John Dewey

From IAE-Pedia

Contents 1 Introduction 2 Contribution by a Student in a Teacher Education Course 3 References

Introduction

John Dewey was known as an American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer. He was born on October 20, 1859 of Burlington, Vermont. John Dewey attended the University of Vermont and later attended Johns Hopkins University as a graduate student. He wrote and researched on many social issues and gained the title of a leading social commentator of his time. Some of the issues that have drawn interest is his work are pragmatism, logic, and aesthetics.

Dewey was one of the founders of "pragmatism" in which it was argued that an idea agrees or corresponds with reality but it also brings the question of what the "agreement" or "correspondence" is. That theory was also challenged by a British logician and philosopher, Bertrand Russell. The other article also states that one of the other founders, William James, thought that people who "over-believed" in religious concepts were shallow and uninteresting and that no one single belief could be said to be the correct one. Whereas, Dewey rejected any belief and felt that only scientific method was reliable.

Logic was another project that Dewey had his hand in. The use of language is what the first article states as being distinctive and it allows symbolic meaning and implicated relationships. His second article Dewey challenges logicians to answer some questions like: "Do logical operators function merely as abstractions or do they connect in some essential way with their objects, and therefore alter or bring them to light?"

Another subject of Dewey's was Aesthetics. He wrote the book Art as Experience that was based on William James Lectures. In this book he stresses the importance of recognizing the significance and integrity of all aspects of human experience. The other article also says that it was his study of the the individual art object as experienced from the local culture. He did say that the senses played a key role in the Aesthetic process.

John Dewey dedicated his life to a wide range of issues some of which those as mentioned above and others such as democracy, ethics, metaphysics, critical reception and influence. He was truly a man of ideas and theories. I think that it would not take only a couple of days or even weeks to learn of all the work of Dewey, it would almost take a lifetime to really grasp and comprehend all his high-level theories.

Contribution by a Student in a Teacher Education Course

I read the article by John Dewey titled "The Moral Principals in Education" and "How We Think." In these articles John talks about how education has changed. We as the mature adults do not share our beliefs and values with the young, immature students we see on a daily basis. We as the elders need to be guiding them. I see this with parents today and even myself. In the classroom we want our students to think for themselves and form their own ideas. However at the same time, with assignments, we look for the same answers and justifications. I feel at times I am not helping my students like I should. I want them to know how I feel and think about things to help guide them through lessons and life, but at the same time I want them to feel and think for themselves. Where is the line? And now the students are experiencing so much more than I ever have or did (I mean the ugly, cruel, and awful things) how do I help those students? We can find a balance with lessons and reflection time where the students can think, daydream, and imagine. But what about that other stuff?

References

Dewey, J. (1910). How We Think. Boston, MA: D.C. Heath. Chapter 1 is available at http://www.brocku.ca/MeadProject/Dewey/Dewey_1910a/Dewey_1910_a.html. Quoting from the beginning of that chapter:

No words are oftener on our lips than thinking and thought. So profuse and varied, indeed, is our use of these words that it is not easy to define just what we mean by them. The aim of this chapter is to find a single consistent meaning. Assistance may be had by considering some typical ways in which the terms are employed. In the first place thought is used broadly, not to say loosely. Everything that comes to mind, that "goes through our heads," is called a thought. To think of a thing is just to be conscious of it in any way whatsoever. Second, the term is restricted by excluding whatever is directly presented; we think (or think of) only such things as we do not directly see, hear, smell, or taste. Then, third, the meaning is further limited to beliefs that rest upon some kind of evidence or testimony. Of this third type, two kinds ― or, rather, two degrees ― must be discriminated. In some cases, a belief is accepted with slight or almost no attempt to state the grounds that support it. In other cases, the ground or basis for a belief is deliberately sought and its

Dewey, J. (1909). Moral Principals of Education. Boston, MA: Houghton.

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (n.d.). John Dewey (1859–1952). Retrieved 12/30/08: http://www.iep.utm.edu/d/dewey.htm