Essay - Direct Instruction & Discovery Learning

Question 1

Three examples of constructivism

Answer 1

Inquiry Learning
Problem-Based Learning
Discovery Learning

Question 2

What is inquiry learning?

Answer 2

Teacher poses a puzzle

Children formulate and test solutions themselves

Question 3

What is problem-based learning?

Answer 3

Teacher poses a puzzle
Students formulate and test solutions themselves
However, in PBL, real world or authentic problems are used

Question 4

What is discovery learning?

Answer 4

Exploration, finding patterns, see what you can make, what is your prediction?

Question 5

What is the background to constructivism?

Answer 5

Constructivism emerged in the 1960s as part of the cognitive revolution. Behaviourism considered too rigid.

Question 6

What are the basics of constructivism?

Answer 6

1. Learners as active participants rather than absorb knowledge
2. Knowledge varies with cultural experience, the individuals (both instructors and learners), individual learning styles moderate instructions

Question 7

What is individual constructivism? Name a supporting theory

Answer 7

Each person creates their own knowledge

Piaget’s stage-based theory

Question 8

What is social constructivism? Name a supporting theory/theorist

Answer 8

Knowledge is developed collaboratively

Vygotsky sociocultural theory of cognitive development

Question 9

What do students require in constructivism ?

Answer 9

1. Need to have opportunity to construct by being presented with goals and minimal information
2. Learning is idiosyncratic (individual?) and so a common instructional format or strategy is ineffective

Question 10

What are two challenges to constructivism?

Answer 10

1. Notion of innate knowledge - genetic predisposition to acquire certain knowledge (Geary’s BPK and BSK). BPK is already there, nothing to construct
2. Behaviourism - learning is rote reponse to the environment, no mentalist necessary, if rote learning works it doesn’t need constructing

Question 11

What are the 6 ‘said benefits’ of constructivism in the classroom?

Answer 11

1. Motivation and engagement
2. Development of inquiry skills
3. Development of social skills
4. Strengthens memory pathway?
5. Real world learning outcomes
6. Transfer to other areas

Question 12

What is Direct instruction?

Answer 12

A teaching method that is based on explicit teaching and testing of skills considered essential for mastery in a subject area. Learning objectives are clearly defined and carefully sequenced, with the teacher actively controlling each lesson in a highly organised and formal manner.

Question 13

Why does direct instruction have a poor image

Answer 13

Chalk and talk
Behaviourism
Transmissionist

Question 14

Describe the three steps of Direct Instruction in the classroom

Answer 14

1. Explicit instructions given - The what (facts and concepts) and the how (activities and procedures)
2. Teacher guides practice (feedback critical) eg. Lots of questions, do you understand?
3. Independent practice (high success rate critical)

Question 15

Example of a DI and discovery science lesson

Answer 15

DI - teacher goes through PowerPoint on matter, teacher demonstrates using steam, water and ice. Q & A to ensure retention
Constructivist - Challenge: How to steam, water and ice differ? Students share ideas and experiment in groups, teacher prompts if needed (size? Temp?)

Question 16

Three practical criticisms of constructivism in the classroom

Answer 16

1. Can be timely and difficult to set up
2. Groups don’t always cooperate or collaborate well
3. Teachers report lack of confidence in result

Question 17

Three theoretical criticisms of constructivism in the classroom

Answer 17

Working memory overburdened
Will students arrive at the answer
Novices and special needs students especially affected

Question 18

Name a study which compared discovery learningand DI

Answer 18

Khlar and Nigam (2004)

Question 19

What was the aim of the Khlar and Nigam (2004) study?

Answer 19

Investigate children’s ability to learn the scientific concept ‘control of variables’

Question 20

What were the participants in Khlar and Nigam’s study?

Answer 20

112 3rd and 4th graders

Allocated to DI or discovery learning

Question 21

What was the task set for the children

Answer 21

Build a ramp to see what what impact the run length or steepness of the ram would have on slowing down or speeding up a ball

Question 22

What was the procedure?

Answer 22

1. Children designs experiments for steepness and run length
2. DI - Teachers modeled confounded and unconfounded designs
   Discovery - Teachers observed children with apparatus
3. Children designed experiments for run lengthy and ramp surface

Question 23

What were the results?

Answer 23

77 % of DI students became masters
23% of Discovery learning students became masters
Mastery transferred to a new task (commenting on experimentation in Science fair posters)

Question 24

Describe the Replica study

Answer 24

Dean & Kuhn (2017)
Three groups of 15 students
Found no advantage for direct instruction
Problems with study - no of students quite low, not really a replica, one group had both DI and discovery so mixed it up

Question 25

5 challenges to constructivism

Answer 25

1. Cognitive psychology (latest technological and medical research on human memory system). - we know if it’s complex information discovering not always workable
2. Teaching strategies mixed up with the discipline - more worried about strategies of getting the answer than the answer itself eg the scientific method
3. Does it really address learning styles?
4. Can knowledge be transferred to another area? Eg geography, maths, English
5. Notion of Biological Secondary Knowledge - Somethings you need to be explicitly taught. You cannot find your way around the grammar of a language if you’;re learning a 2nd language

Question 26

Key theorist for Discovery learning

Answer 26

Jerome Bruner in 1961
Proposed DL as an instructional tool because the structures and relations that constitute human cognitive architecture (information processing system) had not yet been mapped

Question 27

Characteristics of discovery learning (5)

Answer 27

1. Vast amount of information out there acquired without explicit instruction or any teaching outside educational institutions
2. Easy learning to speak or recognising faces or walking - this recognises we can do without explicit instruction
3. Difficult acquiring even less information from inside. All these people are learning stuff outside by discovery, why aren’t we doing the same in the classroom
4. Are school methods artifical or innappropriate?

Question 28

What was the basic conception about discovery learning that is now being questioned

Answer 28

That discovering equals better understanding

Question 29

What does research say about discovery learning?

Answer 29

There is no real empirical controlled body of evidence from empirical research for constructivist (discovery) methods after decades of research

Question 30

ARguments in support of Direct instruction (5)

Answer 30

1. Most knowledge is obtained from others
2. We are mostly taught in educational institutions
3. Tests have shown most people do better with a worked example - contradicts discovery argument
4. New information and problem solving in educational institutions shows students benefit from direct instruction as we are in school to learn complex information
5. Discovery more time consuming

Question 31

What is a possible solution?

Answer 31

Do worked examples THEN discover

Question 32

What did information processing theory discover

Answer 32

1970s to present. Found out more about how brain works. As we found out more about brain could not see evidence of DL working.

Question 33

What is important when considering rote learning and understanding

Answer 33

The nature of the information

Question 34

How do we achieve learning with understanding

Answer 34

Needs large amounts of linked information called high element interactivity information stored in the long term memory

Question 35

Example of high and low element interactivity? What effects it?

Answer 35

High element interactivity - grammar (need to know sentence structure etc)
Low element interactivity - vocabulary (can be learned independent of other words)
Impacted by what you already know. Novice or expert.

Question 36

How does understanding work with memory?

Answer 36

Understanding does not reduce role of working memory or long term memory. It takes up more room in LTM (does not matter) which is transferred to working memory (does matter).
Understanding is comprehending and manipulating in WM from LTM

Question 37

Discovery learning impact on memory (2)

Answer 37

We have a vast LTM but a small WM when dealing with new information.

Combinatorial explosions occur because of trial and error testing for correct answer/procedure. This limits our understanding.