Essay - Direct Instruction & Discovery Learning Flashcards
Three examples of constructivism
Inquiry Learning
Problem-Based Learning
Discovery Learning
What is inquiry learning?
Teacher poses a puzzle
Children formulate and test solutions themselves
What is problem-based learning?
Teacher poses a puzzle
Students formulate and test solutions themselves
However, in PBL, real world or authentic problems are used
What is discovery learning?
Exploration, finding patterns, see what you can make, what is your prediction?
What is the background to constructivism?
Constructivism emerged in the 1960s as part of the cognitive revolution. Behaviourism considered too rigid.
What are the basics of constructivism?
- Learners as active participants rather than absorb knowledge
- Knowledge varies with cultural experience, the individuals (both instructors and learners), individual learning styles moderate instructions
What is individual constructivism? Name a supporting theory
Each person creates their own knowledge
Piaget’s stage-based theory
What is social constructivism? Name a supporting theory/theorist
Knowledge is developed collaboratively
Vygotsky sociocultural theory of cognitive development
What do students require in constructivism ?
- Need to have opportunity to construct by being presented with goals and minimal information
- Learning is idiosyncratic (individual?) and so a common instructional format or strategy is ineffective
What are two challenges to constructivism?
- Notion of innate knowledge - genetic predisposition to acquire certain knowledge (Geary’s BPK and BSK). BPK is already there, nothing to construct
- Behaviourism - learning is rote reponse to the environment, no mentalist necessary, if rote learning works it doesn’t need constructing
What are the 6 ‘said benefits’ of constructivism in the classroom?
- Motivation and engagement
- Development of inquiry skills
- Development of social skills
- Strengthens memory pathway?
- Real world learning outcomes
- Transfer to other areas
What is Direct instruction?
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.
Why does direct instruction have a poor image
Chalk and talk
Behaviourism
Transmissionist
Describe the three steps of Direct Instruction in the classroom
- Explicit instructions given - The what (facts and concepts) and the how (activities and procedures)
- Teacher guides practice (feedback critical) eg. Lots of questions, do you understand?
- Independent practice (high success rate critical)
Example of a DI and discovery science lesson
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?)
Three practical criticisms of constructivism in the classroom
- Can be timely and difficult to set up
- Groups don’t always cooperate or collaborate well
- Teachers report lack of confidence in result
Three theoretical criticisms of constructivism in the classroom
Working memory overburdened
Will students arrive at the answer
Novices and special needs students especially affected
Name a study which compared discovery learningand DI
Khlar and Nigam (2004)
What was the aim of the Khlar and Nigam (2004) study?
Investigate children’s ability to learn the scientific concept ‘control of variables’
What were the participants in Khlar and Nigam’s study?
112 3rd and 4th graders
Allocated to DI or discovery learning
What was the task set for the children
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
What was the procedure?
- Children designs experiments for steepness and run length
- DI - Teachers modeled confounded and unconfounded designs
Discovery - Teachers observed children with apparatus - Children designed experiments for run lengthy and ramp surface
What were the results?
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)
Describe the Replica study
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
5 challenges to constructivism
- Cognitive psychology (latest technological and medical research on human memory system). - we know if it’s complex information discovering not always workable
- Teaching strategies mixed up with the discipline - more worried about strategies of getting the answer than the answer itself eg the scientific method
- Does it really address learning styles?
- Can knowledge be transferred to another area? Eg geography, maths, English
- 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
Key theorist for Discovery learning
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
Characteristics of discovery learning (5)
- Vast amount of information out there acquired without explicit instruction or any teaching outside educational institutions
- Easy learning to speak or recognising faces or walking - this recognises we can do without explicit instruction
- 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
- Are school methods artifical or innappropriate?
What was the basic conception about discovery learning that is now being questioned
That discovering equals better understanding
What does research say about discovery learning?
There is no real empirical controlled body of evidence from empirical research for constructivist (discovery) methods after decades of research
ARguments in support of Direct instruction (5)
- Most knowledge is obtained from others
- We are mostly taught in educational institutions
- Tests have shown most people do better with a worked example - contradicts discovery argument
- New information and problem solving in educational institutions shows students benefit from direct instruction as we are in school to learn complex information
- Discovery more time consuming
What is a possible solution?
Do worked examples THEN discover
What did information processing theory discover
1970s to present. Found out more about how brain works. As we found out more about brain could not see evidence of DL working.
What is important when considering rote learning and understanding
The nature of the information
How do we achieve learning with understanding
Needs large amounts of linked information called high element interactivity information stored in the long term memory
Example of high and low element interactivity? What effects it?
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.
How does understanding work with memory?
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
Discovery learning impact on memory (2)
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.
