Dewey,Peirce,and the Learning Paradox

Abstract

This article deals with a problem that has vexed educators and learning theorists for years—the so-called learning paradox. Attempts to explain how it is that new and better knowledge is fashioned out of prior, less complex knowledge typically rely on processes of deduction or induction or, as a third alternative, equate the generation of new knowledge with the development of new moves in the language game. A fourth promising solution to the learning paradox is advanced in this article. In this approach, based on Dewey and Peirce's work, ideas as opposed to schemas or postmodernist discourse are viewed as the real carriers of meaning. Ideas are thought to be generated through a metaphoric process known as abduction. Abduction offers the best chance of coming to terms with the learning paradox.