Introduction
Discovery Learning is a learning method that encourages students to ask questions and formulate their own tentative answers, and to deduce general principles from practical examples or experiences. Discovery Learning is a learning situation in which the principal content of what is to be learned is not given but must be independently discovered by the student. Discovery learning can be defined simply as a learning situation in which the principal content of what is to be learned is not given, but must be independently discovered by the learner, making the student an active participant in his learning.
Task
Target "Goals" of Discovery Learning Theory
The discovery learning mode requires that the student participates in making many of the decisions about what, how, and when something is to be learned and even plays a major role in making such decisions. Instead of being 'told' the content by the teacher, it is expected that the student will have to explore examples and from them 'discover' the principles or concepts, which are to be learned. Many contend that the discovery learning versus expository debate continues a timeless debate as to how much a teacher should help a student and how much the student should help himself."
Process
Jerome Bruner lays out two targets for discovery learning theory
:1.Discovery Learning Theory should act as a refined extension of the broad based theory constructivism by focusing on the individual.
2. Discovery Learning Theory should serve as a way of defining and providing structure to the way in which individuals learn thus acting as a guide for educational research.
There are four components to the Discovery Learning Theory:
Curiosity and uncertainty
Structure of knowledge
Sequencing
Motivation
Evaluation
There are three principles associated with Discovery Learning Theory
1. Instruction must be concerned with the experiences and contexts that make the student willing and able to learn (re
2. Instruction must be structured so that it can be easily grasped by the student (spiral organization).
3. Instruction should be designed to facilitate extrapolation and or fill in the gaps (going beyond the information given).
Bruner identified six indicators or benchmarks that revealed cognitive growth or development:
1. Responding to situations in varied ways, rather than always in the same way.
2. Internalizing events into a 'storage system' that corresponds to the environment.
3. Increased capacity for language.
4. Systematic interaction with a tutor (parent, teacher, or other role model).
5. Language as an instrument for ordering the environment.
6. Increasing capacity to deal with multiple demands.
Conclusion
IMPLIFICATION OF DISCOVER LEARNING THEORY BY BRUNER IN EDUCATION
Jerome Bruner’ theory is very influential and has direct implications on the teaching practices. The main ideas of the theory can be summarized as follows:
- Learning is an active process. Learners select and transform information.
- Learners make appropriate decisions and postulate hypotheses and test their effectiveness.
- Learners use prior experience to fit new information into the pre-existing structures.
- Scaffolding is the process through which able peers or adults offer supports for learning. This assistance becomes gradually less frequent as it becomes unnecessary.
- The intellectual development includes three stages. The enactive stage which refers to learning through actions. The iconic stage which refers to the learners use of pictures or models. The symbolic stage which refers to the development of the ability to think in abstract terms.
- The notion of spiral curriculum states that a curriculum should revisit basic ideas, building on them until the student grasps the full formal concept.
- Although extrinsic motivation may work in the short run, intrinsic motivation has more value
- Implications on the learning process
- Bruner’s learning theory has direct implications on the teaching practices. Here are some of these implications:
- Instruction must be appropriate to the level of the learners. For example, being aware of the learners’ learning modes (enactive, iconic, and symbolic) will help you plan and prepare appropriate materials for instruction according to the difficulty that matches learners’ level.
- The teachers must revisit material to enhance knowledge. Building on pre-taught ideas to grasp the full formal concept is of paramount importance according to Bruner. Feel free to re-introduce vocabulary, grammar points, and other topics now and then in order to push the students to a deeper comprehension and longer retention.
- Material must be presented in a sequence giving the learners the opportunity to:
a. transform and transfer his learning.
b. acquires and constructs knowledge
- Students should be involved in using their prior experiences and structures to learn new knowledge.
- Help students to categorize new information in order to able to see similarities and differences between items.
- Teachers should assist learners in building their knowledge. This assistance should fade away as it becomes unnecessary.
- Teachers should provide feedback that is directed towards intrinsic motivation. Grades and competition are not helpful in the learning process. Bruner states that learners must “experience success and failure not as reward and punishment, but as information” Present of active engagement of the student in the learning process that imply that there is application of discover learning theory. Because the process of engagement in the learning that is the emphasis of the theory.
- In the paradigm shift from content base to the competence base that show contribution of discovery learning theory. The student is supposed to acquire knowledge and skills by him or herself instead of everything to listen or told by a teacher.
- The presence of the great emphasis on the use of participatory method in the teaching method that is one among of the ideas which theory talk about on sharing the knowledge, skills and experience