Stony Brook University - SUNY Digital Repository

philosophies of teaching. In his book How We Think, Dewey
referred to his notion of critical thought and authentic inquiry
as “reflective thinking,” which he defined as: “Active,
persistent, and careful consideration of any belief or supported
form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it,
and the further conclusions to which it tends” (6). For him,
the origins of such “reflective thinking” was with “perplexity,”
which he saw represented by the image of a “man traveling in an
unfamiliar region com[ing] to a branching of the roads”:
“Having no sure knowledge to fall back upon, he is brought to a
standstill of hesitation and suspense. Which road is right?
And how shall perplexity be resolved?” (10). About the meaning
of this metaphor to “reflective thought,” Dewey wrote:
Thinking begins in what may fairly enough be called a
forked-road situation, a situation that is ambiguous,
that presents a dilemma, that proposes alternatives.
[…] One can think reflectively only when one is
willing to endure suspense and to undergo the trouble
of searching. […] To be genuinely thoughtful, we
must be willing to sustain and protract that state of
doubt which is the stimulus to thorough inquiry.
(11)
To Dewey, for students to develop this “reflective thinking,”
teachers must introduce a classroom where their students
experience moments of “perplexity” for themselves and on their
own terms. To do otherwise for Dewey was contrary not only to
education but thinking as a whole. Again, it was to hand
students “bricks” of thinking that had already been thought.
While possibly not without exception, the students amidst those
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