SUMMARY: John Dewey (October 20, 1859 – June 1, 1952) American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer
John Dewey Quotes
John Dewey Books

John Dewey was an American philosopher and educator whose writings and teachings have continued to have a profound influence on education in the United States. Dewey’s philosophy of education is called instrumentalism which focused on learning-by-doing rather than rote learning and dogmatic instruction, which was the current practice of his day. He has also been called the father of functional psychology and he was a leading representative of the progressive movement in U.S. schooling during the first half of the 20th century. Dewey was also a very prolific writer. The following bibliography references can be used to study his most popular works on education.
• My Pedagogic Creed (1897)
• The School and Society (1900)
• Child and the Curriculum (1902)
• Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education (1916)
• How We Think: A Restatement of the Relation of Reflective Thinking to the Educative Process (1933)
• Experience and Education (1938)
John Dewey was born in Burlington, Vermont on October 20, 1859 to a family of modest origins. He followed his older brother, Davis Rich Dewey and attended the University of Vermont, from which he graduated (Phi Beta Kappa) in 1879. After graduation he then worked for three years as a high school teacher in Oil City, Pennsylvania. Interestingly enough despite his future influence on education Dewey decided that he was unsuited for employment in primary or secondary education. After borrowing two thousand dollars from his aunt, he was able to enter graduate school to pursue a degree in philosophy. After receiving his Ph.D. from the School of Arts & Sciences at Johns Hopkins University in 1884, he took a faculty position at the University of Michigan. In 1894 Dewey joined the faculty of the newly founded University of Chicago where he shaped his belief in an empirically based theory of knowledge aligning his ideals with the newly emerging Pragmatic school of thought. It was during his time at the University of Chicago that his writing career began in earnest. Yet almost constant and major disagreements with the administration ultimately led to his resignation from the University at which point he left for the East Coast. From 1904 until his death he achieved the distinction of being a professor of philosophy at Columbia University and Teachers College, Columbia University. He was also a long-time member of the American Federation of Teachers. John Dewey died in New York City on June 1, 1952.

While John Dewey immersed himself into the aesthetics of thought, the works of journalism and even the study of art his main focus and lasting impression is in the field of education. Dewey felt it was vitally important that education should not be the teaching of mere dead fact, but that the skills and knowledge which students learned be integrated fully into their lives as persons, citizens and human beings. This practical element of learning by doing was given birth from his subscription to the philosophical school of Pragmatism. Dewey is often cited as creating the foundations for outcomes-based education and Standards-based education reform, and helping create standards such as the NCTM mathematics standards, all of which emphasize critical thinking over memorization of facts. While Dewey’s ideas were never broadly and deeply integrated into the practices of American public schools, some of his values and terms were widespread.

Many of Dewey’s ideas went on to directly impact the founding of Bennington College in Vermont, where Dewey served on the Board of Trustees. One of the Bennington houses bears Dewey’s name. Dewey also profoundly affected Ken and Susan Webb in founding Farm and Wilderness Camps in Plymouth, Vermont. In addition there are several schools today that are based on what is known as the Deweyean model. As a memorial to John Dewey “The Center for Dewey Studies” is the focal point for the study of Dewey’s life and work, and is located at the campus of Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

Major works of John Dewey include:
• “The New Psychology.”
• “The Ego as Cause” Philosophical Review, 3,337-341. (1894)
• “The Reflex Arc Concept in Psychology” (1896)
• My Pedagogic Creed (1897)
• The Child and the Curriculum (1902)
• “The Postulate of Immediate Empiricism” (1905)
• “Democracy and Education” (1916)
• How We Think (1910)
• Reconstruction in Philosophy (1919)
• Human Nature and Conduct: An Introduction to Social Psychology
• Experience and Nature (1925)
• The Public and its Problems (1927)
• The Quest for Certainty (1929)
• Individualism Old and New (1930)
• Philosophy and Civilization (1931)
• Ethics, second edition (with James Hayden Tufts) (1932)
• Art as Experience (1934)
• A Common Faith (1934)
• Liberalism and Social Action (1935)
• Experience and Education (1938)
• Logic: The Theory of Inquiry (1938)
• Freedom and Culture (1939)
• Knowing and the Known (1949) (with Arthur Bentley)