1916年杜威出版集其思想大成之《民主與教育》，此書至今為教育哲學界之重要經典，為教育工作者之必讀要書。正如杜威自己所言，教育哲學之存在價值猶如教育實踐的地圖，能提供給實踐者許多助力，《民主與教育》中的教育理論誠非憑空而來。1896至1904年，杜威於芝加哥創辦杜威學校進行各種教學方法實驗的過程與經驗，是他發展和形成其教育理論的重要基礎。本文擬從歷史研究的視角，透過第一手資料的文獻分析與文件分析，檢視杜威學校的實踐活動和《民主與教育》書中理論之關聯性。《民主與教育》中的教育理論和方法，或多可在杜威學校所進行各種教學實驗中找到軌跡。研究者期望本文的成果能猶如杜威在《杜威學校》的出版序中所言，它的重要性既是歷史性的，也是符合時代趨勢的。它能為教育（或學校）如何調和個人自由與集體利益間的關係，給予指導原則的方針，並對實際做法給予具體的指引，以充分說明教育理論與實踐間的緊密關係，期為現今教育完成民主化的理想做出貢獻。

“Democracy and Education,” a classic work by John Dewey published in 1916, provides his most important thoughts in progressive educational theory. It becomes the scripture in educational philosophy and is an essential book for all educators to read it. As Dewey himself saying, the value of educational philosophy would be as a map of educational practice and could provide a lot of help to educational practitioners. However, the educational theory from the Democracy and Education did not come out without foundations. From 1896 to 1904, Dewey founded Dewey School in Chicago, and the experiences in the processes of teaching methods and various teaching experiments were the most important cornerstone for the theoretical development and formation for his educational proposition, and then published in this book. From the perspective of historical research, this article measured the relevance of Dewey School's practice and the theory in the Democracy and Education through literature and documentary analysis. Therefore, we might trace the history of teaching theory and methods in this book from the teaching experiments in Dewey School. The author hoped that the research results of this article could be as Dewey said in the preface of Dewey School, its importance was not only historical but in accordance with the trend of the times. Furthermore, it would provide guidelines for how education (or schools) can reconcile the relationship between individual freedoms and general interests. The author also would propose concrete guidance on actual practices to fully demonstrate the close relationship between education theory and practice, and hope to contribute to the ideal of achieving democratization in the current education.