Hammer, Cognition and Instruction (1997)

Discovery learning and discovery teaching

D. Hammer, Cognition and Instruction, 15(4), p 485-529 (1997). 

Abstract: Teachers interested in promoting student inquiry often feel a tension between that agenda and the more traditional agenda of "covering the content." Efforts in education reform devote substantial time to addressing this tension, primarily through curriculum reform, paring the traditional content and adopting inquiry-oriented methods. "Discovery learning" approaches, in particular, are designed to engage students in inquiry through which, guided by the teacher and materials, they "discover" the intended content. Still, the tension remains, in moments, for example, when students make discoveries other than as intended.

How teachers experience and negotiate these moments depends largely on their expectations of curriculum and instruction. For some, successful instruction entails progress through a planned set of observations and ideas, and such moments of divergence may represent impediments. Others see the classroom as an arena not only for student exploration, but also for teacher exploration, of the students' understanding and reasoning, of the subject matter, of what constitutes progress toward expertise and how to facilitate that progress. For them, successful instruction depends on teachers' often unanticipated perceptions and insights. One might call this "discovery teaching."

This article presents a detailed account of a week of learning and instruction from the author's high school physics course, to provide a context for discussion of the role and demands of teacher inquiry. On the view supported here, the coordination of student inquiry and traditional content is not simply a matter of reducing the latter and welcoming the former; it is a matter of discerning and responding to students' particular strengths and needs.