John Dewey

1859–1952 · United States

American philosopher who founded the Laboratory School in Chicago to test ideas about education.Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy · John Dewey ↗

Core ideas

Education grows out of experience: children learn by doing and by working on real problems.Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy · John Dewey ↗
School should be connected to community and democratic life, not cut off from it.Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy · John Dewey ↗

What it means for parents today: Hands-on projects work well when an adult guides them: give feedback, show examples, and ask your child to explain their thinking.Alfieri et al., 2011

What modern research supports

Discovery and project learning with support beats both lectures and unguided discovery.Alfieri et al., 2011

What is outdated or needs correcting

Versions of "learning by doing" that give beginners little guidance do not work well.Kirschner, 2006

Read the originals free

We link only public-domain or officially free copies, such as Project Gutenberg, the Internet Archive and Wikisource.

Age stages that draw on these ideas

School age · 6–12 years

Other educators:Confucius Jean-Jacques Rousseau Friedrich Froebel Maria Montessori Cai Yuanpei Jean Piaget Lev Vygotsky Tao Xingzhi Erik Erikson