Back to Dewey

In the three chapters from this reading Dewey considers what experience means universally in general and additionally what the particular experience of thinking involves. I have become interested in what it means specifically for a student to have an experience of learning.

Dewey's idea of the esthetic (his spelling) – developed further as the expressive in chapter 14 – relates directly to the question of what is essential. Apart from this crucial element what most truly generates a true experience of learning is synthesis, for as Dewey puts it experience can only be considered genuine if it embodies the characteristic of unity. If art is experience then learning is clearly art in its purest form. The crucial question then becomes: How is learning a genuine artistic experience? Clearly it must be primarily generative. Additionally it must be inherently esthetic (dealing with underlying essence) and lastly unifying/synthetic.

In the teaching of mathematics there are many opportunities to bring about such deep learning experiences for students. In learning mathematics students naturally generate deep meaning for themselves under the right conditions and guidance. Of all the subject matter disciplines mathematics lends itself most naturally to approaches that delve into the essence of the particular content being examined. And being a self-consistent logical system it is inherently unified leading quite naturally to synthetic experiences. It must then be considered an artistic experience of the highest order and therefore intrinsically a genuine learning experience.