SOURCE:

Faculty: Arts
Department: Philosophy

CONTRIBUTORS:

Mbachu A. Austin
Umeogu Bonaventure

ABSTRACT:

The myriad problem of unemployment, poverty, illiteracy, frustration, lack of self-confidence and the dwindling of the vision of educational system is chocking it’s all round development. The problem is the formal pedagogy, especially in developing countries today has failed to meet up with the primary goal of education, namely the cultivation of individuals who are able to face the challenges that arise in the society. The purpose of this work is to examine and evaluate Dewey’s pragmatic approach to education in educational system. It is pertinent to note that most people have not had the opportunity to actualize that incessant desire in man to better his lots through self-effort and learning. The consequence of this is that there are a lot of problems facing society and educational system. Searching for the solution to these critical problems confronting the educational system which is, how to develop every child that will have self-confidence in facing the challenges of the modern world and how to build progressive graduates that will bring about a true democratic society. In the light of these challenges, this research sets to employ John Dewey’s pragmatic approach to education in resolving some of the issues contained therein. His pragmatic approach to education posits that education should not be holistically centered on the mind alone, but on practice. Hence, encourages both learning by doing and co-operation between the learner and the teacher. In the end, the work finds out that education is of paramount importance to man, since it is the basic way through which man systematically generates solutions to the problems that arise in society. The work adopts the method of analysis. Analysis is the process of breaking a concept into more simple parts, so that its logical structure is displayed. This work employs the method to examine these problems with a view to finding out how Dewey’s philosophy of education could be applied to salvage the situation. The work concludes that the educational philosophy of John Dewey will help to build every child and prepare every graduates that will be able to meet the problems and challenges of the ever changing society in which his future shall be defined. The dissertation therefore, suggests that educators, especially those in the developing countries should adopt Dewey’s functionalism on education. This in turn will enhance qualitative education.