Schooling must equip young people to live a fulfilled life and become life-long learners, able to fulfil their potential and contribute to society. Dewey was uncomfortable with some of the more extreme progressive pedagogical approaches that became associated with his name.ĭewey believed developing intellectual powers is a necessary but not a sufficient goal of education. While he certainly believed education needs to connect learning to the real world experience of learners and be child-centred, he also emphasised the importance of a rigorous curriculum that developed powerful methodologies and knowledge. The importance of inquiry as an instructional approachĭewey emphasised the importance of inquiry as an instructional approach and has become associated with the discovery of learning and child-centred, progressive teaching approaches. “No thought, no idea, can possibly be conveyed as an idea from one person to another….only by wrestling with the conditions of the problem first hand, seeking and finding his own way out, does he think.….the joy which children themselves experience is the joy of intellectual constructiveness.” He believed that learning is a social, communal process requiring students to construct their own understanding based on personal experience. John Dewey is often considered as the father of constructivism. One hundred years later what is the relevance of Dewey’s work in general, and this book in particular?

John Dewey an influential philosopher, psychologist and educational thinker, published his book on Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education in 1916.

Dewey democracy and education