Educational Psychology—Limitations and Possibilities

74 The Praeger Handbook of Education and Psychology
scientific truth. In moving beyond the positivistic belief that meeting certain criteria (especially
when decontextualized and overlooking social and economic factors) is a valid form of assessment,
critical pedagogy recognizes that social, political, and economic contexts, one’s life experience,
and an infinite number of other factors that influence our unique perspective, cannot be overlooked.
Dewey’s educational psychology took account of the impact such factors have on the child’s mind
and predisposition to learning. When Dewey spoke of the need to develop social intelligence, it
was the need to account for this variety of contexts and conditions that he was emphasizing. These
are contexts and conditions largely overlooked in the standardized testing movement heralded by
the behaviorist psychology of Thorndike and others.
FURTHER READINGS
Cremin, Lawrence A. (1957). “The Progressive Movement in American Education: A Perspective.” Harvard
Educational Review XXVII, 4: 251–270.
Dewey, John (1956). The School and Society. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Dewey, John (1937/1963). Experience and Education. New York: Collier.
Dewey, John (1996). Democracy and Education. New York: The Free Press.
Dewey, John (1933). How We Think. Boston: D.C. Heath.
Garrison, Jim (1999). John Dewey. In Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Education, http://www.vusst.hr/
ENCYCLOPAEDIA/john dewey.htm.
Knight, George R. (1989). Issues and Alternatives in Educational Philosophy. Berrien Springs, MI: Andrews
University Press.
Perkinson, Henry J. (1980). Since Socrates. New York: Longman.
Ravitch, Diane (2001). Left Back: A Century of Battles Over School Reform. New York: Touchstone.
Reed, Ronald F. (2000). Tony W. Johnson. In Philosophical Documents in Education. New York: Longman.
Tyack, David B. (1974). The One Best System: A History of American Urban Education. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press.