A Hermeneutic Of Dewey’s Pedagogy As An Option For The Realization Of Nigeria’s Educational Goals

Education involves an all-round development of the physical, intellectual and moral capabilities of the individual, and as such is a discipline that is directed to man alone as all other animals are simply trained. Given the intricacies involved in the process of education as regards the development of the three domains of life Cognitive, Effective and Psychomotor, it becomes obvious that the process of education must be delicately handled in order to have the desired educational result. It is also obvious that different countries are faced with different educational challenges; hence they grapple with the problem of how best to make education relevant to her citizens. It is on the strength of this idea that we set out in this work to discuss the possibility of adopting a practical and more reliable educational method capable of helping Nigeria to achieve her much desired educational goals, as it is obvious that the present educational method in Nigeria is far from actualizing these noble goals of education. To this effect, a choice of Dewey’s Pedagogy was made as it provides us with the philosophical platform
upon which we are to anchor in building an authentic educational method. Dewey developed a ‘learner–centred’ method of education where the learner takes the leading role in the educative process that involves him. Dewey was convinced that a learner becomes more productive when he/she is moved by issues of compelling interest. However, in other to have an indepth study and proper application of Dewey’s pedagogy, the philosophical method of hermeneutics would be applied. A proper interpretation and application of Dewey’s pedagogy will definitely help Nigeria to re-position the subject matter of
education to revolve around the social life of the learner, bring about an attitudinal change among the educated masses, reevaluate the taxonomy of education and see to the democratization of education in the Country. Therefore, the work is being presented as a better educational option for the consideration of Educational Policy Makers in Nigeria.