Mediumによる教育ということ : Deweyに関連して

Education is usually understood as an event between the teacher and the taught. However, it must not be considered as direct and one-sided conveyance of "something important" from the teacher to the taught. It should be considered as a process by which both conjointly acquire this "something important." In education, therefore, spontaneous activity of the taught, namely, cooperation of the taught with this process is required. In education, inducing the taught into a situation in which he feels cooperation a call of nature, is more effective than appealing to the taught to cooperate commandingly and one-sidedly from the side of the teacher. Such a view of education is represented by John Dewey\u27s educational theory. According to Dewey, education does not mean a personal control of the teacher on the taught. It is regarded as the way leading to the common understanding of "something important" by means of medium. In other words, education means a process by which both concerned share the common way of thinking in shared environment. Such an education can hope to call out the desirable, spontaneous and positive response from the taught, which education as the personal control cannot hope. Education as such expects that the taught responds in such a manner as anticipated by the teacher. Indispensable matter in this connection is that education prepares or selects an appropriate environment where the desirable responses from the taught can be expected. In selecting, needless to say, it is of the greatest importance to have a sound criterion of evaluation. It goes without saying, that Dewey has a definite democratic value-system, which is, however, rather implicit to us. This implicitness may be due to the fact that democracy is only a matter of course in his country. But, in Japan where there is neither a strong tradition nor climate of democracy, there must be a conscious effort of cultivating a real understanding of democracy in order to gain from such a theory as "education through medium.