THORNDIKE,EDWARD,LEE AND DEWEY,JOHN ON THE SCIENCE OF EDUCATION

At the beginning of this century the two most important theorists in t he history of American education, Edward Thorndike and John Dewey, for mulated radically different visions of how the art of teaching could b e transformed into a science. Thorndike, combining a strongly heredita rian behavioural psychology with the newly developed techniques of sta tistical analysis, showed how schooling could be structured around the methods of industrial management. By atomising and standardising ever y aspect of the educational process, a cadre of experts and administra tors would replace traditional rule-of-thumb methods with scientifical ly proven practices dovetailed to the needs of a modern state. Althoug h Dewey was also committed to the value of science as a universal tool for human betterment, he completely rejected the epistemological, psy chological and sociological assumptions implicit in Thorndike's techno cratic vision. In contrast to Thorndike's mechanistic world view, Dewe y formulated an organismic ontology modelled on the process of adaptat ion and demonstrated that the scientific method depends upon the const ruction of a democratic community of problem solvers. By evaluating th ese theories of human nature and the social good, I discuss the failin gs of Thorndike's programme within the American school and explain the implications of Dewey's more sophisticated arguments for educational practice.