It’s a picture we’ve seen all too often: an elementary school student slumped over at his desk, bored and restless, his face barely supported in his hands. He is trying not to fall asleep as his teacher drills content about basic anatomy: the heart is here, the lungs are here, the kidneys are here…The teacher gives the class a worksheet asking them to fill in which body parts go where. It’s due at the end of the period and the only way to measure whether the students have learned anything is based on this worksheet and the inevitable unit test. Now imagine this: elementary students walk into a classroom and see a basic skeleton with a models of the heart, lungs, kidneys, stomach, and intestines laying on a table in the center of the room. Students gather around in a circle, see the model organs, giggle, and begin to guess the name of each body part, its function, and, through trial and error, figure out where each organ fits in the model. Both lessons have been used by teachers, but one lesson has students actively involved, curious, and engaged. The other relies on direct instruction, rote memorization, and knowing information “for the test.” One lesson is memorable for students. The other relies on a student memorizing information. Which lesson will have a lasting impression? Teaching methods that rely on student-centered learning are considered a more effective style of teaching because, as the name suggests, lessons are based on the student and meeting his or her psychological needs to achieve learning outcomes. If an educator takes a child’s development into consideration, he or she can prepare lessons that will not only engage the student but also leave a lasting impression. John Dewey famously wrote about student-centered learning in the early part of the 20th century. In his book The Child and The Curriculum, he stressed that children need a chance to explore, experience and connect information in order to truly understand and internalize abstract principles. Dewey also felt that curriculum shouldn’t be made interesting to students, but should instead already be of interest to students in order to avoid apathy. One of the most used versions of student-centered learning is the Discovery Learning Method. Background and CharacteristicsThe Discovery Learning Method is an active, hands-on style of learning, originated by Jerome Bruner in the 1960s. Bruner emphasized that we should be “learning by doing.” With this method, students actively participate instead of passively receiving knowledge. Students interact with their environment by exploring and manipulating objects, wrestling with questions and controversies or performing experiments. They are encouraged to think, ask questions, hypothesize, speculate, cooperate and collaborate with others. They develop confidence in problem solving and feel comfortable using knowledge they already have. Instead of a student being an empty vessel for a teacher to fill with knowledge, the Discovery Learning Method takes into consideration that all students have some background knowledge that they may be able to apply to the current subject at hand. The Discovery Learning Method is a constructivist theory, meaning it is based on the idea that students construct their own understanding and knowledge of the world through experiencing things and reflecting on those experiences. Willy Wonka very famously said “We are the music makers. We are the dreamers of dreams.” Willy Wonka was a constructivist and his factory constantly used the Discovery Learning Method. That’s what made his Chocolate Factory so exciting to children and adults alike–there was hands-on learning and trying in his factory. Granted, some of the results weren’t favorable, but each time something happened to a child, an Oompa Loompa would sing a song not only reiterating the lesson, but also reminding the children and adults that they should have known something would happen based on their prior knowledge. This hands-on approach created lifelong lessons nobody (not even the people watching it from the comfort of their own homes) would ever forget. The Discovery Learning Method is also unique in how it presents problems. Teachers will give students a problem and some resources to solve it. This concept alone is very different from standard science experiments you may remember when you were growing up. Most science teachers would give the instructions for an experiment, perform the experiment, show the result of the experiment, and then grade the students on their write-ups of the experiment. There’s not much discovery happening when students see every step and the desired outcome before they even attempt it on their own. Students are simply performing a task they watched someone else do. The Discovery Learning Method may have a specific end result, but the focus is on the steps and the critical thinking involved in getting there. Teachers have to observe the process, not just grade a written paper at the end of the experience. Educational Psychologist Jean Piaget viewed children as little philosophers and scientists building their own theories of knowledge. The book Hands-On Science Teaching best summarizes this: “Piaget’s research clearly mandates that the learning environment should be rich in physical experiences. Involvement, he states, is the key to intellectual development, and for the elementary school child this includes direct physical manipulation of objects.” Implementing Across The CurriculumEven though most people associate the Discovery Learning Method with science classes, it can be applied to all parts of a curriculum. In an English class, for example, teachers may introduce the “dreaded” Shakespeare unit with lists of vocabulary for each act and a make students fill out a worksheet while watching a biographical video about Shakespeare and the Globe Theatre. If using the Discovery Learning Method, however, a teacher could give the students a handout to create their own “Shakespearean Insult” by choosing a word from each of three columns. After everyone gets a chance to hurl their best insult (“saucy lily-livered moldwarp” or “peevish evil-eyed crutch” for example), they have a better understanding of Shakespeare’s language and could keep a notebook of insults they come across during the play. Why Educator Training is Important
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