Questions For Anyone Who Teaches: Parents, Teachers, Trainers, Bosses, & More

On pp. 204-205 of How We Think, John Dewey wrote:

“Lack of any preparation on the part of a teacher leads, of course, to a random, haphazard recitation, its success depending on the inspiration of the moment, which may or may not come. Preparation in simply the subject-matter conduces to a rigid order, the teacher examining pupils on their exact knowledge of their text. But the teacher’s problem — as a teacher — does not reside in mastering a subject-matter, but in adjusting a subject-matter to the nurture of thought. Now the formal steps indicate excellently well the questions a teacher should ask in working out the problem of teaching a topic. What preparation have my pupils for attacking this subject? What familiar experiences of theirs are available? What have they already learned that will come to their assistance? How shall I present the matter so as to fit economically and effectively into their present equipment? What pictures shall I show? To what objects shall I call their attention? What incidents shall I relate? What comparisons shall I lead them to draw, what similarities to recognize? What is the general principle toward which the whole discussion should point as its conclusion? By what applications shall I try to fix, to clear up, and to make real their grasp of this general principle? What activities of their own may bring it home to them as a genuinely significant principle?

“No teacher can fail to teach better if he has considered such questions somewhat systematically. But the more the teacher has reflected upon pupils’ probable intellectual response to a topic from the various standpoints indicated by the five formal steps, the more he will be prepared to conduct the recitation in a flexible and free way, and yet not let the subject go to pieces and the pupils’ attention drift in all directions; the less necessary will he find it, in order to preserve a semblance of intellectual order, to follow some one uniform scheme. He will be ready to take advantage of any sign of vital response that shows itself from any direction. “

Quoting only the questions and reformatting them: 
“1. What preparation have my pupils for attacking this subject? 
2. What familiar experiences of theirs are available? 
3. What have they already learned that will come to their assistance? 
4. How shall I present the matter so as to fit economically and effectively into their present equipment? 
5. What pictures shall I show?  To what objects shall I call their attention?  What incidents shall I relate? 
6. What comparisons shall I lead them to draw, what similarities to recognize? 
7. What is the general principle toward which the whole discussion should point as its conclusion? 
8. By what applications shall I try to fix, to clear up, and to make real their grasp of this general principle? 
9. What activities of their own may bring it home to them as a genuinely significant principle?”

How We Think by John Dewey is available for purchase in paper or audio format and is available for free on the Internet:
1.  https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.201492/mode/2up
2.  https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.213956
3. https://archive.org/details/howwethink00dewegoog
4. https://archive.org/details/howwethink03dewegoog
5. https://archive.org/details/howwethink01dewegoog
6. https://archive.org/details/howwethink0000dewe
7. https://archive.org/details/HowWeThink