The Philosophy and Philosophers behind Experiential Education
Just like most other philosophies, the philosophy of experiential education evolved from Ancient Greeks like Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle. Experiential education is unique in the fact that its state is a newer philosophy of education founded by American philosophers. The foundation of experiential education is the pragmatic movement, led by the Americans William James and John Dewey. The extensive similarities between pragmatic and experiential philosophy make it difficult to differentiate between the two educational movements. The philosophy of pragmatism “encourages people to find processes that work in order to achieve their desired ends” (Sadovnik 205). Pragmatists are seen as “action oriented, experientially grounded” philosophers and teachers (Sadovnik 205). Through the study of experiential education’s historical roots we will get a brief tour of Western philosophy and be able to focus on the American philosophy of pragmatism which set the foundation for experiential learning. Finally, like any good pragmatic or experientially based philosophical paper we will question and clarify the pragmatic purpose for knowing the history behind the philosophic ideas, which define our field.
Ancient Greek Philosophy
All western philosophy including that of experiential education started with the Greeks. The earliest recorded Greek educators were the sophists. Their teaching technique consisted primarily, “of reciting opinions on profound subjects, and helping students to learn to recite these opinions equally persuasively” (Crosby 10). The sophist saw the world as an unchanging reality and therefore, “those who know (the sophists) can tell those who don’t yet know (the students) the truth about it” (Crosby 10). According to sophist educational philosophy, “learners were the uninformed who could be filled up with knowledge as if it were soup and one could get it all”(Crosby 10). As you can see this is a far cry from the ideas of experiential based education.
Soon after the sophists began teaching other philosophers more connected with the ideas of experiential education surfaced and redefined the definition of the learned man. In fact these philosophers did not believe in the idea of the learned man, they only believed in the idea of the learning man. The first contributor to this new style of learning and to what would one day become experiential education was Socrates (Crosby 10). Socrates “taught that the educated person was the one who questions all through life; that learning is a life style” (Crosby 11). The two major contributions, which Socrates made to education in general and eventually experiential education, were:
- “He believed that the student had something to contribute to the learning and he elicited that” (Crosby 10).
- “He believed that the process of becoming educated was the important thing, rather than arriving at a final static state and he practiced that” (Crosby 10).
Socrates never wrote any of his thoughts and conversations down and therefore all we know of Socrates comes from a student of his by the name of Plato. The Platonic method is simply an extension of the Socratic method. Plato made clear that “any learning of which we are capable is gained by reflection on our own beliefs, and this is accomplished best by critical discussion with others” (Crosby 11). Plato’s idea of reflection within a group is another contribution of the ancient Greeks to experiential education.
The goal of the Socratic method of teaching is to develop people, “who can continue to express and examine their own and others’ ideas” (Crosby 11).
In Socratic philosophy change came in “ideas” and placed little emphasis on the changing world. However, the philosopher Aristotle saw the world in terms, “of things changing from what they potentially are to their state of being actually realized” (Crosby 11). Aristotle thought that the importance of learning how to think was most important in humans because: “thinking is the function of the human species peculiar to it only” (Crosby 11).
The assumption within experiential education is that students educated through experience are better “prepared to deal with the world than are students educated according to traditional epistemologies” (Crosby 10). Although this may be true it is important to note that the ideas of learning as a lifestyle and the student as contributor promoted by Socrates; reflection as a method of learning expounded by Plato; and Aristotle’s thinking in an ever changing world are the cornerstones for experiential education.
Francis Bacon and the Movement Toward Pragmatic Philosophy
In the 17th century a philosopher by the name of Francis Bacon created a way of learning which would not only help shape the philosophic idea of experiential education, but also would set the criteria for the procedure, which would one day become known as the scientific method. Bacon presented a way of learning, which started with observation, followed by hypothesis and repeated experimenting, and finally concluded with a proven or disproved theory. This “method of reasoning he (Bacon) emphasized was inductive, which became the foundations of observational method in educational research.” The scientific method of Bacon influenced both pragmatism and experiential education by its focus on “experience posited firmly within the world of daily existence, he (Bacon) can be thought of as a pioneer in the pragmatic school of philosophy” (Sadovnik 206). After Bacon the next great contribution to experiential education would be that of the pragmatic thinkers.
Interestingly enough William James who is known as one of the earliest pragmatic thinkers had an opportunity to take part in a scientific expedition, which would shape his ideas on experienced based learning. From 1865-1866 William James accompanied the scientist Louis Agassiz to Brazil, Agassiz was known for his phrase “study nature, not books” and with this influence James learned to place a great deal of emphasis on education through experience (Donaldson 6). Therefore, the scientific method created by Bacon not only directly contributed to the development of experiential learning through observation, but also it indirectly contributed by exposing William James, a forerunner to experiential education to education through experience.
William James and pragmatic philosophy
The 19th century was a time of “industrialization and the discovery of the Darwinian Theory of evolution,” which caused rapid change in the world and questioning of old idealistic thoughts (Reynolds 24). Under these circumstances the pragmatist saw a world, which was “dynamic and developing” (Sadonvnik 206). William James in particular tried to resolve the metaphysical questions, which arose from these circumstances by, “tying ideas to operations, actions and consequences. So that meaning could be comprehended” (Reynolds 24).
William James “sought to ground his philosophy in a view of human nature that recognized human activity to be first practical” he believed that, “a philosophy which denied this would, in the long run, fail, because it would be out of touch with the reality of human experience” (Page 35).
Through his pragmatic philosophy James attempted to formulate an “objective reality with human subjective meaning” (Page 34). James believed that the test of a philosophy “was the extent to which it provided the believer with a sentiment of rationality” (Page 34). These ideas were the reason why James placed such importance on experience. He felt that, “one learns best by his/her own activity” (Donaldson 7). According to James, “ ’the learner must take the first step himself’ ” (Donaldson 7).
The pragmatic philosophy practiced by William James placed a great deal of emphasis on experience; in fact it could be argued that the growth of pragmatic philosophy brought a birth to experiential education. James’ emphasis on experience can be seen in these thoughts: “‘feed the growing human being, feed him the sort of experience for which from year to year he shows a natural craving, and he will develop in adult life a sounder sort of mental tissue’” (Donaldson 8). The tougher mental tissue, which James spoke of lead to a deeper meaning of human experience. James also rebutted more classical ways of learning by saying, “’an impression which simply flows in at the pupil’s eyes or ears and in no way modifies his active life is an impression gone to waste.’” (Donaldson 8). These words also shows the emphasis James placed on the reflection process. James’ sentiment was that, “it is in experience and the evaluation of that experience that truth emerges, but that truth is never complete until the last possible experience has been played out” (Page 36). James felt that experience taught us to reevaluate and sometimes modify our present model of doing things (James 222).
Experiential education’s emphasis on the importance of the learning process in gaining a skill places it in the “school of hard knocks.” If there is substance to the “hard knocks” idea and “the age old notion that ‘experience is the best teacher,’ then William James is a major prophet in the experiential school” (Donaldson 7). James’ contributions to experiential education are his belief in the experience as the way of verifying truth and his concern with the deeper meaning of human experiences (Page 37).
John Dewey, The Pragmatic Educator
William James was the first American to bring the idea of pragmatic education to the states, but it was John Dewey who “[spelled] out most of the educational implications of their jointly-held philosophy” (Donaldson 7). A comparison of these two thinkers is:
“Both were empiricists, both were pragmatists and, although Dewey more explicitly applied the doctrines to education in the burgeoning industrial society, it was … James who spoke and wrote more clearly” (Donaldson 7).
In his Pedagogic Creed Dewey said, “’I believe finally, that education must be conceived as a continuing reconstruction of experience; that the process and the goal of education are one and the same thing’” (Srdovnik p 220). In his pragmatic, progressive idea of education he “proposed that educators start with the needs and interests of the child in the classroom, allow the child to participate in planning his or her course of study, employ project method or group learning and depend heavily on experiential learning” (Sadovnik 205).
Dewey based his pragmatic teaching on a process known as empirical naturalism, which based “philosophical inquiry upon experience” (Hunt 30). He saw this process as an attempt to make a connection between the human and natural world, which seemed to be growing apart with the rise of the industrial revolution. It is an approach at philosophy from another perspective, a perspective of experience (Hunt 30).
Similar to James, Dewy saw more traditional roles of education as unable to “stretch the child beyond his or her existing interests” (Reynolds 23). He felt that, “no experience is educative that does not tend both to knowledge of more facts and a more orderly arrangement of them” (Reynolds 24). Within Dewey’s educational philosophy experience was a way of leading toward more “fruitful and creative subsequent experiences” (Reynolds 25). Dewey’s philosophy saw proper education not as giving the right answer because that may change, but rather “to understand and use our experience … [to develop] the thought processes with which we examine our experience” (Crosby 14). In order to accommodate this new approach to education, Dewey created a developing curriculum, which began with communication, followed by constructive impulse and investigation, and ended with expression. (Reynolds 24).
Dewey separated his experience into two parts the primary and the secondary. The “primary experience for Dewey refers to the immediate tangible, and moving world which presents itself to the senses” (Hunt 30). The secondary experience was the “reflective experience, [which] takes the ‘gros macroscopic, and crude’ materials furnished by primary experience and seeks to make it precise, microscopic, and refined” (Hunt 31). Here we see the parallels between experiential education and Dewey’s theory of experience. Dewy presents a felt difficulty, attempts at resolution, and reflection on what was learned and how it can be integrated into daily life. Similarly experiential education has a challenge or felt difficulty, feedback or an attempt at resolution, and debrief, which attempts to implicate what was learned into a daily situation (Crosby 14). It can be concluded that John Dewey’s educational philosophy and process of learning is the same as that of experiential educators today.
The Development of Experiential Education
Our study of the philosophy of experiential education began with the thoughts of the ancient Greeks. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle made the first developments when they concluded that the process of learning was more important than the accumulation of facts. The scientific method of Francis Bacon furthered experiential education by placing a great deal of emphasis on observation and experimentation. This allowed learning to be seen as an ever-changing process rather than the search for an absolute answer. Finally, the pragmatic philosophy of William James and John Dewy, which relied on experience and practical education to be the fuel for learning, became what is today experiential education. While James introduced pragmatism as a way of life, Dewey implemented pragmatism in the classroom, creating a developing curriculum and educational theory, which is shared by experiential educators today.
By studying the philosophy behind experiential education, experiential educators get a better understanding of its philosophy and where it came from, a glimpse at its philosophical heroes and earliest thinkers, and the opportunity to realize that experiential educators share an idea with some of the greatest educators who ever lived. That idea is learning based upon experience, rather than learning based upon facts. The experiential educator should not go any further than asking the questions: “Am I providing the experience necessary for the student to learn?” and once the experience is concluded “Am I helping to facilitate the implementation of what was learned during this activity into real world circumstances?” The experiential educator does not teach but provides the experience and facilitates the reflection, which allows the students to teach themselves.
Bibliography
Journal of Experiential Education, A Critical Look: The Philosophical Foundations of Experiential Education. April Crosby. Vol. 4, No. 1. (Spring 1981)**
Journal of Experiential Education,William James, Philosophical Father of E Experience Based Education. George W. Donaldson, Richard Vinson. Vol. 2, No. 2. (Fall 1979)
Journal of Experiential Education, Dewey’s Philosophical Method and Its Influence on His Philosophy of Education. Jasper Hunt, Jr. Vol. 4, No. 1. (Spring 1981)**
James, William. Pragmatism: A New Name for some Old Ways of Thinking. longman, Green, and Co. 1914
Journal of Experiential Education,William James: An Ethical Philosopher for Experiential Education. Homer Page. Vol. 10, No. 1. (Spring 1987)
Journal of Experiential Education,The Long Conversation: Tracing the Roots of the Past. Albert Adams, Sherrod Reynolds. Vol. 4, No. 1. (Spring 1981)
Sadovink, Alan R. Exploring Education. P.197-221. Allyn and Bacon, 1994.
Journal of Experiential Education, Philosophical Issues in Experiential Education. Scott Wurdinger. (Book review by Michael J. Swiderski.) Vol. 18,
No. 3. (Dec. 1995)
To learn more about the author Joe Moerschbaecher
