Dewey Re-visited: with Implications for Teacher Education

Abstract

This paper touches on John Dewey's view of the purpose of the process of formal education, particularly its social dimension in relation to the environment, which for Dewey means ‘those conditions that promote or hinder, stimulate or inhibit, the characteristic activities of a living being'. Dewey is concerned with communication and the conditions of growth of the child from every point of view. He was very opposed to those who see education as preparation for something else: he focused on what he saw as the existential needs of the student. Some of Dewey's views are contrasted with those of Jacques Maritain, another philosopher, who wrote about the same issues from a different point of view.