John Dewey was influenced by the work of the German philosopher Immanuel Kant, who believed that people are born with a set of innate ideas that cannot be changed. Dewey rejected this view and asserted that humans are born with no knowledge at all and that they gain knowledge through experience. He also rejected the idea that knowledge is fixed and unchanging.
In fact, Dewey was one of the most influential philosophers of the 20th century. He was a leader of the American Pragmatism movement and his ideas influenced educational theory and practice for more than half a century.
Philosopher was born in 1859 in Burlington, Vermont. After graduating from high school he studied at Johns Hopkins University and later at the University of Michigan, where he met William James, another important philosopher. In 1884 Dewey became head of the department of philosophy at the University of Minnesota and remained there until 1887. He then moved to Chicago where he taught at the University of Chicago until 1904 when he returned to Columbia University in New York City as professor of philosophy and pedagogy (the study of how people learn).
Dewey believed that education should be relevant to life; that is, it should help people make sense of their lives by applying knowledge to solve problems within society. This view is known as “problem solving” or “action learning”. Dewey also emphasized individual freedom, which meant that teachers should not impose their own ideas on students but allow them to think for themselves.
