Hands-on, Inquiry, and Discovery Teaching Need the Scientific Method
Children love inquiry, discovery, and hands-on learning, and most research has shown that they express a greater interest in science when these methods are used. However, because of the controversies surrounding it, the scientific method is seldom taught, even though it is the method of inquiry, the method of discovery, the method by which scientifically valid research is obtained, and a basic way to provide for transfer of learning.
Robert E. Yager, past president of the National Science Teachers Association, has said (NSTA Reports, May 1991): “Although a focus on science process skills, inquiry, critical thinking, problem solving has been the intention of science education reformers for more than 50 years, there is virtually no evidence that typical science courses have been successful in stimulating growth across grade levels in student mastery of such skills. This is extremely alarming in view of the supposedly great attention to science as inquiry during the past 30 years in the NSF-supported projects.”
My research indicates that the reasons for the problem are:
No formula (such as SM-14) has been included in any national education reform program, even though inquiry, critical thinking, and problem solving are all part of using the scientific method.
Science process skills are really complete problem solving skills that must be taught across the curriculum.
In teaching with hands-on, inquiry, and discovery methods, an important objective is to achieve the transfer of learning. The basis for transfer of learning is the general pattern of the scientific method (SM-14). I show in my booklets how hands-on, inquiry, and discovery methods relate to the 11 stages of SM-14 and how we use thinking skills along with creative, non-logical, logical, and technical methods at each stage of the scientific method.
There has been much criticism of the hands-on, inquiry, and discovery methods because often the activity is re-discovery and not real discovery. The great value in teaching SM-14 is that students can see how it relates to the class activities they are engaged in and later have a guide to follow when given the opportunity to originate and solve problems on their own. Additional transfer of learning occurs because they know how to proceed in a systematic way on all future problems that face them.
In an essay in Studying Teaching (1967), David F. Ausubel analyzes discovery teaching and stresses that the traditional reception teaching of subject matter is still needed. He says, “But let us begin on a more positive note and examine the first legitimate claims, the defensible uses, and the palpable advantages of the discovery method. In the early, unsophisticated states of learning any abstract subject matter, particularly prior to adolescence, the discovery method is invaluable. It is also indispensable for teaching scientific method and effective problem-solving skills. Furthermore, various cognitive and motivational factors undoubtedly enhance the learning, retention and transferability of meaningful material learned by discovery.”
The PSSC and Harvard Physics Project in the 1960s included inquiry, discovery, and hands-on methods but failed to tie these methods into the scientific method. This neglect was a major factor in setting the pattern for all future science reform programs on the national level. As a result, billions and billions of dollars have been wasted. Even today, the National Academy of Sciences set National Science Education Standards that stress inquiry but refused to recognize the existence of the scientific method or include a systematic guide to this method of inquiry.
