of testing theories or notions by their outcomes or practical consequences. Thus, in general, the significance of the metaphor is that in order to arrive at truth or knowledge, a person was required to take into account all values, and to look at the outcomes each produced as part of that evaluative strategy.
However, a key question that can be asked in terms of the application of pragmatic philosophy to education is: How do we come to value various notions? In other words, precisely what is it that gives various ideas, notions, concepts and theories their importance to people?
The answer to this question was perhaps best formulated by John Dewey (1997, p. 68) who stated that, "we have to understand the significance of what we see, hear, and touch"(p. 68). Dewey (1997, p. 68) claimed that several factors were contributive to understanding the significance of any information or knowledge including:
(1) observation of surrounding conditions;
(2) knowledge of what has happened in similar situations in the past,(this knowledge being obtained from diverse sources, partly by recollection and partly from the information, advice, and warning of those who have had a wider experience); and
(3) judgment which puts together what is observed and what is recalled to see what they signify.
The foregoing clearly shows that experience was a key element in pragmatic philosophy as applied to education. What is valued, pragmatists in the field of education said, is directly tired to peopleÆs experiences. Meaning, importance, and significance, are all judgments arrived at through a process involving filtering the concepts through our individual and common experiences.
This emphasis upon experience led Dewey (1997, p. 67) to strongly advocate student participation in the learning process with a good degree of freedom in finding their own meaning, purpose and significance to the information they were being taught in schoo...