“Things gain meaning by being used in a shared experience or joint action” 

John Dewey (1859 – 1952), an American philosopher, psychologist and educational reformer, once said, “Things gain meaning by being used in a shared experience or joint action”. Why have I pointed this out? After all, John Dewey hasn’t been around for over 70 years, and his major works are now well over 100 years old. Well, I think it important to place Intensive Interaction in some historical and philosophical context.

Progressive, socially constructivist, learner-centred ideas of education and learning (of which Intensive Interaction is, I think, a perfect example) have actually been around for many, many years. Perhaps most famously coming to the fore with the work of Jean Piaget (e.g. ‘The Construction of Reality in the Child’, 1954 – which described a radical constructivist view of early learning), the idea that the processes of education and learning are much more than just an individualised acquisition of knowledge, has been with us since long before then; John Dewey being an important figure in this history of educational theoretical development.

So, as noted above, Dewey said that: “Things gain meaning by being used in a shared experience or joint action”, thus acknowledging the importance of social engagement and interaction in shaping (or constructing) the meaning people give to the things and things that happen around them e.g. experiences and relationships, even symbolic conceptualisation and language development – well, no sh*t Sherlock, of course they do. 

But what should we, as Intensive Interaction practitioners and advocates, take from that. Well, we should take confidence that our Intensive Interaction methods and principles fit squarely with the critical and progressive pedagogical and curricular thinking of some of the most influential figures in educational philosophy i.e. that we now in the 21st century can see more clearly when ‘we stand on the shoulders of giants’ – as Isaac Newton (amongst others), once apparently said!

Dewey argued that education should be seen as a social and interactive process, of which wider social reform could and should be the result. Again, in the 21st century, that is something that I feel we should all get on board with in trying to create educational conditions that will support wider social inclusion and increased well-being for those children (and adults) who struggle to access the life-enhancing skills and experiences of sociability.

I will leave you with some other quotes from John Dewey, which you can mull over at your leisure:

‘Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself‘.

‘The self is not something ready-made, but something in continuous formation through choice of action‘.

‘Method means that arrangement of subject matter which makes it most effective in use. Never is method something outside of the material‘. (Admittedly this is tricky one, but worth a go I think!)

‘All communication is like art. It may fairly be said, therefore, that any social arrangement that remains vitally social, or vitally shared, is educative to those who participate in it’. 

‘We cannot think of ourselves save as to some extent social being. Hence, we cannot separate the idea of ourselves and our own good from our idea of others and their good‘. (Another tricky one, with the language used being somewhat old fashioned – but what I think it really means is that our sense of ourselves and our own well-being is inextricably linked to our sense of that for others and their well-being.)

Just because some ideas are old, it doesn’t mean that they become less worthy of our consideration – it all depends on their continued usefulness to our own understanding and purpose.