John Dewey's Pragmatic Theory Of Education In American Social Transition

John Dewey's pragmatic theory of education was generated during the late 19th and early 20th century when America was undergoing great social transition. At this time, many problems appeared in American traditional education. Dewey lived in such a society when it changed from an agricultural one to industrial one. He witnessed that American traditional schools were isolated from the social lives, which made it impossible to satisfy the development of American industrialized society. With this background, John Dewey founded pragmatic theory of education by applying pragmatic philosophy to educational field and combining his own educational practice. In the system of this theory, many opinions were reputed as the most immediate and strongest response to American social transition such as the thought of professional education, the thought of the relationship between knowledge and practice, the thought of historical education and the thought of ethical education. It can't be denied that Dewey's pragmatic theory of education came from the reality of American social transition, but it exceeded American social reality far away. His theory met with lots of difficulties that could not be overcome if applied in practice. So Dewey's pragmatic theory of education has double characters: reality and ideal. Even in 21st century, his theory also has its reasonability.Applying mainly the research ways of history as well as those of pedagogy and psychology, the paper analyses in detail the American social transition during the late 19th and early 20th century, the generation of Dewey's pragmatic theory of education and the response of the theory to the social transition. It is the distinguished that Dewey's pragmatic theory of education is researched from an angle of American social transition, and it expounds the content of four aspects that have the most intimate relationship with American social transition. Based on the analysis of the theory's content and its worldwide influence, the paper tries to do some research on the reality and ideal of this theory.The paper is made up of the introduction and four chapters:The introduction explains the content of this paper and the research situation on this topic.Chapter 1 illuminates American social transition during the late 19th and early 20th century and the new demands that social transition raised to education. At this period, American industrialization, the development of Urbanization and the arrival of...