Dewey's Work Research Articles

JOHN DEWEY'S THINKING CONSTRUCTION ON EXPERIENCE-BASED EDUCATION

This report analyzes John Dewey's work on experience-based education. It's been said that the finest teacher is experienced. It might not be excessive because everyone has experience that they can use to evaluate things. When considering experience-based learning, it is crucial to remember that as people get older, have more opportunities, and reach higher levels of maturity, their experiences also get bigger and bigger. Not just a slew of experiences for the sake of having a good time, but more experience is a fusion that enriches and nourishes. John Dewey places a great emphasis on the idea that all education is acquired via experience. These encounters may be private or communal. Every encounter creates something priceless in human life

America's Public Philosopher: Essays on Social Justice, Economics, Education, and the Future of Democracy

America's Public Philosopher: Essays on Social Justice, Economics, Education, and the Future of Democracy

Élucider le trouble de la situation. L’enquête et son écologie selon John Dewey

ContextThe new climate regime, or the Anthropocene age, raises the question of the intelligibility and the experimentation, on an individual and collective scale, of the uncertainty that has become intrinsic to the lived environment. ObjectivesThe author borrows from the theory of inquiry developed in the work of John Dewey a description of the troubled situation in which Being is placed, for lack of a connection with what surrounds it. This article considers the aesthetic experience as a paragon of all experience, in order to describe the existential matrix of the investigation. MethodThe article proposes a reading of the major texts that John Dewey dedicates to the inquiry. The epistemology developed by pragmatic philosophy favors inquiry over result, and assertability (“what works”) over truth; lacunar states and disagreements are not removed from inquiry; beliefs are not discredited under the accusation of subjectivism; and the notion of “community” presides over the quest for certainty and guarantee. In this framing, scientific activity is considered to produce knowledge, but it also fundamentally produces uncertainty and questioning, and knowledge is not so much a result as the process of an approach. ResultsWith uncertainty about the environment gaining a general and absolute status, it is by the means of intensification of the experience of a co-existence of beings that a pragmatic investigation can advance within a pessimistic surrounding, against a generalized capture and alienation of life. ConclusionWhile summarizing the theory of inquiry developed in John Dewey's work, this article emphasizes the particular role of aesthetic experience in elucidating the disturbances of the ecological situation.

Reply to Critics

Reply to Critics

Digging at the Roots: A Reply to Naoko Saito's American Philosophy in Translation

Digging at the Roots: A Reply to Naoko Saito's <i>American Philosophy in Translation</i>

Toward a Theory of Interpretation in Dewey's Educational Philosophy

ABSTRACTJohn Dewey's lifelong quest for a worthy education was characterized by a fervor for collapsing false dualisms. One such dualism — that between traditional and progressive education — led him to embrace a vision of the teacher as interpreter and guide of the student. Notwithstanding Dewey's emphasis on the salient role of interpretation, there are no comprehensive accounts that explain how Dewey envisioned this very interpretive task that teachers are expected to undertake. In response to this lack, A. C. Nikolaidis draws from the corpus of Dewey's work to reconstruct a Deweyan “theory of interpretation.” This theory brings together hermeneutic elements in Dewey's work — akin to those of Hans‐Georg Gadamer — and his commitment to scientific experimentalism. In doing so, it presents a new perspective on the way we think of Dewey's relation to Continental philosophy, extending similar contemporary scholarship such as Paul Fairfield's. Moreover, it provides important insights on Dewey's pedagogy as this relates to classroom practices, curriculum development, and more.

THE METHOD OF DEMOCRACY: JOHN DEWEY’S THEORY OF COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE BY DAVID RIDLEY

Reviewed by: The Method of Democracy: John Dewey's Theory of Collective Intelligence by David Ridley Veli-Mikko Kauppi By David Ridley The Method of Democracy: John Dewey's Theory of Collective Intelligence Oxford: Peter Lang, 2021, 220pp., incl. index. John Dewey's writings on social intelligence, collective intelligence and the intelligence of the public have gained renascent attention, especially within democratic theory and democratic education. It has been proposed that pragmatism in general and Dewey in particular, offer an alternative model for democratic participation. This model shares many of the goals of deliberative democratic theory or critical theory, but is proposed to be capable of dodging some of the problems often affiliated with them—such as the powerlessness in the face of the rise of non-democratic populist movements that exploit the very means and apparatus of democracy. It is in part this allegedly non-democratic and non-intelligent populism that has motivated David Ridley to search for a 'forgotten alternative' model for populism: one that relies on the popular expressions of the contradictions of society, but one that is democratic and intelligent. In Ridley's thought neoliberalism presents the essential problem affecting and corrupting all aspects of life—a problem which must be solved in its multifariousness. However, so far the suggestions of how to solve it have been bound to fail due to the denial of collective intelligence, which can be observed in both right-wing populist solutions as well as their traditional leftist counterparts (p. 3). [End Page 295] The book is in three parts. Part one: Theoretical Foundations; Part two: A Problematic Situation; and Part three: Reconstruction. In part one Ridley first travels through the history of western intellectual Marxism and the so-called Frankfurt School. Starting with Lukács and his concept of reification, Ridley draws a rather grim picture of the pessimism and retreat from practice to theory, to which the Frankfurt School ended up in by its first generation, most notably Adorno and Horkheimer. This pessimism and distrust towards the potential of masses followed as an essential undercurrent also to its second generation, of which Jurgen Habermas is the most notable representative. As a way out of this dead-end, Ridley examines John Dewey's contribution to critical social theory in the second chapter of his book. This contribution was, at least during the first generation of Frankfurt School and to some extent even today, ignorantly underrated in Europe. This has been a loss for both critical theory and pragmatism, as both apparently share, among other things, the central interest in a just practice of social inquiry as interdisciplinary social research. It is in the second chapter of part one that Ridley presents his main argument: that uncritical everyday experiences can be transformed into critical opinion, or in Ridley's terms to 'intelligent populism', by means of Dewey's notion of collective intelligence. "Democratic social inquiry is in a primitive sense already in the public's hands," Ridley points out (p. 183). As members of democratic societies, we already are inquirers, but the quality of our inquiries defines the quality of our decisions. Co-operative social inquiry is the method of democracy, a procedure to actualize the aims of democracy: "On one level, Dewey's theory of social inquiry is very abstract and banal. Socialising formal practices of inquiry, developed to sophistication by academics and scientists, would help the public develop its collective intelligence, avoid co-optation by reactionary political parties and interests, free it from the manipulative consumption of the culture industry and, in time, reclaim democracy for the people." (p. 183). In Ridley's presentation, accusations of too much optimism regarding the intelligence of the common man in Dewey's work can be objected to as misinterpretation of his ideas, both in their simplicity and in their nuanced complexity. This nuanced complexity of Dewey's method of democracy is then examined in detail, producing the philosophically most interesting contribution of the book. Following the Deweyan pattern of inquiry, Part two focuses on elaborating what the problem is, once an indeterminate situation has emerged. This is done in two chapters, of which the first one focuses on neoliberalism being...

Intencionalidad y responsabilidad

Do ponto de vista da formação docente, o conceito de experiência em Dewey configura-se como ato investigativo no qual pesquisar situações de aprendizagem significativas amplia competências profissionais. Ao questionar o engajamento docente com vistas ao desenvolvimento de todos e à construção de uma sociedade mais igualitária, este artigo demonstra que o conceito aproxima-se à educação inclusiva quando há preocupação social. Com o levantamento bibliográfico da obra de Dewey, propõe-se uma leitura para a educação inclusiva, condensando nas palavras intencionalidade e responsabilidade os pilares da ação docente.

John Dewey’s Critique of Scientific Dogmatism in Education and Implications for Supervision

Drawing on Dewey's critique of the way educators, historically, have tried to promulgate definitive prescriptions for educational practice, this article examines implications of the use of science for supervisory practice and for the field of supervision as a whole. A content analysis of Dewey's The Sources of a Science of Education indicates the pervasiveness of the technocratic nature of teaching and supervision. Historical evidence is presented to indicate the degree and manner to which educators have tried to use science to justify inspectional and prescriptive practices of supervision. The significance of Dewey's work is in the realization that science alone should not dictate supervisory practice. Rather, viewing science with more tentativeness and exploration is needed. Lessons from Dewey's work are discussed, as are implications for the field of supervision.

A difusão da obra pedagógica de Dewey em Portugal: O contributo de Adolfo Lima

É a difusão da obra de Dewey por parte de Adolfo Lima que constitui o tema nuclear deste artigo. Um artigo que resulta de um trabalho de análise dos textos de A. Lima e de algumas das obras emblemáticas de Dewey, de forma a promover-se um processo de interpelação que, para além de revelar algumas das estratégias do processo de apropriação da obra de Dewey, por parte do pedagogo português, revelou, igualmente, as tensões epistemológicas e concetuais e, ainda, algumas das zonas de sombra da reflexão e das propostas do Movimento da Escola Nova que, deste modo, adquiriram uma maior visibilidade através daquele processo de interpelação.

Performance-Based Learning: A Case Study in Experiential Education

Experiential education is a highly prized and effective interdisciplinary methodology to supplement classroom instruction and to improve student learning. Experiential theories have a wide reach, traceable to Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates. John Dewey's pivotal work Experience and Education, first published in 1938, is canonical in academic scholarship and has been expanded on throughout the 20 th century, most notably by Kolb's scholarship spanning the 1980s to present day (Dewey, 1938). David Kolb's four-stage learning cycle is still used across disciplines in scholar's conversations on useful methods for helping students grasp complex academic content and experience transformative learning opportunities (Kolb, 2015). Four senior-level projects carried out in a special topics course in Family and Consumer Sciences at Southeastern Louisiana University provided students with an opportunity to rehearse the research skills they will need after graduation. These experiential learning projects focused on the obesity epidemic in the United States; they had a significant impact on student learning, not only for professional preparation, but also for emphasizing a topic of social significance.

Peacebuilding without peace? On how pragmatism complicates the practice of international intervention

AbstractThe International Relations (IR) literature has strongly criticised the invasive and top-down nature of liberal peace, facilitating a reinterpretation of the practice of international intervention in conflict-affected societies. Today, sustaining peace policy approaches advance longer-term missions, give a secondary role to external practitioners, and increasingly accept risks and failures. What is striking is that even when these policy discourses hold out the promise of liberating peacebuilding from dominant and top-down models of liberal intervention, the mood in the field is one of despair. By drawing on John Dewey's work on pragmatism and interviewing practitioners in Bosnia and Kosovo, the article reflects on the morass practitioners find themselves, diagnoses the source of the frustrations, and anticipates the direction of sustaining peace. Pragmatism adumbrates the idea of ‘peacebuilding without peace’, encouraging practitioners to experiment, give primacy to their doings and explore this world without hope of success and dreams of otherworldliness.

Informal learning and food sense in home cooking

This exploratory article examines the novel term food sense and informal learning in the context of home cooking. Its theory draws from Dewey's work and from his notions of reflexive thought and action. The data consist of a transcribed audio recording of an in-depth, video-based, stimulated-recall (SR) interview. The auto-ethnographic videos were used to stimulate conversation during the interview and were previously collected as part of a broader research project on home cooking in a Finnish family context. Based on the theory and the data, the definition of food sense was refined into a model consisting of three levels: ‘Understanding’ as the ability to define and interpret emerging ruptures in activity; ‘Applying’ as the competence to plan and execute solutions that function in context; and ‘Re-defining’ as the reformulation of activities to enable new ways of doing. In reference to the empirical examples, two of the three episodes represented ‘Understanding’ and ‘Applying’; whereas the third example included also the potential for re-defining habitual ways of action. However, despite possession of relevant knowledge and initial motivation, the emergence of negative emotions of the person in charge of the cooking process prevented reformulating existing cooking habits. By providing novel insights into the social, cultural, and situated nature of home cooking, the article complements the more individual-focused and/or knowledge-based approaches used by other recent studies of cooking skills and learning.

John Dewey and the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB): What Would He Say?

Using John Dewey's writings and hypothetical thinking, this paper presents a critical review of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and its implication for reform. It begins with Dewey's early work and includes his greatest success at Arthurdale WV in the l 930's. The importance of constructivist thinking is juxtaposition among the reformist views of today's assessment driven policy to qualify for funding. Like Dewey, the author argues for experiential learningto make connections in real life situations presented through school opportunities. In trying to highlight transparency, closing failing schools, bringing equanimty, raising standards, and improving curriculum, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) produced a culture of assessment without its accompanying experiential component. Learning best occurs when the experience connects with other aspects, so transfer of the knowledge becomes easily retrievable.

Sheriff Dewey and Another High Noon Scenario

John Dewey was a sophisticated theorist who had a considerable impact on education in North America. Dewey's critics have tended to ignore his theories or to treat them superficially while they make pejorative claims about the practical results of progressive education. Scholars who are persuaded by Dewey's work tend to respond with careful explanations of his theory and its broad application to educational practice. In this brief paper the tables are turned. An attempt is made to reveal how an appreciation of Dewey' s work could have avoided the mistreatment of aboriginal Canadians during the first half of this century - in other words, an illustration of how progressive theories could have ameliorated the results of conservative practice.

Limitations in the Ideological Analysis of Dewey's Logic

In their ideological analysis of his method of inquiry, revisionist historians have charged that John Dewey's work served as an apology for a class based industrial order. In short the claim is that Dewey's method failed to achieve critical independence from the political/economic order it sought to interpret. The strength of this claim against Dewey can only be determined by specific, piecemeal, and careful consideration of the logical features of his work. This article identifies ambiguities in Dewey's use of the concept 'communication' and shows how these prevented him from developing a clearer analysis of the relationship of profound conflicts of interest to the operation of methods of inquiry.

Dewey as Virtue Epistemologist: Open-Mindedness and the Training of Thought inDemocracy and Education

In epistemology today, the intellectual virtues are receiving renewed attention. Contemporary normative virtue epistemology suggests that a key task of philosophy is not only to study the nature of knowledge and thought, but to promote good thinking. While not regarded as a standard thinker in the tradition of virtue epistemology, Dewey thought like this too. In fact, study of the virtues that make for good thinking plays a key role in Dewey's educational thought, most notably in Democracy and Education. In this paper, I reconstruct Dewey's work on ‘the training of thought’ in Democracy and Education as a form of virtue epistemology. I give particular attention to Dewey's thinking about the virtue of ‘open-mindedness’ and highlight the touchpoints and differences between Dewey's conception of open-mindedness and contemporary accounts.

‘To Be Is To Respond’: Realising a Dialogic Ontology For Deweyan Pragmatism

Dewey's pragmatism rejected ‘truth’ as indicative of an underlying reality, instead ascribing it to valuable connections between aims and ends. Surprisingly, his argument mirrors Bishop Berkeley's Idealism, summarised as ‘esse est percepi’ (to be is to be perceived), whose thinking is shown to be highly pragmatist—but who retained a foundationalist ontology by naming God as the guarantor of all things. I argue that while this position is unsustainable, pragmatism could nonetheless be strengthened through an ontological foundation. Koopman's charges of foundationalist ‘givenism’ in Dewey's work, and in his promotion of the scientific method, are not proven. However, Koopman's ‘genealogical pragmatism’ may develop Deweyan educational theory by addressing dilemmas around curricular study. Koopman's arguments also point towards a missing ontological piece in Dewey's theory of knowledge. In the final section of the article I offer a dialogic ontology as compatible with pragmatism. This dialogical ontology provides both an ethical foundation through interrelatedness, and a generative theory of meaning and experience, as emergent from the encounter with difference. In this framework, to be is to respond—or be responded to. I offer the metaphor of ‘realisation’ to capture the human experience implied by this ontological stance.

PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION IN THE 21ST CENTURY: THE ENDURING INFLUENCE OF JOHN DEWEY

This essay examines three schools in New York City—the City and Country School founded in 1914—and two founded in 1974 and 1984—Central Park East Elementary School 1 and Central Park East Secondary School—with respect to how they reflected Deweyan pedagogic practices and Dewey's belief in democratic education.1It analyzes whether such pedagogic practices can be maintained over time. City and Country, founded by Caroline Pratt, reflected many of Dewey's ideas and remains true to its founder's vision today. CPE 1 founded by Deborah Meier with five teachers reflected the progressive ideas of its founder, many of which were consistent with Deweyan philosophy. It remains progressive although there have been recent attempts to make it more traditional. CPESS, founded by Deborah Meier, reflected both Deweyan philosophy and the ideas of Theodore Sizer. After Meier left in the 1990s, the school became less progressive and eventually was closed and then reopened as a traditional high school. These histories indicate that Dewey's work on education was at the core of all of these schools’ philosophies and practices. Although there have been uneven successes in keeping Dewey's progressive practices alive, they demonstrate that Dewey's work is relevant and is being practiced today.

When farmers learn through dialog with their practices: A proposal for a theory of action for agricultural trajectories

Using pragmatic sociology, we studied feed autonomy in mixed livestock-crop farming in the western region of Belgium (Hainaut Province). In this paper we first describe feed autonomy as an innovation structured around the withdrawal of soybeans and corn from cattle rations. In so doing, we approach feed autonomy as an opportunity for farmers to change their relationships with the soil, plants, animals, and other human beings and reconnect harmful situations to their courses of action. We then show (1) how this withdrawal is accompanied by adaptation in breeding practices (through reconfigurations of cognitive processes and practices) and (2) how events that interrupt the farmer's normal course of action require the farmers to develop their attentiveness to, i.e., their abilities to heed various elements to allow for variability and guide their actions. We therefore propose a theory of action in which learning is the result of surprises, of what destabilizes the farmer and raises doubt in her/his mind about her/his practices. To do that, we take inspiration from John Dewey's work and his notion of experience. Our results question the conceptualization of the trajectory that represents the process of change as a series of sequences with the event as a trigger. Indeed, we understand change to be a constant process of adjusting goals and means that is punctuated by events that become events only when attention is given to them. So, the event itself is no longer the trigger, and understanding adaptation in a trajectory's direction hinges more on the attention that is paid to the event.