RADICAL TEFL

checking), and secondly at the validation stage of research (argued in my 2105: secs.
3 & 4). Dewey, sceptical of both observation alone or reason alone as routes to
knowledge, explored how the two strategies, in 'genuine inquiry', actually work
together.
5. 2 'Thought experiments' For Dewey, one can experiment with an idea,
and in this way combine experimentation and reason, and so carry out 'thought
experiments'. This collocation of 'thought' and 'experiment' is quite startling, as one
normally regards an experiment as something material. However, 'experiment', in the
sense of mentally following through the implications of an idea (and this including a
thinking validation attempt) was, for Dewey (and based on reports of how scientists
actually do their work), an entry point into understanding how we, in fact, actually
enquire and learn. Dewey pointed out that, in looking at a problem, we constantly ask
ourselves “What if … ?” questions: that is, we experiment with our ideas, in the
context of possible actions and their possible results, and this hypotheticalexperimental
work makes up a large part of the enquirer's thinking. Once the seminal
significance of 'thought experiments' is grasped we have an entry point to
appreciating how a lot of human thinking, action and learning actually works. 36
Can this idea be relevant to understanding the EFL classroom? Immediately before
many teacher interventions (an observer will note, for example where a student has
asked for help with a problem), there is a moment of silence from the teacher (it may
be half a second) where the teacher seems to reflect. What is going on in the teacher's
mind during this silent moment? Is the teacher taking in information, for example
recalling the student's past difficulties and successes, and using this information to
come to a decision? Is she drawing on previous experience of similar situations to
come to a decision (and this experience will probably be vast)? If we follow Dewey's
theory of enquiry, the teacher is perhaps experimenting with ideas (like a chess player
planning a move), and thinking through the implications of the alternatives that are
available to her. Such 'thought experiments' are part of her strategy of enquiry. 37
(It is not proposed that teachers should work in this way, rather, the point is being put
that experienced teachers already do this, and that in understanding teacher enquiry it
would be good to take advantage of what teachers already bring to their work.)
5. 3 The recovery of enquiry into local knowledge To investigate the EFL
classroom encounter in a formally experimental way, requiring data collection and
analysis, may be too ambitious and quite unrealistic, with too many variables to
handle as well as complex methodological problems to take into account. Such
attempts are perhaps a legacy of the success of the scientific revolution. On the other
hand, an alternative of informal experience might be seen as inferior to controlled
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37
On 'thought experiment' see Donald Freeman (1998: 28): “Albert Einstein … coined the term 'thought
experiment', in which you simply think through a situation, research issue … a great deal of research
work is possible using ones' own mind”. There is a literature in the History of Science which
describes how scientist-enquirers work, and a lesson from these studies is that material or laboratory
experiments are only a part of their work. Much scientific enquiry is more mental than physical. A
good example is Kepler’s work, see Arthur Koestler’s The Sleepwalkers, pp. 317-348.
See the footnotes in sec. 4. 2 above for relevant citations on teacher cognition.
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