Running Head: Dewey Reflection

Reflection on John Dewey’s Experience and Education

Daniel Stevens
Colorado State University
EDAE 520

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 Dewey Reflection

John Dewey’s Experience and Education (1997), originally published in 1938, was

written as a response from the author to the shortcomings that he observed in the American

educational system. At the time, he observed the regimented method of traditional school with

students sitting in compliant and obedient rows, and the rise of the progressive school, as Dewey

termed it, which had essentially no structure at all. Dewey saw significant flaws in both methods

of instruction, and offered his own as an alternative to the false dichotomy of regimented

structure and free-formed chaos. In this paper I will discuss Dewey’s philosophy, and my

reflections on its place in Adult Education.

The central thesis of Experience and Education is that to remove the context of a lesson,

and only focusing on the content, robs the student of the fullness of an educational experience.

Dewey rejected the idea that students are empty vessels that need to be filled with knowledge by

the teacher. The principle shortcoming of this logic, according to Dewey, is that the student is

not afforded collateral and incidental learning that occur when a learning experience is coupled

with the lesson’s intended outcome. As an example, in the traditional school students might

study dinosaurs from a book lesson, or some charts provided by their teacher. They would sit

compliantly in their seats, read when they are told, answer questions when asked, and provide

feedback when deemed appropriate by the teacher. Dewey would contend that this is content and

no context. Even more so, per Dewey, it is a lesson in teaching compliance to authority, not

developing curiosity and intellect. As a contrast, Dewey would likely suggest that the teacher

take the students to a museum to see actual bones and displays of dinosaurs. Instead of just a

“fieldtrip” with no other educational benefit, he would recommend that the instructor create a

lesson that would force the students to engage their own innate curiosity and engage with the

exhibits. From there, the lesson could be used to create other lessons that launch into biology,
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geology, chemistry, similarities in animal species, differences in animal species, etc. One of

Dewey’s principle contentions with educational experiences is that one experience should

stimulate follow-on interests and experiences to be a truly educative experience. My personal

curiosity, and follow-on learning is often piqued in this way. When I am exposed to a new

concept, idea, or information, I attempt to assimilate it and associate it with other experiences or

knowledge from my past experiences. I am then motivated to read further, and explore other

methods of displaying the information, via graphics, photos, diagrams, etc. I’ve discovered over

time that my brain works through pictorial images, which is how I associate, and integrate, new

information. One primary benefit of living in the information age is that exploring new subjects

and creating follow-on learning opportunities are available to anyone with access to a computer,

allowing for follow-on reinforcement.

What I found most impactful with Dewey’s perspective on education was how relevant it

is almost a century after he originally wrote it in 1938. The traditional teaching methods, still

pervasive today, focuses more on compliance and throughput of individuals than stimulating

their individual development. In my experience this comes from the perspective of a singular

idea of “intelligence”. This line of logic follows that if a student is compliant, obedient, and does

well on papers and tests, they are analytically intelligent and will do well in life. This rationale

ignores the spectrum of other technical, emotional, social, and self-management skills that enable

a person to function in the working world. As discussed by Wlodkowski (2008), psychologists

now recognize that there are multiple forms of intelligence that empower different capabilities.

Emotional intelligence, linguistic intelligence, intrapersonal intelligence, and kinesthetic

intelligence, are just a few recognized areas of individual development and capability

(Wlodkowski, 2008). Dewey would see this as a natural extension of innate abilities that are
 Dewey Reflection

stimulated by engaging educational experiences, that then stimulate students to explore even

further. In his words, “. . . every experience enacted and undergone modifies the one who acts

and undergoes, while this modification affects, whether we wish it or not, the quality of

subsequent experiences (Dewey, 1997). To provide the same singular stimulus to a group of

students, content and no context according to Dewey, and expect them to grow to their own

individual natural capabilities is absurd. This is further supported by recent studies in

neurocognitive science and how the brain learns. The reticular activating system is an area of the

brain that filters incoming stimulus from the external environment (everything outside of the

brain’s cranial cavity) (Sousa, 2017). If a student isn’t engaged, because they are staring at

abstract words, or images with no context, then much of the information will be passed over, or

forgotten quickly. Dewey referred to these as mis-educative experiences, as they would not

stimulate follow-on interests and curiosity. This is more than simply the student not being

motivated, human beings are biologically designed to filter information that is not deemed

useful. The burden of this responsibility for creating an engaging experience falls on the

instructor, who must create the situation, structure the lesson around it, and then get the students

engaged in the experience. In my own experience in creating experiential learning events, they

are a critical component primarily because of the collateral and incidental learning that occurs.

The experience of being in a working operating room and experienced the smells, the sights, and

stressors, can’t be simulated. Exposure to these stimuli, however, provides critical insight for the

student that they can psychologically, and physically tolerate working in such an environment.

According to Souza (2017) the nerves in the human brain has millions of

interconnections, called a neural network. These connections expand, and increase in number

when new information is correlated to other information from previous experiences. Dewey’s
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instincts for an educational philosophy that built upon creating experiences that stimulated other

interests and follow-on experiences was extremely prescient. Psychologists in the decades after

Dewey’s work identified several methods of behavioral conditioning that tend to build on

previous experiences. B.F. Skinner, (1963) discussed this as a central area of his studies, and

qualified the phrase operant conditioning, as the behavioral conditioning of an organism to

repeat a behavior based on the outcome of its response to a stimulus. If a student is exposed to

something intriguing and it stimulates the pleasure centers of the brain, then that behavior is

likely to repeat itself and be reinforced through a similar response to the same, or similar stimuli.

If the stimulus is unpleasant, painful, or derives little satisfaction even when completed, what

Dewey would call a mis-educative experience, then the behavior would be unlikely to be

repeated, or would be extinguished completely, instead of being repeated.

The current state of continuing education branches of community colleges, and

vocational training schools would likely endear Dewey with their methodology of instruction.

Imagine a class where the intended outcome was to qualify people as plumbers. The

administration, being very traditional, choses to use books, video, overhead smartboard

technology, and digital assets, but the students will not actually put their hands onto tools,

piping, or actual soldering torches. The assumption being that, as long as the students understand

the concepts of plumbing well enough, the component knowledge of each lesson will coalesce

when the student needs it. This is an intentionally absurd example, as it demonstrates Dewey’s

primary contention that context should drive content. Continuing Education branches, and

vocational schools have embraced Dewey’s perspective in many programs, as to shift to a

traditional lecture/ test/ repeat methodology would completely miss the program’s intended

outcomes.
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Conclusion

John Dewey’s Experience and Education was many decades ahead of its time

when it was first published in 1938. Although he was not attempting to stimulate a conflict

between the traditional methods of instruction and the newer progressive movement, he did want

to raise pointed criticisms to each of their shortcomings. To create educational experiences where

the students are actively engaged in multi-level stimulus within the context of learning, creates

an environment more likely to stimulate learning and follow-on interests. Recent studies in

neuroscience show that the brain biologically functions in exactly this way. Stimulus from the

environment is filtered based on perceived usefulness, or novelty. This stimulus is then related to

other previous experiences and strengthened as an interconnection between experiences and new

knowledge.

There is no way that Dewey could have known how insightful his perspective was, but he

was several decades ahead of his time. As an educator I have seen the value of integrating

experiential learning events into my courses as both a launching point for other lessons, and as a

method of integration and reinforcement of learning objectives. I will continue to use this

method for both my personal learning goals, and as an instructor, for the rest of my career in

training and education.

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Bibliography

Dewey, J. (1997). Experience and education (1st Touchstone ed., Kappa Delta Pi lecture series).
New York: Simon & Schuster.

Sousa, D. (2017). How the brain learns (Fifth ed., YBP Print DDA).

Skinner, B.F. (1963). Operant behavior. American Psychologist. 18 (8), 503-515.

doi:10.1037/h0045185

Wlodkowski, R.J. (2008). Understanding How Aging and Culture Affect Motivation to Learn. In
Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn (3rd ed., pp. 31-48). San Francisco, CA: Jossey- Bass.