Discovery-Instructional Strategies

Discovery is one instructional strategy I would use very sparingly. I think students need some lecture/tutorial style instruction first, so that they have a general background on the subject. I agree with the article that time is a huge factor, and a very unstable one. When students experiment, unless their options are severely limited, they may try many different methods which as an instructor I know have no chance of leading to a solution, or an interesting discovery. As a society we often experiment for years before discovering a single useful outcome, and then offer the process to others so that they don’t have to spend that time stumbling across the solution.