It is often said that children learn more by doing rather than hearing. Many of early childhood learning centers have adapted the concept of hands on learning over the years, which goes along with the famous practice of John Dewey. He is also known for his association with the philosophy of pragmatism which takes on a practical approach where the purpose of thinking is to guide action, and that truth should be tested by the sensible outcome of knowledge. The work of John Dewey greatly influenced the field of early education. This paper will include a brief summary of John Dewey’s life, a description of his major theories and ideas, and how those ideas impact early education today.
John Dewey’s Life
According to Biography.com and the New World Encyclopedia "John Dewey was born on the 20th October 1859 in Burlington, Vermont USA to Lucina Artemisia Rich and Archibald Dewey. He excelled as a student while attending Burlington public schools, he enrolled at the University of Vermont at the young age of 15. There he studied philosophy under the training of Henry Augustus Pearson Torrey. Four years after which, in 1879 he graduated second in his class with his bachelor 's degree.
His teaching career began in 1880 at the …show more content…
He is a firm believer in the idea that their mindset with school and society mirror each other. "His placing the welfare and integrity of the forms of association in which we participate as of greater significance than the regard for self and others stems from the fact that both egoism and altruism are forms of "I" intentionality, which means that any attention to the "we" nature of community is unrecognized in egoistic and altruistic pursuits" (Popp,