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Study as Cultivation of a Whole Knowledge: The Nature of Study in Light of Dewey's Concept of Transaction
Philosophy of Education
2008,
(34), pp.115-141
DOI : 10.22918/pesk..34.200804.115
Publisher : The Philophy Of Education Society Of Korea
Research Area : Education
DOI : 10.22918/pesk..34.200804.115
Publisher : The Philophy Of Education Society Of Korea
Research Area : Education
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This inquiry aims to bring out the nature and meaning of study by analyzing and expanding Dewey's metaphysical thought which is involved in his concept of transaction. It will propose and establish an alternative to the concept of study implied in the customary and widespread way of study. According to this way of study, study is identified with preparation for examination and even learning by rote to get a good record in examination; also, educational content is composed of separate propositions, which are taken for the ultimate and right answers to the questions in examination papers. Therefore to study is to learn and memorize the knowledge in textbook as it is. However, this misconception of study, a kind of myth of study, is intimately connected with the dualistic view of the traditional philosophy. The main task which Dewey tried to solve in his whole career is the traditional dualism by changing the focus of philosophical inquiry from reason to experience. For Dewey, experience is not the counterpart to reason, but is a primary and ultimate way of existence of human being as living creature. Experience is described as transacting human beings with their environment. According to the concept of 'transaction', above all, study is not to learn given textbooks in a certain way, but to investigate and inquire the learner's transaction itself, which means not to learn and receive the knowledge set up in textbooks and find the fact hidden in nature, but to inquire and seek the nature and meaning of transaction. Secondly, study is not to learn separate and independent items of proposition, which is another important assumption implied in the myth of study. In light of transaction, the existences exist as transacting relations. Any event which occurs in nature does not occur independently and separately, but relationally, interdependently, and intertwinedly. In the same taken, facts and propositions in mind form a holistic construct or a whole knowledge. Study is involved in this whole knowledge, and interested in constructing the whole. Thirdly, study which is concerned with inquiry and the learner's whole knowledge in mind is thought for the whole knowledge to develop and enlarge itself. It means that study is not to receive the given knowledge in a one-way manner, but to construct the whole knowledge which is more reasonable, stable, and coherent than that prior to inquiry. In conclusion, study is a form of living, a primary and fundamental phenomenon of living of human beings who live in the world which is made up of a complex of transaction. To live in a human being means to inquire the transacting world in order to understand it and obtain a whole knowledge more stable and coherent.
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