Educational Psychology—Limitations and Possibilities

John Dewey’s Theory of Learning 561
mental activity reveals itself in her or his physical activity. As a result, physical movement is
as much “a vital part of the very process of learning” as sensation is. Sensation is one-half of
the learning circle; movement is the other half. The circle or process is one, nevertheless. In
the midst of sensations and movements, however, the mind is not passive; it is active just as the
physical person is active. Physical movement, in particular, indicates that the mind is active and
selective, for “the loving eye, the inclined head, the caressing hand, are all signs” of its activity
and selection (LW 17:217). Therefore, mental and physical activity occurs when sensations are
experienced. In turn, it is clear that sensation isn’t isolated from mental and physical activity.
Mental activity, sensation, and movement are a triad in that sensation “is the beginning of a
movement which would investigate, would explore, and find out more about the thing producing
the sensation” (LW 17:217). Even young children, because their minds are active and they are
learning, make decisions or selections in different ways that influence further learning: (1) by
attending to some sensations and not others and (2) by facilitating movement in some directions
and not others. Instead of sensation and movements alone determining the learning process, the
triad is involved: mind, sensation, and movement. Plus there is the influence of impulses and
the purposing of the learner. Hence, neither mechanistic nor deterministic forces cause learning.
They merely influence it. Learning is an ongoing, active, and selective process, not an unusual,
passive, or stimulus–response outcome.
As a person matures, she or he learns to be more selective of responses to sensations (LW
17:218). The active, developing mind influences the learning process in the youth and adult
in ways that it usually doesn’t in a young child. On the other hand, this is not to say that the
young child is “mindless” or doesn’t use her or his mind. The opposite is the case even though
greater maturity provides greater control of learning opportunities for older children and adults.
As the learner develops as a complete person, selection is more conscious and made in the
light of moral development. Throughout the learning process, then, the gradually developing but
active mind initiates learning, selects stimuli, and responses to environmental realities. There
is sensation and movement, impression and expression, mental income and mental outcome,
instruction and construction, and ideas and applications. Collectively, they constitute the microperspective
learning process (LW 17:218–221). The inseparable triad—the mind, sensations, and
movements—are all involved in learning but, ultimately, “learning becomes part of ourselves
only through the medium of conduct, and so leads to character” (LW 17:222). Conduct involves
stopping to think of consequences, learning to select options that allow for present and future
growth, and controlling one’s impulses and desires until they are converted and transformed into
“a more comprehensive and coherent plan of activity” (LW 13:41).
When Dewey’s micro-perspective of learning is situated in a broader context, it is more
clearly and correctly understood. His macro-perspective of learning provides this broader human,
physical, material, intellectual, and interpretative context for understanding the activity and the
learning of the maturing student.
A MACRO-PERSPECTIVE ON LEARNING
Dewey’s broader approach to learning continues to focus on the learner, but he adds several
critical elements that his micro-perspective forces to the background or largely ignores, exempli
gratia, the teacher, other students, and the pedagogical and physical environment. The dynamic
nature of the student, of course, remains important. Yet, the teacher (as a professional and as
a person), environment (social, physical, and intellectual), and pedagogy (specific and general)
move more to the foreground. The student’s interaction, from a critical frame of reference, is
with her or his environment, because it includes, among other things, her or his teacher and the
teacher’s pedagogy.