Democracy and Education · Chapter
The Development of Subject Matter in the Learner explained
This chapter outlines three stages in the growth of subject matter in the learner: first, knowledge as intelligent ability or 'knowing how to do'; second, knowledge gained through communication and information; and third, rationally organiz
What happens
This chapter outlines three stages in the growth of subject matter in the learner: first, knowledge as intelligent ability or 'knowing how to do'; second, knowledge gained through communication and information; and third, rationally organized, logical knowledge. Dewey emphasizes that initial subject matter arises from active doing and that formal education often errs by isolating knowledge from experience, reducing it to mere verbal information. He argues that true education integrates communicated knowledge with the learner's direct experiences and purposes.
Themes in this chapter
Experience and Learning by Doing
Dewey argues that primary subject matter originates in active doing and intelligent ability, such as walking, reading, or managing a machine, and that education must start from situations involving learning by doing.
Critique of Traditional Curriculum
Dewey criticizes the scholastic conception of knowledge that ignores active doing, leading to isolated, memorized subject matter. He also protests against memoriter work, cramming, and the dominance of secondhand information in schools.
Environment and Indirect Education
The chapter discusses how communication and social intercourse provide indirect education, as learners acquire knowledge from others' experiences and from the broader environment through reading and reports.
Key passages
“Recognition of the natural course of development, on the contrary, always sets out with situations which involve learning by doing.”
Dewey asserts that true educational development begins with hands-on, active learning experiences.
This emphasizes the primacy of experiential learning over passive reception of information.
“Knowledge which is mainly secondhand, other men's knowledge, tends to become merely verbal.”
When knowledge is received only from others without personal engagement, it becomes empty words without real meaning.
Dewey warns against the dangers of purely informational learning that does not connect to the learner's own experience.
“The record of knowledge, independent of its place as an outcome of inquiry and a resource in further inquiry, is taken to be knowledge.”
People mistakenly treat the stored results of past investigations as knowledge itself, ignoring that true knowledge arises from active inquiry and serves as a tool for further exploration.
This critique highlights the confusion between the product of inquiry and the process of knowing.