John Dewey's Dual Theory of Inquiry and Its Value for the Creation of an Alternative Curriculum

Dewey's theory of inquiry cannot be reduced to the pattern of inquiry common to both common-sense inquiry and scientific inquiry, which is grounded in the human life process, since such a reduction ignores Dewey's differentiation of the two forms of inquiry. The difference has to do with t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal for critical education policy studies Vol. 12; no. 2; pp. 302 - 349
Main Author Harris, Fred
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Institute for Education Policy Studies 01.08.2014
Subjects
Active Learning
Curriculum Development
Educational Theories
Inquiry
Marxian Analysis
Scientific Methodology
Social History
Working Class
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Summary:Dewey's theory of inquiry cannot be reduced to the pattern of inquiry common to both common-sense inquiry and scientific inquiry, which is grounded in the human life process, since such a reduction ignores Dewey's differentiation of the two forms of inquiry. The difference has to do with the focus of inquiry, with common-sense inquiry concentrating on ends characteristic of everyday life and scientific inquiry concentrating on the perfection of the means to inquiry as an end in itself. By not differentiating the two forms of inquiry, the significance of Dewey's innovations in curriculum construction has been underrated. The curriculum created in the University Laboratory School (the Dewey School), was designed to gradually shift children's and adolescents' concerns for ends typical of common-sense inquiry to a concern for means and their coordination, which thereby approaches more closely scientific inquiry. This curriculum was grounded in the basic economic structure of human life for the production of food, clothing and shelter, with reading, writing and arithmetic, along with the disciplines (physics, chemistry and so forth) emerging as functions of life, initially. This curriculum, with modifications, could function to provide a critical basis of modern capitalist relations of production and exchange and the capitalist state.
ISSN:1740-2743