Dewey’s philosophy on education

Dewey’s philosophy on education

Arta Hoda

University of the People

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Dewey’s philosophy on education

Western education has gone through a profound change from its initial birth to what it is

today. From being exclusive to privileged society and religiously controlled and influenced by, to

diverse philosophies that we lost count. In my paper I will examine Dewey’s purpose of

education, then I will move to analyze his three principles of philosophy and their influence on

education, and I will end it with offering a humble assessment on how these principles align with

the principles of an IB education.

Dewey believes in first-hand experiences and considers them the basis of any existing

method. The learning process can vary from concrete situations to those that are considered to be

meaningful ones. Therefore, knowledge must spring from the spur-of-the-moment kind of

activities of the children. His teaching methods are merely based on the principles of ‘learning by

doing’, events that are linked to the life of the child. In Dewey’s method, the child’s activity is

the most central. Dewey deliberates on “democratic conception of education” and his educational

philosophies are closely connected to those of Plato, Rousseau, Fichte, and Hegel “by showing

how, for example, Plato and the nationalistic ideals both subordinated the individual to the state

in an effort to maximize social efficiency, and how Rousseau’s ideas about natural development

emphasized interest, and how Fichte’s and Hegel’s idealism sought to reconcile the development

of cultured personality with a civic cultural inheritance” (Mintz, 0AD, p1).

John Dewey is known for his main principles of education, grouping them in a) nature as

the aim, b) social efficiency as the aim, and c) culture as the aim. I will begin with elaborating on

nature first then move on to the next two following aims where it becomes apparent how there

are similarities and differences and how Dewey agrees with them to some extent but just refines
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them according to the needs of the society and its efficiency in responding to the larger audience

who potentially make the contributors of bettering one’s country’s economy and wellbeing.

Nature as Supplying the Aim

During the ’80s there was an emerging new school of thought where curriculums were

being rethought and redesigned in a way that is a lot more acceptable by students and welcomes

their participation, basically where the child is the center. Dewey had his questions on those

traditional approaches where students were asked to learn what the adult wanted them to learn

and the natural stages of growth of the child were ignored. He emphasized the different needs at

different levels of development and how we should respond to those needs accordingly. It

appears as if he was quite aligning with the famous quote “Regard man as a mine rich in gems of

inestimable value. Education can, alone, cause it to reveal its treasures, and enable mankind to

benefit there from.” ( Baha’u’llah, 1905, p 260).

As stated, “Dewey credits Rousseau for recognizing that physical activity and

engagement is educationally valuable and that the child’s faculties and abilities ought to guide

our educational practice. Further, natural development as an aim requires that we recognize

differences among individual children and respond to them accordingly. Finally, educators ought

to acknowledge and be guided by the evolution of children’s interests.” (Mintz, 0AD, p5). He

believed that the argument made by Rousseau that the child’s own activity must be separate from

interactions with others needed some correction, and advised to be perceived as inseparable since

we use our natural faculties to engage with others in particular time and space. He struggled a lot

with ideas such as letting the child grow on its own without the attention of the educator, and he

even called them myths as he believed they remove the education concept from the picture, and

he bluntly pointed out the need for bettering the educational environment.
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Social Efficiency as an Aim

Efficiency progressives was another theory that was analyzed by Dewey and he gave

objective thoughts to it, as research states “whereas the child-centered progressives thought it

best to let students take the lead on planning and selecting their projects, the social efficiency

progressives argued that schools ought to offer a principled fusion of the needs and interests of

the students and those of society” (Mintz, 0AD, p6) and the whole idea behind is to be efficient

in terms of infrastructure. At that time school was associated with preparing students for further

education, and the suggestion was to begin building it in a way and offer academic training that

prepares young people for their profession since not everyone was going to universities and those

who did were advised what would be their best school or program to follow. Only if they took

heed on Dewey’s calling where he invites teachers to focus their endeavors on producing higher

intelligence in the community and schools should back up this objective by providing space for

this growth to occur for more and more members (Talebi, 2015).

It was also stated as “from the standpoint of economic efficiency, would it not make

sense for schools to coordinate their efforts with local businesses so that they could better enable

students to make meaningful, lasting, and immediate contributions to the industries in which they

worked?” (Mintz, 0AD, p6) and this troubled Dewey very much, and he identifies it as an

efficient way to embrace America’s social inequality and redesigns this aim by making it more

inclusive and interactive dynamics and directing it towards society’s needs, thus building a more

efficient society and not just a group of privileged ones.

Culture as an Aim

At some point, it was argued about liberal arts by humanists being the defenders and

traditional theorists lacking the ability to see its purpose in society.

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“Dewey, in large part, joined the humanists’ critics, arguing that culture as an educational

aim indeed led to remote, isolated schooling and therefore failed to utilize the students’ interests

and capacities" and he “continuously noted that the educational aim of transmitting culture is

generally understood to be opposed to social efficiency, utility, or vocationalism.” (Mintz, 0AD,

p11). He called for a more substantial embrace of culture and for the past and present to be seen

as one and not to use culture or past to try to understand and explain the now, but rather how to

use it and extract the right kind of information that serves the existing needs of the current

community who can benefit greatly from it. Research has shown that there must be a closer look

at the connection and relationship between education and culture which seemed to be “often

neglected, reflexive dimension of cultural analysis” ( (Stephens, 2007, p 12).

Connection and difference with the IB system

The connection between Deyew and the IB philosophy is quite evident to me when we

take into consideration the points made above. If we look at the IB approach, it is very much

centred around the needs of the student's academic and professional development but at no point

is left alone to wonder what “nature” has to offer. There are adequate means to assist one to

inquire knowledge and competent mentors/educators to guide one through this journey, as stated

on IB profile “We nurture our curiosity, developing skills for inquiry and

research. We know how to learn independently and with others. We learn with enthusiasm

and sustain our love of learning throughout life” (IB Learners profile, 2013). Anyone who enters

IB isn’t forced, and it is not compulsory to be enrolled. What I would prefer for the universities

of my country is to adopt a more creative and interactive approach; sometimes it does appear as

if it is traditional in a sense that the class becomes about what the professor has to deliver and

how well the student parrots what has been said, therefore, not much room is left for the student
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to explore outside the university’s literature or to bring a different perspective into the table of

discussion.

Dewey emphasizes how the educational institutions and their agents must be there and

their primary concern must be in finding ways on how to engage the learner in a motivational

journey so they can be equipped with the necessary mental capacities to serve the wellbeing of

their communities and become contributors of the common good. Indirectly saying that how can

educators give them a sense of purpose and inspire them to create new opportunities for others?

Instead of perceiving schools as places where one can excel for themselves, competes with

fellow students so to appear as the best.

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References

B., & Effendi, S. (1905). Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah. Baha’i Publishing.

https://reference.bahai.org/en/t/b/GWB/gwb-122.html

Mintz, A. I. (0AD). What Is the Purpose of Education?: Dewey's Challenge to His

Contemporaries On Chapter 9: Natural Development and Social Efficiency as Aims. John

Dewey's Democracy and Education, 81–88. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316492765.012

Stephens, D. (2007). Culture in Education and Development: Principles, Practice and Policy

(Bristol Papers in Education) (illustrated edition). Symposium Books.

https://books.google.com.my/books?hl=en&lr=&id=_M5xCQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA

1&dq=culture+and+education+relationship&ots=7HJ98TTWLw&sig=epMXbR3P1p4Go

HrCF5WPV8K-

ar4&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=culture%20and%20education%20relationship&f=false

Talebi, K. (2015). John Dewey- philosopher and educational reformer. European Journal

of Educational Studies, 1(1). https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED564712.pdf

The IB learner profile. (2013). International Baccalaureate.

https://www.ibo.org/contentassets/fd82f70643ef4086b7d3f292cc214962/learner-profile-en.pdf