John Dewey: Aims of Education

John Dewey : Aims of Education

2006

As Dewey himself believed , his writings on education put his more abstract opinions to work the heart of his philosophy , he once admitted , was expounded in Democracy and Education ' The primary reason for this was that Dewey 's philosophy of education embodied the paradigm of experimentalism in its most practical and concrete form . In education , experimental science , intelligent knowing , and progress became one . As Dewey summed it up , The reconstruction of philosophy of education , and of social ideals and methods . go hand in hand . philosophy

may even be defined as the general theory of education (Dewey , 1961 :331 . Dewey was sensitive to the perspective that a theory of education is linked irrecusably to the sort of political system within which it is exercised . A philosophy of education must keep one eye focused on philosophical anthropology to understand the possibilities and limitations of human beings . The other must focus on the political system which sets the general goals of education According to Dewey , the conception of education as a social process and function has no definite meaning until we define the kind of society we have in mind (Dewey , 1961 :103 . Therefore , at the end of their education , students primarily become elements of US democratic system which means that they should be aware of the role they play in social as well as political process . Since Dewey made an important distinction between a narrowly vocational ' education , and one that is built around what he calls occupations ' students are neither profession-centered individuals nor they narrowed by their specialization . From the critical point of view , this model caused much misunderstanding of Dewey 's position . He was thought to be suggesting narrow vocationalism , pragmatic ' training so that students could be well shaped for the jobs that awaited them . However , practically Dewey resisted strenuously any attempt to transform education into vocational training . The latter , he believed , would aggravate class differences by sorting out students into the privileged who received a liberal education , and the lower classes , trained only for a particular task . As he asserts , While training for the profession of learning is regarded as the type of culture , or a liberal education , the training of a mechanic , a musician , a lawyer , a doctor , a farmer , a merchant or a railroad manager is regarded as purely technical and professional . The result is that which we see about us everywhere - the division into cultured ' people and workers ' the separation of theory and practice (Dewey , 1961 :18 . According to Dewey 's concept , the graduates have to undergo schooling in occupations ' Occupation ' here does not mean a job or even training for a particular kind of work . It means rather , an enterprise which marshals energy for the accomplishment of a goal . Sewing , building , gardening , and cooking are all examples of occupations . An occupation is an activity which reproduces , or runs parallel to , some form of work carried on in social life . An occupation maintains a balance between the intellectual and practical phase...