Definition
Discovery
learning refers to
various instructional
design models that engages
students in learning through discovery. Usually the pedagogical aims are
threefold:
(1) Promote "deep" learning,
(2) Promote meta-cognitive
skills (develop problem-solving skills, creativity, etc.),
(3) Promote student
engagement.
According to
van Joolingen (1999:385): “ Discovery learning is a type of learning where
learners construct their own knowledge by experimenting with a domain, and
inferring rules from the results of these experiments. The basic idea of this
kind of learning is that because learners can design their own experiments in
the domain and infer the rules of the domain themselves they are actually
constructing their knowledge. Because of these constructive activities, it is
assumed they will understand the domain at a higher level than when the
necessary information is just presented by a teacher or an expository learning
environment.”
According to
Borthick & Jones (2000:181): “ In discovery learning, participants learn to
recognize a problem, characterize what a solution would look like, search for
relevant information, develop a solution strategy, and execute the chosen
strategy. In collaborative discovery learning, participants, immersed in a
community of practice, solve problems together.”
According to
Judith Conway's Educational Technology's Effect on Models of Instruction: “
Jerome Bruner was influential in defining Discovery Learning. It uses Cognitive
psychology as a base. Discovery learning is "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) The idea is that students are more
likely to remember concepts they discover on their own. Teachers have found
that discovery learning is most successful when students have prerequisite
knowledge and undergo some structured experiences.” (Roblyer, Edwards, and
Havriluk, 1997, p 68).
Discovery
Learning provides students with opportunities to develop hypotheses to answer
questions and can contribute to the development of a lifelong love of learning.
Students propose issues or problems, gather data and observations to develop
hypotheses, confirm or refine their hypotheses, and explain or prove their
problems.
Theory and models of discovery learning
Discovery
learning can be traced
back to authors like Rousseau, Pestalozzi and Dewey. In particular Dewey's
emphasis on "experience" is in vogue again.
Modern
discovery learning approaches relate to constructivist theory and therefore Bruner is considered a
father of discovery learning by many authors. E.g. in the Encyclopedia of Educational
technology one can find
the following quote from Bruner “"Emphasis on discovery in learning has
precisely the effect on the learner of leading him to be a constructionist, to
organize what he is encountering in a manner not only designed to discover
regularity and relatedness, but also to avoid the kind of information drift
that fails to keep account of the uses to which information might have to be
put." ”(Bruner, 1962).
Another strong
influence for some kinds of discovery learning (see microworlds is Seymour Papert's constructionism. Donald Clark in his discovery learning page puts the following statement: “ "You
can't teach people everything they need to know. The best you can do is
position them where they can find what they need to know when they need to know
it." - Seymour Papert”
Discovery
learning is also strongly tied to problem solving (or learning how to solve
problems under a more meta-cognitive perspective): “"Learning theorists
characterize learning to solve problems as discovery learning, in which
participants learn to recognize a problem, characterize what a solution would
look like, search for relevant information, develop a solution strategy, and
execute the chosen strategy."” (Borthick & Jones, 2000:181)
Some authors
point out that discovery learning may increase content relevance and student
engagement (actually an argument that can be made for all sorts of project-oriented
learning.
Discovery
learning, like most constructivist instructional design models is not easy to
implement, since learners need to possess a number of cognitive skills and be
intrinsically motivated to learn.
van Joolingen
(1999:386) makes the following point:
In research on
scientific discovery learning, it has been found that in order for discovery of
learning to be successful, learners need to posses a number of discovery skills
(De Jong & Van Joolingen, in press), including hypothesis generation,
experiment design, prediction, and data analysis. In addition, regulative
skills like planning and monitoring are needed for successful discovery
learning (Njoo & De Jong, 1993). Apart from being supportive for learning
about the domain at hand, these skills are usually also seen as a learning goal
in itself, as they are needed in a complex information society. Lack of these
skills can result in ineffective discovery behavior, like designing
inconclusive experiments, confirmation bias and drawing incorrect conclusions
from data. In its turn, ineffective discovery behavior does not contribute to
creating new knowledge in the mind of the learner.
Therefore one
must try to support discovery learning processes, however with the risk of
disrupting the very nature process that should engage the learner in autonomous
knowledge construction.
Of course,
there is a lot of disruption of this "pure model". A lot of
research has pointed to out that "unguided instruction" can fail to
meet precise instructional goals. Therefore, in practice, most current forms of
discovery learning are guided in various ways.
Models of discovery learning
we should add a sort of common blueprint here
maybe
- Collaborative discovery
learning
- Discovery learning with
microworlds
- Experiental learning (to some
extent)
- Guided discovery learning
- Incidental learning
- Learning by exploring (exploratory
learning)
- Simulation-based learning
- Case-based learning
- Problem-based learning
- inquiry-based learning
Technology
- Cognitive tools
- Simulations
- Hypertext
- Microworlds
- A simple combination of
webpages (read/write) and forums or alternatively a Wiki
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any suggestion on my side