Preparation for pedagogies session

As a preparation for the session about pedagogies I have found an interesting article. In this article the pedagogical approach ‘discovery learning’ is mentioned. The title of the article is: ‘The effects of discovery learning and expository instruction on the acquisition of definitional and intuitive knowledge’, written by Swaak, De Jong and Van Joolingen (2004).

In the article the differences between discovery learning (in a simulation) and expository instruction (in a hypertext learning environment), both with the same domain content, was measured. These kinds of learning were linked to the acquisition of definitional and intuitive knowledge. Working in a simulation and with the hypertext learning environment both leaded to learning improvement. It was found that the hypertext group performed better on a definitional knowledge test. On an intuitive knowledge test the hypertext group scored better than the simulation group on the correctness of the items but not on the time needed to answer items. On an explanation test there was no difference between the two groups.

I think this article is relevant for the pedagogies session because it is about the effects of two pedagogical approaches, discovery learning and expository instruction. Moreover, the pedagogical approaches were supported by technology. I think it is important that investigators measure the effects of pedagogical approaches with the support of technology, because this combination becomes more and more the way of learning nowadays. In that case we have to know whether it is right or not what we are doing..

Here you can find the link to the article: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2729.2004.00092.x/pdf

Reference

Swaak, J., De Jong, T, & Van Joolingen, W.R. (2004). The effects of discovery learning and expository instruction on the acquisition of definitional and intuitive knowledge. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 20(4), 225-234.