by Melinda Clayton

Created on: November 19, 2010

John Dewey was instrumental in changing the educational system of the early 1900’s.  His thoughts on experience as it relates to education were a new way of thinking in a time during which emphasis was placed on the teaching of facts as presented in the textbooks of the day.  Dewey felt that the rote memorization of facts was lacking in genuine knowledge, and that true knowledge comes from examining and learning from one’s personal experiences.

Dewey was impressed by the scientific discoveries of the day, and was particularly impressed with the scientists’ ability to utilize the scientific method to predict and even control future events.  Drawing upon this theory, Dewey believed that the greatest knowledge comes from making a connection between what we do and what we experience as a result of those actions.  He believed that the combined psychological, emotional, and logical journey of an experience is what leads to a genuine knowledge of the experience. 

To expect a child to enter a school and leave behind all of the experiences and knowledge he had gained in his home and in his community was, to Dewey’s thinking, contrary to true learning.  There cannot be a division of experiences, as all experiences lead to other experiences and increased knowledge of the world in which we live.  To block out what one has learned from one’s experiences in one environment when one is in a different environment is a waste of intellectual resources.

Dewey’s philosophy of learning has not only been instrumental in the field of education, but also in the field of psychology.  Perhaps the biggest predictor of success in changing behaviors is the ability to understand the relationship between experience and consequence.  It is through understanding our past experiences that we learn to make changes accordingly, so as to better make decisions and predict future consequences.  This understanding is instrumental in teaching everything from impulse control to informed decision-making.

Interestingly, in direct contrast to Dewey’s teachings, our current educational system seems in many ways to be harkening back to the idea that learning occurs through the rote memorization of facts.  In an era of standardized testing and factual learning outcomes, less emphasis is put on learning through personal experience and more emphasis is put on factual memorization of materials.  Sadly, this is contraindicative of a democratic method for educating our children.  When children are unable to combine knowledge gained through actual experiences in the home and community with knowledge gained through the memorization of facts, the quality of knowledge gained is severely impeded.

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