Write one-page response describing major aspects of what you experienced and know about guided-discovery instruction? What classroom implications this may have?
Guided-discovery instruction
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In order to make the link between discovery learning and what we learned so far; I need to go back to the constructivism which posits that learning is an active, constructive process wherein humans construct knowledge and meaning from their experiences. Constructivism has different flavors: Cognitive Constructivism of Piaget, Social constructivism of Vygotsky and Radical constructivism of Glasersfeld.
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Cognitive Constructivism
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To Piaget (1936), cognitive development is a progressive through the four stages: Sensorimotor, Preoperational, Concrete operational and Formal operational.
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In the 1960s; Jerome Bruner developed a theory of cognitive growth, in contrast to Piaget, Bruner suggested that intellectual ability developed in three modes of representation: Enactive representation - action-based, (0 - 1 years), Iconic representation - image-based, (1 - 6 years) and Symbolic representation - language-based, (7 years onwards) with the environmental and experiential factors.
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To Bruner, the outcome of cognitive development is thinking, constructing new concepts and the ability to invent new concepts as the aim of education should be to create autonomous learners (learning to learn).
According to Bruner; the best learning occurs when lessons are geared to move in a progression from the Enactive to Iconic to Symbolic representation, the teacher's job is to guide the discovery process by using a set of resources (action based, image-based and language-based) to help learners develop an appropriate model of the targeted concept”. For example; If the core of the lesson is about types of houses, teacher can introduce such these activities to the learners:
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Build models of houses, (enactive stage)
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Watch posters or video showing different types of houses, (iconic stage)
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Research type of houses on the internet and discuss the characteristics of the different types (symbolic stage)
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In higher grades; the teacher can skip the first two steps as the learners in this age already developed the Symbolic representation or the language.
Discovery Learning encourages the learner to become active in making the learning meaningful to himself. Thorsett (2002) states that “Discovery learning is a learning situation in which the knowledge content is not given to the students but must be independently discovered by the student.”
Guided discovery is learn-by-doing, where the learner is provided with a certain amount of information and then given instructions on how to proceed in order to find out the unknown. The classroom implications might be as inquiry-based learning, problem-based learning, project -based learning, experimentation, role plays and dramas.
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In this context; it is worth to mention that unguided discovery is giving the learner a problem and asked to find out the solution without recourse to further information.
References
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Bruner, J. S. (1961). The act of discovery. Harvard Educational Review, V. 31, P. 21-32.
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Thorsett, P, (2002) Discovery Learning Theory: A Primer for Discussion, Retrieved from:
http://limfabweb.weebly.com/uploads/1/4/2/3/14230608/bruner_and_discovery_learning.pdf -
Pedagogy - Guided Discovery, Retrieved from: http://www.stemcenterusa.com/about-us/pedagogy-guided-discovery/
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Exploration, Discovery, Learning -- Middle School Science Education, Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQSiQ63GRrQ