The Practice Of Running University Of Chicago Laboratory School(1896—1904) And Its Impact On John Dewey’s Educational Thoughts

John Dewey is a world-renowned educator. During the years of 1896 to 1904, he founded the laboratory school at the University of Chicago and conducted the experiment on education for nearly eight years. This was a well-designed experiment which contained the original design for education of John Dewey. Before founding the lab school, Dewey begun to get involved in the field of education. According to the aspects of Philosophy, psychology and ethics, he put forward his own ideas about the issues of primary and secondary schools, such as teaching, curriculum and moral education. He maintained that we should pay much attention to the laws of children’s physical and mental development, build the relationship between education and daily life, and eliminate the gap between theory and practice. These suggestions were the important problems which the lab school endeavored in working out. In the lab school, He had taken two main measures which included developing a new type of course of study and organizing the laboratory school democratic community. According to them, he got the chances to put his hypotheses on education into practice for testing and modifying. This was an adventure contributed to the formation of John Dewey’s educational thought instead of merely a short-lived school or a random experiment. On the basis of the lab school, John Dewey finished the integration of philosophy, psychology and pedagogy ideas of his own, formed the main principles of his educational thoughts, deepened the understanding of the concept of democratic education, and had been marked with a profound practical feature.