Dewey on Thinking in Education

Introduction

The concept of thinking plays an important role throughout Dewey’s work, yet his educational theory is commonly associated with the idea of “doing.” This association comes about for at least two reasons. For one, Dewey is part of the philosophical tradition of pragmatism, a term derived from the Greek root pragma(πράγμα), which refers to the “deed.” For another, Dewey has become connected to child-centered notions of education, which, in their more radical iterations, equate learning with activity and thus on the surface can appear to be aligned with his notion of “learning by doing.” However, too much emphasis on these ideas gives us a one-sided picture of Dewey’s understanding of education; it causes readers to overlook the significance of his concept of thinking. For Dewey, thinking is both the aim and the condition for the possibility of education. But, what is thinking? This entry discusses Dewey’s concept of thinking in its relation to three other concepts:...