John Dewey (1859–1952)
The aim of education is growth: the aim of growth is more growth.
Dewey was a very influential philosopher and educational thinker. His thinking on education, like that of Maria Montessori, continues to influence education today. For example, the present fascination with inquiry learning is a key component of Dewey’s theory of education. Below, I outline a number of his beliefs about education and how they link together.
Perhaps, the best place to start would be with what Dewey thought about the relationship between education and experience. For Dewey, educationmust be ‘experiential’ and not externally imposed because, similar to Montessori, he argued that “there is an intimate and necessary relation between . . . experience and education” (Dewey, 1938, p. 20). The student’s interest in the material studied and ability to see its relevance for his or her life NOW was paramount for him. If not, as Montessori argued, the student’s enthusiasm would cool and his or her desire and ability to learn would be significantly limited. Additionally, Dewey recognized that experiences build on previous experiences, and he, again like Montessori, insisted it is the teacher’s responsibility to determine the direction in which an experience is heading.
In relation to this point, he believed that experiences (and their facilitation or toleration) can be both educative and miseducative. He defined an educative experience as one that broadens one’s horizons of experience and knowledge. Thus, education opens one up to learning many things and increases one’s ability to direct his or her future experiences. Education enables the individual to do more things and with greater skill, expanding his or her human capacities in a variety of directions so that he or she can play an instrument, write a story, paint a picture, solve a mathematical problem, teach others and build a house. Above all, an educative experience involves forward momentum rather than stasis. It enables the individual to grow and continue to grow in a deliberate, reflective manner.
Central to Dewey’s perspective on education was inquiry, which he argued involved reflection. He defined reflection as an “active, and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge” (Dewey, 1938, p. 9). He thoughtthatreflectionhadfourparts.
1. Reflection involves the continual, activeconstruction of meaning and purpose by the learner, moving the learner from one experience to the next with a deeper understanding of the connections between related experiences and ideas.
2. Reflection is deliberate, disciplined, and rigorous.
3. Reflection is participatory; it happens within groups committed to common ends and leads toward the accomplishment of shared goals.
4. Reflection is grounded in attitudes that value and celebrate both personal and collective growth and well-being. It is not selfish.
Dewey was thus critical of schooling in which the connection between process and product is overlooked, and where alreadyformulated, ready-made information is transmittedto the learner and instruction is delivered in lock-step fashion with the“cut and dried” logic of an expert.
This, he thought, would give rise to a miseducative experience that would arrest and distort a learner’sdevelopment for a number of reasons. First, students cannot connect what they are ‘learning’ with what they already know. Secondly, they cannot see how what they are to learn is meaningful for their life. Thirdly, they are not given the opportunity or means to critically reflect on what they know and the world as it is. In a miseducative experience, students are encouraged, sometimes subtly, to narrow their thinking and stay as they are. They do not and cannot grow from these experiences. They may add more information to what they know but they cannot critically reflect on and rethink what they know. Neither can they see clearly how what they know fits together (or even better, how what they know could fit together differently!). Their development has been arrested and distorted.
This is a concern not only for the individual student but also for others because a key purpose of education is to improve our democracy. Students’ growth is meant not only for his or her benefit but also for the benefit of all so that our world can be transformed into one in which experiences will improve the further growth and well-being of all. The fundamental purpose of education for Dewey is the intellectual, social, emotional, and moral development of the individual,but this depends upon and contributes to the continued expansion of democracy.
His fuller aim of education is thus to create well-educated people who could improve their society by making it more democratic, which in turn would expand the opportunities for individual growth, improving all social institutions for everyone (i.e. expanding democracy to all aspects of our world). His hope was that everyone can learn and grow inside and outside of formal learning environments such as the school.
Dewey Glossary of words and terms in Order of Appearance
Fascination- interest, obsession, passion, compulsion
Key component – important part
Educative – an educational experience that enables one to grow
Miseducative – an experience which stops or distorts one’s growth and learning
Forward Momentum – Moving forward
Stasis – staying in place
Deliberate – Thoughtful, planned-out, careful
Reflective manner -- Reflection means to think about something. Manner means a way in which a thing is done.
Central – Important
Supposed form of knowledge – A form of knowledge that has not been verified as knowledge; it has not been shown to be true, real or good.
Continual, active construction or meaning and purpose – What Dewey means is that the REFLECTIVE learner never ACTIVELY stops creating meaning and purpose from things or events they experience.
Deliberate, disciplined and rigorous – Dewey is saying that reflection is hardwork. It requires one to think carefully and well. He is not a fan of sloppy thinking.
Participatory – Everyone participates in the reflection – everyone contributes. Dewey is arguing that we learn best with others and that the reason for learning, as we will see below, is for the benefit of everyone.
Already formulated – already created; decided.
Lock-Step – copying of another’s actions; following closely the exact way in which another does something
Cut and dried – definited; completely settled; decided
Arrest – Stop
Distort – skew; malform; wreck
Subtly – not obvious; not noticeably
Growth – This is the purpose of education and life for Dewey – the growth of our human capacities (abilities) with others and in such a way that we improve our environment to allow for more growth.
Democracy – This is a form of government in which the people rule (Demos means ‘the people’ and Kratia (-cracy) means power or rule – from the Greek language).
Quotes
The most important attitude that can be formed is that of desire to go on learning.
Every thinker puts some portion of an apparently stable world in peril and no one can wholly predict what will emerge in its place.
“Preparation" is a treacherous idea. In a certain sense every experience should do something to prepare a person for later experiences of a deeper and more expansive quality. That is the very meaning of growth, continuity, reconstruction of experience. But it is a mistake to suppose that the mereacquisition of a certain amount of arithmetic, geography, history, etc., which is taught and studied because it may be useful at some time in the future, has this effect, and it is a mistake to suppose that acquisition of skills in reading and figuring will automatically constitute preparation for their right and effective use under conditions very unlike those in which they were acquired.
Democracy has to be born anew every generation, and education is its midwife.
References
Dewey, J. 1938. Experience and Education. New York: Touchstone/Simon and Schuster.