Education and Culture

John Dewey proposes the "educative" experience as the goal of instruction. Yet, in focusing on the educative experience, Dewey may discount other sorts of learning which occur both in and out of school. This piece proposes a reconceptualization of Dewey's ideas on learning through Peirce's categorical system of experience, leading to three categories of learning. The three proposed categories, "accepting," "analytical," and "evaluative," correspond roughly to learning "what," learning "how," and learning "why." The intent here is not to question the importance of the educative experience, but rather to broaden the application of Dewey's work by portraying learning as a multifaceted phenomenon.