Inductive Learning Free powerpoints at

Learning by Discovery  "an approach to instruction through which students interact with their environment-by exploring and manipulating objects, wrestling with questions and controversies, or performing experiments" (Ormrod, 1995, p. 442)

Sandbox theory

Students learn through active discovery - experimentation, examination and analysis NOT direct instruction

Jerome Bruner we should somehow give to children (students) a respect for their own powers of thinking, for their power to generate good questions, to come up with interesting informed guesses...

Examples Categorization Surveys Webquests Interviews Experiments Collecting Simulations Observation Applied Research

Example  Problem based learning “Why can birds fly?” Well designed questions are the key to good “discovery”

How are they different?

What’s the difference?

Knowing  RECALL  RETAIN  REPEAT KCAASE – Bloom’s Taxonomy

Understanding  Explain  Review  Discuss KCAASE – Bloom’s Taxonomy

Learning As…… A process A self – empowering process An active process (Dewey) A self-monitoring process A deep process (Piaget)

Prerequisites

Students need some prior knowledge so they can “discover”. - See Vygotsky. “on the shoulders of giants”

Students need structure. Provide students with organizers and steps to enable “discovery”

Discovery is a collaborative process. Students need to practice working in groups and be comfortable with it.

The teacher “leads” the students with appropriate suggestions and tasks. Subtle persuasion!

All students should actively present findings and share their discovery. Consolidate!