The Dewyan Perspective

From Dewey’s perspective, the difference between an ordinary experience and an experience is when students can move behind concepts and create ideas. Dewey did not seek out to justify or outline hands-on activity-based learning or project-based learning because this wasn’t the experience Dewey was outlining. Instead, to Dewey, the learning experiene should be inchoate, or rudimentary, where the study has the “ah-ha” moment and sees the idea through from the beginning to the end. It’s when the student can relate to the content or relate the content to bigger picture and social justice problems as parallels. The student takes the teacher’s content material and starts at the beginning to create a meaningful and relevant conclusion. Students experience the anticipation of the unknown and speculate on how events might come together. Through anticipation students can develop their thoughts and ideas and when sharing out their ideas, find a unity within their community of learners to work towards a common goal or outcome.