교과의 경험화에 함의된 교육내용의 성격: 질성적 사고에서 본 Dewey의 심리화의 재해석*

Abstract

The essay intends to redefine the nature of subject matter in the light of the concept of qualitative thought and an experience. Traditionally, the nature of subject matter has been understood by the traits of only the subject, in which case it is construed restrictively by the logic of the subjects. It is Dewey who raises the serious question that it can not be exhaustively discussed and addressed by the logic. For Dewey, subject matter, to be effective and meaningful in the educational practice, needs to be psychologized. The psychologization of subject matter is to appreciate curriculum activities and the nature of the subjects with respect to the traits of learners' growing experience. This essay attempts to reinterpret the psychologization in the light of Dewey's concept of qualitative thought and an experience, which is distinguished from the concept of reflective thinking and experience. In this sense, the idea which is advocated in the essay can be adequately named "experientialization", to be distinct from "psychologization". Seen from "experientialization", subject matter can be characterized in three distinctive ways. (1) The nature of subject matter is determined not by the logic of the subjects but by the whole situation of experience in which the whole results of experience, formed by the learner's whole career of living, transacts with the subjects. (2) Learner's experience in which his whole mind meets with systematic subjects is integrated with intellectual and qualitative modes of thought and is fluid and mobile. Therefore, subject matter is by nature an whole which is integrated with practical, intellectual, emotional, and religious elements; and to organize the subjects in instructional practice is not an passive process which adheres to the logic, but an active process which involves integrated elements. (3) The experientialization of subject matter does not exclude nor contradict the logic of the subjects. It pursues a new and stable understanding of learner's whole experience in relation to the offered subjects, along with a new whole ideal and possibility of living. That is to say, for experientialization, subject matter is an instrument to appreciate a holistic understanding and knowledge including an ideal of living.