PRAGMATISM

Nature and Description

For a pragmatist, experience is the basis of truth. Reality differs from person to person
because individuals experience different situations. Therefore, values are relative and are
derived from one’s experiences.
Curriculum
Pragmatists do not believe in any fixed curriculum or a curriculum wherein watertight
learning would exist. According to pragmatic theory in education, learning should be
centered on life and progress.

Importance of the Body

Pragmatists value experience over all else. Students can learn abstract things all day, but
unless they experience those things, they may never truly learn. Therefore, teachers should
create many project-based, experimental, and experiential lessons that help children ‘learn by
doing.

Importance of the Teacher

According to pragmatists, education is more about enabling a learner to learn on their own
via exploratory and creative activities than it is about teaching them things they ought to
know. Learning by doing makes a learner creative, confident, and cooperative. Thus, lessons
are thoroughly purposive and have a practical approach to learning.

Objectivity
The pragmatic approach to learning states that learning should be practical. As a teacher, you
must teach the needed education that can be applied to the real world. You must not require
the learners to do tasks by predefined objectives. Their objectives should be chosen by their
requirements and their passions to do the tasks that can be applied in the future.

Proponent of Pragmatism
John Dewey was a twentieth-century American philosopher
associated with the pragmatist movement. Pragmatism in
philosophy espouses practical knowledge rather than
speculative or observational knowledge. Pragmatism
contributed to John Dewey's education theory, in which Dewey
emphasized that students learn by doing rather than by
memorizing.