Where Dewey’s Philosophy Meets Positive Psychology: Interest, Effort, and Grit in Education

Students’ lack of interest and their insufficient effort in educational tasks have been a concern for educators. Dewey stressed that genuine interest, which would result in intelligent effort, is a key factor in learners’ educational success. On account of the fact that Dewey and Duckworth share two concepts of interest and effort, and Dewey’s more detailed elaboration on the underlying mechanisms of these two factors, this study assumed that Dewey’s recommendations can inform educational decisions and nurture long-term interest and persistent effort in learners. To be more specific, the researchers analyzed how aligning instruction with Dewey’s concepts of interest, intelligent effort, unified activity, and two principles of interaction and continuity of experience in education can enable learners to develop grit – a personality trait linked to persistence of effort and consistency of interest – and experience the functions of Positive Psychology. To this end, the researchers looked into the theoretical underpinning of Positive Psychology and Duckworth’s grit construct. Following this, researchers analyzed Dewey’s conception of interest, effort, and experience in education. The analysis revealed some recommendations for educators including (۱) connecting instructional materials and content with learners’ internal resources; (۲) taking learners’ social and emotional needs into consideration by designing collaborative activities; (۳) adjusting the difficulty level of educational tasks; and (۴) incorporating learner-generated content into the process of instruction. In addition, as pleasure can stem from interest, creating an interesting and meaningful learning environment for learners may help them experience the benefits of Positive psychology in their education process.

کلیدواژه ها:

Education ، Experience in Education ، Grit ، Intelligent Effort ، Interest ، Unified Activity