Dewey is believed to be the “Father of Progressive Education”.
Based on his philosophy of instructionalism Dewey was interested in the application of science to education. Dewey has introduced many of the progressive education ideas of the twentieth century.

Dewey's long and influential career in education began at the University of Michigan, where he taught from 1884 to 1888. In 1888-1889 Dewey taught at the University of Minnesota, returning to the University of Michigan from 1889 to 1894. He continued his career at the University of Chicago from 1894 to 1904 and at Columbia University from 1904 until his retirement as professor emeritus in 1931.

Although he presided over the trial of inquiry into the assassination of Leo Trotsky in Mexico ( the trial concluded that Stalin had ordered the murder in 1935), Dewey was long associated by many with leftist (Communist) philosophical thought. Progressive education was seen as too permissive or unstructured in the eyes of many established educators.

Most of the ideas of Dewey were further researched and developed through his work at his laboratory school at the University of Chicago. He saw learning as an activity driven by a sense of disequilibrium on the part of the learner when faced with new ideas and experiences. Dewey believed that if the student wanted to learn they must become active within the learning process. He strongly argued that the way schools approach education, the doling out of information by the teacher, the memorization and regurgitation of this information by the student, led only to superficial learning. The role of the teacher, he argued was the creation of problems to present to the child who in turn would be motivated to resolve the problems.

Dewey believed there should be a focus on the child rather than a focus on the content. He believed that the basis for learning are the natural impulses to inquire or to find things out.
Dewey advocated the idea of designing school for the learners, as opposed to Frederick Taylor’s idea of the school as assembly line.

To this day Dewey’s educational philosophies are embraced in many colleges and schools. The Center for Dewey Studies at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale was established in 1961 as the "Dewey Project." The Center has collected and edited Dewey's works amassing a wealth of source materials for the study of John Dewey.

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