Pragmatism, Experience, school and society

• American psychologist, philosopher, educator, social
critic and political activist. In 1894 he became the chairman of the department of philosophy,
psychology, and pedagogy at the University of Chicago.
• Dewey taught at Columbia University from 1905 until he retired in 1929. During his years at Columbia he traveled the world as a philosopher, social and political theorist, and educational consultant. Among his major journeys are his lectures in Japan and China from 1919 to 1921, his visit to Turkey in 1924 to recommend educational policy, and a tour of schools in the USSR in 1928.

• Of course, Dewey never ignored American
social issues. He was outspoken on education, domestic and international politics, and
numerous social movements. Among the many concerns that attracted Dewey's support were women's suffrage, progressive
education, educator's rights, the Humanistic movement, and world peace.

Dewey laid the foundation for his concept of experience in 1896 with a groundbreaking article in which he criticized how the concept of the
reflex arc concept in psychology(behaviorism) is used to interpret the relation between action and thinking.
In this article Dewey argued against the notion that it is possible to analyse human action as a mechanical sequence.

(Elkjaer 2009)
• Pragmatism views subjects as future-oriented.
• The consequence of this orientation towards the
future is that knowledge is provisional because future experience may act as a corrective.
• Dewey may be helpful for the creation of a learning theory that answers the cry for creativity and innovation that is in demand in contemporary knowledge societies.

(model: Knud Illeris 2009) accomodative
Learner centred
Convergent
Curriculum thinking based
University studies
Classroom teaching and instruction
Teacher centred assimilative
Project work
Task based
Problem based
Divergent thinking

• In everyday language a pragmatist is a person focused on results and solutions to problems despite ideological and political differences.
• It is future- oriented :What – if”
• American pragmatism is situated in the optimisms of the promise of new life surrounding waves of immigration to the US at the end of the 19th century.

• Inquiry is a method in which working hypotheses are generated through anticipatory (creative)imagination of consequences ( thus much more than trial and error)
• Thinking (critical anticipation) is to use concepts and theories to solve a problem. The situation determines the choice of theories and concepts.

• At the heart of Dewey´s thinking is the term
”experience”
• Experience is according to Dewey associated with human beings´lives and living.
• In Dewey´s terms , living is the continuous interaction between individuals and their environment.
• Includes emotion, aesthetics and ethics as well as knowledge.

• The subject-worlds relation makes experience possible.
• Experience is both the process of experiencing and the result of the process.
• Inquiry ( or critical and reflective thinking) is an experimental method by which new experience may be had not only through action but also by using ideas and concepts, hypotheses and
theories as tools to think with.

Traditional
• Experience as knowledge
• Experience as subjective
• Experience as oriented to the past
• Experience as isolated experiences
• Experience as action
Dewey
• Knowledge as a subset of experience
• Experience as both subjective and objective(weaving)
• Experience as future oriented
(what-if)
• Experience as united experiences(organic circles)
• Experience as encompassing theories and concepts and as such a foundation for knowledge.

• Dewey was aware that his use of experience was similar to the concept of culture (also a term with many definitions).
• The term practice might be preferred today.
• (cf Lave, Bourdieu)

• Deweyan philosophy is insufficient today to describe how power is a key to understanding how learning is also a matter of access to
participation in educational activities and to being able to respond to challenges ( Biesta
2006)

• Although Vygotsky was never popular within the Sovjet system his teory, however, is firmly embedded in its ideals.
• Vygotsky was Jewish-Russian(limited acces to university etc).
• Vygotsky´s interests belonged to the humanities and social sciences, e.g. philosophy, literature & art ( contrast to
Piaget, but similar to Dewey)

• Contrary to expectations he was admitted to
Moscow University (enrolled by draw)
• Admitted to medical school – changed to law and graduated in history & philosophy from private university as well as M.U.
• In philosophy Vygotsky looked for an alternative to Cartesian dualism
• Position at teachers´college and delivered first lectures in psychology

• Psychcology of Art (Ph.d)(1925)
• The title shows that for Vygotsky psychology was a method of uncovering the origins of higher forms of human consciousness and
emotional life rather than of elementary behavioral acts.
• Psychology cannot limit itself to direct
evidence. Psychology must take into account indirect evidence and circumstantial clues.

• 1924 Vygotsky challenged the Russian behaviorists (Pavlov) (cf Dewey)
• Vygotsky ( with Luria) started a programme for nonreflexological scientific psychology. It had to solve the problem of interrelation of higher and lower elementary functions. He wanted to over the split between naturalist and idealist worldviews.

• Socially meaningful activity became the main explanatory principle.
• Individual consciousness is built from the outside through relations with others.
• Human higher mental functions are products of mediated activity.(tools)and interpersonal relations.

• Development & cultural history
• Vygotsky uses the concept of development with reference to Marx & Hegel according to which the essence could only be understood through a study of its origin and history
• Development both applies to the individual and
the cultural-historical evolution.( contrary to ideas of maturation).
• Psychological development is a dynamic process full of upheavals , sudden changes and reversals.

• Vygotsky suggests that it is the ability to develop cooperative activity through complex social
relationships that separate mature humans from all other animals.
• Dewey also thinks that human beings are born social creatures and develop their sense of self through relationships.
• The main difference lies in how much power the individual has over future social activities.

Dewey
• Experience is helping to
form thinking
Vygotsky
• Culture is the raw material of thinking
• Social history creates tools that are of use in present circumstances
• Tools developed through history have a lasting
impact on the social community

• Dewey posits diversity as an important aspect of educational experience ( diversity as a tool)
• He thinks that environments with a high level of agreement between subjects are not beneficial, because they do not engage in free inquiry and this leads to narrow-mindedness.
• He ( like Vygotsky)sees progress in a equilibration/disequilibration process. The state of disequilibration represents a need. Disturbed equilibration drives exploration of new ideas.

• The social is of primary influence in the life of the individual. Society has a vested interest in the development and maintenance of tools.
• Dewey wants to educate the individual and diversify the social milieu (bottom-up)
• Vygotsky wants to use the educational process to teach new members of the social community how to use culturally developed tools (top-down)

long-term projects and Zone of proximal Development
Dewey
• ”Long-term projects”
• Children are immersed in everyday activity. children will work on a topic that is of interest to them. The topic need not be of any relevance to the demands of the larger social community. The teachers should
act as facilitators. The free
inquiry must be based on the
Children´s own goals. The children learn that they are responsible for inquiry in their lives and they determine what goals are important.
Vygotsky
• ”Zone of proximal
development”
• Adults as representatives of society mentor children in specific culturally appropriate activity. The role of the educational process is to prepare children for more complex
activity in the larger social community

Dewey
• Are teachers supposed to have the role as facilitators who step back from children´s activity and let it run its own course ?
Vygotsky
• Are teachers supposed to approach students as mentors who guide or direct activity ?

• Dewey & Vygotsky
• What principles could be deduced from