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George Hein

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George Hein (born 1932) is professor emeritus at Lesley University , chemist, museum educator, education theorist, and education researcher. His work in education began as part of the Educational Development Center in the Elementary Science project, growing from there to program evaluation and valuation of cultural institutions. From here he became involved in museum education, where he became a pre-eminent scholar in the field. He has had experience as a curriculum developer, science educator, and director of national programs to facilitate systemic school change. He became Professor and Director of the Program Evaluation and Research Group at Lesley College.

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122-532: He has produced works in the field of science education and museum education, writing on progressive education, John Dewey , museum education practices, constructivism in education, and histories of museum education. Hein was born in 1932 in Freiburg, Germany as the youngest of 3 children. He lived there for the first three years of his life before the family fled to the edge of the Italian Riviera as

244-406: A "circular" account in which what serves as "stimulus" and what as "response" depends on how one considers the situation and defends the unitary nature of the sensory motor circuit. While he does not deny the existence of stimulus, sensation, and response, he disagreed that they were separate, juxtaposed events happening like links in a chain. He developed the idea that there is a coordination by which

366-628: A Fulbright Fellowship to study elementary science programs and how students learn in such programs in London, England. His role at the Educational Development Center developed from his initial 2-year contract hiring, and from his on-again off-again contract work in the Elementary Science Program he met the then-head of the graduate department of Lesley University, and became gradually more involved with

488-433: A balance between delivering knowledge while also taking into account the interests and experiences of the student. He notes that "the child and the curriculum are simply two limits which define a single process. Just as two points define a straight line, so the present standpoint of the child and the facts and truths of studies define instruction" (Dewey, 1902, p. 16). It is through this reasoning that Dewey became one of

610-504: A challenge that modern presidents face when trying to persuade public opinion is that there is so many different types of media, that getting people's attention is hard. New media alternatives has also caused on effect on presidential leadership as they now use them to be able to communicate younger generations, but targeting small groups of people. According to the Social Science Research Council , "We are in

732-464: A class of key leaders, representing integrated hierarchies of influence in society or whether it is more accurately envisaged as several sets of relatively autonomous opinion and influence groups, interacting with representative decision makers in an official structure of differentiated governmental authority . The former assumption interprets individual, group and official action as part of a single system and reduces politics and governmental policies to

854-500: A closed and largely illiterate public became an open and politicized one, was to become of tremendous political importance in the 19th century as the mass media was circulated ever more widely and literacy was steadily improved. Governments increasingly recognized the importance of managing and directing public opinion . This trend is exemplified in the career of George Canning who restyled his political career from its aristocratic origins to one of popular consent when he contested and won

976-642: A coffeehouse run by Edward Lloyd , where underwriters of ship insurance met to do business. By 1739, there were 551 coffeehouses in London. Each attracted a particular clientele divided by occupation or attitude, such as Tories and Whigs , wits and stockjobbers , merchants and lawyers, booksellers and authors, men of fashion or the "cits" of the old city center . Joseph Addison wanted to have it said of him that he had "brought philosophy out of closets and libraries to dwell in clubs and assemblies, at tea tables and in coffee houses". According to one French visitor, Antoine François Prévost , coffeehouses, "where you have

1098-546: A derivative of three basic analytical terms: society, culture and personality . Despite philosophical arguments regarding public opinion, social scientists (those in sociology , political science , economics and social psychology ) present compelling theories to describe how public opinion shapes public policy and find myriad effects of opinion on policy using various empirical research methods. Moreover, researchers find that causal relationships likely run in both directions from opinion to policy and from policy to opinion. On

1220-483: A different perspective of mass media effects. The study examines the media coverage of firearm-related incidents involving children. The study identifies three main frameworks the media framed these types of incidents: blameless accidents, accidental shootings that occurred in the context of play such as hunting; criminalization, both the children and the parents were arrested and charged; and responsibilization, blame on irresponsible parents and gun owners. There have been

1342-535: A faculty position at the University of Michigan (1884–88 and 1889–94) with the help of George Sylvester Morris. His unpublished and now lost dissertation was titled "The Psychology of Kant ". In 1894 Dewey joined the newly founded University of Chicago (1894–1904) where he developed his belief in Rational Empiricism , becoming associated with the newly emerging Pragmatic philosophy. His time at

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1464-448: A false vision where the perceived truth can actually be very far away from the actual truth. When asked for their opinion on a subject about which they are uninformed, people often provide pseudo-opinions they believe will please the questioner. Public opinion can be influenced by public relations and the political media . Additionally, mass media utilizes a wide variety of advertising techniques to get their message out and change

1586-415: A feel for genuine information and insight in all subjects taught. Public opinion Public opinion , or popular opinion , is the collective opinion on a specific topic or voting intention relevant to society. It is the people's views on matters affecting them. In the 21st century, public opinion is widely thought to be heavily influenced by the media; many studies have been undertaken which look at

1708-559: A high-school teacher in Oil City, Pennsylvania , and one year as an elementary school teacher in the small town of Charlotte, Vermont , Dewey decided that he was unsuited for teaching primary or secondary school. After studying with George Sylvester Morris , Charles Sanders Peirce , Herbert Baxter Adams , and G. Stanley Hall , Dewey received his Ph.D. from the School of Arts & Sciences at Johns Hopkins University . In 1884, he accepted

1830-443: A method used widely in education today, incorporates Dewey's ideas pertaining to learning through active inquiry. Dewey not only re-imagined the way that the learning process should take place, but also the role that the teacher should play within that process. Throughout the history of American schooling, education's purpose has been to train students for work by providing the student with a limited set of skills and information to do

1952-643: A model diverges from the prior paradigm of the "two-step" process. The Watts and Dodds model introduces a model of influence emphasizing lateral channels of influence between the influencers and general public categories. Thus, this leads to a more complex flow of influence amongst the three parties involved in influencing public opinion (i.e. media, influencers and general public). Influentials shape opinion through producing testimonials, celebrity endorsement, and expert opinions. Furthermore, they also have credibility and emotional appeal. Their believes shaped from their experiences and academic knowledge provide foundation to

2074-457: A particular job. The works of John Dewey provide the most prolific examples of how this limited vocational view of education has been applied to both the K–12 public education system and to the teacher training schools that attempted to quickly produce proficient and practical teachers with a limited set of instructional and discipline-specific skills needed to meet the needs of the employer and demands of

2196-424: A role in policy implementation. It is said to be one of the first large-scale empirical examinations regarding citizen involvement in policy. It results indicate that between democratic and administrative decision making, there is a trade-off. Citizen input provides administrators with important and valuable information. Citizen input also helps to push the efficiency and effectiveness of public programs. However, there

2318-435: A round square' but 'I know of no route by which dialectical argument can answer such objections. They arise from association with words and cannot be dealt with argumentatively'. The following can be interpreted now as describing a Kuhnian conversion process: 'One can only hope in the course of the whole discussion to disclose the [new] meanings which are attached to "experience" and "nature," and thus insensibly produce, if one

2440-485: A standard psychological concept and the basis of all his further work; Democracy and Education (1916), his celebrated work on progressive education; Human Nature and Conduct (1922), a study of the function of habit in human behavior; The Public and its Problems (1927), a defense of democracy written in response to Walter Lippmann 's The Phantom Public (1925); Experience and Nature (1925), Dewey's most "metaphysical" statement; Impressions of Soviet Russia and

2562-489: A strong case for the importance of education not only as a place to gain content knowledge, but also as a place to learn how to live. In his eyes, the purpose of education should not revolve around the acquisition of a pre-determined set of skills, but rather the realization of one's full potential and the ability to use those skills for the greater good. He notes that "to prepare him for the future life means to give him command of himself; it means so to train him that he will have

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2684-510: A variety of academic studies investigating whether or not public opinion is influenced by " influentials ", or persons that have a significant effect on influencing opinion of the general public regarding any relevant issues. Many early studies have modeled the transfer of information from mass media sources to the general public as a "two-step" process. In this process, information from mass media and other far-reaching sources of information influences influentials, and influentials then influence

2806-444: A way that allows the student to relate the information to prior experiences, thus deepening the connection with this new knowledge. At the same time, Dewey was alarmed by many of the "child-centered" excesses of educational-school pedagogues who claimed to be his followers, and he argued that too much reliance on the child could be equally detrimental to the learning process. In this second school of thought, "we must take our stand with

2928-512: Is also applied to teacher training schools who attempt to quickly produce proficient and practical teachers with a limited set of instructional and discipline skills needed to meet the needs of the employer and demands of the workforce (Dewey, 1904). For Dewey, the school and the classroom teacher, as a workforce and provider of social service, have a unique responsibility to produce psychological and social goods that will lead to both present and future social progress. As Dewey notes, "The business of

3050-401: Is an inherent curiosity and love for learning that differs from one's ability to acquire, recite and reproduce textbook knowledge. "No one," according to Dewey, "can be really successful in performing the duties and meeting these demands [of teaching] who does not retain [their] intellectual curiosity intact throughout [their] entire career" (Dewey, APT, 2010, p. 34). According to Dewey, it

3172-407: Is another key component to the formation of public opinion. Social desirability is the idea that people in general will form their opinions based on what they believe is the prevalent opinion of the social group they identify with. Based on media agenda setting and media framing, most often a particular opinion gets repeated throughout various news mediums and social networking sites, until it creates

3294-435: Is centered on the curriculum and focuses almost solely on the subject matter to be taught. Dewey argues that the major flaw in this methodology is the inactivity of the student; within this particular framework, "the child is simply the immature being who is to be matured; he is the superficial being who is to be deepened" (1902, p. 13). He argues that in order for education to be most effective, content must be presented in

3416-464: Is easier for them to respond to public opinion. Since they are not an institution (like Congress), they can also "shift the standards by which the public evaluates their performance in office – away from policy concerns and towards more symbolic activities, image, and personality". A study by James N. Druckman and Lawrence R. Jacobs discusses how presidents collect their information for policymaking. They found that on one hand, they collect data about

3538-413: Is fortunate, a change in the significations previously attached to them' [all E&N:10]. Reflecting his immense influence on 20th-century thought, Hilda Neatby wrote "Dewey has been to our age what Aristotle was to the later Middle Ages , not a philosopher, but the philosopher." In 1919, Dewey and his wife traveled to Japan on sabbatical leave . Though Dewey and his wife were well received by

3660-470: Is highly susceptible to elite manipulation. The American sociologist Herbert Blumer has proposed an altogether different conception of the "public". According to Blumer, public opinion is discussed as a form of collective behavior (another specialized term) which is made up of those who are discussing a given public issue at any one time. Given this definition, there are many publics; each of them comes into being when an issue arises and ceases to exist when

3782-795: Is known Dewey could not distinguish musical pitches—in other words was an amusic . Dewey's educational theories were presented in My Pedagogic Creed (1897), The Primary-Education Fetich (1898), The School and Society (1900), The Child and the Curriculum (1902), Democracy and Education (1916), Schools of To-morrow Archived May 6, 2018, at the Wayback Machine (1915) with Evelyn Dewey , and Experience and Education (1938). Several themes recur throughout these writings. Dewey continually argues that education and learning are social and interactive processes, and thus

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3904-512: Is no trade-off in values between democracy and bureaucracy. In a 2015 study, it examined the role social constructions and policy implementation has on obesity while analyzing obesity narratives. Their findings suggest that social constructions of target populations do play an important role. Its role is to create an emotional response towards individuals in order to pushing implementation towards supportive policies and benefit positively constructed populations, while also pushing policies that punish

4026-404: Is not that the "teacher ought to strive to be a high-class scholar in all the subjects he or she has to teach," rather, "a teacher ought to have an unusual love and aptitude in some one subject: history, mathematics, literature, science, a fine art, or whatever" (Dewey, APT, 2010, p. 35). The classroom teacher does not have to be a scholar in all subjects; rather, genuine love in one will elicit

4148-412: Is one that relies on a person's core values and social groups. Delegative heuristics are influenced by figures of authority such as the media or president. Another key theory about how people form their opinions on foreign policy issues is Jon Hurwitz and Mark Peffley's hierarchical attitudes model. They argue that it is structured, with core values providing the basis for postures which further influence

4270-401: Is steadfast in his beliefs that education serves an immediate purpose (Dewey, DRT, 2010; Dewey, MPC, 2010; Dewey, TTP, 2010), he is not ignorant of the impact imparting these qualities of intelligence, skill, and character on young children in their present life will have on the future society. While addressing the state of educative and economic affairs during a 1935 radio broadcast, Dewey linked

4392-537: Is when one knows the right information but chooses to ignore it. Active misinformed is when one believes incorrect information and uses that incorrect information. People can move from active misinformed to active informed by being presented with information in ways that persuade them in an impactful way. Social media affects public opinion as content that is created and shared can affect how individuals form an opinion on societal issues. According to Ambassador (ret.) Karen Kornbluh, senior fellow and director of

4514-769: The California Institute of Technology (Caltech), and was hired for a position at Boston University as an Associate Professor in Chemistry in 1962. He lived in Newton for a decade before moving to Cambridge where he began to get more actively involved with education organizations. He resigned from Boston University after three years and got involved in local programs, particularly the Educational Development Center in Newton, MA started by MIT physics professor Jerrold Zacharias in response to

4636-693: The Carnegie Foundation . He also traveled to Durban , Pretoria and Victoria Falls in what was then Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe ) and looked at schools, talked to pupils, and gave lectures to the administrators and teachers. In August 1934, Dewey accepted an honorary degree from the University of the Witwatersrand . The white-only governments rejected Dewey's ideas as too secular. However black people and their white supporters were more receptive. Dewey married Alice Chipman in 1886 shortly after Chipman graduated with her Ph.D. from

4758-545: The Reformation , which encouraged individuals to read the Bible in the vernacular, and the rapidly expanding printing presses. During the 18th century, religious literature was replaced by secular literature, novels and pamphlets. In parallel to this was the growth in reading societies and clubs. At the turn of the century the first circulating library opened in London and the public library became widespread and available to

4880-690: The Treaty of Versailles and on the value of displaying art in post offices.)" In 1917, Dewey met F. M. Alexander in New York City and later wrote introductions to Alexander's Man's Supreme Inheritance (1918), Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual (1923) and The Use of the Self (1932). Alexander's influence is referenced in "Human Nature and Conduct" and "Experience and Nature." As well as his contacts with people mentioned elsewhere in

5002-520: The University of Vermont , where he was initiated into Delta Psi , and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1879. A significant professor of Dewey's at the University of Vermont was Henry Augustus Pearson Torrey (H. A. P. Torrey), the son-in-law and nephew of former University of Vermont president Joseph Torrey . Dewey studied privately with Torrey between his graduation from Vermont and his enrollment at Johns Hopkins University . After two years as

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5124-479: The 12th and 13th centuries onward. Later, William Shakespeare called public opinion the "mistress of success" and Blaise Pascal thought it was "the queen of the world". In his treatise, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding c, John Locke considered that man was subject to three laws: the divine law , the civil law and most importantly in Locke's judgement, the law of opinion or reputation . He regarded

5246-604: The 20th century. Dewey was also a major educational reformer for the 20th century. A well-known public intellectual , he was a major voice of progressive education and liberalism . While a professor at the University of Chicago , he founded the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools , where he was able to apply and test his progressive ideas on pedagogical method. Although Dewey is known best for his publications about education, he also wrote about many other topics, including epistemology , metaphysics , aesthetics , art , logic , social theory , and ethics . John Dewey

5368-717: The Digital Innovation and Democracy Initiative at the German Marshall Fund , Social Media has led to misinformation through radicalization to extremism . Social media platforms such as TikTok and YouTube recommend content that has the potential to spread misinformation due to the way their content algorithms are set up. Content that is more inflammatory tends to get sent out to users as it keeps them more engaged. This also allows extremist groups to coordinate and raise funds more easily. Public health issues have become areas of misinformation within

5490-480: The Human Understanding (1888), both of which expressed Dewey's early commitment to British neo-Hegelianism . In Psychology , Dewey attempted a synthesis between idealism and experimental science. While still professor of philosophy at Michigan, Dewey and his junior colleagues, James Hayden Tufts and George Herbert Mead , together with his student James Rowland Angell , all influenced strongly by

5612-498: The Internet's effect on public opinion as being “characterised by an intensified personalisation of political advocacy and increased anti-elitism, popularisation and populism”. Public opinion has become more varied as a result of online news sources being influenced by political communication and agenda setting. Relationships between mass media and public opinion arise as social media becomes more worldwide. This 2013 study examines

5734-827: The Nazi Party began to rise to prominence. The family lived in Italy for another 3 years until 1938, when Italy passed a series of anti-semitic laws and dislocated the family once again. They returned briefly to Germany, where they lived for a few months with Hein’s grandmother in Zurich, before they immigrated to the United States in April 1939. Hein attended school in New York before going to Cornell University for his Undergraduate degree in Chemistry, attaining his higher degrees in

5856-485: The Original and Nature of Government ) and John Locke 's "law of opinion" (appearing in his 1689 work An Essay Concerning Human Understanding ). The emergence of public opinion as a significant force in the political realm dates to the late 17th century, but opinion had been regarded as having singular importance much earlier. Medieval fama publica or vox et fama communis had great legal and social importance from

5978-651: The Restoration, the Wits gathered round John Dryden at Will's Coffee House in Russell Street, Covent Garden. The coffee houses were great social levellers, open to all men and indifferent to social status, and as a result associated with equality and republicanism. More generally, coffee houses became meeting places where business could be carried on, news exchanged and The London Gazette (government announcements) read. Lloyd's of London had its origins in

6100-547: The Revolutionary World (1929), a glowing travelogue from the nascent USSR . Art as Experience (1934), was Dewey's major work on aesthetics; A Common Faith (1934), a humanistic study of religion originally delivered as the Dwight H. Terry Lectureship at Yale; Logic: The Theory of Inquiry (1938), a statement of Dewey's unusual conception of logic; Freedom and Culture (1939), a political work examining

6222-563: The University of Chicago resulted in four essays collectively entitled Thought and its Subject-Matter , which was published with collected works from his colleagues at Chicago under the collective title Studies in Logical Theory (1904). During that time Dewey also initiated the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools , where he was able to actualize the pedagogical beliefs that provided material for his first major work on education, The School and Society (1899). Disagreements with

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6344-786: The University of Leicester Museum Studies Program (1996), Howard Hughes Visiting Scholar at the California Institute of Technology (1998), Osher Fellow at The Exploratorium in San Francisco (1999), Visiting Professor at University of Technology, Sydney (2000), Research Fellow at the Center for Education and Museum Studies at the Smithsonian Institution (2009-10), and Guest Scholar at The J. Paul Getty Museum in 2011. [1] John Dewey John Dewey ( / ˈ d uː i / ; October 20, 1859 – June 1, 1952)

6466-591: The University of Michigan. The two had six children: Frederick Archibald Dewey, Evelyn Riggs Dewey , Morris (who died young), Gordon Chipman Dewey, Lucy Alice Chipman Dewey, and Jane Mary Dewey . Alice Chipman died in 1927 at the age of 68; weakened by a case of malaria contracted during a trip to Turkey in 1924 and a heart attack during a trip to Mexico City in 1926, she died from cerebral thrombosis on July 13, 1927. Dewey married Estelle Roberta Lowitz Grant, "a longtime friend and companion for several years before their marriage" on December 11, 1946. At Roberta's behest,

6588-682: The administration ultimately caused his resignation from the university, and soon thereafter he relocated near the East Coast. In 1899, Dewey was elected president of the American Psychological Association (A.P.A.). From 1904 until his retirement in 1930 he was professor of philosophy at Teachers College at Columbia University and influenced Carl Rogers . In 1905 he became president of the American Philosophical Association . He

6710-507: The article, he also maintained correspondence with Henri Bergson , William M. Brown , Martin Buber , George S. Counts , William Rainey Harper , Sidney Hook , and George Santayana . John Dewey died of pneumonia on June 1, 1952, at his home in New York City after years of ill-health and was cremated the next day. At the University of Michigan, Dewey published his first two books, Psychology (1887), and Leibniz's New Essays Concerning

6832-589: The attraction of Bolshevism to some Chinese, Dewey advocated that Americans support China's transformation and that Chinese base this transformation in education and social reforms, not revolution. Hundreds and sometimes thousands of people attended the lectures, which were interpreted by Hu Shih. For these audiences, Dewey represented "Mr. Democracy" and "Mr. Science," the two personifications which they thought of representing modern values and hailed him as "the American Confucius". His lectures were lost at

6954-426: The basis of this social consciousness is the only sure method of social reconstruction". In addition to his ideas regarding what education is and what effect it should have on society, Dewey also had specific notions regarding how education should take place within the classroom. In The Child and the Curriculum (1902), Dewey discusses two major conflicting schools of thought regarding educational pedagogy. The first

7076-401: The child and our departure from him. It is he and not the subject-matter which determines both quality and quantity of learning" (Dewey, 1902, pp. 13–14). According to Dewey, the potential flaw in this line of thinking is that it minimizes the importance of the content as well as the role of the teacher. In order to rectify this dilemma, Dewey advocated an educational structure that strikes

7198-471: The consumers attitude one way or the other. Most political issues are heavily framed in order to persuade voters to vote for a particular candidate. For example, if Candidate X once voted on a bill that raised income taxes on the middle class, a framing headline would read "Candidate X Doesn't Care About the Middle Class". This puts Candidate X in a negative frame to the news reader. Social desirability

7320-509: The couple adopted two siblings, Lewis (changed to John Jr.) and Shirley. Dewey's interests and writings included many topics, and according to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy , "a substantial part of his published output consisted of commentary on current domestic and international politics, and public statements on behalf of many causes. (He is probably the only philosopher in this encyclopedia to have published both on

7442-524: The cultural institutions of Boston as an evaluator and educator until such time education became his primary area of focus. Next he led the Independent Studies department of Lesley University's graduate department, led seminars, and produced research in the field of museum education. Hein earned his BA from Cornell University, and later attended the University of Michigan where he gained his PhD in Chemistry. He did his post-doctoral research as

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7564-468: The different factors which influence public opinion. Politicians and other people concerned with public opinion often attempt to influence it using advertising or rhetoric. Opinion plays a vital role in uncovering some critical decisions. Sentiment analysis or opinion mining is a method used to mine the thoughts or feelings of the general population. One of the struggles of public opinion is how it can be influenced by misinformation. The term "public opinion"

7686-402: The effects mass media has on poverty. This negative social construction surrounding poverty made society change from a positive viewpoint to a negative one. It analyzes how that negative social construction affects policy making and government spending. It results indicate that public policy regarding U.S. poverty is driven by the portrayal of the poor as deserving or lazy. This 2017 study takes

7808-474: The ensuing economic depression to a "lack of sufficient production of intelligence, skill, and character" (Dewey, TAP, 2010, p. 242) of the nation's workforce. As Dewey notes, there is a lack of these goods in the present society and teachers have a responsibility to create them in their students, who, we can assume, will grow into the adults who will ultimately go on to participate in whatever industrial or economic civilization awaits them. According to Dewey,

7930-737: The equivalent social function in societies ( Gesellschaften ) which religion has in communities ( Gemeinschaften ). German social theorist Jürgen Habermas contributed the idea of public sphere to the discussion of public opinion. According to Habermas, the public sphere, or bourgeois public, is where "something approaching public opinion can be formed". Habermas claimed that the Public Sphere featured universal access, rational debate, and disregard for rank. However, he believes that these three features for how public opinion are best formed are no longer in place in western liberal democratic countries. Public opinion, in western democracy,

8052-402: The feedback of opinion and policy and use this phenomenon to explain the path dependency of institutions. For decades, the correlation between public opinion and public policy was consistently tested to examine its effects. A 1993 study argued that social construction is overlooked yet plays an important role when studying public policy. It tested the theory that social constructions influence

8174-421: The field at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor. Hein won a postdoctoral fellowship at Caltech, where would researched and taught for three years before returning to Boston as an assistant professor at Boston University. Hein's tenure at Boston University was brief due to interpersonal conflict and the political climate. He completed research at Harvard Medical School in science education, and eventually won

8296-446: The first (1925) edition, for the second (1929) edition he rewrote the first chapter and added a Preface in which he stated that the book presented what was later called a new (Kuhnian) paradigm:  'I have not striven in this volume for a reconciliation between the new and the old' [E&N:4] . and he asserts Kuhnian incommensurability: 'To many the associating of the two words ['experience' and 'nature'] will seem like talking of

8418-441: The formation and dynamics of individuals' opinions. Much of this research draws on psychological research on attitudes . In communications studies and political science , mass media are often seen as influential forces on public opinion. Additionally, political socialization and behavioral genetics sometimes explain public opinion. The formation of public opinion starts with agenda setting by major media outlets throughout

8540-420: The foundation of policy implementation. Its conclusion the politically powerless and negatively perceived groups receive the least benefits in the policy process, showing that social constructions and social power do play an important role in the political policy implementation process. In a 2012 study, instead of analyzing public opinion and policy implementation, it analyzes how the public's participation plays

8662-541: The four men forming the basis of the so-called "Chicago group" of psychology. Their new style of psychology, later dubbed functional psychology , had a practical emphasis on action and application. In Dewey's article "The Reflex Arc Concept in Psychology" which appeared in Psychological Review in 1896, he reasons against the traditional stimulus-response understanding of the reflex arc in favor of

8784-413: The full and ready use of all his capacities" ( My Pedagogic Creed , Dewey, 1897). In addition to helping students realize their full potential, Dewey goes on to acknowledge that education and schooling are instrumental in creating social change and reform. He notes that "education is a regulation of the process of coming to share in the social consciousness; and that the adjustment of individual activity on

8906-477: The general public as opposed to the mass media directly influencing the public. While the "two-step" process regarding public opinion influence has motivated further research on the role of influential persons, a more recent study by Watts and Dodds (2007) suggests that while influentials play some role in influencing public opinion, "non-influential" persons that make up the general public are also just as likely (if not more likely) to influence opinion provided that

9028-436: The general public is composed of persons that are easily influenced. This is referred to in their work as the "Influential Hypothesis". The authors discuss such results by using a model to quantify the number of people influenced by both the general public and influentials. The model can be easily customized to represent a variety of ways that influencers interact with each other as well as the general public. In their study, such

9150-721: The invitation of the World Conference of New Education Fellowship in Cape Town and Johannesburg , where he delivered several talks. The conference was opened by the South African Minister of Education Jan Hofmeyr , and Deputy Prime Minister Jan Smuts . Other speakers at the conference included Max Eiselen and Hendrik Verwoerd , who later became prime minister of the Nationalist government that introduced apartheid . Dewey's expenses were paid by

9272-411: The issue is resolved. Blumer claims that people participate in public in different capacities and to different degrees. So, public opinion polling cannot measure the public. An educated individual's participation is more important than that of a drunk. The "mass" in which people independently make decisions about, for example, which brand of toothpaste to buy, is a form of collective behavior different from

9394-450: The latter as of the highest importance because dislike and ill opinion force people to conform in their behaviour to social norms, however he did not consider public opinion as a suitable influence for governments. In his 1672 essay On the Original and Nature of Government , William Temple gave an early formulation of the importance of public opinion. He observed that "when vast numbers of men submit their lives and fortunes absolutely to

9516-544: The leader who was elected "will not deviate far from voters' opinion". A problem that arises when analyzing the data collected by researchers is how these issues that are "important" are selected when collecting the data about public opinion. It is hard to determine if there has been underdevelopment of certain issues. Another concern is how elites influence public opinion by persuasion and rhetoric, ultimately shaping policy-making. These two variables are ambiguous by nature and are hard to get to any conclusions, in most cases beyond

9638-413: The limits of research. Other variables to look at when analyzing the opinion-policy effect are the size of the majority public, election cycle time, degree of electoral competition, and the type of issue. For example, domestic affairs public opinion will be of greater importance than that of foreign affairs because of the complexity. Since presidents have the ability to influence their political agenda, it

9760-451: The many kinds of skills needed in contemporary life. If teachers are up to their work, they also aid in the production of character."(Dewey, TAP, 2010, pp. 241–42). According to Dewey, the emphasis is placed on producing these attributes in children for use in their contemporary life because it is "impossible to foretell definitely just what civilization will be twenty years from now" (Dewey, MPC, 2010, p. 25). However, although Dewey

9882-476: The midst of a perfect storm of misinformation , where the wrong information or lack of it can be deadly." Cognitive psychologists such as Lewandowsky et al. have defined misinformation as "any piece of information that is initially processed as valid but is subsequently retracted or corrected." There are two common types of misinformation according to Hochschild , a political scientist . There are inactive informed and active misinformed . Inactive informed

10004-465: The minds of people. Since the 1950s, television has been the main medium for molding public opinion. Since the late 2000s, the Internet has become a platform for forming public opinion. Surveys have showed that more people get their news from social media and news websites as opposed to print newspapers. The accessibility of social media allows public opinion to be formed by a broader range of social movements and news sources. Gunn Enli identifies

10126-502: The most famous proponents of hands-on learning or experiential education , which is related to, but not synonymous with experiential learning . He argued that "if knowledge comes from the impressions made upon us by natural objects, it is impossible to procure knowledge without the use of objects which impress the mind" (Dewey, 1916/2009, pp. 217–18). Dewey's ideas went on to influence many other influential experiential models and advocates. Problem-Based Learning (PBL), for example,

10248-430: The nascent mind. Lastly, the persuasive power add more exertion in this regard . The most pervasive issue dividing theories of the opinion-policy relation bears a striking resemblance to the problem of monism - pluralism in the history of philosophy. The controversy deals with the question of whether the structure of socio-political action should be viewed as a more or less centralized process of acts and decisions by

10370-789: The national level. However, the national government was weak, and the provinces largely controlled by warlords, so his suggestions were praised at the national level but not implemented. However, there were a few implementations locally. Dewey's ideas did have influence in Hong Kong, and in Taiwan after the nationalist government fled there. In most of China, Confucian scholars controlled the local educational system before 1949 and they simply ignored Dewey and Western ideas. In Marxist and Maoist China, Dewey's ideas were systematically denounced. Dewey and his daughter Jane went to South Africa in July 1934, at

10492-616: The negatively constructed populations. As with public policy, public opinion also has a close relationship with foreign policy . There is much debate concerning what the relationship is and the study of foreign policy's relationship with public opinion has evolved over time, with the Almond–Lippmann consensus being one of the first attempt to define this relationship. Published before the Vietnam War , Gabriel Almond and Walter Lippmann argued that public opinion about foreign policy

10614-408: The one hand, public opinion signals public preferences and potential voting behaviors to policymakers. This impact should be greater under more stable democratic institutions. It should be greatest in the realm of social policy because the public are highly motivated by potential goods and services they get from the state. On the other hand, social policy impacts public opinion. The goods and services

10736-498: The one, ultimate, ethical ideal of humanity are to my mind synonymous." Dewey considered two fundamental elements—schools and civil society —to be major topics needing attention and reconstruction to encourage experimental intelligence and plurality. He asserted that complete democracy was to be obtained not just by extending voting rights but also by ensuring that there exists a fully formed public opinion , accomplished by communication among citizens, experts, and politicians. Dewey

10858-467: The parliamentary seat in Liverpool , a city with a growing and affluent middle class which he attributed to the growing influence of "public opinion". Jeremy Bentham was an impassioned advocate of the importance of public opinion in the shaping of constitutional governance. He thought it important that all government acts and decisions should be subject to the inspection of public opinion, because "to

10980-502: The people of Japan during this trip, Dewey was also critical of the nation's governing system and claimed that the nation's path towards democracy was "ambitious but weak in many respects in which her competitors are strong". He also warned that "the real test has not yet come. But if the nominally democratic world should go back on the professions so profusely uttered during war days, the shock will be enormous, and bureaucracy and militarism might come back." During his trip to Japan, Dewey

11102-560: The pernicious exercise of the power of government it is the only check". He opined that public opinion had the power to ensure that rulers would rule for the greatest happiness of the greater number. He brought in Utilitarian philosophy in order to define theories of public opinion. The German sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies , by using the conceptional tools of his theory of Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft , argued ( Kritik der öffentlichen Meinung , 1922), that 'public opinion' has

11224-457: The policy agenda, policy tools, and policy choices. Its conclusions states that social constructions help to understand the motive and decision making behind public officials who do implement certain policies towards target populations. In a 2004 study, they also take the approach of studying the relationship between social constructions and policy implementation. It tested the hypothesis that negative constructed social groups such as criminals are

11346-402: The profession of the classroom teacher is to produce the intelligence, skill, and character within each student so that the democratic community is composed of citizens who can think, do and act intelligently and morally. Dewey believed that successful classroom teacher possesses a passion for knowledge and intellectual curiosity in the materials and methods they teach. For Dewey, this propensity

11468-427: The public gets via social policy builds normative expectations that shape public opinion. Furthermore, social policy constitutes the largest share of state spending budgets, making it an active and contentious political area. Together these theories suggest that causal effects are part of a feedback loop between opinion and policy. Using increasingly sophisticated methods, scholars are beginning to grasp and identify

11590-632: The public opinion field. According to the National Library of Medicine , "Misinformation can have negative effects in the real world, such as amplifying controversy about vaccines and propagating unproven cancer treatments." Medical misinformation has been relevant to changing public opinion in cases such as the HIV/AIDS epidemic . Originally, a myth was circulated that AIDS could be spread by touching people who were infected. This had implications for public opinion in regard to AIDS policies as

11712-428: The public's preference on salient matters like crime and economy. This reflects a populist type of democracy where the government portrays respect toward the people's views and they are connected. On the other hand, government institutions and elites believe the general populations' understanding of certain issued is limited, therefore they exercise autonomy when making these decisions. Baum and Kernell have stated that

11834-433: The public. An institution of central importance in the development of public opinion, was the coffee-house , which became widespread throughout Europe in the mid-17th century. Although Charles II later tried to suppress the London coffeehouses as "places where the disaffected met, and spread scandalous reports concerning the conduct of His Majesty and his Ministers", the public flocked to them. For several decades following

11956-479: The public. Public opinion plays an important role in the political sphere. Cutting across all aspects of relationship between government and public opinion are studies of voting behavior. These have registered the distribution of opinions on a wide variety of issues, have explored the impact of special interest groups on election outcomes and have contributed to our knowledge about the effects of government propaganda and policy. Contemporary, quantitative approaches to

12078-420: The pursuit of individual and communal inquiry, and perceive higher learning as a monopoly of the institution of education (Dewey, 1899; 1916). For Dewey and his philosophical followers, education stifles individual autonomy when learners are taught that knowledge is transmitted in one direction, from the expert to the learner. Dewey not only re-imagined the way that the learning process should take place, but also

12200-430: The recent publication of William James ' Principles of Psychology (1890), began to reformulate psychology, emphasizing the social environment on the activity of mind and behavior rather than the physiological psychology of Wilhelm Wundt and his followers. By 1894, Dewey had joined Tufts, with whom he later wrote Ethics (1908) at the recently founded University of Chicago and invited Mead and Angell to follow him,

12322-542: The right to read all the papers for and against the government", were the "seats of English liberty". Gentlemen's clubs proliferated in the 18th century, especially in the West End of London . Clubs took over the role occupied by coffee houses in 18th century London to some degree and reached the height of their influence in the late 19th century. Some notable names were White's , Brooks's , Arthur's and Boodle's which still exist today. These social changes, in which

12444-431: The role that the teacher should play within that process. For Dewey, "The thing needful is improvement of education, not simply by turning out teachers who can do better the things that are not necessary to do, but rather by changing the conception of what constitutes education" (Dewey, 1904, p. 18). Dewey's qualifications for teaching—a natural love for working with young children, a natural propensity to inquire about

12566-522: The roots of fascism; and Knowing and the Known (1949), a book written in conjunction with Arthur F. Bentley that systematically outlines the concept of trans-action, which is central to his other works (see Transactionalism ). While each of these works focuses on one particular philosophical theme, Dewey included his major themes in Experience and Nature . However, dissatisfied with the response to

12688-479: The school itself is a social institution through which social reform can and should take place. In addition, he believed that students thrive in an environment where they are allowed to experience and interact with the curriculum, and all students should have the opportunity to take part in their own learning. The ideas of democracy and social reform are continually discussed in Dewey's writings on education. Dewey makes

12810-490: The stimulation is enriched by the results of previous experiences. The response is modulated by sensorial experience. Dewey was elected president of the American Psychological Association in 1899. Dewey also expressed interest in work in the psychology of visual perception performed by Dartmouth research professor Adelbert Ames Jr. He had great trouble with listening, however, because it

12932-419: The study of public opinion may be divided into four categories: The rapid spread of public opinion measurement around the world is reflection of the number of uses to which it can be put. Public opinion can be accurately obtained through survey sampling . Both private firms and governments use surveys to inform public policies and public relations. Numerous theories and substantial evidence exists to explain

13054-429: The subjects, methods and other social issues related to the profession, and a desire to share this acquired knowledge with others—are not a set of outwardly displayed mechanical skills. Rather, they may be viewed as internalized principles or habits which "work automatically, unconsciously" (Dewey, 1904, p. 15). Turning to Dewey's essays and public addresses regarding the teaching profession, followed by his analysis of

13176-459: The teacher as a person and a professional, as well as his beliefs regarding the responsibilities of teacher education programs to cultivate the attributes addressed, teacher educators can begin to reimagine the successful classroom teacher Dewey envisioned. For many, education's purpose is to train students for work by providing the student with a limited set of skills and information to do a particular job. As Dewey notes, this limited vocational view

13298-438: The teacher is to produce a higher standard of intelligence in the community, and the object of the public school system is to make as large as possible the number of those who possess this intelligence. Skill, the ability to act wisely and effectively in a great variety of occupations and situations, is a sign and a criterion of the degree of civilization that a society has reached. It is the business of teachers to help in producing

13420-694: The tensions of the Cold War and on the heels of the repercussions of the Second World War. He worked in the Elementary Science Program. He become a professor at Lesley University in 1975, Director of the Program Evaluation and Research Group at Lesley College in 1980, and became Professor Emeritus in 1998. He was a Fulbright Research Fellow in Science Education at King's College, London (1990), visiting faculty member at

13542-545: The time but have been rediscovered and published in 2015. Dewey's lecture on "Three Contemporary Philosophers: Bertrand Russell, Henri Bergson and William James" at Peking University in 1919 was attended by a young Mao Zedong . Zhixin Su states: Dewey urged the Chinese to not import any Western educational model. He recommended to educators such as Tao Xingzhi , that they use pragmatism to devise their own model school system at

13664-439: The ultimate issue position. Public opinion about foreign policy is measured in the same way that all public opinion is measured. Through polls and surveys, respondents are asked about their issue positions. Conclusions are drawn by researchers by applying the scientific method . According to Robert Shapiro, public opinion and policy-making are fundamental to a democracy, which is linked to electoral accountability, meaning that

13786-401: The will of one, it must be force of custom, or opinion which subjects power to authority". Temple disagreed with the prevalent opinion that the basis of government lay in a social contract and thought that government was merely allowed to exist due to the favour of public opinion. The prerequisites for the emergence of a public sphere were increasing levels of literacy which was spurred on by

13908-559: The workforce. In The School and Society (Dewey, 1899) and Democracy of Education (Dewey, 1916), Dewey claims that rather than preparing citizens for ethical participation in society, schools cultivate passive pupils via insistence upon mastery of facts and disciplining of bodies. Rather than preparing students to be reflective, autonomous and ethical beings capable of arriving at social truths through critical and intersubjective discourse, schools prepare students for docile compliance with authoritarian work and political structures, discourage

14030-399: The world. This agenda setting dictates what is newsworthy and how and when it will be reported. The media agenda is set by a variety of different environmental and newswork factors that determines which stories will be newsworthy. Another key component in the formation of public opinion is framing . Framing is when a story or piece of news is portrayed in a particular way and is meant to sway

14152-530: Was a longtime member of the American Federation of Teachers . Along with the historians Charles A. Beard and James Harvey Robinson , and the economist Thorstein Veblen , Dewey is one of the founders of The New School . Dewey published more than 700 articles in 140 journals, and approximately 40 books. His most significant writings were "The Reflex Arc Concept in Psychology" (1896), a critique of

14274-408: Was an American philosopher , psychologist , and educational reformer . He was one of the most prominent American scholars in the first half of the twentieth century. The overriding theme of Dewey's works was his profound belief in democracy , be it in politics, education, or communication and journalism. As Dewey himself stated in 1888, while still at the University of Michigan , "Democracy and

14396-462: Was born in Burlington, Vermont , to a family of modest means. He was one of four boys born to Archibald Sprague Dewey and Lucina Artemisia Rich Dewey. Their first son was also named John, but he died in an accident on January 17, 1859. The second John Dewey was born October 20, 1859, forty weeks after the death of his older brother. Like his older, surviving brother, Davis Rich Dewey , he attended

14518-696: Was derived from the French opinion publique , which was first used in 1588 by Michel de Montaigne , one of the most significant philosophers of the French Renaissance , in the second edition of his famous Essays (ch. XXII). The French term also appears in the 1761 work Julie, or the New Heloise by Jean-Jacques Rousseau . Precursors of the phrase in English include William Temple 's "general opinion" (appearing in his 1672 work On

14640-1131: Was invited by Peking University to visit China, probably at the behest of his former students, Hu Shih and Chiang Monlin . Dewey and his wife Alice arrived in Shanghai on April 30, 1919, just days before student demonstrators took to the streets of Peking to protest the decision of the Allies in Paris to cede the German-held territories in Shandong province to Japan. Their demonstrations on May Fourth excited and energized Dewey, and he ended up staying in China for two years, leaving in July 1921. In these two years, Dewey gave nearly 200 lectures to Chinese audiences and wrote nearly monthly articles for Americans in The New Republic and other magazines. Well aware of both Japanese expansionism into China and

14762-425: Was one of the primary figures associated with the philosophy of pragmatism and is considered one of the founding thinkers of functional psychology . His paper "The Reflex Arc Concept in Psychology", published in 1896, is regarded as the first major work in the (Chicago) functionalist school of psychology. A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Dewey as the 93rd-most-cited psychologist of

14884-671: Was unstructured, incoherent, and highly volatile, and that public opinion shouldn't influence foreign policy. More recent studies have rebuked the Almond-Lippmann Consensus, showing how people's opinions are generally stable, and that while individuals may not be entirely informed about every issue, they still act efficiently and rationally. People's judgments about issues are often based on heuristics, which are mental shortcuts that allow rational decisions to be made quickly. Heuristics apply to public opinion about domestic as well as foreign policy. The deductive heuristic

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