Dewey is an idealistic empiricist. His philosophical terms such as pragmatism, experimentalism, instrumentalism or empirical experimentalism are basically synonymous, and his central concept is experience. Pragmatists believe that the most fundamental thing in the world is pure experience. As Lenin pointed out, "It preaches experience, and only experiences …". Different from traditional empiricism, Dewey believes that experience is the result of the interaction between organism and environment. The so-called interaction means that organisms not only passively adapt to the environment, but also act on the environment. Therefore, changes caused by the environment in turn have a negative impact on the human body and its activities. This close relationship between action and encounter forms the so-called "experience". So he said, "Cognition itself is an action". He also made it clear that "behind my educational career, there is a rather abstract idea about the relationship between knowledge and action". This idea is the core of Dewey's educational theory.
Dewey confirmed that "all learning comes from experience" from the central concept of "experience", and emphasized that believing that real education comes from experience does not mean that all experiences have or play an educational role on an equal footing. Experience and education cannot be equated directly. The standard to measure the value of an experience lies in whether we can see the continuity and interactivity caused by this experience. In his book Experience and Education (1938), he elaborated on the two principles of continuity and interaction of experience. It is in this sense that he declared that "education is life" and that education, as a process, means "constantly reorganizing experience and reorganizing experience". The philosophy I am discussing belongs to experience, because experience is also for experience. This is Dewey's summary of applying empiricism and experimental philosophy to educational theory.
Dewey constantly criticized the formalism education in traditional schools from his early work My Educational Credo (1897) to his last book Introduction to the Use of Educational Resources (1952). He described that in traditional schools, tables and chairs are arranged in rows according to geometric figures, and children are rarely given space for activities. These spaces are just for "listening". The way of "listening" is that children only passively accept, and teachers only prepare ready-made teaching materials so that children can get as much as possible in as little time as possible. Dewey thinks that the weakness of German Herbart psychology lies in ignoring the most important point, that is, children's vivid expression of its vitality. He said: "Herbology is basically a teacher psychology, not a child psychology." On the other hand, Dewey spoke highly of Rousseau's naturalistic educational thought. Rousseau advocates that education should be based on the natural ability of the educated, that is, education should not force children through some external force, but should make people's innate ability grow. Dewey quoted a lot of Rousseau's words in Tomorrow's School (19 15), thinking that his thoughts expounded the basic principles of all modern progressive education efforts.
In Dewey's educational theory, the cultivation of thinking habits and abilities has been mentioned in an extremely important position. He believes that thinking is the expression of wisdom in experience, and the process of thinking generally includes five steps: ① dilemma; (2) Determine where the problem lies; (3) Put forward various hypotheses to solve the problem; ④ Infer the result of each step to see which hypothesis can solve this difficulty; ⑤ Conduct experiments to confirm, refute or correct this hypothesis. The function of thinking is to turn the vague, difficult, contradictory and chaotic situation into a clear, coherent, clear and harmonious situation according to the above steps. He believes that teachers should provide "experience situations" to guide students to ask questions and solve problems in the process of participating in various activities. The art of teaching is to make new problems difficult enough to stimulate thinking, or to create difficulties by providing new factors, so as to stimulate students' creative thinking and cultivate their ability to solve problems independently. For the purpose of knowledge itself, paying too much attention to the accumulation of knowledge materials can only undermine the development of thinking.
Dewey has always opposed the formalism of the old school in curriculum and teaching materials. He thinks that traditional courses are full of boring things, far away from children's experience and lacking really attractive knowledge. Dewey believes that the basic sources of teaching materials are children's direct experience and things that can constitute knowledge content. According to the above principles, in the Chicago Experimental School hosted by Dewey, the curriculum centers on various forms of active homework (spinning, weaving, cooking, carpentry, etc.). With the improvement of grade, they adopt more systematic homework for natural science, mathematics, literature, history and social studies. In middle school, the systematization of teaching materials has been strengthened. Senior year (13 ~ 14 years old) carries out various "special activities". How to improve and distinguish the middle school curriculum on the basis of "special activities" in the senior grades of primary schools? Because Dewey 1904 left Chicago, it was not implemented specifically. However, in Democracy and Education (19 16), Dewey elaborated on the teaching materials and methods of geography, history, natural science and art. Therefore, he is not opposed to the subject-based teaching structure, but in terms of teaching materials, he still insists on starting from learners' experience and leading to scientific methods, that is, "psychological methods", which are different from the "logical methods" of some scientific experts. Dewey believes that British educator H. Spencer advocates that scientific knowledge is the most valuable, but because Spencer inadvertently assumes that scientific knowledge can be taught in ready-made forms, he does not pay attention to the method of transforming the theme of daily activities into scientific forms, so he ignores the method of making science into scientific forms. Dewey realized that the problem of curriculum, teaching materials and methods is, in the final analysis, the organization and selection of teaching materials. In many books, he repeatedly emphasized the importance of the organization and selection of teaching materials. Therefore, in the experimental school of the University of Chicago, Dewey has been trying to write a "new textbook", but later when he reviewed the experiment, he had to admit that "this problem is difficult to solve, we have not solved it well, and we will never be able to solve it completely".
Dewey also attaches great importance to the cooperative relationship between teachers and students in the education process. He believes that in the process of education, it is not that teachers can stand by and remain silent, but participate in students' activities together. In the process of participating in this activity together, the less teachers or students realize that they are teaching or being taught there, the better. Dewey opposes the education and teaching methods that rely on intimidation and repression, and demands that the teaching process of each course is an interactive process of teacher-student cooperation, in which both teachers and students are equal and learners participate.
On the relationship between school and society, Dewey generally inherited the traditional philosophy since Plato, that is, taking education as a tool to maintain the real social order. Dewey pointed out in his book My Education Credo that education plays a regulating role in the formation of social consciousness and is "the basic method of social progress and social reform". Forty years later, in his article "The Challenge of Democracy to Education", he praised what Horace Mann said 100 years ago: "Education is our only political guarantee, and there is only a flood outside this ship"; "Public schools are the greatest discovery of mankind. Other social institutions are medical treatment and remedy, and this institution is prevention and drug rehabilitation. " Dewey tried to maintain the capitalist system through school education. He idealized American bourgeois democracy, linked democracy with education and discussed all problems in education. In his view, political purpose and educational theory are unified and inseparable. Therefore, Dewey has been seeking the coordination between personal factors and social factors in the process of education. He said that contrary to the impression of "children's center" brought back by many visitors since the establishment of Chicago Experimental School, the experimental school puts "social aspects of education" in the first place and is "social center" in intention. Its purpose is to "treat children as a member of society, let him rationally understand all his social relations and do his part to maintain them". Dewey quoted a sentence: "The ultimate goal of all education is the formation of character". Dewey's own educational theory is no exception. In addition, Dewey distinguished between "moral concept" and "moral concept" when discussing moral principles in education. He thinks it is not effective to impart moral concepts by memorizing words. On the contrary, moral concepts are acquired through children's own participation in various social activities. Dewey's theory on the formation of moral character is consistent with his theory on the relationship between knowledge and action.
Dewey calls himself "Melilorism", and he thinks that progress is bit by bit, retail rather than wholesale. After studying Dewey's School and Society (1899), L.A. Cremin, a professor at Teachers College of Columbia University, came to the conclusion that "the new one is mainly social reformism". All Dewey's educational works can be summed up in this point politically. Dewey strongly criticized the Marxist theory of stage struggle and advocated using "smart methods" instead of violent conflicts. He also insisted on applying the experimental methods of natural science to solve social problems. Even some American critics expressed deep doubts about his views, calling them "new theology" in the 20th century.
Dewey's colleagues and their followers, including philosopher S. Hook, social psychologist G. H. Meade, and educators W. H. kilpatrick, B. H. Bode, J. L. Childs, H. O. Lager and G. S. Kantz, expounded and spread the pragmatic education thought, and it was widely spread not only in the United States but also in other countries in the 1920s and 1930s. Later, the influence gradually weakened. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, it rose again. In old China, after 19 19, pragmatic education thought was popular for a period of time and had a great influence.