I’m unclear on what you’re trying to say here. How do you define “explicit teaching”? In my role as a middle school math teacher, I created learning environments which enabled students to have experiences that caused them to grow as learners and become more “learnerate”. Did I explicitly teach my students new learning skills? No, but I modeled new learning skills and then put my students in circumstances that encouraged them to use those skills. And I did that intentionally and with forethought—in the same way I taught them math skills.
Dewey would argue that, as teachers, all we can do is set up the conditions for learning—that “explicit teaching” is simply setting up an environment to intentionally guide students toward personally educative experiences. In the same way all understanding is constructed, all learning is experiential.
