William Heard Kilpatrick

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William Heard Kilpatrick (born November 20, 1871 in White Plains (Georgia) , † February 13, 1965 in New York ) was an American educator and student, colleague and successor of John Dewey .

resume

William Heard Kilpatrick was born to a Baptist minister . After studying at Baptist College, now Mercer University , and six months of graduate studies at Johns Hopkins University , he became a math teacher at high school and later at Mercer University. The conversion to education came through John Dewey following an encounter with this in 1898 in an educational summer seminar at the University of Chicago . In 1907 he went to the Teachers College of Columbia University , where a second and decisive meeting with Dewey took place. Kilpatrick chose to major in Philosophy of Education and took all of Dewey's courses. This led to a friendship that lasted until Dewey's death, but which did not rule out differences of opinion in the educational field. William Heard Kilpatrick died on February 13, 1965 in New York.

Project method

Kilpatrick developed his version of the "project method" from 1915. His approach differed fundamentally from the concept as it was designed by architects and engineers at technical colleges and universities in Italy, France and Germany since the 18th century and as Calvin M. Woodward (1887), Charles R. Richards (1900) and Rufus W. Stimson (1912) had carried over to American elementary and high schools since the late 19th century.

Contrary to what is often assumed, the project concepts by Dewey and Kilpatrick have nothing in common. While Dewey and his predecessors Woodward and Richards viewed the project as a "method of teaching" aimed at "practical, constructive action" and "problem solving," Kilpatrick defined it as a "philosophy of education" that embraced "hearty, intentional doing “Made it its foundation. When criticism of his child-centered approach grew too strong, Kilpatrick saw that he had “made a mistake” and instead of “children's projects” spoke of “teacher-led, student-conducted activities” when he preferred the form he preferred of school learning meant.

philosophy

Like Dewey, Kilpatrick's thinking belongs to the current of American pragmatism . His idea, however, shows a clearer social orientation than that of Dewey: According to Kilpatrick, real life situations in a democracy oblige one to deal with things. So democracy retrospectively stimulates people to lead an action-relevant life. In terms of upbringing, this means that it is based on social life. The special social orientation of Kilpatrick's philosophy lies in the political situation in the USA in the twenties of the 20th century. reasoned: Many different social and cultural strata met in the same living space and claimed an equal right to live. This should be made possible through political planning.

literature

  • Hans Jürgen Apel / Michael Knoll: Learning from projects. Foundation and instructions . Munich: Oldenbourg 2001.
  • John A. Beinke: And there were giants in the land. The life of William Heard Kilpatrick . New York / Washington DC / Baltimore / Boston / Bern / Frankfurt am Main / Berlin / Vienna / Paris 1998 ISBN 0-8204-3773-5
  • Michael Knoll: "I made a mistake". An unknown letter from William H. Kilpatrick on the project method. Pedagogical Rundschau 64 (2010), pp. 45–60.
  • Michael Knoll: Dewey, Kilpatrick and “progressive” upbringing. Critical studies on project pedagogy . Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt 2011.
  • Heinrich Pfeiffer: The image of man in William Heard Kilpatrick . Mainz 1956 (dissertation)

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Knoll, Michael: Dewey, Kilpatrick and "progressive" education. Critical studies on project pedagogy. Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt 2011. pp. 83–144.
  2. ↑ Woodward, Calvin M .: The Manual Training School, Comprising a Full Statement of Its Aims, Methods, and Results. Boston: Heath 1887.
  3. ^ Richards, Charles R .: The Function of Hand Work in the School. In: Teachers College Record 1 (November 1900), pp. 249-259.
  4. ↑ WHERE ARE YOU WHEN WE NEED YOU, RUFUS W. STIMSON? ( Memento from July 30, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ^ Stimson, Rufus W .: The Vocational Agriculture School. In: The Eleventh Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education. Part II. Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1912. pp. 22-53.
  6. ↑ Knoll, Dewey, Kilpatrick and “progressive” education, pp. 145–192
  7. ↑ Knoll, Michael: "I made a mistake". An unknown letter from William H. Kilpatrick on the project method. In: Pädagogische Rundschau 64 (2010), pp. 45–60.
  8. ↑ Frey, Karl: The project method. Der Weg zum bildenden Do, 8th edition, Weinheim and Basel 1998. pp. 50–51.
personal data
SURNAME Kilpatrick, William Heard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American educator and student, colleague and successor of John Dewey
DATE OF BIRTH November 20, 1871
PLACE OF BIRTH White Plains (Georgia)
DATE OF DEATH February 13, 1965
Place of death new York