John Dewey

John Dewey's theories of education learning and teaching struck my interest when I read a quote from him "Education is life itself". John Dewey believed that kids should experience life and learn while experiencing it. Dewey developed a theory of experiential education. This is where a teacher's teaching and curriculum is based around the students experiences. Each student is genetically different and so are their experiences. Therfor there is not a cookie cutter approach to teaching. Teaching and curriculum must be designed to meet these needs.  He further went on to develop  the theory of experience. We must understand the nature of how humans have the experiences they do, in order to design effective education.  Dewey's theory of experience rested on two things: continuity and interaction.

Continuity refers to the notion that humans are sensitive to (or are affected by) experience.  Humans survive more by learning from experience after they are born than do many other animals who rely primarily on pre-wired instinct.  In humans, education is critical for providing people with the skills to live in society.  Dewey argued that we learn something from every experience, whether positive or negative and ones accumulated learned experience influences the nature of one's future experiences.  Thus, every experience in some way influences all potential future experiences for an individual.  Continuity refers to this idea that  each experience is stored and carried on into the future, whether one likes it or not.

Interaction builds upon the notion of continuity and explains how past experience interacts with the present situation, to create one's present experience.  Dewey's hypothesis is that your current experience can be understood as a function of your past (stored) experiences which interacting with the present situation to create an individual's experience.  This explains the "one man's meat is another man's poison" maxim.  Any situation can be experienced in profoundly different ways because of unique individual differences e.g., one student loves school, another hates the same school.  This is important for educators to understand.  Teachers can't control students' past experiences, they can try to understand those past experiences so that better educational situations can be presented to the students.  Ultimately, all a teacher has control over is the design of the present situation.  The teacher with good insight into the effects of past experiences which students bring with them better enables the teacher to provide quality education which is relevant and meaningful for the students. http://wilderdom.com/experiential/ExperientialDewey.html 

Quotes of John Dewey:

  • Education and life are interrelated, not separate.
  • Children learn best by doing, by acting on the world.
  • Continuity of experience is essential to growth.
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Any opinions expressed here, except as specifically noted, are those of the individual authors or commenters and do not necessarily represent the views or policies of the Department of Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences, the Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services, or Utah State University.