John Dewey's Philosophy of Experience and Education

Description,
References
John Deweys work in experiential education began in 1896 during his tenure with the
University of Chicago where he founded the University Laboratory School that later became the
Dewey School. The laboratory school became a venue for experiments in educational thinking.
Dewey considered his school a community where the students became active members. He
wanted it to be a place where education occurred based on principles of mental activity and on
the processes of growth (Chambliss, J.J. (Ed.), p. 146).
In 1906, when Dewey accepted an appointment with Columbia University, his years of work
with the Dewey School had already set the foundation for his educational philosophy. During his
tenure at Columbia, he continued developing his philosophy through a series of published works
that included Democracy and Education (1916), and Experience and Education (1938).
Deweys philosophy points out that the strict authoritarian approach of traditional education was
overly concerned with delivering preordained knowledge, and not focused enough on students
actual learning experiences. He insists that education requires a design that is grounded in a
theory of experience. He sides neither with traditional education, nor with progressive education,
but with the understanding of how humans have the experiences they do, and how this
understanding is necessary when designing effective education.
Because of Deweys insistence on this foundational aspect to his philosophy, he began a
movement that generated the development of experiential education programs and experiments.
His philosophy continues to remain foundational in designing innovative educational approaches
and programs today.
Description of Deweys Philosophy on Experience and Education
Deweys philosophy on education, published in Experience and Education (1938), is an analysis
of both traditional and progressive education. Where traditional education focused upon
curriculum and cultural heritage for its content, progressive education focused on the learners
interest and impulse, unconstrained by the educator (p. 9). According to Dewey, neither of these
systems is adequate. Traditional education consists of a rigid regimentation, ignoring the
capacities and interests of the learner. Progressive education allows excessive individualism and
spontaneity which Dewey says is a deceptive index of freedom (p. 10).
What Deweys philosophy (1938) proposes is a carefully developed theory of experience and its
relation to education. Sound educational experience involves both continuity and interaction
between the learner and what is learned (p. 10). Thus, Deweys philosophy is that experience
arises from the interaction of two principles: continuity and interaction.
Experience and Education (1938) demonstrates Deweys ideas on education, in a concise
statement that resulted from his observational experience with progressive schools. Written in
essay format, it divides Deweys philosophy into eight chapters that are organized so that each
one presents a definitive aspect of his philosophy.
The following links provide a brief description of each of the chapters in Deweys philosophy
summarized from his publication Experience and Education (1938).
1. Traditional vs Progressive Education
2. The Need of a Theory of Experience
3. Criteria of Experience
4. Social Control
5. The Nature of Freedom
6. The Meaning of Purpose
7. Progressive Organization of Subject-Matter
8. Experience The Means and Goal of Education
Traditional vs Progressive Education
Dewey (1938) opens the first chapter with a statement about the opposition that exists in
educational theory: the contrast between traditional and progressive education. He depicts
traditional education as a system that consists of bodies of information, skills, developed
standards, and rules of conduct that worked historically, and that encourages a student attitude of
docility, receptivity, and obedience. The task of educators in traditional education is to
communicate knowledge and skills, and to enforce rules of conduct onto the new generation.
He depicts progressive education as a system that criticizes traditional education in that it
imposes adult standards, subject matter, and methods upon a young generation. It provides
minimal active participation by students in the development of subject matter. Progressive
education offers learners the following: growth and expression of individuality; free activity;
learning through experience; the acquisition of skills as a means of attaining ends which are vital
and appealing to students; and, becoming acquainted with a changing world. Dewey (1938)
views progressive education as an intimate and necessary relation between the processes of
actual experience and education (p. 20).
However, Dewey (1938) believes neither progressive nor traditional education is the solution to
the opposition that exists in educational theory. He proposes that the problems they present
require a resolution based on a new philosophy of experience. As long as the assumption exists
that it suffices to reject the ideas of traditional education and to go to the opposite extreme to
progressive education, the problem at hand (the lack of a new philosophy of experience), will not
even be recognized, let alone being resolved (pp. 21-22).
The Need of a Theory of Experience
In the opening of Chapter Two, Dewey (1938) claims that a complete rejection of traditional
education only presents new problems for those who seek a new type of education. In order to
solve problems in a new education, educators must recognize and understand the connection
between education and personal experience. Dewey believes that any new education must be
committed to some form of empirical and experimental philosophy. And to know the meaning of
empiricism, one must understand what experience is (p. 25).
Dewey (1938) postulates that experience and education do not directly relate because some
experiences are not educational, such as an experience that prevents or distorts the growth of
further experience (p. 25). The challenge for experience based education is to provide learners
with quality experiences that will result in growth and creativity in their subsequent experiences.
Dewey refers to this principle as the continuity of experience or the experiential continuum, a
principle necessary for the philosophy of educative experience (p. 28).
A framework for a philosophy of education must show reference to what action needs to occur
and how the educator will execute it. The more the philosophy holds that education is a
development within, by, and for experience, the more important it is to define clear conceptions
of what experience is. Dewey (1938) explains that the conceptions of experience should show in
plans for deciding upon methods of instruction and discipline, subject matter, and upon the
material and social organization of the school. Experience should not be just a term that doesnt
indicate the appropriate operations to implement it (p. 28). He believes that progressive
education urgently requires a philosophy of education that is based upon a concise philosophy of
experience.
Criteria of Experience
In Chapter Three, Dewey (1938) presents two significant principles: continuity (that all
experiences are carried forward and influence future experiences) (p. 35) and interaction (both
the objective and internal conditions of an experience) (p. 42). These principles are significant in
framing the philosophy that an educational theory must be based upon a philosophy of
experience. The continuity principle is involved in attempts to discriminate between experiences
that are educationally worthwhile, and those that are not (p. 33). In other words, it attempts to
classify what are valued as quality experiences.
Judging the value of an experience should factor in what the experience moves towards and into.
The educator has a responsibility to evaluate the direction a learning experience is heading. He or
she must be able to judge what attitudes are conducive to continuing growth (Dewey, 1938, pp.
38-39).
Not only does an educator show awareness of shaping the direction of an experience, but he or
she must also recognize what surroundings are conducive to having experiences that lead to
growth. This includes utilizing both physical and social surroundings so they contribute to
providing worthwhile experiences (Dewey, 1938, p. 40).
Dewey (1938) claims that experience is truly experience only when objective conditions (what
the educator does and how they do it) (p. 45) are secondary to what goes on within the individual
having the experience. This means that a normal experience involves the interaction between
both the objective (what the educator does) and the learners internal conditions. One problem
with traditional education is its focus on the objectives or external conditions, and its neglect of
the internal factors that determine the type of experience an individual will have.
In an experience, interaction occurs between an individual, objects, and other people. The
experience becomes what it is because of this transaction between an individual and what
constitutes his or her environment. The environment consists of whatever conditions (objects or
people) interact with an individuals internal personal needs, desires, capacities, and purposes
that create the resulting experience (Dewey, 1938, pp. 43-44).
Therefore, Dewey (1938) believes the two principles of continuity and interaction intercept and
unite. He claims they are the longitudinal and lateral aspects of experience. In their relationship
with each other, continuity and interaction provide the educative significance and value of an
experience (pp. 44-45).
Social Control
In Chapter Four, Dewey (1938) relates the principles of continuity and interaction to educational
problems and challenges. He chooses social control because of the social process that makes up
the educative experience, and because everyone experiences social control (pp. 51-52); however,
social control does not always represent authoritarian rule. It often occurs in agreement and by
the members of a group for the benefit of the entire group (p. 54).
An example of social control that occurs in agreement in a school setting with children is the
games played at recess, and team sports games such as soccer, hockey, baseball, and football.
Dewey (1938) explains that these games involve rules that order the childrens conduct (p. 52).
He states that both the rules and the conduct of the game are standardized, and hold the sanction
of tradition and precedent (p. 53).
Dewey (1938) uses the example of games to show that control of individual actions is affected
by the entire situation in which a group of individuals are involved, in that they are both sharing
and participating as cooperative and interacting parts of the common experience that benefits the
entire group (p. 53). The control is social, but individuals are part of a community, not outside of
it. It is not the will or desire of any one person to establish order, but rather it is the moving spirit
of the entire group (p. 54).
In an educational setting, the educator should use his or her authority as representative of the
interests of the whole group. Control of individuals is based on classroom activities and on the
situations that maintains these activities. Dewey (1938) explains that the educator is responsible
for both knowledge of individuals and for knowledge of subject matter, enabling the educator to
select activities that encourage social organization. This provides all individuals with the
opportunity to contribute, and to participate in activities that are the main sources of control (p.
56). Through thoughtful planning, an educator can arrange conditions conducive to community
activity and organization that will have control over individual impulses, because the entire
group is engaged in communal projects (p. 58).
Dewey (1938) asserts the principle that development of experience comes about through
interaction means that education is essentially a social process. This quality is realized in the
degree in which individual s form a community group (p. 58). Dewey points out that the
educator has a responsibility to facilitate the group interactions and activities, which are the
source of life for the group as a community. When an educator views experiential education as a
social process, he or she will no longer work in the position of authoritarian, but will begin in the
role as leader of group activities (p. 59).
The Nature of Freedom
In Chapter Five, Dewey (1938) presents the other side of the problem of social control: the
nature of freedom. A common mistake is to identify freedom with movement or the physical side
of activity. Dewey believes that one cannot separate the physical side of activity from the
internal side; that is, from desire, purpose, and freedom of thought. According to Dewey, the
only freedom of importance is freedom of intelligence, which he says is freedom of observation
and judgement that occur for purposes that are worthwhile (p. 61).
Traditional education imposed a limitation on outer movement when they introduced fixed rows
of desks filled with students who were permitted movement only at certain signals. This was a
detriment to both intellectual and moral freedom. Dewey (1938) suggests that a freedom of outer
movement is a means, but not an end (p. 61).
Dewey (1938) acknowledges three advantages to increasing outward freedom. First, it allows the
educator to gain valuable knowledge of the learners entrusted into his or her care. When learners
are restricted to silence and acceptance or agreement, it prevents them from disclosing their
individuality while ensuring artificial uniformity (p. 62).
The second advantage of increased outward freedom is the nature of the learning process.
According to Dewey (1938) periods of silent reflection should only occur after a hands-on
experience where the activities require some physical activity and engaging different parts of the
body. The third advantage is that outward freedom is a means for maintaining normal physical
and mental health. Dewey refers to the connection between a sound body and a sound mind (p.
63). Therefore, according to Dewey, a freedom of outward action is a means to freedom of
judgement and of power to carry out deliberately chosen actions (p. 63).
The mistake in treating freedom of outer movement as an end in itself is the tendency to be
destructive to group interactions and activities that are the foundation to an experiential learning
environment (Dewey, 1938, p. 63).
The Meaning of Purpose
In Chapter Six, Dewey (1938) opens with the statement that there exists a freedom and power in
framing purposes and initiating action on those purposes. He compares this freedom as being
identical to self control because intelligence is at work in the process of forming a purpose and in
organizing a means to execute that purpose (p. 67).
Dewey (1938) makes this point to emphasize the sound philosophy that exists in progressive
education that stresses the importance of learner participation in forming the very purposes that
direct his or her activities in the learning process. This, according to Dewey is exercising
intelligent activity. And the more the importance of purpose is emphasized in education, the
more important it becomes to understand what a purpose is, and how it arises and functions in
experience (p. 67).
A genuine purpose always starts with an impulse. If the immediate execution of the impulse is
obstructed, the impulse becomes a desire (Dewey, 1938, p. 67). However, neither impulse nor
desire makes up a purpose. What makes up a purpose is a complex intellectual operation
involving the following three criteria: (1) observation of surrounding conditions; (2) knowledge
of what has occurred in similar past situations; and, (3) judgement that brings together and
determines the significance of the things observed and recalled (Dewey, 1938, p. 69).
Dewey (1938) indicates that a purpose differs from an original impulse and desire through its
translation into a plan and method of action based upon foresight of the consequences of acting
under given observed conditions in a certain way (p. 69). Dewey points out that the problem in
education is that action occurs before observation and judgement have taken place. This places
an overemphasis on activity as an end, rather than on intelligent activity, that invokes purposeful
action.
In an educational setting, the occurrence of impulse and desire is an opportunity for an educator
to form a plan and a method of activity. It is the educators responsibility to provide guidance in
the learners use of observation and judgement, exercising the learners intelligence as a guide to
freedom, not as a restriction (Dewey, 1938, p. 71). This plan must be a cooperative endeavor,
where contributions from the experiences of all learners in the group will benefit the overall
learning experience.
Progressive Organization of Subject Matter
In Chapter Seven, Dewey (1938) considers experiential education in terms of how chosen subject
matter must fall within the scope of ordinary life experience, and then how a prior life experience
must progress developmentally into a fuller and more organized form. Dewey points out that it is
a common precept in education that the beginning of instruction starts with the experience
learners already have, but the more difficult part is in progressing that experience into a more
fuller and organized form (p. 74).
The challenge for the educator exists in the selection those existing experiences that have the
promise and potential of presenting new problems that will stimulate new ways in learners to
observe and judge, and ultimately expanding the area of new and further experience.
Traditional education focuses on subject matter selected and arranged on what adults thought
would be useful for the young at sometime in the future. The learning material had to do with the
past, and what proved useful in past generations. On the other hand, progressive education in its
attempt to break free from the cut and dried material that formed traditional education, failed to
recognize that the selection and organization of subject matter for study and learning is
fundamental. Dewey (1938) claims that the way out of an educational system that made the past
an end in itself is to use the past as a means of understanding the present (p. 78).
According to Dewey (1938), it is the educators responsibility to ensure the following two
outcomes occur: First, that the problem grows out of the conditions of a present experience that
is within the range of the capacity of learners; and, second, that the problem is significant enough
to motivate learners to seek more information and to stimulate the production of new ideas.
These two outcomes become the basis for further experiences where the educator can present
new problems. This process should take the form of a continuous spiral (p. 79).
To exemplify the principle of the linkage of the present with past, Dewey (1938) uses the
example of natural science because contemporary social life is how we know it because of the
application and results of physical science. He affirms that it is a sound educational principle that
educators should introduce learners to scientific subject matter and its facts and laws through the
familiarity with everyday social applications such as the use of appliances that utilize electricity,
heat, and light. Dewey (1938) explains:
The scientific method is the only authentic means at our command for getting at the significance
of our everyday experiences of the world in which we live. It means that scientific method
provides a working pattern of the way in which and the conditions under which experiences are
used to lead ever onward and outward. . . . Consequently, whatever the level of experience, we
have no choice but either to operate in accord with the pattern it provides or else to neglect the
place of intelligence in the development and control of a living and moving experience. (p. 88)
Dewey (1938) points out that an experience that does not tend to the knowledge of facts, the
acquisition of new ideas, and to the orderly arrangement of them, is an experience that is not
educative. He affirms the idea that the principle of organization is not foreign to experience, but
rather they go together. Otherwise, experience would become so scattered, it would seem chaotic
(p. 82).
In order for experiences to be educational, they must extend into an expanding world of subject
matter consisting of facts, information, and ideas. The educator must view teaching and learning
as a continuous process of reconstructing experience. This occurs only when the educator can
look to the future with the perspective of viewing each present experience as a moving force that
influences future experiences (Dewey, 1938, p. 87). The challenges for the educator are in the
formation of ideas, putting those ideas into action, observing the conditions that result, and in
organizing facts and ideas for future use (Dewey, p. 88).
Experience The Means and Goal of Education
In Chapter Eight, Dewey (1938) repeats the principle that education must be based upon
experience if it is to accomplish its ends for both learners and for society. Experience always
consists of the actual life experience of individuals. The choice our educational system faces is
either to revert to the intellectual and moral standards of a scientific age, or to move forward to a
more effective utilization of the scientific method for developing the possibility of a growing,
expanding experience (p. 89).
Dewey (1938) views the process towards a new education as difficult. The danger of failure lies
in the possibility of a misunderstanding of what consists of experience and the experimental
method. He maintains his firm belief that the fundamental issue is a question of whether any
theory is worthy to receive the name education, and that it is not about which is better: the new
or the old education, or a battle of progressive against traditional education.
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