Pragmatism in Teaching & Learning

Pragmatism is also called experimentalism. One of the most popular pragmatists is John Dewey and his scientific method of solving problems. His contribution is one of the best in pragmatism since pragmatism emphasizes on problem solving to attain learning.

If idealism focuses on classical knowledge (the changeless) and realism gives more importance to stable societal heritage, pragmatism promotes and adopts changes in all aspects.

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Pragmatism purports that changes are products of interactions between learners and their environment; thus, changes in our society are inevitable. To disregard social change, to consider only the changeless or the heritage, is useless and unwise for the pragmatists.

To a pragmatist, the world goes around a pattern, an observable pattern. Even if it undergoes changes from time to time, appropriate measures can still be used to deal with these changes.

Since the world changes and the world undergoes a cycle of problems, the learner must be equipped with sufficient skill to solve problems that may occur by and by. The teacher, as a pragmatist, doesn't only have to teach the learner what to think but how to think. The teacher, as a pragmatist, must teach the learner as a bird teaches its young. It provides food and guidance for a while but it is clear in its mind that, someday, this young one will be fully fledged and will, soon, soar the world alone. This forces the teacher to give the child all the things he needs during his stay in the training ground (school) before he faces the battle ground (the real world).

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John Dewey, a great pragmatist, viewed education as a process of improving (not accepting) the human condition. This line of reasoning is parallel with the belief that the world changes. Since it changes, we must use these changes to improve our lives -- not to maintain it nor to step backwards.

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Because the world started to embrace science from the 1800's, the spot of pragmatism in every person's heart grows wider. The school stopped from being a disciplinary camp and began to become a specialized miniature social environment that resembles that which is outside. This institution gets the learners ready for what is outside.

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Pragmatism is an educational philosophy in line with "if you give someone a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach someone how to fish, you feed him forever."

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PRAGMATISM: Scientific method, learning by doing, preparation, science, changes, explanations, processes, step-by-step methods, experimentation, etc.