John+Dewey+Research+12.3.09.docx

John Dewey was an American philosopher, psychologist and educational reformer with great ideas that influenced many curriculum scholars (Marshall, Sears, Allen, Roberts & Schubert, 2007, p.2). Dewey wrote “philosophy may even be defined as the general theory of education. Unless a philosophy is to remain symbolic...it's auditing of past experience and it's program of values must take effect in conduct” (Hickman, 1998, p.63). Dewey's thoughts on philosophy as education involves the critical acquisition of habits of conduct, controlled by the ideal values that nurture human growth. John Dewey also argued that people can enable themselves to continue their education. He believed that growth is the greatest good and what is the meaning of life. The meaning of life is to create and enrich the meaning of life. Dewey's answer to what is the meaning of life is that “life is self-renewing process through action upon the environment”. Human life renew in two different ways which are the biological reproduction and cultural reproduction (Hickman, 1998, p.64). In the turn of the century, the father of the progressivism John Dewey led a school of thought that focused on child-centered and experiential approach to teaching and learning (Wink & Putney, 2002, p.2). The idea of progressivism has influenced the society and schools throughout the hundred years (Wink & Putney, 2002, p. 3). John Dewey believed that learning was active and schooling unnecessarily long and restrictive and he also believed that students should be involved in real-life tasks and challenges (Neill, 2005). Dewey's philosophical interest throughout his career was called “epistemology”, or the “theory of knowledge”. He rejected the term “epistemology” and preferred the “theory of inquiry” or “experimental logic” which gave a more representative of his own approach ([]). John Dewey defined education as “that reorganization and reconstruction of experience, and which increases the ability to direct the course of subsequent experience”. Dewey's curriculum questions still remains to his definition of education. The questions was “what adds meaning and direction or purpose to experience?” (Marshall et al, p. 2). At the turn of the century, Dewey's experimentalist educational philosophy, progressive social and educational theory, and experiential and reconstructionist curriculum thinking came about. In 1896, he started the laboratory school of the University of Chicago where he demonstrated his ideas into practice of experiential learning (Marshall et al, 2007, p.6). Dewey's laboratory school was intended to facilitate research and experimentation into new principles and new methods. The laboratory was also designed to have the children take an experimental approach to their learning (Dewey, 2005, p.2). The laboratory's mission was to find more effective ways of learning and teaching. And to find ways of breaking down barriers between schools and local communities to seek subject matter (Dewey, 2005, p.3). Dewey has influenced many experiential models, advocates and researchers by his project based learning which places students as the active role of researchers. John Dewey has influenced many of the Chinese scholars including Hu Shih, Zhang Boling and Tao Xingzhi and they all studied his theory at Columbia University ([]). As of today, to understand the future schools from Dewey's views and ideas, we all can recall what we have learned about education, thinking, experience, community, freedom, authority, democracy, science, curriculum, pedagogy, children, learning, teaching, learners,theory, practice and schools (Simpson & Jackson, 1997, p. 261). Dewey's thoughts have laid the foundation for inquiry driven approaches ( [|http://www.ul.ie/~philos/vo11/dewey.htm]).