Field Response Journal #11

*11. Does the teacher use discovery learning? If so, cite specific examples and make reference to the class text. How do students respond to this instructional method?

I love the idea of guided discovery learning. I’ve never tried pure discovery learning, and even when I was homeschooling I found it necessary to give my kids some structure to guide their exploration of a subject. I think Piaget is right that asking students to carry out such abstract thinking that most pure discovery learning demands is too difficult for student in the concrete operational stage. I have seen very motivated students guide their own learning experiences, but even in the cases where an individual is in the formal operational stage, they usually lack the confidence to completely self-generate a project. They want feedback and a more competent other to help them stay on the right track and do it efficiently.

Writing and interpreting literature is naturally a guided discovery experience. If you are allowing creative expression and asking meaningful questions, the students will be forced to explore hypothetical answers or hypothetical writing topics (hypothesis stage), investigate how they would support their ideas and then put them together through trial and error (experiment stage). One of the reasons I assign both a rough draft and a final draft of a writing assignment is because giving the students a chance to get my feedback on a rough draft (instruction stage) adds to their own ability to test their approaches so they can adjust their writing to better communicate their ideas.