John Dewey

John Dewey was an individual known for his philosophies of education particularly pragmatism. He mainly believes that school should be more of an active experience and not so focused in on the length of time and it being so restrictive. Dewey’s ideas have been extremely influential concerning schools systems and I think that my beliefs are best represented throughout his beliefs. I have decided to focus in on John Dewey because I recently have declared my minor to be psychology which is what Dewey focuses on and interprets education through psychology.

I strongly believe that in order for children to learn something and retain it they must first experience it. The best way for me to learn something is to visualize it and experience it with my own hands. This helps me gain a mental picture of the information being expressed. I know this might not be the best approach for everyone, however, I think for the most part in order for someone to fully remember something and put it to good use they must first experience it themselves.

Dewey focuses in on the psychology in a sense of developmental and social manners. In order to confirm any judgments or set assumptions about anything in life we must first prove it is correct by testing it out for ourselves. He believes that any judgments containing value express propositions that are designed for empirical testing for verification. Dewey believes anything that holds any form of value is something that should be pursued (if the value is positive) and rejected if it is negative. If we compare this outlook to education it is the knowledge that has the value and if that given knowledge is valued positively then it should be pursued and closely examined. This is why I think anything in education should be closely examined by the ones trying to gain the knowledge. If students had the opportunity to work hands on maybe they might value the given information and in the long run, value education as a whole.