“Anything which can be called a study, whether arithmetic, history, geography, or one of the natural sciences, must be derived from materials which at the outset fall within the scope of ordinary life-experience…but finding the material for learning within experience is only the first step. The next step is the progressive development of what is already experienced into a fuller and richer and also more organized form, a form that gradually approximates that in which subject-matter is presented to the skilled, mature person” (73-74).
In the final chapter of Experience and Education, Dewey comments upon the need to revise the ill-digestible format of standardize subject matter in schools and replace it with a more experienced-based process of learning. The two steps in developing subject matter in accordance with Dewey’s theory of experience are as follows:
1) The beginning of all instruction must start from and/or within the experiences that learners already have and
2) There must be “an orderly development toward expansion and organization of subject-matter through growth of experience” (74). This step involves using existing experience “as a means of carrying learners on to a wide, more refined, and better organized environing world…” (82).
Dewey emphasizes over and over again the importance of this second step within the education of students, and criticizes the fact that this step is largely ignored. Paramount to Dewey is this idea of reconstructing experience into a form that allows an individual to continue to learn from experience—that allows for continued growth. Dewey claims that as we come into contact with new events, people, etc., our experience widens. When this happens, new powers within ourselves are revealed, “while the exercise of these powers refines and enlarges the content of [the] experience” (74). Inevitably, this widening of experience and its reformation serve to make the process of education enduring.
With all this in our minds, it is therefore the role of the educator to select things within the existing experience of their students that possess the potential to present new problems, “which by stimulating new ways of observation and judgment will expand the area of further experience” (75). “…Educators must view teaching and learning as a continuous process of reconstruction of experience… educators must have a long look ahead, and view every present experience as a moving force in influencing what future experiences will be” (87).
What moves me about this chapter is how applicable it is to the museum setting. With every program that our museums offer, there is always a process of identifying the needs of our audience members in terms of a plethora of categories. From there, we use that information to craft experiences that offer them opportunities for growth—particularly in whatever area of study we specialize in—that serve for them to see the world differently, and that cause them to make return visits to our programs and facilities. If there was a place where Dewey’s theory of experience could thrive, it should be within our walls. Is it not our end goal to create life-long learners?
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One of the important ideas in this chapter is about this "ordinary life-experience" context. To me this is about experiencing life in the real settings that we would normally encounter it. What I suddenly realized as you were thinking this through is whether the museum has become an "ordinary" context--that is a context that we do see as experiential, or if it still takes too much out of context. This speaks certainly to design and ways of creating 'immersive' experiences. I think though, that there's more to it than just the environment. It seems like it would be good to include the surrounding ideas and issues, voices, and stories that comprise every object or work of art.
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