The development of teaching theory in modern times can be said to be a process in which the educational meaning of instruction and its significance for personality development has become established by reason of the fact that it has been viewed not from the standpoint of pragmatism with its insistence that curriculum and learning are rooted in the necessities of everyday life but from the standpoint that the cultivation of the child's thinking and cognitive powers is its purpose. So, for example the pioneering achievement of Pestalozzi lies in the fact that he studied the cognitive process of children from the stage of intuition to that of conceptualization and formulation of laws and on this basis tried to clarify of the teaching. Accordingly, so far as the development of methodology is concerned, it is very undesirable that teaching methods, such as the lecture method, the discussion method, life learning, or systematic learning, are discussed as problems of learning and teaching types. One of the defects of the “new education” of postwar years was precisely this. The most important subject in teaching and learning theory today is not the laying of plans for the homogeneous development of the natural growth and life experience of children. It is rather the type of study that clarifies how the thinking process of children is qualitatively changed by teaching and by different types of theaching material.

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My chief effort in this essay is to interpret faithfully the methodology of “life learning” as displayed in the “project method.” I have tried to understand the “project mothod” as a generalized methodology of problem solving as I subject to reexamination the tendency of some to find a weakness in the spiritual aspects of problem solving, which is considered as the point at issue in interpretations of the “project method” given heretofore. Further, with the help of my interpretation of “concomitant learning, ” I have considered with what meaning the methodology based on the “project method” is given a central place in Kilpatrick's systematic educational theory. I interpret the “project method, ” as we see it developed in the essay, “Project Method, ” as Kilpatrick's methodolgy in matters educational and try to develop the argument that its role is pivotal in Kilpatrick's systematic educational theory.

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Guiding theories precede practice and their truthfulness is esteemed of great importance. Moreover, since practice is guided by such theories and at the same time is a process in which they are realized, a unity between theory and resultant consequence is antecedently expected. To say, however, that this unity is both sought and expected is completely different from saying that it exists already in a realized state. Precisely because the experimentalist looks on this desire [for unity] as a creative element, he seeks with all thoroughness for a conviction in the truthfulness of his principle and tries to find a rational foundation for it. He cannot, however, rest satisfied with certainty based on conceptual knowledge. He esteems of great importance the process in which he strives to insure concrete values. The validity of a theory does not rest on what precedes it but is found in and through the very practice that threatens to alter the principle itself. Herein lies the meaning of verification through consequences.

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Criticisms are heard to the effect that in the theory of progressive education the meaning of both moral purpose and the standard for moral judgment is ambiguous. But, really, what is the essence and function of the norm of judgment in this philosophy of education ? My purpose in this essay is to reply in obliquo to prevalent criticisms and, basing myself on Dewey's moral theory, to offer in more positive fashion some considerations on basic educational theory which may serve as foundation for a theory which can provide an answer for the problems confronting modern education. My essay is divided into the following five sections.
(1) Foreword.
(2) Nature of Norm in Customary Morality and its Limits. Herein I point out, by referring to customary morality, the absolute and fixed function and characteristics of such a norm and argue that in the true moral judgment the function of the norm is to be found in its quality of intellectual instrumentality and that scientific method should be used [in the decision-making process].
(3) Demonstration of the Possibility of Adapting Scientific Method in Moral Judgment.
(4) The Nature of the Fundamental Function of the Moral Norm. My argument in this section is concerned chiefly with showing that a priori moral concepts are not denied but are activated in being re-evaluated.
(5) The Meaning of a Universal Norm. Keeping in mind some of the present misunderstandings I explain the meaning of universal norm as a function for the re-evaluation of a priori concepts and for the establishment of ends of action.

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I have tried, first of all, to clarify the relation between democracy and education in Dewey's thinking. In his theory of democracy Dewey idealized in a thoroughly modern way the life of the community. Hence, it may be said that his democratic ideal is the principle of the community. Further, Dewey laid heavy stress on making the school a society, a process which (in his thinking) is the equivalent of reconstructing the school into a purified type of society. This, in turn, is nothing less than the democratization of education. As a consequence, in the ideal Deweyan school individuality is respected.
I next try to clarify the relation between democracy and religion. Dewey denied a God above nature but affirmed that the religious side of human affairs lies in the quality of our experience. Dewey's respect fort his religious aspect of experience is his democratic ideal, which in turn is formed through the assistance of scientific knowledge considered as the matrix of community life. The relation between education and religion, after these considerations, becomes self-evident. That is to say, Dewey flatly rejected all so-called “religious education, ” but his real intent was to elevate the education proper to democracy to the plane of religion.

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