Dewey's Education Theory

Dewey's theory that education should be linked to students' real-world experience (1897) is often cited and not infrequently valorized in the professional literature. But veteran teachers have long known that real-world classroom experience rarely rises to a level at which instructors face meaningful choices regarding theory or praxis. As reported in the popular press and documented in various ways in the literature, classroom dynamics in modern public education can sometimes be less a matter of learning facilitation and experientially relevant instruction than monitoring the quality of interactions between teacher and students on one hand or student peers on the other (Lago-Delello, 1998; McDaniel, 1994; Cotton, 1990; NCES, 1998), accommodating the special needs of various student constituencies deemed to be at risk for everything from low self-esteem to consciousness of social and civic inequity based on gender, language, ethnicity, and/or culture (Wentzel, 1991; Wang, Haertel, & Walberg, 1990; Gillespie, 1999), and policing what the methods prescriptions refer to as ground rules of lesson civility (McDaniel, 1994; Chan & Treacy, 1996)--all while coping with the mandate to meet academic goals measured by standardized tests (Bracey, 1998; Snowman & Biehler, 2003; Weinstein, 2002).

Virtually every aspect of classroom dynamics cited here is a matter of dispute, not to say controversy, in the popular and professional literature. Additionally, as an influential in

ds of such students. Lago-Delello (1998) cites the benefit of instructional models that involve collaboration with colleagues and special-education experts and cooperative (group) learning models for at-risk students, as well as altering instructional dynamics so that at-risk students receive both academic and nonacademic cues from teachers. This approach really goes to the idea of increased sensitization on the part of teachers and counselors to the perceptions of students who lack motivation to achieve. Sensitivity yields encouragement, which may alter the case of the unmotivated or anxious student. Teacher preparation for engaging in nontraditional instructional evaluating student capabilities has been positively related to improvement in student motivation. Improved motivation and proficiency in mathematics was noted in a study of students whose teachers were exposed to a program of instruction in emphasizing process, master, and understanding of math problems were more likely to "provide[] a psychologically safer context in which the students felt comfortable taking risks," hence, in being more motivated to learn about math (Givvin, Salmon, Stipek, & MacGyvers, 1998, p. 334. Closer attention to student interests may also en