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emphasizes the need to learn by doing. Dewey believed that human beings learn through a 'hands-

on' approach asserting pragmatism and the belief that reality must be experienced.

From Dewey's educational point of view, this means that students must interact with their

environment in order to adapt and learn which can be challenging when learning acts are limited

to an online or virtual environment. Dewey felt the same idea was true for teachers and that

teachers and students must learn together in what could be devised as a kinder-café setting.

Referring back to Habermas, Thomassen pointed to the role of citizens who gathered and

arrived at “rational solutions on the basis of critical debate which took place in coffeehouses (in

Britain), salons (in France) and table societies (in Germany)” (Thomassen, 2010, p. 38). Debate

described within the context of Habermas’ public sphere refers to the cultivation of a public with

an orientation toward rational critical discussion, rather than the characteristics of modern debate

of argument that includes a sense of digging in and contesting differing perspectives.

In Habermas’ account, the role of dialogue and public engagement was a prominent feature

of social life as capitalism emerged and became “an institutional basis in the press and the coffee

house” (Thomassen, 2010, p. 39). Thomassen’s critique of the public sphere highlights the notion

of class distinctions. While he noted that Habermas (1989) stressed that a public sphere is not of a

specific class, he also pointed out “initially, aristocrats were frequent participants in the literary

and political discussions in the press and in coffeehouses” (Thomassen, 2010, p. 39). Additionally,

the gender composition of the aristocratic class was overwhelmingly male.

In his analysis of the public sphere and the role of the bourgeois and others, Thomassen

(2010) offered insight into the use of critical reason to promote understanding and new

perspectives. In doing so, the public sphere and its agents use the space as a forum to “check

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