In this study, we examined what types of answers can be found from the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools for the questions addressed through lectures on how modern 21st century schools should provide education, in what form it should be provided, what purpose it should serve, and what type of content it should have. To answer these questions, in this study, we examined the basis of education at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools and attempted to assess it based on Nakamura (2017a, 2017b) and Sakaue (2017).
The basic education at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools was assessed from a historical and modern perspective by comparing it with Dewey’s ideas on the four points of the school itself, its education, the learning that takes place, and the subjects offered.
As a result of the comparison, the following three points were identified:
(1) The University of Chicago Laboratory Schools were established by John Dewey in 1896, and they were a place where his ideas about education could be put into practice in an actual educational setting. It continued to be a school that practices progressive education, and it continues to serve this role even today.
(2) Today the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools are still promoting child-centered education based on reconstructing of experience and life experience, especially interact between subjects/teaching materials and experience.
(3) Subject learning has also inherited this role, and it serves to create and restructure experience along with knowledge-based lessons. Social studies and the arts also serve this role.