• Graduate of UVM & John Hopkins University• After 2 years as a high school teacher in PA & an

elementary school teacher in VT, he decided primary and secondary education were not the

fields for him.• In 1884 he accepted a faculty position at the

University of Michigan.• In 1894 joined the newly founded University of

Chicago.• In 1899 elected President of the American

Psychological Association.• Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University,

1904-until his retirement in 1930.

A BRIEF HISTORICAL OVERVIEW

• Empiricism is a theory of knowledge which states that knowledge comes only or primarily from sensory experience.

• Emphasizes evidence, especially as discovered in experiments.

• Empiricism, often used by natural scientists, asserts that “knowledge is based on experience” and that “knowledge is tentative and probabilistic, subject to continued revision and falsification.

• Pragmatic philosophy: From Greek pragma "deed," the word has historically described philosophers and politicians who were concerned more with real-world application of ideas than with abstract notions.

John Dewey’s Philosophical Beliefs:

Educational Theories & Beliefs:

• Education and learning are social and interactive processes, the school itself is a social institution through which social reform can and should take place.

• Believed that students thrive in an environment where they are allowed to experience and interact with the curriculum, and all students should have the opportunity to take part in their own learning.

• Schools should help students realize their full potential, and that education and schooling are instrumental in creating social change and reform. He notes that "education is a regulation of the process of coming to share in the social consciousness; and that the adjustment of individual activity on the basis of this social consciousness is the only sure method of social reconstruction".

• A proponent of hands on learning or experiential education.

• Believed that the Teachers role should be of that of a facilitator, guide, and a partner in the learning process.

Impact on American Curriculum & Legacy:

• One of the founders of the New School for Social Research in NYC, which is still in existence today: http://www.newschool.edu/nssr/subpage.aspx?id=9064

• John Dewey´s essay Democracy and Education (1916), is frequently acknowledged as his most distinguished publication in the context of advocating democratic values through education and civil society participation.

• Dewey's ideas were never broadly and deeply integrated into the practices of American public schools, though some of his values and terms were widespread.

• He published more than 700 articles in 140 journals, and approximately 40 books.

• While Dewey's educational theories have enjoyed a broad popularity, they have a troubled history of implementation. Dewey's writings can be difficult to read. He was often misinterpreted, even by fellow academics.

• Dewey advocated for an educational structure that strikes a balance between delivering knowledge while also taking into account the interests and experiences of the student. He became one of the most famous proponents of hands-on learning or experiential education. Problem-Based Learning (PBL) a method used widely in education today, incorporates Dewey's ideas pertaining to learning through active inquiry.

• In his 1897 essay “My Pedagogic Creed” Dewey summed up his ideas about education. “I believe,” he wrote, “that the only true education comes through the stimulation of the [learner's] powers by the demands of the social situations in which he finds himself. Through these demands he is stimulated to act as a member of a unity, to emerge from his original narrowness of action and feeling and to conceive of himself from the standpoint of the welfare of the group to which he belongs.”

While Professor of Philosophy at the University of Michigan in 1893 Dewey wrote:

"If I were asked to name the most needed of all reforms in the spirit of education I should say: 'Cease conceiving of education as mere preparation for later life, and make of it the full meaning of the present life.' And to add that only in this case does it become truly a preparation for later life is not the paradox it seems. An activity which does not have worth enough to be carried on for its own sake cannot be very effective as a preparation for something else if the new spirit in education forms the habit of requiring that every act be an outlet of the whole self, and it provides the instruments of such complete functioning."

Marker at home where John Dewey was born & grew up at 186 S. Willard Street, Burlington, VT

Grave of philosopher and educator John Dewey and his wife, Burlington Vermont. The only grave on the campus of the University of Vermont.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_and_Education

http://www.newschool.edu/nssr/subpage.aspx?id=9064

http://www.academia.edu/609271/John_Deweys_Legacy_A_Contribution_to_the_Current_Debate_on_Education_and_Cultural_Diversity_in_Europe

http://www.biography.com/people/john-dewey-9273497?page=3

http://www.ikedacenter.org/thinkers-themes/thinkers/essays/hickman-on-dewey

http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/1020.html