the Department of Philosophy. He also chaired the
Department of Pedagogy and directed the Laborato-
ry School. Dewey left Chicago in 1904 to teach at Co-
lumbia University in New York City from 1905 to
1930, serving in an emeritus capacity until 1939. He
continued to write and lecture on a wide variety of
topics until his death in 1952.
During his long teaching career, Dewey wrote
many important works on a variety of subjects, includ-
ing inquiry, social justice, ethics, education, and de-
mocracy. Indeed, Dewey sought to examine the bases
of these themes as a means to provide individuals with
the capacity to experience intellectual freedom—a
prerequisite for a democratic society. Some of these
works include My Pedagogic Creed (1897), How We
Think (1910), Democracy and Education (1916), Experi-
ence and Nature (1925), The Public and Its Problems
(1927), and Logic: The Theory of Inquiry (1938).
Dewey was genuinely concerned about social
problems and believed that educational processes
could be used to eliminate many of society’s ills. To-
ward that end, Dewey sought to provide educators
with strategies for reaching students that would honor
each child’s individual strengths and interests. Dewey
believed, in particular, that schools and school sys-
tems should not be factorylike in nature, where all stu-
dents were expected to master content in a
predetermined and uniform way. On the contrary,
Dewey recommended restructuring schools so that
children could think and learn in their own ways and
teachers would be guides to students’ learning.
Dewey remains a significant influence in the
fields of education and child development. By sug-
gesting that authentic educational experiences were
those that sprang from a child’s natural inclinations
and were reinforced through innovative teaching and
supportive surroundings, Dewey’s philosophy pro-
vides a basis for individualized instruction, multicul-
turalism, and special education, as well as general
education.
See also: LEARNING
Bibliography
Campbell, James. Understanding John Dewey. Peru, IL: Open Court
Publishing, 1995.
‘‘Chronology of Dewey’s Life and Work.’’ The Center for Dewey
Studies. In the Southern Illinois University at Carbondale
[web site]. 2001. Available from http://www.siu.edu/
üdeweyctr/; INTERNET.
‘‘A Short, Annotated Reading List.’’ The Center for Dewey Studies.
In the Southern Illinois University at Carbondale [web site].
- Available from http://www.siu.edu/üdeweyctr/; INTER-
NET.
Donna M. Davis
John Dewey sought to provide educators with strategies for reaching
students that would honor each child’s individual strengths and
interests. (Columbiana Collection, Columbia University
Libraries)DIALECTICAL PERSPECTIVES
Dialectical analysis originated with the theories of the
philosopher Georg Hegel (1770–1831), who posited
that conflict and change are the fundamentals of
human life. Hegel’s theories influenced modern dia-
lectical perspectives, which are concerned with action
and change occurring during cognitive development
rather than development in universal stages. The
foremost proponent of dialectical psychology was Lev
Semanovich Vygotsky (1896–1934). He theorized
that children’s development always takes place in a
social context and that the social environment always
plays a significant role in all aspects of development.
According to Vygotsky, development is organized and
regulated by adults through interactions between the
developing child and the adult. Higher mental func-
tions first occur on a social level through social
interactions and are then internalized by the child.
This process is called the zone of proximal develop-
ment, which is a bidirectional interaction where a
child performs beyond his or her skills with the sup-
port and direction of an adult.DIALECTICAL PERSPECTIVES 121