John Dewey: The later works 1938—1939, Vol. 13 (pp. 1—62). Carbondale, IL: SIU Press.

Over half a century ago, Dewey (1938) expressed the belief that all genuine education comes through experience (Dewey 1938). Since then, many educators have struggled with the complex implications of that simply stated notion. Recognizing its complexity, Dewey advised using those cases in which we find there is a real development of desirable [experiences] and to find out how this development took place (p. 4) and using this new understanding to guide our efforts at teaching and learning.

The notion of inquiry appears in many places in Dewey's work, though he began to refer to it using that term only in his later writings. In Experience and Education (1939/1991), Dewey wrote, "the immediate and direct concern of an educator is … with the situations in which interaction takes place" (Dewey 1938)

Dewey writes of a “new education,” wherein, rather than learning from “texts and teachers,”

Knowles (1970), in his theory of adult learning, differentiates the way adults learn from the way children learn. These differences are stated as follows:

• Adults are autonomous and self-directed;

• Adults have accumulated significant life experiences.

Based on these differences, trainers need to focus more on the process and less on the content being taught. Presentation strategies such as case studies, role-playing, and simulations tend to be most effective. Teachers should facilitate those modalities rather than lecture.

Preparing for full lives as citizens and individuals; embedding inclusion, teamwork, creativity and innovation and to live rich and fulfilling lives as citizens and individuals, learners must be prepared for and have access to choices that affect their futures. But the purpose for learning does not lie only in the future; skills, knowledge, and experiences must have meaning in the present, too. Dewey believed skills must be useful in the here and now (Dewey 1938)

Some topics in this essay:
Malcolm Knowles, Experience Education, SIU Press, John Dewey, • adults, Cliffs Cambridge, dewey 1938, adult education, orientation learning, lives citizens individuals, life experiences, adult learning, lives citizens, adults learn, quality experience, citizens individuals,