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Jonathan Groves
Posts:
2,068
From:
Kaplan University, Argosy University, Florida Institute of Technology
Registered:
8/18/05
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Re: Mathematician
Posted:
Oct 8, 2010 2:21 AM
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On 9/8/2010 at 12:04 am, Wayne Bishop wrote:
> At 12:43 PM 10/7/2010, Jonathan Groves wrote:
> >Wayne,
> >
> >So any form of inquiry-based learning is not honest?
> Just because some
> >teachers botch it by either taking it way too far or
> using it
> >inappropriately or otherwise not using such learning
> techniques skillfully
> >proves that inquiry-based learning does not work,
> that such learning must
> >be fake?
>
> No, but too much of it is. And any of it mandated by
> the state or
> nation by decree, by financial support of curricula,
> or by
> unconventional assessments (not verified to correlate
> with future
> success in the discipline) most definitely is. Thanks
> for asking,
>
> Wayne
Wayne,
Certainly mandating discovery learning in these ways is a bad idea
because it is not essential to good teaching and because it is
easy to botch in the hands of inexperienced teachers. Teachers who
do not feel comfortable using discovery learning should think
twice before trying to use it. In short, discovery learning can
be a useful approach to teaching and can be highly beneficial to
students, but it is not essential to good teaching. And, like
any approach to teaching, discovery learning is best seen as
something that can augment teaching and learning and does not
have to be seen as an "all or nothing" approach. Johnson and
Rising's book "Guidelines for Teaching Mathematics" does not
mention much about discovery learning, but they do point out that
discovery learning is not appropriate in certain cases. It would
be good if they had mentioned more specifics such as discovery
learning is not appropriate for those ideas that would require
a mathematical genius or near genius to discover with little or
no assistance from the teacher or from others who already know
those ideas. Perhaps the authors felt that such comments are
not necessary. But they are necessary for those who want to
try to push discovery learning too far. Any teaching method,
whether discovery learning or anything else, used to extremes
leads to problems.
Jonathan Groves
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