Representing Dewey’s Constructs of Continuity and Interaction Within Classrooms

Abstract

As a philosopher, Dewey relied on others to represent and realize the practical implications of his ideas for classroom life. While many educators have ably done so, the empirically grounded markers and measures that Dewey saw as necessary for strengthening progressive practice and communicating with the broader field remain underdeveloped. Here, I review Dewey’s naturalistic view of intelligence and his call for progressive forms of educational assessment as background for my consideration of how one might employ classroom discourse analysis in order to represent characteristic features of Dewey’s two central dimensions of educative experiences—continuity and interaction—in practical terms.