JOHN DEWEY: AN INTRODUCTION TO HIS LIFE AND WORK

With Larry Hickman, Ph.D.

2001 (40 min) $250.   ISBN: 1-891340-73-5        [Available with Spanish Subtitles]

View a short clip from this film.

Visit our Support Materials section to view or download the Learning Guide and Discussion Topics for this film.

Trying to break down artificial boundaries between fields, many universities and colleges are today creating more cross-departmental programs.  John Dewey all by himself was a cross-departmental scholar working in the fields of psychology, philosophy and education with some political science thrown in for good measure. Dewey’s own work bridged two centuries and continues to have great relevance for us in this next one.   This film highlights Dewey’s analysis of learning, his pragmatic philosophical stance of truth as a process and his passionate faith in democracy as the best way of organizing human relationships on all levels.  Utilizing archival materials, animations and compelling film of an outstanding public elementary school, the film shows how Dewey’s work has profound implications for issues hotly debated today.  Larry Hickman, the director of the Center for Dewey Studies narrates.

Film content:

            Dewey’s early life and its context in the changing social life of the l9th century

            Influences on Dewey’s thought: Rene Descartes, Charles Darwin, William James, Jane Addams

            Analysis of Learning– Rethinking the Reflex Arc concept

                        Dewey’s five-step analysis of effective learning

                        The Chicago Lab School’s pedagogy and Dewey’s rejection of both overly rigid and overly lax educational practices

                        Deborah Meier’s Mission Hill School in Boston that uses Dewey-inspired instructional methods      

            Pragmatism as a philosophical stance

                        Absolutism versus relativism

                        Regulative principle

                        Truth as a process

            Democracy as an organizing principle and its implications for us today

Visuals:

            Dewey in l929 newsreel film speaking about the power of self-initiated education

            Animated representations of Decartes’ Reflex Arc concept of learning and James’ and Dewey’s modifications of it

            Evocative photographs of the Chicago Lab School’s students at work

            Film sequence documenting current lessons at Deborah Meier’s Mission Hill School

            Compelling visuals describing the philosophical stance of pragmatism, using examples from Dewey’s writing and modern ones

            An interview with Louise Rosenblatt who worked with Dewey on political issues

            Conversations with young researchers who are continuing Dewey’s work

            Archival photos of Dewey’s life and that of his contemporaries

John Dewey’s Life:

            Born in Manchester, New Hampshire l859

            Spent time near Civil War battlefields with his family

            His undergraduate degree was from the University of New Hampshire

            Taught high school in an oil town in Pennsylvania

            Received his Ph.D from Johns Hopkins

            Taught at the University of Michigan, University of Chicago and Columbia

            Married and had six children.  Widowed, married late in life and adopted two more children.

            Wrote numerous books and articles

            Died l952

Consultant:

Larry Hickman is the director of the Center for Dewey Studies at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.  He received his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and is a leading scholar on John Dewey and pragmatism.  He has written extensively in the field and travels widely to lecture.

A Published Review of this Film:

By Jim Garrison, Ph.D., Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA

I have just finished viewing Frances W. Davidson’s production of John Dewey: His Life and Work. It is an impressive piece, which contracts a large amount of well-organized information and insight into an amazingly brief span. Well produced and well narrated, the film holds the readers attention without loudly demanding it. It is not another dry educational video. It provides a clear and concise introduction to the core ideas of Dewey’s philosophy, psychology, and pedagogy suitable for high school students and above. At the same time, the Deweyan scholar may benefit by seeing the architectonic of Dewey’s thought presented in such a compact synthesis. 

The narrator organizes the components of Dewey’s thought around major three themes: His analysis of Human Learning, Truth as Process, and Faith in Democracy. These are briefly, yet skillfully explained. The narrator also introduces such influential ideas, among others, as pragmatism, the advent of technology and Darwinianism. The impact on his work of personal commitments such as social justice, diversity, and possibility are also included. Toward the end, the narrator weaves in threads of Dewey’s aesthetics so tightly it almost becomes a fourth, and unifying, theme, something those who know Dewey’s work well will appreciate. 

Educators such as I will appreciate cameo performance by leaders in the field as Debra Meier and Louise Rosenblatt among others provide fresh faces. It is pleasing to see them discussing Dewey’s analysis of learning (Meier) and democracy (Rosenblatt) in ways that do not narrowly confine them. That so many faces are those of children passionately engaged in personally meaningful activities conveys the feeling of Dewey thinking about education, not just its intellectual content, thereby providing the viewer with a demonstration of Dewey’s insistence on the unity of feeling, thought, and action. 

This production saw the faces of its anticipated audience from beginning to end. The producer and narrator engage the viewers without pretense or self-consciousness. They seem to realize they have a great story to tell, so they just tell it without getting the use of needless dramatic ploys and props. I recommend having your library purchase a copy of this video soon. It does in 41 minutes what I have spent hours trying to do in my classes.

[Mr. Garrison is a co-editor of Constructivism and Education, published in l998 by Cambridge University, and author of Dewey and Eros: Wisdom and Desire in the Art of Teaching, published in l997 by Teachers College Press.]   

Related film:

            Part of the GIANTS OF PSYCHOLOGY series

[ BACK TO TOP ]