John Dewey and Progressive Education

John Dewey's focus on education was a unique element of his philosopical thinking and writing. Although he did not coin the phrase progressive education, it has come to be associated with Dewey.

Dewey believed there is an intimate connection between education and social action in a democracy. "Democracy has to be born anew every generation, and education is its midwife," Dewey wrote in School and Society, published in 1889. Dewey recognized that schools, particularly elementary and secondary schools, often were repressive institutions that did not promote exploration and growth. He wrote about, and helped to implement, a number of reforms that would allow schools to be "major agencies for the development of free personalities" (Sidorsky, p. xxx). Dewey's ideas were put into practice in 1896 at the University of Chicago's experimental school.

Dewey believed that school should teach students how to be problem-solvers by helping students learn how to think rather than simply learning rote lessons about large amounts of information. In Dewey's view, schools should focus on judgment rather than knowledge so that school children become adults who can "pass judgments pertinently and discriminateingly on the problems of human living" (Campbell, 1995, p. 215-216). Dewey also believed that schools should help students learn to live and to work cooperatively with others. In School and Society he wrote, "In a complex society, ability to understand and sympathize with the operations and lot of others is a condition of common purpose which only education can procure."

Dewey believed that students should participate in decisions that affect their learning, but he was also very concerned with the rights and academic autonomy of teachers. Dewey was a member of the first teacher's union in New York City, and his interest in and concern with academic freedom in universities led to his role as a founder of the American Association of University Professors.

The journal Educational Theory continues to serve as a forum for discussion of ideas about education which were first examined by Dewey and his colleagues.

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