Jhon dewey __final document........#######____@@@ayesha javed

1. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I and all of my group members sincerely thank to our teacher(mam Azhra jameel) who
have helped them in our philosophical journey of trying to understand life and in particular, the
concepts of John Dewey, especially his views on Educational Philosophy. We are very grateful
to her for his availability, giving his time. In short, it was a very good experience with her and a
time to grow in my intellectual formation. I thank mam shajela, the Librarian, and the library
staff in making available relevant books for our project.Also,we are very thank to the hero of the
education and a reformer of the educational system The greatest Jhon Dewey who are the basic
concern of our project.

2. TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
INTRODUCTION OF THE PROJECT……………………………………………………….i
1. INTRODUCTION TO JOHN DEWEY’S PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION……....1
1.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………………..….…..1
1.2 Life……………………………………………………………………………………..2
1.2.1 Who is Jhon Dewey………………………………………………………………
1.2.2 The View of Jhon Dewey………………………………………………………..
1.3 Dewey’s Philosophy of Life ……………………………………………………......…1
1.4 Dewey’s Meaning of Education …………………………………………………........3
1.5 His Aim of Education…………………………………………………………......…...4
1.5.1 Education is a Process of Growth…………………………………...……...…….5
1.5.2 Education is Life and Life is Education……………………………..……...…….5
1.5.3 Education Leads towards Social Efficiency………………………...………..…..6
2. NEED FOR A PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION ……………………………....……8
2.1 Education as a necessity of life…………………………………..………………..…..8
2.1.1 John deweys philosophy of education
2.1.1.1 Coherence theory
2.1.1.2 Pragmatism;
2.1.1.3 Ideas of john dewey’s
2.1.2 Fundamental flaw in the practice of education
2.1.3 Dewey belived
2.1.4 Principal of ethics in education
2.2 The Principle of Education……………………………………..…………………......9
2.2.1 The Child and the Curriculum………………………………………..……...11
2.2.2 Play and Work in the Curriculum……………………………………..…….13

3. 2.3 Conclusion……………………………………………………………...…………...15
3. EDUCATIONAL VALUE………………………………………….………………..…16
3.1 Dewey’s Concept of Values………………………………………………..……...…16
3.2 The Nature of Standards of Valuation………………………………..……………....16
3.3 The Valuation of Studies……………………………………………………………..17
3.4 The Segregation and Organization of Values………………………………………..17
3.5 The Value of Thinking……………………………………………….………………18
CONCLUSION ……………………………………………………………..……..……….19
REFERENCES……………………………………………………………………..……2
SIGNATURE…………………………………………………………………………….29

4. John Dewey
(Photograph from Colombia University Faculty Photograph Collection, c.1950)

5. INTRODUCTION
What is ‘Education’? It is very tedious to give one definite meaning of the term
‘Education’. All of us may vaguely know what education is, but we may not be able to explain it
in definite terms. Different philosophers, educationists, thinkers, statesmen, politicians, and
priests give widely different definitions of education according to their own outlook on life and
according to the circumstances they have been facing. The reason is that education is an abstract
entity and its concept is dynamic. It is a continuous process. The concept of education is still in a
process of evolution and this process will never come to an end. Therefore, education is not
static, but it is a continuous growth and change in a human being which happens in his or her life
time.
According to Etymological point of view, the main purpose of education is ‘to lead’ or
‘to draw out’ rather than ‘to put in’; it is a kind of change to become a better human being.
Education is what one should be from what one is. It is a look within to arrive at a point of
looking beyond. It is also a look within to look without, in the sense that it transforms and
transcends one to realize one’s worth as very insignificant in relation to the vast ocean of
knowledge and wisdom, erudition and experience, assimilation.
The reason for choosing, John Dewey for my dissertation is that his Pragmatic
philosophy that “man creates his own values of education during the course of an activity”,
appeals to me very much. Another reason for choosing Dewey is because as an educator I need
to know how I can bring out the best in the child or youth, and I have found a tentative response
by studying John Dewey. I feel Dewey’s concept on education is more relevant and practical
than that of the idealistic educators who take many forms in philosophy; that is an attitude and a
spirit rather than a definite doctrine or a set of dogmatic propositions.
“Education is a process of living and not a preparation for future living; and it is life and
growth”, is one phrase which had an impact on my life, and led me to reflect on my strengths
and weaknesses and to be happy with what I am. It is a natural tendency of every living creature
to be loved, cared and given enough attention. Therefore, I see that education has a vital role to

6. play in making one know oneself. Education has to create an environment wherein the original
nature of the human being is preserved. Thus, education must help him or her appreciate his or
her own uniqueness.
This paper is divided into three chapters. The first chapter describes briefly the life of
John Dewey and his concept of education. It makes clear what Dewey really meant by stressing
on ‘Education’. The second and the third chapters are the body of the dissertation, which deal
with the main knowledge on the insights of Dewey on education. Both chapters stress the
important principles which govern the process of education. They give Dewey’s analysis of
human education. They also give the curriculum proposed by Dewey at various stages for the
spontaneous development of the child. His main concern is not to give a philosophical theory or
to create a new religion with new dogmas, rituals or ceremonies, but to invite each one to a new
way of life. According to John Dewey education is a process of living and not a preparation for
future living. For him, there is a possibility of living a completely new life which is totally free.
This new life of liberation and freedom helps man to live in eternal happiness.

7. CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION TO JOHN DEWEY’S PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION
1.1 Introduction
John Dewey is one of the greatest contemporary philosophers, thinkers and educationists.
He has been called the “Father of American Education” as well as “The Greatest Humanist of the
20th century”, a title which has also been applied to Karl Marx. His influence was both broad in
scope and deep in impact. He was the chief intellectual force providing the environment with
coherent purpose. He believed that learning is active and schooling unnecessarily long
restrictive.
The impact of Dewey’s ideas upon American philosophical and social thought was so
great that it must be considered a major phenomenon of American cultural history of the 20th
century. Almost as striking a phenomenon, however was the rapidity and completeness, with
which interest in his work virtually ended in most American philosophical discussion after
World War II.
1.2 Life and work
John Dewey, (born Oct. 20, 1859, Burlington, Vt., U.S.—died June 1,
1952, New York, N.Y.), American philosopher and educator
who was a founder of the philosophical movement known
as pragmatism, a pioneer in functional psychology, and a leader of the
progressive movement in education in the United states.
In 1884, Dewey received his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University and
immediately began his university teaching career at the University of
Michigan. Dewey spent most of his early career there, except for a one-
year stint at the University of Minnesota. In 1894, Dewey left for the
University of Chicago, where he would become the head of the

8. philosophy department. At the University of Chicago, Dewey would work to develop much of
his viewpoints that have lasted far beyond his time. In 1904, Dewey would become a professor at
Columbia University, where he would retire in 1930.
1.2.1 Who is Jhon Dewey?
John Dewey (1859–1952) was one of American pragmatism’s early founders, along with
Charles Sanders Peirce and William James, and arguably the most prominent American
intellectual for the first half of the twentieth century. Dewey’s educational theories and
experiments had a global reach, his psychological theories had a sizable influence in that
growing science, and his writings about democratic theory and practice deeply influenced
debates in academic and practical quarters for decades. In addition, Dewey developed extensive
and often systematic views in ethics, epistemology, logic, metaphysics, aesthetics, and
philosophy of religion. Because Dewey typically took a genealogical approach that couched his
own view within the larger history of philosophy, one may also find a fully developed
metaphilosophy in his work.
1.2.2 The View of Jhon Dewey
John Dewey is probably most famous for his role in what is called progressive
education. Progressive education is essentially a view of education that emphasizes the need to
learn by doing. Dewey believed that human beings learn through a 'hands-on' approach. This
places Dewey in the educational philosophy of pragmatism.
Pragmatists believe that reality must be experienced. From Dewey's educational point of view,
this means that students must interact with their environment in order to adapt and learn. Dewey
felt the same idea was true for teachers and that teachers and students must learn together. His
view of the classroom was deeply rooted in democratic ideals, which promoted equal voice
among all participants in the learning experience.
1.3 Dewey’s Philosophy of Life

9. John Dewey was born on 20th October 1859 in Burlington Vermont. His childhood was
brushed by the Civil war. As a child, he studied in a village. His father, Archibald, was very
poor. A shy youth, he enjoyed reading books and was a good but not a brilliant student. He was
an eager participant in the controversies stirred up by Hegelianism. He dated his earliest interest
in philosophy to a course in philosophy that he took during his junior year at the University of
Vermont. He discovered the concept of the organic and developed a sense of the interdependence
and interrelated unity of all things. Dewey discovered the most profound philosophical
expression to this emotional and intellectual craving. Whatever issue he considered, he was
convinced that once viewed from the perspective of the organic, old problems would dissolve
and new insights would emerge.
In 1879 he graduated in Vermont University. He took the job of teaching and taught in Vermont
University of Hopkins. Afterwards he worked in three Universities Minnesota, Mexican and
Chicago. He became directly involved with public education in Michigan. He did his
experiments with his children. He lost his wife Harriet Alice in 1927. In 1946, when he was 87,
he married a 42 years old girl Roberta Levitz. He died at the age of 92 on 1st June 1952 in
Vermont.
John Dewey was heavily influenced by Charles Darwin as well as Rousseau. Many
elements in Dewey’s life formed a background for a philosophy that came to be considered as an
authentic expression of American attitudes and value. The greatest contribution of Dewey to
philosophy is “Pragmatism”. He fused pragmatism in the area of education. If Dewey might not
have been a pragmatist and if he might not have contributed to education, his name would not
have become so famous. Dewey did more than merely talking about practical problems. He
became practically involved in everything. It was not enough for him to theorize about
educational reform.
Educational leaders in several countries who were undergoing rapid social or cultural
change sought in Dewey’s philosophy of education a guide in the planning of their schools. His
interest in education also led him to a concern with academic autonomy and freedom of inequity.
Truth, according to Dewey, is ever changing and evolving in an upward direction. Progress is

10. inevitable. New is better. The old and the traditional are outmoded. Every generation is superior
to the previous generation.
1.3 Dewey’s Meaning of Education
The meaning of Education, according to John Dewey is that it is a process of living and
not a preparation for future living. Education is the fundamental method of social progress and
reform. It signifies the sum total of process by which a community or social group, transmits its
required power and aims with a view to securing its own continued existence and growth.
Education may be defined as a process of continuous reconstruction of experience with the
purpose of widening and deepening its social content. Education is a process of learning to live
the life of a community. Education is an important social activity planned and shared by parents
and the society. The meaning of education has been changing according to people, places and
times. Some take education to mean the process, others the results, still others the methodology.
The function of education is to help the growing of a helpless young animal or children
into a happy, moral and efficient human being. Education is not always from without, but it is the
growth of capacities with which human beings are endowed at birth. The process of education
for each phase must be such that the needs of the individual are satisfied, his qualities are
enriched and the powers are matured. Participation in collective activities creates social
environment and gives knowledge of sociability. Collective work enables the child to understand
the aim and purpose of work and gives him necessary method and ability to do that work.
Education is a process of living and not a preparation for future living. For him education is not a
preparation for life. It is life and growth itself. Education should make man social and worthy of
the society. Therefore, the educative process is a continuous process of growth, having as its aim
at every stage an added capacity of growth.
Education is a process of development and of growth. According to Dewey, “A truly
healthy person is not something fixed and completed. He is a person whose processes and
activities go on in such a way that he will continue to be healthy”. Similarly, an educated person

11. is the person who has the power to go on and get more education. Nothing would be more
extraordinary if we had a proper system of education than the assumption. The mind of the
individual is naturally averse to learning, and has to be either browbeaten or coaxed into action.
Every mind even of the youngest is naturally or inherently seeking for those modes of active
operating that are within the limits of its capacities, precisely as long as the infant is awake. The
problem, a difficult and delicate one is to discover what tendencies are especially seeking
expression at a particular time and just what materials and methods will serve to evoke and direct
a truly educative development. Education is the process of forming fundamental dispositions
towards nature and our fellow human beings. All philosophy is philosophy of education in the
sense of having the guidance of education as its end.
1.4 Dewey’s Aim of Education
Dewey, being a pragmatic educator, contends that there are no fixed and ultimate aims of
education. Aims are proximate. The aims grow out of the existing situations, and are not to reach
at any prefixed final goal. According to Dewey, “the aim of education is the development of
child’s power and abilities. It is impossible to lay down any definite principle for a particular
kind of development, because this development will differ from one child to the next in
conformity with the unique abilities of the individuals”. Therefore the educator should guide the
child according to the abilities and powers he observes in it. It is better, in Dewey’s opinion, to
leave the question of educational objectives unanswered. In general, the aim of education is to
create an atmosphere in which the child gets an opportunity to active in and contribute to the
social awakening of the human race.
The main aim of education is to enable individuals to continue their education or that the
object and reward of learning is continued capacity for growth. In our search for aims in
education, we are not concerned with finding an end outside of the educative process to which
education is subordinate. We are rather concerned with the contrast which exist when aims
belong within the process in which they operate and when they are set up from without.
According to Dewey there are four aims of education. They are as follows:

12. 1.4.1 Education is a Process of Growth
Dewey’s words are growth, unlimited and illimitable. Growth must be wise and
economical and directed towards a desirable end. The aim of education is more education and the
end of growth is more growth. What the child learns in the class helps one to grow. He says; “the
process of education is a continuous process of adjustment, having as its aim at every stage an
added capacity of growth”.
1.4.2 Education is Life and Life is Education
Dewey says that life is a by product of activities and education is born out of these
activities. He says that “education is preparation for life”. If at all it is preparation for life then it
is preparation through life experiences. The child lives in the present. The future is meaningless
to him. Hence, it is absurd to require him to do things for some future preparation. School being
an extension of home, provides life experiences to the child.
1.4.3 Education Leads towards Social Efficiency
Dewey says; “What nutrition and reproduction are to physiological life, education is to
social life”. Man is essentially a social being, a citizen, growing and thinking in a vast complex
of interactions and relation. Through education, he is developing reasoning in social relations,
cultivating social virtues and thus becoming socially efficient. At the same time he is developing
social awareness and social sensitiveness. Social efficiency includes economic and cultural
efficiency. The term given by Dewey in this regard is “socialization of an individual”.
1.4.4 Experience is the basis of his Philosophy
Dewey says that education is the process of the reconstruction or reconstitution of
experience, giving it a more socialized value through the medium of increased individual
efficiency. Every generation inherits experiences from its past generation and these experiences

13. are modified according to the developing situations. With their own experiences and
participation, individuals reconstruct new experiences suiting the changing circumstances and
problems of life. Thus, experience is serviced and reorganized.
1.5 CONCLUSION
The aim of education is necessary to prepare the coming generation for a new and more
just and humane society which is sure to come, and which, unless heart and minds are prepared
by education is likely to come attended with all the evils that result from social changes effected
by violence. Thus the important function and aim of education is to create a social environment
in which the child may successfully participate for social awakening of man kind. Education
should create such a capacity in the child that he is able to face social situations strongly and
come out successfully in the struggle, only that education is useful which creates the will to
develop continuously. Education gives man such an insight that he is able to gather necessary
means.
John Dewey believes that since physical and social environments are always changing,
aims of education must also change. They cannot be fixed for all times to come. He, therefore,
says that the aims of education must be restated and reformulated in the light of the rapid social
and economic changes in every day life.
Every individual must be given the freedom to develop his own desires and achieve his
ambitions. Every individual must be equal to every other member of society. Hence, education
should create cooperation and harmony among individuals, instilling democratic values in school
going children. In fact, the school itself is a miniature form of a democratic society in which the
child undergoes various forms of development, of which moral education and development is the
most important. Equality of opportunity in the school helps to develop boys and girls according
to their own individual traits and inclinations. What is needed in today’s world in the new
education is more attention, not less to subject matter and to progress in technique.

14. CHAPTER 2
NEED FOR A PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION
2.1 Education as a Necessity of Life
In an educative environment the knowledge, judgment and experience of the teacher is
greater. The difference is that, the teacher operates not as a magistrate set on high and marked by
arbitrary authority but as a friendly copartner and guide in a common enterprise. The greatest
necessity of education of life and for a philosophy of education at the present time is very much
urgent and necessary that exists for making clear in idea and effective in practice that its end is
social and that the criterion to be applied in estimating the value of the practices that exist in
schools is social.
Education is necessity for teaching and learning for the continued existence of a society
that we may seem to be dwelling unduly on a truism. It is true that the aim of education is
development of individuals to the utmost of their potentialities. It is the stage of process of an
individual. The world is rapidly industrialized. We need to realize that the education is essential
for life long process. Therefore, a good teacher must know how to arouse the interest of the pupil
in the field of study for which he is always responsible. Reflective inquiry is central for
education on his view as for any other phase of life or experience. Indeed for Dewey education is
a problem solving process and we learn by doing, and by having on opportunity to react in real
life situations. Education is not indoctrination, but inquiry is focal. Not simply amassing facts but
learning to apply intelligence to problem solving has top priority. Therefore, education must be
experimental without being simply improvisation.
Dewey says in “Democracy and Education”, education is a constant reorganization and
reconstructing of experience. Our present experiences must be guided to make future experiences
more meaningful and worthwhile. As teachers, we start with the child where he is now, with his
present stock of interests and knowledge and seek to help him expand and enrich both his
interests and his knowledge and grow as a person in his community and his society. He learns to

15. work responsibly for his own development and for social conditions which will encourage a
similar development for all other members of his society. Education must not be simply means to
something else. It should not be a mere preparation for the future. As a process of growth, it
should have its own enjoyable and intrinsically rewarding features and at the same time that it
helps further education.
2.1.1 John deweys philosophy of education;
We don’t need any traditional source of knowledge and directly interact with nature. We do
need to observe from environment, some kind of patterns, uniformity and we can directly speak
with nature. Some kind of emphasis and direct observation things around us. He practically
provide a human experience.at the same time experience of human is freely. Human experience
changing from nature.
2.1.1.1 Coherence theory;
Coherence theory of truth is establish about the knowledge and given body of knowledge.
Coherence is ultimately decide the truth of matter of this.
2.1.1.2 Pragmatism;
Is to express idea which put in pragmatic theory of truth. This is the basic should reflect of it and
direct experience about it.experience is not some kind of entity. Idea is the experience that arises
from human negotiation.
2.1.1.3 Ideas of john dewey’s
In order to develop and articulate his philosophical system, Dewey first needed to expose what
he regarded as the flaws of the existing tradition. He believed that the distinguish future of
western philosophy was its assumption that true being-that which is fully real or fully
knowledge-is changeless perfect, and eternal and the source of whatever reality the worldof
experience may posses. Plato’s forms and the Christian conception of God were two examples of
such a static,pure,and transcendent being, compared with which anything that undergoes change
is imperfect and less real.
2.1.2 Fundamental flaw in the practice of education
Dewey pointed out that fundamental flaw in the practice of education as offered in school is that
is based on a monological one way authorization approach towards learning. As such,schools pur
premium upon “inculcating” passive uncritical following of rules often elicited by the schools as

16. an institution by coercion and threats of exclusion not only from the educational institution but
sequent from information-based job market as well.
He points out that learning by doing should make the school a place buzz with activities. Any
place of activity where something meaningful is being constructed never looks ordered and
structure like classrooms and prayer assemblies of schools do. Giving the analogy of a
construction site Dewey points that construction site look absolutely disorder and in disarray on
the surface but the entire activity. Once understood is in sync with the ultimate idea of the
building that everybody engaged in the construction is working towards
Review:-
That the greater demand for a unifying principal and controlling working hypothesis in
psychology should come at just the time when all generalization are most questioned and
questionable is natural strong.it is very cumulative of discrete facts creating the demand for
unification that also breaks down previous lines of classification.
2.1.3 Dewey belived
Dewey believed that human being learn through a ‘hands on’ approach. This places Dewey in the
educational philosophy of pragmatism. From Dewey’s educational point of view, this means that
students must interact with their environment in order to adapt and learn.
Dewey felt the same idea was true for teachers and that teachers and the student must learn
together. His view of the classroom was deeply in democratic ideals, which promote equal, voice
among all participants in the learning experience.
Dewey’s pragmatic and democratic approach to schooling may not stand out as a radical today,
but in the early and mid-1900,his view of education was in contradiction to much of the then-
present system of schooling.
2.1.4 Principal of ethics in education
The good man is man who, no matter how morally unworthy he has been, is moving to becoming
better.
“If we teach today students as we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of tomorrow.”
“I believe education is the fundamental method of social progress and reform.”
The role of school
 School are the driving force or training centers for democracies and societies to move
forward.

17.  Schools are built upon the ideas of the past, but new outlooks have to be adopted
widespread for progress.
 Student must learn to express their thoughts,feelings,and reflection
 Life and learning require a balance of science and art.
Knowledge
 Knowledge change us as people and the kind of life we live and experience.
 knowledge as being a necessarily transformative
 Force is best understood as a verb instead of a noun.
 knowledge is not cooped up but visible when express in action.
 Action requires contemplation along with it to make it worth anything.
 Teachers role is to setup activities where the student can contemplate,revise,apply and
expand their new knowledge.
 Teacher must be masters of their subject area and factors tangentially related to it.
Ethical conduct
 One set of ethical principles should rule all conduct. There is no school identity and home
identity, there is just the identity.
 Groups are larger than individuals and thus bear consideration in the decision making
progress.
 Wholes must be addressed, children cannot be taught in piecemeal fashion appealing to
different parts of them.
 School has duty to improve society.
 A child must be educated not just obey,but to be versatile and self directing.
 School life is ever changing and education would be best to serve for preparing children to
function in society by supporting frequent inquiry.
 Teaching to balance check books when one has no bank account would be foolish. Why then
teach algebra or cursive? Why not focus on taxes?
 Only teach that which has value for life.
Ethical product
 Testing is secondary to learning
 Knowing is not as important as being able to apply.

18.  Knowledge and value exist together.
 Occupations are any activities where a person can draw on draw on their intelligence
through. Action and interaction with others
 Morals are situational and not set.
 Poor decision come from lack of thinking.
 A person need to have courage to stand for something in life.
 Good judgment that comes through practice and guidance.
 Without the right guidance, students will be under or malfunctioning adults
2.2 The Principle of Education
According to John Dewey, the main principle objective of education is to instill in
students the attitudes and habits conducive to the development of their capacity to solve
problems. The main principles of education deal with education as a social need and function.
Education was shown to be a process of renewal of the meanings of experience through a process
of transmission, partly incidental to the ordinary companionship. The most important things for
life, according to Dewey, is the process of learning, rather than the products that were learned.
Dewey is best known for his philosophy of education. This is not a special branch of his
philosophy; however he claimed that all philosophy can be conceived of as the philosophy of
education. Education is, or ought to be, a continuous reconstruction of experience in which there
is a development of immature experience toward experience funded with the skills and habits of
intelligence. The slogan, “Learn by Doing” is not intended as a credo for anti intellectualism, but
on the contrary, is meant to call attention to the fact that the child is naturally an active, curious
and exploring creature. A properly designed education must be sensitive to this dimension of life
and must guide the child, so that through his participation in different types of experience his
creativity and autonomy will be cultivated rather than stifled.
The most important thing that authorities can do through their schools is to provide the
conditions that will stimulate and encourage the students to engage in the kind of purposeful
functioning that results in the growth of mind. Dewey thought of the school as a miniature

19. society. It should not simply mirror the larger society, but it should be a representative of the
essential institutions of this society. The school as an ideal society is the chief means for social
reform. The school is the medium for developing the set of habits required for systematic and
open inquiry and for reconstructing experience that is funded with greater harmony and aesthetic
quality. His main idea is the pedagogical desirability of “Learning by doing” and of connecting
the materials of formal school institution with the child’s experience outside the classroom.
Like Aristotle, Dewey believed that the function of education is to encourage those habits
and dispositions that constitute intelligence. Education as the continuous reconstruction and
growth of experience develops the moral character of the child. His conception of the educative
process is therefore closely tied to the prominent role that is assigned to inhabit human life.
According to Dewey’s view of education, he expressed it in the word, “Philosophy” i.e. love of
wisdom. Whenever philosophy has been taken seriously, it has always been assumed that it
signified achieving a wisdom which would influence the conduct of life.
2.2.1 The Child and the Curriculum
The child and the curriculum are two limits defining a single process. The child is the
starting point, the center and the end. His development, his growth is the ideal. Child alone
furnishes the standard.To the growth of the child all studies are subservient. They are instruments
valued as they serve the need of growth. Personality and character is more than subject matter.
Moreover, subject matter can never be got into the child from without. Learning is active if we
involve reaching out of the mind and involve organic assimilation starting from within. We must
take our stand with the child and our departure from him or her. It is the individual and not the
subject matter which determines both quality and quantity of learning. The only significant
method is the method of the mind as it reaches out and assimilates.
Dewey believes that students thrive in an environment where they are allowed to
experience and interact with the curriculum, and all students should have the opportunity to take
part in their own learning. Dewey makes a strong case for the importance of education not only
as a place to gain content knowledge, but also as a place to learn how to live. In his eyes, the

20. purpose of education should not revolve around the acquisition of a pre-determined set of skills,
but rather the realization of one’s full potential and the ability to use those skills for the greater
good. Education and schooling are the main instruments in creating social change and reform.
The child lives in a somewhat narrow world of personal contacts. Things hardly come
within his experience unless they touch intimately and obviously his own well being or that of
his family and friends. His world is a world of persons with their personal interests rather than a
realm of facts and laws. The things that occupy the child are held together by the unity of the
personal and social interests which his or her life carries along.
The school has to give children, not only an insight into the social importance of such
activities, but above all the opportunities to practice them in play form. This leads naturally into
the problem or “project method” which has come to be identified with the essence of the
progressive procedure. The children have had to be regathered to a new center which is wholly
abstract and ideal. All this means a development of a special intellectual interest. Let the child
proceed step by step to master each one of subdivided subjects separate parts and at last he will
have covered the entire ground.
“Guidance and control” are the catchwords of one school and “Freedom and initiative” of
the other. Guidance is not external imposition. It is freeing of life process for its own most
adequate fulfillment. The child’s present experience is in no way self explanatory. It is not final,
but transitional. What we need is something which will enable us to interpret, to praise the
elements in the child’s present, putting forth and falling away, his exhibitions of power and
weakness, in the light of larger growth process in which they have their place.
The child is expected to “develop” this or that, fact or truth out of his own mind. He is
told to think things out, or work for himself or herself without being supplied any of the
environing conditions which are required to start and guide thought. Nothing can be developed
from nothing; but the crude can be developed out of the crude. It is certainly as futile to expect a
child to evolve a universe out of his own mere mind as it is for a philosopher to attempt this task.
Childhood is as much a period of consummation and of enjoyment of life on its own terms as it

21. was a prelude to later life. They had their own rights. The teacher should not be one to stand at
the front of the room doling out bits of information to be absorbed by passive students. Instead,
the teacher’s role should be that of facilitator and guide. Thus the teacher becomes a partner in
the learning process, guiding students to independently discover meaning within the subject area.
2.2.2 Play and Work in the Curriculum
Experiences have shown that when children have a chance at physical activities which
bring their natural impulses into play, going to school is a joy, management is less of a burden
and learning is easier. Exercises which are prompted by the instincts are a part of the regular
school program. The grounds for assigning to play and active work a definite place in the
curriculum are intellectual and social. Play and work correspond, point for point with the traits of
the initial stage of knowing. The school should be a living community in which the child is an
active participant. Education being a social process, the school is simply that form of community
life in which all those agencies are concentrated that will be most effective in bringing the child
to share in the inherited resources of the race, and to use his own powers for social ends.
Children normally engage in play and work out of school and it has seemed to many
educators a reason why they should concern themselves in school with things radically different.
School time seems too precious to spend in doing over again what children were sure to do any
way. Books and everything concerned with them are rare and difficult of access. They were the
only means of outlet from a narrow and crude environment. An educational result is a by product
of play and work in most of our school conditions. Play tends to reproduce and affirm the
crudities, as well as the excellencies, of surrounding adult life. It is not enough just to introduce
plays and games, hand work and manual exercise. Everything depends upon the way in which
they are employed. School activities were meant to connect with home activities so that the
child would be interested in pursuing them. They were then to lead, by means of the curriculum
toward habits of doing, thinking and feeling that would be part of the productive social life of an
adult. Play has an end in the sense of a directing idea which gives point to the successive acts.
Persons who play are not just doing something (pure physical movement); but they are trying to

22. do or effect something, an attitude that involves anticipatory forecasts which stimulate their
present response. In their plays, they like to construct their own toys and appliances.
Occasionally children need to be alone and on their own. But mostly they will learn more
by doing things together. By choosing what their group would like to do, planning their work,
helping one another do it, trying out various ways and means of performing the tasks, involved
and discovering what will forward the project, comparing and appraising the results. The
problem of the educator is to engage pupils in these activities in such ways that while manual
skill and technical efficiency are gained and immediate satisfaction found in the work, together
with preparation for later usefulness. Opportunity for making mistakes is an incidental
requirement.
2.2.3 Conclusion
It is important not to confuse the psychological distinction between play and work with
the economic distinction. Psychologically, the defining characteristic of play is neither
amusement nor aimlessness. In fact the aim is thought of as more activity in the same line,
without defining continuity of action in reference to results produced. Activities as they grow
more complicated gain added meaning by greater attention to specific results achieved. Thus,
they pass gradually into work for their livelihood.

23. CHAPTER 3
EDUCATIONAL VALUE
3.1 Dewey’s Concept of Values
According to Dewey, “Values are as unstable as the forms of clouds. They keep on
changing from time to time and reality is still in the process of making”. The main principle of
his philosophy is, “Pragmatism”, it means that man creates his own values during the course of
an activity. There are no fixed values for all times to come. Even truths are man made products.
There is nothing like an absolute truth. Whatever fulfils man’s purposes and desires and
develops his life is true. Truth is that which gives satisfactory results when put into practice.
Usefulness of anything is the most important thing according to Dewey. The value of
experimentation is very important. Every statement needs to be tested and the practical
implications have to be found out. Dewey says, “Philosophy, in order to be philosophy, should
have meaning and utility in the solution of human problems”.
3.2 The Nature of Standards of Valuation
Every adult has acquired in the course of his prior experience and education, certain
measures of the worth of various sorts of experiences. He has learned to look upon qualities like
honesty, amiability, perseverance, loyalty, as moral goods and so on. He has learned certain rules
of these values the golden rule in morals; harmony, balance calm, etc., proportionate distribution
in aesthetic goods.
A pupil who has had repeated experience of the full meaning of the value of kindness
toward others built into his deposition has a measure of the worth of generous treatment of
others. Without this vital appreciation, the duty and virtue of unselfishness impressed upon him
by others as a standard remains purely a matter of symbols which he cannot adequately translate
into realities. Its scope is as comprehensive as the work of education itself.

24. 3.3 The Valuation of Studies
The theory of educational values involves not only an account of the nature of
appreciation as fixing the measure of subsequent valuations, but an account of the specific
directions in which these valuations occur. The value of study is the act of cherishing something,
holding it dear, and also the act of passing judgment upon the nature and amount of its value as
compared with something else. To value in the latter sense is to valuate or evaluate. Any study
has a unique or irreplaceable function in experience, in so far as it marks a characteristic
enrichment of life. Education is not a means to living, but is identical with the operation of living
a life which is fruitful and inherently significant, the only ultimate value which can be set up is
just the process of living itself. What has been said about appreciation means that every study in
one of its aspects ought to have just such ultimate significance of life.
3.4 The Segregation and Organization of Values
It is of course possible to classify in a general way the various valuable phases of life. In
order to get a survey of aims sufficiently wide to give breath and flexibility to the enterprise of
education, there is some advantage in such a classification. The need of such general points of
view is greater because of a tendency to segregate educational values due to the isolation from
one another of the various pursuits of life. The idea is prevalent that different studies present
separate kinds of values and that the curriculum should, therefore, be constituted by gathering
together various studies till a sufficient variety of independent values have been cared for. The
point at issue in a theory of educational value is then the unity or integrity of experience. The
tendency to assign separate values to each study and to regard the curriculum in its entirety as a
kind of composite made by the aggregation of segregated values is a result of the isolation of
social groups and classes.

25. 3.5 The Value of Thinking
We all acknowledge, in words at least, that the ability to think is highly important. It is regarded
as the distinguishing power that marks man off from the lower animals. Thinking enables us to
direct our activities with foresight and to plan according to ends in view, or purposes of which
we are aware. It enables us to act in deliberate and intentional fashion to attain future objects or
to come into command of what is now distant and lacking. The being who can think is moved by
remote considerations by results that can be attained perhaps only after a lapse of years as when
a young person sets out to gain a professional education to fit himself for a career in the years to
come. It is in virtue of thought that given things are significant of absent things and that speaks a
language which may be interpreted. The process of instruction is unified in the degree in which
they center in the production of good habits of thinking. While we may speak, without error, of
the method of thought, the important thing is that thinking is the method of an educative
experience. The essentials of method are therefore identical with the essential of reflection.

26. GENERAL CONCLUSION
John Dewey is surely one of the greatest contemporary philosophers, thinkers and
educationists. Dewey has been called the “Father of American Education” as well as “The
Greatest Humanist of the 20th century”. He can also rightly be called the father of the modern
educational theory and practice, because he influenced great many educators of the nineteenth
and twentieth centuries. He has exercised a great influence on education in its manifold aspects.
Education is a process of developing the natural powers of the pupil, not an acquisition of
information alone. The pupil’s instincts ought to be respected. His or her personal, individuality
should be kept intact. He believes that learning is active and schooling unnecessarily long
restrictive.
Dewey gave us the basis for the scientific tendency in modern education. It is due to
Dewey that the need of sense training and physical activities in the earlier development of the
child has been recognized in modern system of education. We are indebted to Dewey for his
emphasis on such principles as learning by doing through one’s experience and heuristic
teaching. Even Gravissimum Educationis suggests that the content of education should be the
formation of the human person with respect to the ultimate goal.
I personally think that his thoughts are enriching and his philosophy is based on the day
to day life, because he observed what was happening before him in his society. We know what is
happening in the present day. As I was going through his life and his teachings, I discovered the
main aim of Dewey’s philosophy on education. I realize that I have learnt a great deal from this
paper. One thing that is very evident in the thought of Dewey is the strong importance given to
education. We have to be aware about what is happening in and around us, only then we can live
our life fully.
As I complete a part of my philosophical journey, let me sum up the findings of my paper
entitled “The Educational Philosophy of John Dewey”. I feel my dissertation paper has made me
realize a lot of unknown facts that a human person goes through in one’s life. To sum up, I
presented a synthesis of my whole study on Dewey’s Philosophy of education. Personally, I have
enjoyed my endeavor in trying to understand Dewey’s Philosophy of Education. It has enriched

27. me intellectually to a large extent. It has taught me a lot about life and the value of education. It
has made me realize the importance of education in my life. It has also made me aware of the
fact that unless we have ourselves experienced God’s guiding hand in our lives and lived up to
its demands, we have not really become true followers of Christ and Christianity to educate the
youngster in our future ministry.
Centuries will pass away and in the meantime, many more educational philosophers will
contribute to the education of the child, but Dewey will ever remain like a guiding star ever
glowing with the halo of brilliance in revolutionary thoughts on education of the child for better
blossoming. He will continue to stand as a model in modern education as Plato to ancient
education.

28. REFERENCES
https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Dewey
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dewey
https://www.philosophybasics.com/philosophers_dewey.html
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/dewey/
https://www.iep.utm.edu/dewey/
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/dewey/#PoliPhil
https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Dewey/Instrumentalism
https://www.google.com/search?client=avast&q=complete+document+on+jhon+dewey+as+a+p
hilosopher
https://www.philosophybasics.com/philosophers_dewey.html
https://www.questia.com/read/77608512/democracy-and-education-an-introduction-to-the-
philosophy
http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/dewey-john.pdf
http://www.ibe.unesco.org/sites/default/files/deweye.PDF
https://study.com/academy/lesson/john-dewey-on-education-impact-theory.html
https://www.slideshare.net/pranaybhuiyan1/education-philosophy-of-john-dewey
https://www.slideshare.net/joakuncai/john-dewey-9382725
https://www.slideshare.net/lrickes/john-dewey-powerpoint
https://www.slideshare.net/CPappasOnline/educational-progressivism

29. SIGNNATURE
It is to be agreed all the members that each and every content is taken from different sources
including books, YouTube videos,Slideshares,websites,html documents etc also,
It is to be confirmed that all the task-oriented work is done by all the team members all are
participated with full zeal and fervor, if any of mistake has occurred all the team members are
responsible for this. And we all are members are satisfied with work and the appreciated the
Educational reformer who is the great JHON DEWEY.
AYESHA JAVED
(30)
HIRA SAEED
(46)
TEHSEEN IQBAL
(06)
HAMNA NASIR
(55)
WASSAMA AJMAL
(251)