The In-position Analyses Of Dewey’s Basic Educational Propositions

As a famous American educator in the twentieth century, Dewey came up with a series of basic educational propositions in his ideology of pragmatism, such as "Education as life", "Education as Growth" and "Education as the transformation of experience". These propositions show the emphases on the relation between education and life, between education and society, between practice and experience in Dewey’s educational ideas. The Analytic Philosophy, which appeared in the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, possesses the most fundamental characteristic of the primary position of analysis in the philosophical research. Among them, the "in-position analysis" of Wittgenstein is to analyze the whole proposition by analyzing or comparing the words contained in the proposition.The word analysis method of the "in-position analysis" of Wittgenstein is used to analyze the words of life, society, school, growth and experience in Dewey’s basic educational propositions. After analyzing each word, it analyzes the connotation of the whole proposition linked by the linking verb. The "in-position analysis" of Wittgenstein also contains the word comparison method. By comparing Spencer’s idea of education as the preparation for the perfect life with Dewey’s proposition of education as a necessity of life and comparing Rousseau’s idea of naturalistic education with Dewey’s proposition of education as a social function, we can get a deeper understanding of the connotations of Dewey’s basic educational propositions.By analyzing the meaning, the subject and the characteristic of the word "life" in the proposition of education as life, it suggests that Dewey’s "life" means the activity of organism to maintain itself by utilizing and controlling both its own energy and the external force. Based on the connotation of life, the proposition of education as life means that education not only aims at the physical and mental development of the individual but also for the sake of the continuity of the social life. According to the word comparison method of the in-position analysis method, by analyzing the word "life" in Spencer’s idea of education as the preparation for the perfect life, it shows that this basic educational proposition means that education is both a special kind of real life and a construction of a better life. And education rooted in the reality makes preparations for the future. The analyses of the words society and function lead to the conclusion. Dewey’s "society" means the community composed by people and his "function" means the function of the school in the society. After the word analyses, Rousseau’s idea of naturalistic education is compared with the basic educational proposition of education as a social function, which points that Dewey thinks education concerns more about the continuity and renewal of the social life.The analyses of the meaning, the subject and the characteristic of the school conclude the connotation of the proposition of education as society. It emphasizes that school should be a small society and school education should focus on the students and aim at the development of the students. By analyzing the word "growth", it is seen that education is the development of the organism (i.e. person) from an immature state to a mature state in the proposition of education as growth. Here the education mainly means the school education and the growth mainly means the children’s growth. The analyses of the words "experience" and "transformation" holds that the proposition of education as a transformation of experience means children transform their experience in order to cope with the needs of change from themselves and the environment in the process of their growth and development. Experience transformation cannot happen all by itself. Education must be needed.