RADICAL TEFL

whether treatment was working. She was working within Dewey's three-stage, selfcorrecting
loop, and which has been introduced above.
Watching that problem-solving, enquiring dentist, I observed the loop at work:
• Starting from the problem: diagnosis of the problem
first, understanding of a problem through inspection and drawing on past
experience of similar situations, this leading to a provisional
understanding, or judgement, or knowledge claim, of the problem to be
addressed; (the dentist compared evidence from my symptoms and X-rays
with symptoms and X-rays which she had seen in her past experience).
• Experimentation: diagnosis of the problem continued, and action
second, mental consideration of plans of action ('thought experiments', see
sec. 5. 1 below); followed by physically, tackling the problem. That is,
my dentist did not begin work immediately, but first, apparently having
consulted her memories of past experience, she formed hypotheses and
'hunches': she reflected. This seems to be how some other professionals
develop, for example, a doctor treating an ill patient prescribes
medication, observes the result, and then reconsiders or evaluates his
prescription as well as perhaps the diagnosis, based on past experience of
similar problems and similar evidence. During this process, he/she
perhaps learns something new, which can be used in future similar
situations.
• Validation attempt: My dentist then tested the result, and could then
then see whether her interventions had worked, or whether the problems
which she had defined within the problematic situation required a fresh
'determination' (ie, diagnosis), just as Dewey describes the process as
working (1938: ch. VI).
Interestingly, my dentist’s enquiry seemed to be carried out in the context of her
longer-professional development. Dewey makes a link between solving a specific
problem and longer-term learning or CPD: (1929: 149 my emphases)
“We are constantly referring to what is already known to get our bearings
in any new situation … every adult, irrespective of whether he is a man of
science or not, carries in his head a large store of things known in virtue
of earlier operations. When a new problem comes up, one habitually
refers to what is already known to get a start in dealing with it” 27
Perhaps Dewey means by this the following: As an enquirer carries out his/her
enquiry work, he/she seems to be mentally scrutinising his 'hunches' and proposals for
action. In doing this, the intelligent enquirer seems to need to draw on his prior
knowledge, this including memories of previous failures and successes of differing
approaches to similar problems. So, enquiry is necessarily continuous and
accumulative: that is, whilst the enquirer pays attention to the problem in front of him,
he also needs to takes into account what he learned in the past. In the context of a
discussion of the work of Donald Schon (who influenced Michael Wallace [1990] in
27
Dewey here is emphasising the importance of prior knowledge in thought and enquiry (see his (1910:
12) and also see Dewey (1938: 44-45). And Gail Kennedy, summarising Dewey (Boydston 1970: 83),
writes: “ . . every inquiry involves a reference to the past. All inquiries require the use of memory”.
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