Contributions of John Dewey Writing Assignment Paper

Contributions of John Dewey
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Contributions of John Dewey
Born in 1859, the great philosopher John Dewey is known to have contributed to the history of America. Not only did he influence the US education system, but the social reforms and psychology as well. He believed in the hands-on, practical application of all theories and beliefs, a fact that made him known as the founder of pragmatism. Dewey also developed functional psychology and in the US education progressive movement, he served as the leading representative. His ideas were focused on changing the world views through practical means particularly scientific analysis instead of just basing on theory. For these reasons, Dewey contributed in a big way to the US schooling and education all over the world. In order to understand his contributions to education, it is better to have an understanding of Dewey`s definition of the purpose of education. The purpose therefore, is to equip the young individuals with the tools necessary to become informed members of society. And this purpose is applicable universally regardless of where the process of education is taking place.
Experience is one concept that Dewey emphasized on in his works. According to him, the things we engage in make up this experience and as these things are done on a continuous basis, then learning takes place. When learning has been achieved through getting things done then that is what makes up education (Goldblatt 2006). This experience as noted has to occur naturally within the human beings and not outside. It is for this reason that he was against the public schools offering specialized training at an early stage as this denied the children a chance to engage in something they had an interest in (Tozer, Violas, & Senese 2002). According to him education failed to meet its purpose if external interests were used to define the interests of the learners. He also advocated for the prioritizing of any activities that made the child to be energetically involved.
On his part Dewey was a prolific writer who wrote for the public and used the opportunity to address issues of concern. As a leader of the progressive movement, he is recognized for writing for the pubic magazine and other opinion issues on matters like the problems that women were going through. For instance The New Republic was one such magazine he contributed to. Apart from writing for the magazines he also wrote a number of books which tackled wide areas of politics, arts and sciences and he always tried to put all his ideas into action through adopting a practical approach in everything. Basing on this, Dewey believed that all problems could be solved by a combination of human intelligence and applying a practical approach to issues. His ideas in general were meant to democratize education.
Dewey advocated for democratic learning which basically was based on the idea of “learning by doing”. He supported the idea of active learning and viewed the process of schooling as restricting as it did not offer enough time for active participation. In regard to this, emphasis was placed on the importance of using experience as a learning method rather than only depending on memorized facts and theories. To support...