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I thought it was interesting that given all the years I've been a student, I don't know much at all about lesson planning, course structure, etc. While I might not be the best person to weigh the different lesson options, I certainly do have vivid memories of what worked for me in the classroom and what didn't.

While I really like it on paper, I do have some mixed feelings about inductive teaching strategies. First off, I think that these strategies should probably play a much larger role (if not an exclusive one!) in elementary school classrooms to actively foster an interest in the sciences. I was surprised when the authors said "Failure to connect course content to the real world has repeatedly been shown to contribute to students leaving the sciences" because of how rooted science is in the "real world." At this time in particular, before the overwhelming stress of SATs, SATIIs, MCATS, GREs, and the rest of the world of structured computerized tests, it seems imperative to teach this way as much as possible.

As for my problems with inductive teaching strategies, they're almost entirely my own personal experiences. It was very frustrating in many science courses when the test-driven pre-meds and post-baccs dominated the GenChem classroom, for example. They seemed to be more interested in deductive learning in the form of rote memorization as opposed to inductive learning based on exploration and trial and error. The only way that can stop, I suppose, is to do away with those awful tests as a measurement tool! These tests are a very sticky point in discussions of education in the US, and rightly so. There are many pros and cons associated with their use, and even though I can't propose a feasible alternative as of now, I don’t think they’re the right way to go about measuring intelligence or knowledge! In other words, while the structure of the national education system itself caters to deductive methods, students will continue to be motivated along a right/wrong way of thinking rather than a more exploratory way of thinking.

After reading the article, I started wondering how our summers have been structured. What do you all think? I say they’re most in keeping with the Discovery learning method…

I wonder if we were given this article as an entrée to discuss what's working for us under this line of teaching and what's not. After all, if our summer research does model one of these teaching methods, we would be a relative case study.