Incorporating Dewey's Law in the Classroom

Gianna Cerbone, Verrazzano Class of 2023, completed major in SLS (1-6), and minor in ASL

While developing my capstone project, I researched philosopher John Dewey’s theories on education and how to incorporate them into the classroom. Many teachers have struggled with getting their students excited and eager to learn or even show up to school. Using these theories, teachers can follow his ideas to achieve high success rates in the classroom and positive learning environment.

John Dewey’s theories can be put into simpler terms by creating a “formula” known as Dewey’s Law. This formula is made up of variables that allow teachers to measure what was successful in their teaching methods as well as what failed. Each variable describes the efficiency of teaching techniques, each affecting the overall outcome. This allows teachers to monitor and self-regulate their own learning in order to improve themselves for their students. The goal is to achieve a high score in all variables to achieve a successfully run class with excited students.

The first variable in this formula is interaction. When the students are engaged in conversations about their learning or clearly focusing on what the teacher or their peers are communicating, interaction is high. I learned about techniques to improve interaction within the class: movement breaks, ​​partner or group activities such as turn and talk, using fun attention grabbers to refocus the students, and playing objective driven games to teach and reinforce the lessons. By using various techniques and teaching strategies, teachers can ensure their students are actively engaged in their learning which results in a high score for the variable interaction.

The next variable I learned about is generative stocks of knowledge. This variable measures how well the lesson correlates with the students’ level of imaginative development. In order to keep the students’ imaginations flowing, the lessons they learn need to match their level of imaginative development. By focusing on the level of each student, it allows the educator to place themselves in their students' shoes and make the lesson memorable and relatable. These levels are based on age. By matching the students' generative knowledge and how they make meaning of what they learn, generative stocks of knowledge will be high.

Another variable is propositional stocks of knowledge. This will be high when the terms used in the lesson match the students’ understanding. I learned that if the vocabulary and terms used are too advanced, the students lose focus because their understanding of the topic progressively declines. This section includes vocabulary as well as all types of language used.

The next variables are internal and external curriculum coherence. I learned that internal curriculum coherence relates to how well the pieces of the curriculum fit together and support one another. This variable determines how well the learning is structured and if there are levels of support provided in the lesson to ensure success. This variable will be high if the teacher ensures the students know the background knowledge to certain topics before moving on, otherwise known as scaffolding. High external curriculum coherence relates to how well the lesson relates to the students’ lives outside of school. I learned that connecting curriculum to the student's lives allows them to understand the purpose of what they are learning and why they are learning it. Students are more motivated to be engaged in the lesson when they know it is relevant to their lives and it could be useful to them.

All of these variables will help teachers achieve the dependent variable known as a high educational energy classroom. Educational energy represents the entire lesson as a whole and how well the students understood, engaged in, and enjoyed the lesson. This is what the students take from the lessons they learn in school. This variable should be considered as an epistemic emotion. This means that emotion plays a strong role in learning which is once again supported by Dewey. I learned that because both teachers and students have feelings towards the material, if students have multiple times where they experience positive short-term feelings about school and what they learned, those short-term feelings will turn into positive long term feelings about school.

This project could have been developed further by researching more about how educational energy could be considered an epistemic emotion. This also could have been further researched by focusing on how cognitive and emotional neural systems are connected and the implications that has on learning. This topic could then develop further by supporting social emotional learning that is taught in some schools.

This research project allowed me to learn more about my career and learn ways to better myself as an aspiring teacher. I now have various techniques and methods to ensure my students are excited to learn and would want to come to class. I can use this knowledge of Dewey’s Law to measure what goes successful and what fails in my own classroom. By using Dewey’s theories of education, I can better myself as a teacher not only for myself, but for my students as well.