JOHN DEWEY(1859-1952)

LIFE AND WORK

Biography

Dewey was born in Burlington, Vermont in 1859.

He lived in a period of immigration and industrialization. That’s why ethnic, social class, and religious diversity have influenced his views on education.

He obtained a PhD in 1884. He married Alice Chipman, which was one of

his students. In 1896 he opened the Laboratory School.

Laboratory School

It opened in 1896. Dewey tested his

ideas of education there.

Classes consisted of theoretical work and practice.

The child came to school to do. Activities were based in craft activities and practical experiences.

VIEW OF EDUCATION

His own view of Education

Dewey rejected curriculum-centred view of education and proposed a student-centred view.

His idea of education consisted in the interaction of students with the curriculum in order to make them part of their own knowledge. The teacher’s role should be that of facilitator or guide.

He wanted to “reinstate into experience” the subject-matter of the curriculum.

He wanted to “psychologize” the curriculum by constructing an environment in which the activities of the child would include problematic situations.

Teaching-learning process

The learning experience begins with the stimulus that is a coordinated act involving the sensory and motor actions of the child, and the content in which the situation occurs.

Learner’s past experiences are taken into account in the teaching-learning process, as well as the environment in which the event takes place, and the level of engagement or how involved the child is in the experience.

Theory of Experience

His theory was based on: Continuity:

the Past and Future Matter to the Present; past experiences influence the present

situation and the experience of the present moment will impact on the experience of future moments.

Interaction: education is living; present experience arises from interaction

between past experience and present situation.

Emancipation and Enlargement of experience “Emancipation of experience” means to

set free experience. “Enlargement of experience” means to

make experience bigger, to extend its limits. Educator’s task is to work with people so that they have a greater understanding or appreciation of their experiences.

Democracy and Education

Democracy is a principle, a method, an educational structure that should provide freedom to the human beings. And schools should provide values and objectives to social groups.

“Democracy is a belief in the ability of human experience to generate the aims and methods by which further experience shall grow in ordered richness”.

PEDAGOGIC CREED

Aim of Education

The aim of education should be the realization of one’s full potential and the ability to use those skills for the greater good.

School should teach students how to be problem-solvers by helping them learn how to think rather than what to think, and to improve our minds, so as to enable them to think for themselves.

Schools should help students learn to live and to work cooperatively with others.

Ierfino Joaquín, Marinucci María