Discovery learning

BRUNER’s  DISCOVERY  LEARNING – Harvard university  (1915-

The process of Education (1960)

DISCOVERY LEARNING

Grasping the structure of a subject is understands it in a way that permits many other things to be related to it meaningfully. According to Bruner learning is not passive, but an Active process of discovery, influenced by prior knowledge and ability of the learner.

Teacher should provide problem situations that stimulate students to ‘discover’ for themselves the ‘structure’ of the subject matter.

Bruner believes classroom learning should take place inductively moving from specific examples presented by the teacher’s to generalizations about the structure that are discovered by the students. The basic structure of a subject matter is made up of ‘concepts’. A concept is a category of things that can be grouped together because they are similar in some way. Concepts are abstractors.

INTUITIVE THINKING :  Productive thinking

The shrewd guess, the fertile hypothesis, the courageous leap to a tentative conclusion are all needed to learn by discovery.

SPIRAL CURRICULAM

Is a meaningful sequential organization of learning material appropriate to the cognitive level of a child belonging to a particular chronological age levels. It is not static. It needs to be expanded, enriched and enlarged to include more details as the child grows of reaches higher chronological level.

DISCOVERY LEARNING

Teacher plays the role of facilitator of learning. Teacher organizes the class so that the students learn through their own active involvement. Students are presented with intriguing questions, buff ling situations or interesting problems. Teacher do not explain how to solve the problem but provides appropriate materials and encourages students to make observations formulate hypotheses and to test solutions. The teacher guides discovery by asking leading questions. The teacher also gives feed -back about the directions the problem solving activities are taking. This feed-back must be given at the right time so that students can either revise their approach or continue towards a correct solution.

CHARACTERISTICS OF DISCOVERY LEARNING

1. Understanding the structure of the subject being studied i.e. fundamental ideas, relationships or patterns of the field –the essential information.
   E.g. - Coding system- a hierarchy of related concepts

In discovery learning teacher presents examples and students work with examples until they discover the interrelationships- The subject structure

1. The value of inductive reasoning in learning
   E.g. Using specific examples to formulate a general principle
   It is called eg-rule method
2. Active learning
   Intuitive thinking on the part of learner-Guided discovery
   
   
   ADVANTAGES OF DISCOVERY LEARNING

1. It helps students ‘learn how to learn ‘ – Heuristic methods
2. It produces a sense of excitement and self motivation
3. It allows students to proceeding ways that fit their own abilities
4. It may help strengthen the students self concept
5. Students become accountable to themselves for their learning
6. Drop effective memory and transfer to  new learning situations
7. Encourages students to think intuitively, logically and to formulate and test hypothesis
8. It provides students with a sense of inner satisfaction independent of extrinsic rewards
   
   
   DISADVANTAGES
   1) Time consuming
   2) Difficult to carry out in large groups and with slow students
   3) Few students will do well all the discovery and leaving the rest behind
   4) Specialized materials may be needed
   5) May seem chaotic and diversity to some teachers and students
   
   
   According to Bruner learning is an active process to which learner construct new ideas of concepts based upon their current / past knowledge.
   relying on a cognitive structure to do so. Cognitive structure i.e. schema, mental models provides meaning and organization to experiences and allows the individual to go beyond the information given. (i.e. thinking)
   “Any subject can be taught effectively in some intellectually honest form to any child at any stage of development”