Discovery Learning method

Advantages and Disadvantages

The Discovery Learning method has obviously had some type of impact on the educational system to have sustained itself over decades.  Many educators still find the Discovery Learning technique important for student development and retention of knowledge.  This section consists of the advantages and disadvantages that have been associated with this method in the past and in the present.  This list has been complied from several different sources and does not include all of the advantages/disadvantages to the discovery learning method or the arguments of refutation for some of these opinions listed.

Advantages:                                                                                                            

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Discovery learning supports an active engagement of the learner in the learning process, while you are participating, you are paying more attention

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Discovery learning fosters curiosity

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Discovery learning enables the development of life long learning skills

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Discovery learning personalizes the learning experience

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Discovery learning is highly motivational as it allows individuals the opportunity to experiment and discover something for themselves

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Discovery learning builds on learner's prior knowledge and understanding

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Discovery learning uses activities that focus your attention on the key ideas or techniques that are being examined

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Discovery learning creates active involvement that forces you to construct a response and this results in processing of information deeper than mere memorization

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Discovery learning provides the student with an opportunity to get early feedback on their understanding

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Discovery learning results in "episodic memory," a deeper type of memory that allows you to connect information to events which creates stimuli for remembering the information

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Discovery learning can be motivating, it incorporates the individuals pleasure of successfully solving problems and recalling information

Disadvantages:                                                                                                       

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Discovery learning has the potential to confuse learner's if no initial framework is available

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Discovery learning has limitations in practice when schools try to make it the main way students learn academic lessons

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Discovery learning is inefficient, it is too time consuming for all academic activities (for example mathematical operations), there are not enough hours in a school year for students to 'unearth' everything on their own

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Discovery learning requires that the teacher be prepared for too many corrections, a lot of things one discovers for themselves turn out to be wrong (process of trial and error)

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Discovery learning  can become a vehicle to reject the idea that there are important skills and information that all children should learn

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If discovery learning is taken as an overriding education theory it is apt to produce an inadequate education