Dewey on the Aims of Education

Dewey’s treatment of educational aims looks technical at first, but it carries the weight of his disagreements with most other accounts of education. Aims, in Dewey’s vocabulary, do specific work: they give direction without imposing constraint, they emerge from conditions rather than being applied to them, and they free activity rather than channelling it into pre-set forms. The article works through what an aim is, in Dewey’s sense, and what criteria distinguish a good aim from a bad one.

The key assumption

The starting point for Dewey’s account of aims is the assumption from the previous chapter. The object and reward of learning, he writes, is continued capacity for growth. The aim of education is to enable individuals to continue their education long after the formal schooling ends.

This is not a new claim at this stage of the guide; the previous chapter worked through Dewey’s view that education has no end beyond itself. The new move is to apply this view to the specific question of what aims an education should set. The aim, on this view, cannot be a fixed terminal state that the student is supposed to reach. The aim must be something that itself supports continued growth rather than blocking it.

The other large move in the opening is Dewey’s claim that aims of education can be multiple. Not every student needs the same aim. All members of society do not possess similar natures, and they therefore require different aims. Aims relate always to results, and the results that different people are seeking from their education differ. A single uniform aim for the whole population, set from outside, fails to match the actual variety of human lives.

This is a deliberate contrast with the older view in which education had a single fixed aim (cultural transmission, religious formation, vocational preparation) that applied to all students equally. Dewey’s plural aims fit the diverse society of his America better than the older single aim did. The argument has only grown stronger since his time.

Flashcard

Why does Dewey say educational aims must be multiple rather than single?

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Answer

Because members of society do not possess similar natures and require different aims

Aims always relate to results, and the results different people are seeking differ. A single uniform aim for the whole population, set from outside, cannot match the actual variety of human lives. The older view of education as a single fixed cultural or religious aim fails the diverse society of Dewey’s America. The plural-aims view fits the modern world better than the older single-aim model.

The nature of an aim

Dewey defines what an aim is in three short claims.

First, order in the aimed-for activities is essential. An aim is not a vague wish for things to go well. It is a structured target that organises the activity needed to reach it. A teacher who aims to develop their students’ writing has, in mind, a recognisable kind of writing the students will be able to produce, and they organise the activities of the term to move the students toward it. Without the order, the activities drift; without an aim, the order is missing.

Second, an aim must be a foreseen end. It must be visible in advance, even if only in outline. An aim that the educator cannot describe before starting is not really an aim; it is at best a hope. The foresight gives direction to activities; the activities then move toward the foreseen end.

Third, aims must make choice of alternatives possible. This is the most distinctive of the three claims. A good aim is not one that forces a single path. It is one that opens up several possible paths and lets the educator and the student choose among them based on circumstances. An aim that allows for only one route is too rigid to handle the variations of real teaching.

The three claims together describe an aim that is structured but not constraining, foreseen but not fixed, directional but not exclusive. This is the kind of aim that can support the freeing of activity that the next section describes.

Flashcard

What are the three elements that make something an *aim* in Dewey's sense?

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Answer

Order in the aimed-for activities, a foreseen end, and choice of alternatives

(1) Order: an aim is a structured target that organises activity; without order, activity drifts. (2) Foreseen end: the aim must be visible in advance, even if only in outline; an aim the educator cannot describe is at best a hope. (3) Choice: a good aim opens up several possible paths rather than forcing a single one; the educator and student then choose based on circumstances.

The criteria of a good aim

Dewey then gives five criteria a good aim must satisfy. The list is worth working through carefully because each criterion does real work.

Aims must make choice of alternatives possible. The criterion repeats from the previous section because it matters in both contexts. An aim that allows for choice gives the educator and the student room to adjust the path to the particular situation. An aim that forces a single path is rigid and brittle; when the path is blocked, there is no alternative, and the aim simply fails.

The aim set up must be an outgrowth of existing conditions. The aim cannot be imposed on the situation from outside. It has to grow from where the educator and student actually are. A teacher who tries to impose an aim that ignores the students’ current readiness, interests, and capacities will fail; the students cannot move toward an aim that has no roots in where they are now. The aim has to be one that develops naturally from the existing conditions.

The aim, at first, emerges as a tentative sketch, and the act of striving to achieve it tests its worth. This is Dewey’s pragmatist commitment in action. A good aim is not finalised at the start; it is sketched provisionally, the work of striving for it then reveals whether it is the right aim. If the striving goes well, the aim is confirmed. If the striving exposes problems, the aim is revised. Aims, like hypotheses in scientific inquiry, are held provisionally and tested through action.

The aim must always represent a freeing of activities. This is the deepest of the criteria. A good aim does not constrain activity into a narrow channel; it frees activity that would otherwise have stayed shut. A teacher who aims to develop their students’ writing should be aiming at something that opens up new kinds of writing the students could not previously do, not at something that constrains them to a single approved style. The aim is good if it expands what the student is capable of, bad if it narrows.

Aims must be founded upon the intrinsic activities and needs of the particular individual to be educated. The aim has to fit the actual person, not a generic person. The teacher who sets an aim based on what the student is interested in, what the student is ready for, and what the student needs is setting a good aim. The teacher who sets an aim based on a standard curriculum, with no adjustment to the actual student, is setting one that may not fit. The Dewey discipline is to know the student first and let the aim grow from that knowledge.

The five criteria together are demanding. A teacher who tries to meet all five for every student will find the work hard. The hardness is the price of taking aims seriously in Dewey’s sense.

Flashcard

What are Dewey's five criteria of a good educational aim?

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Answer

Choice, outgrowth of conditions, tentative sketch, freeing, founded on the individual

(1) Allows choice of alternatives. (2) Grows out of existing conditions, not imposed from outside. (3) Emerges first as a tentative sketch, tested by the striving to achieve it. (4) Frees activities rather than constraining them. (5) Founded on the intrinsic activities and needs of the particular individual to be educated. The five criteria together are demanding; meeting them is the price of taking aims seriously in Dewey’s sense.