The Educative Experience and Kairotic Response: Implications of Parallels Between Deweyian and Sophistic Pedagogy

• In Event: John Dewey and Issues of Pedagogy

Abstract

John Dewey’s ideas on education required that educational goals be open-ended rather than fixed, indeterminate rather than pre-determined. This piece aims to explore the notion of educational goals in Dewey’s system though a comparison of Dewey’s ideas with the pedagogical practices of the Sophists, as described by Deborah Hawhee. This comparison, which focuses on the idea of kairotic response, is employed to argue that Dewey’s pedagogy is geared toward dispositional outcomes which are reached via a particular type of engagement in the present, features which are shared by Sophistic pedagogy. Once the parallels between Dewey and the Sophists are explored, this piece will return to the present, looking at what dispositional outcomes mean in a standards-based learning environment.

Author

• Steven K. Wojcikiewicz, Western Oregon University