Dewey's Five-Step Teaching Method
Updated 2026-08-16
INTRODUCTION
English translation pending.
CORE DEFINITION
Dewey's five-step teaching method runs from creating a genuine situation of experience, through arising a problem, gathering data, and forming a hypothesis, to testing it in action. The core proposition is that learning is inquiry: the student is an investigator working on a real problem rather than a container to be filled. The key qualification is that the sequence describes how reflective thinking proceeds rather than serving as a rigid lesson template, and its power depends on the continuity of experience across the steps.
SCAFFOLDING EFFECT
Reduce cognitive load
- Situation design: start from a real experience that produces genuine confusion in the learner. - Problem naming: turn that confusion into a question precise enough to investigate properly. - Test loop: require a hypothesis and an action that could actually disconfirm it.
Anchor fast decisions
Understanding forms when a learner has to resolve a difficulty, because the problem supplies the reason the knowledge is needed. Stating a hypothesis makes the learner's current model explicit, and testing it produces feedback that either confirms or corrects that model. Because each step generates the material for the next, the sequence keeps attention anchored to evidence rather than to authority.
MINIMUM ACTION
In progress 0/1Practice this model in one real situation:
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Source support: Explicit
- en.wikipedia.orghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflective_practiceverified
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