Analysis of classroom discourse in ‘Personal education’ classes in light of the theories of Dewey, Piaget and Vygotsky

This qualitative study investigated a ‘personal education’ program that operates in some middle schools in Israel. This article focuses on three teachers in three different Jewish Israeli middle schools, and their students, and the intrapersonal and interpersonal teaching and learning processes in their classrooms. The theories of Dewey, Piaget and Vygotsky provided the theoretical lens through which teaching and learning processes were viewed. The findings show that in order for peer group dialogueue to reinforce participants’ personal development the teacher must reinforce group norms of mutual trust among the participants, enabling inclusive, authentic dialogueue and classroom discourse which builds mutual respect. In addition, the teacher reinforces these norms via overt and covert messages, and via the model that he or she displays to the participants.