Education and Experience

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Recommended: John Dewey's educational philosophy

Response Paper: Experience & Education

S. Reyes

University at Albany, SUNY

Introduction

Education and Experience offers Dewey’s thoughts about traditional and progressive education and the importance of a theory of experience. The two principles underlying experience are continuity and interaction. By considering these two ideas and their relationship to each other, we can try to understand experience. What is an educative experience as opposed to a non-educative experience? What do continuity and interaction suggest about growth, intelligence, and purpose?

Dewey discusses the limitations of traditional education upon the development of the young. The subject-matter of traditional education is, “so bound up with the past as to give little help in dealing with the issues of the present and future” (p. 23). What is missing is the connection of the past and present within experience. To remedy the divide between traditional and progressive education, he calls for a theory of experience.

Continuity

In order to find the connection between the past and the present and future, continuity needs to be considered. “From this point of view, the principle of continuity of experience means that every experience both takes up something from those which have gone before and modifies in some way the quality of those which come after” (p. 35). There is the past experience of others that have already established a path, a fact, some piece of knowledge, and then there is the experience of someone now in the present who takes that path, that fact, that piece of knowledge and makes it their own. Continuity is the knowledge of the experience of the past being adjusted through the lens of someone else’s exp...

... middle of paper ...

... and Experience relies on the two principles of experience, continuity and interaction. To have an educative experience, continuity and interaction must work together. Not only must a person interact with their environment, there needs to be a connection between experiences and a foundation laid to allow for further experiences. Growth, intelligence, and purpose are examples of continuity and interaction that lead to further experiences. Through his theory of experience, Dewey is trying to remedy the divide between traditional and progressive views of education by trying to get away from the either-or dichotomy. It is not one or the other, but both the past experiences of the subject-matter as well as the experiences of the young in the present and future.

Bibliography

Dewey, J. (1938). Experience & Education. New York: Simon & Schuster.

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