influences of the ideas of evolutionary scientists, European and American philosophers, numerous figures from such fields as physics, anatomy, psychology, psychoanalysis, and art (especially Henri Matisse), and finally psychologists concerned with maturation and the development of the mind. All of this is rather hit-or-miss; some of the analyses are reasonably cogent and competent while others are disappointing or even wrong-headed. And there are some startling errors, such as the misspelled “Herman von Hemholtz” (instead of Hermann von Helmholtz, pp. 54–55, 57, 65, 69, and the index), not to mention an unrecognizable “Franz Boaz” (instead of Franz Boas, pp. 68, 97, 101, and the index).

Continuity in how We Think

Prawat (2000, 2001) claims that a major discontinuity appeared in John Dewey's thinking in 1915, when Dewey moved away from the thinking of William James to that of Charles Peirce. The change is described as a “dramatic” and “stunning about face” in Dewey's views. We look at one crucial part of Prawat's evidence of discontinuity, the 1910 and 1933 versions of How We Think. Prawat cites passages from the 1933 version to make his case for discontinuity when, often, very similar (even identical) text can be found in the 1910 version. Focusing on Dewey's views on the role of the teacher, the place of aesthetics and ethics in inquiry, the form of concepts, and the generation of ideas, we conclude that Prawat's hypothesis of discontinuity cannot be sustained. The role of the imagination did become more explicit and important in Dewey's work over time, but Prawat fails to see the imagination in Dewey's early work and miscasts development and reconstruction as discontinuity.

Continuity in how We Think

Prawat (2000, 2001) claims that a major discontinuity appeared in John Dewey's thinking in 1915, when Dewey moved away from the thinking of William James to that of Charles Peirce. The change is described as a “dramatic” and “stunning about face” in Dewey's views. We look at one crucial part of Prawat's evidence of discontinuity, the 1910 and 1933 versions of How We Think. Prawat cites passages from the 1933 version to make his case for discontinuity when, often, very similar (even identical) text can be found in the 1910 version. Focusing on Dewey's views on the role of the teacher, the place of aesthetics and ethics in inquiry, the form of concepts, and the generation of ideas, we conclude that Prawat's hypothesis of discontinuity cannot be sustained. The role of the imagination did become more explicit and important in Dewey's work over time, but Prawat fails to see the imagination in Dewey's early work and miscasts development and reconstruction as discontinuity.

Whither Schools of Education?

The history of schools, colleges, and departments of education (SCDEs) suggests that they were born with a congenital malaise, into an inhospitable surround, or both. Conduct of their teacher education function brought into academe the often-unappreciated baggage of connections with the low-status occupation of teaching in the lower schools. Conduct of their academic function and assumption of the designation education was an affront to the traditional departments that saw themselves also in the business of education. The consequence for many SCDEs appears to have been a kind of schizophrenia, with its complex etiology clearly manifested in the institutional exercise of the faculty reward structure. The malaise intensified with the transition of normal schools to teachers colleges to state colleges to state universities. Responsibility for teacher education did not diminish as the decades of the 20th century passed by, while the importance of research escalated (Ducharme, 1993; Shen, 1999). With each step in the transition, the status of teacher education in institutional priorities dropped and, with it, the status of and identity of the SCDE (Ducharme, 1987; Ducharme & Agne, 1986). Dependent on the arts and sciences departments for their necessary contribution to the preservice teacher curriculum, education neither sought nor attained the autonomy of professional schools for whom the academic disciplines were largely precurricular admissions requirements. Early in the century, John Dewey had urged the new schools of education to look to the training of architects, engineers, doctors, and lawyers so as to learn from the more intensive and matured experience of other callings (Dewey, 1904, p. 10). Was he seeking for them the relative autonomy that the major professional schools secured within the universities? The record shows that schools of education did not follow such a course. Or was Dewey seeking something else that study of the education for these other callings might have provided? If so, might following his advice have helped ameliorate the seeming malaise and troubled circumstances of the nation's SCDEs? Responding at all usefully to these questions requires some inquiry into both Dewey's thinking and the evolution of these entities in the 20th century. Dewey on Pedagogy My analysis suggests that it was not greater autonomy for the new schools of education that Dewey sought but the intellectual methods that he may have overgenerously attributed to other professional schools. He had been quickly at odds with faculty members of the Chicago Institute acquired by the University of Chicago in 1901, even though he presided over them in what had recently become the university's school of education (Ryan, 1995, p. 120). He viewed these new colleagues as engaged almost exclusively in giving teachers in training working command of the necessary tools of their profession; control of the technique of c/ass instruction and management; skill and proficiency in the work of teaching (Dewey, 1904, p. 1) to the neglect of principles derived from theory tested in the laboratory. For Dewey, there was no duality of purpose that separates practice and inquiry. They nourish each other. During the concluding years of the 19th into the early years of the 20th century, Dewey's considerable powers of thought and energy were focused on his laboratory school, learning, and pedagogy. It is important to remember that he was as much a psychologist as a philosopher with a deep interest in human development. His proposal to President William Rainey Harper for a department of pedagogy to be closely linked with philosophy and psychology (Tanner, 1997, p. 16) stated, The conduct of a school of demonstration, observation and experiment in connection with the theoretical instruction is the nerve of the whole scheme (Dewey, 1896 [?], p. 434). Accounts of the time suggest the existence of a veritable crucible in which all of the issues that have plagued SCDEs and teacher education were being melted down and shaped. …

"How Shall We Read What We Call Reality?": John Dewey's New Science of Democracy

John Dewey's work prefigures a distinct new science of democracy. Through its subtle appropriation of science and scientific method in the name of bold reflection upon the democratic ideal, it constitutes a worthy model for a postpositivist political science, serving to define the latter more precisely. Postpositivism functions, in turn, to retrieve important features of Dewey's thinking: not only the speculative parts overlooked by critics of his scientism, but also the naturalist elements neglected by postmodernist pragmatists such as Richard Rorty. The analysis suggests that any political science decisively influenced by pragmatism will have to embrace both dimensions-the generic and the unique, the systematic and whatever escapes system-or it is not pragmatic. But neither, on Dewey's innovative reading, is it scientific. Considering Dewey's science of democracy and contemporary postpositivism together shows them to be genuine provocations-that is, challenges to think more lucidly and boldly about thought's place in democratic politics.

Transforming experience: John Dewey's cultural instrumentalism

In Transforming Experience, Michael Eldridge defines what is central to Dewey's philosophy as cultural instrumentalism, a version of pragmatism that understands thinking to be a tool for dealing with life's problems. For Dewey, philosophy's primary role is to develop this tool to better society and its members. In particular, Eldridge shows how this central aim of Dewey's philosophy applies specifically to the political and religious aspect of human experience. While acknowledging and building upon the work of previous Dewey scholars, Eldridge distinguishes his own contributions by systematically concentrating on Dewey's core purpose of promoting intelligent action. In so doing, he makes the case that some Dewey scholars have misunderstood the implications of Dewey's elevation of the problems of men above the problems of philosophers. Eldridge's opening chapters provide an overview of Dewey's thinking and explain common misreadings of Dewey, particularly his instrumentalism. Later chapters relate this instrumentalism to his secular philosophy and confront his controversial use of a reconstructed religious language.

Creating Metaphors to Analyze Media and Apply Mass Communication Theory

Professors tackling undergraduate theory courses recognize that when teaching theory, they may well be having to teach students how to think beyond mere recitation of lists and facts. In mass communication theory courses, instructors not only ask students to recognize and comprehend, but also to move on through the higher levels of Bloom's (1956) taxonomy of learning. To reach higher levels of learning, students must apply, analyze, synthesize and evaluate. A mass communication theory class requires students to abstract themselves from something that has been part of their entire lives and to impartially assess media in their culture. Professors also emphasize how they try to encourage students to bring theory to life through the student's own personal experience (Baran & Davis,1995; Ramsey, 1993). In effect, students must participate and observe what they study, and as such, they become at least informal participant observers in that they elicit from people their definitions of reality and the organizing constructs of their world (Goetz & LeCompte, 1984, pp. 109-110). This is especially true in classes requiring discussion and/or journal entries. The professor acts as an arbiter of these observations, guiding students in helping to understand their field notes and trying to find theory to develop explanations. To develop critical thinking skills and to obtain a vista into how students creatively define mass media in their own lives, students can be assigned to create metaphors of their own relationship with the mass media. The following highlights some of the literature in the field related to critical thinking and teaching methods, describes the application of the metaphor in an undergraduate mass communication theory class, and overviews the results in one particular case. Literature review According to Ruminski and Hanks (1995) in their survey of AEJMC members, most respondents indicated they valued critical thinking skills but lacked consensus as to its definition. The most common element in definitions offered was the inclusion of the word analysis, with about half the respondents using it. These steps are essentially Dewey's Thinking process (1933) offered, for example, as a way to enhance criticalthinking skills and, thus, decision-making abilities in a media-planning class (Strohm & Baukus , 1995). The authors felt the application of such thinking abilities in class was imperative to helping students deal with ambiguity, be flexible and adapt to a changing work environment. Reflective observation was one of four experimental steps identified by Ramsey (1993) in a model for instructional design. The model, itself, forwards reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, active experimentation and concrete experience as the steps for more active classroom learning. In an example for a mass communication history course, Ramsey suggests that the Concrete Experience might be reviewing media coverage of a war. The Observation would follow with student papers discussing media coverage of global conflicts. A subsequent lecture and class discussion developing public reactions to global discussion helps students develop Abstract Conceptualization. While students then follow up with reaction papers applying class concepts to more recent global conflict in the Active Experimentation step. Such experimental activities have been incorporated into mass communication classes, such as Dardenne's (1994) description of Student Musings on Life Without Mass Media. Based on diary reports from students in several mass communication classes, he identified key themes elicited such as companionship, easing routine tasks, addiction, antidote to silence, alternative activities, fear of thought and resolutions. And in a survey of public relations educators, nearly every respondent indicated he or she very often incorporated active learning exercises in the classroom (Lubbers & Gorcyca, 1996). …