ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I address three questions that recur through this volume: (a) How does direct instruction differ from discovery learning? (b) When should direct instruction be used? and (c) What aspects of disciplinary practice should be included in early science education? The first issue focuses on the features that distinguish direct instruction from discovery learning. Over the past 20 years or so, and culminating in the critique (Kirschner, Sweller, & Clark, 2006) and debate at the 2007 AERA meeting that motivated this volume, there have been extensive and heated exchanges among education researchers, learning scientists, and science educators about “discovery learning,” “direct instruction,” “authentic inquiry,” and “ hands-on science” (Adelson, 2004; Begley, 2004; EDC, 2006; Hmelo-Silver, Duncan, & Chinn, 2007; Janulaw, 2004; Klahr, Triona, & Williams, 2007; Kuhn, 2007; Ruby, 2001; Strauss, 2004; Tweed, 2004; Schmidt, Loyens, van Gog, & Paas, 2007). However, these arguments typically fail to establish a common vocabulary to define the essential aspects of the types of instruction being compared. I believe that in order to advance our ability to create effective instructional procedures, our field needs to become much more precise in the terminology it uses to describe instructional contexts and procedures, before moving on to advocacy about curriculum design. In the area of science education, more than others, it is particularly troubling-and ironic-that these debates often abandon one of the foundations of science: the operational definition. But a scientific field cannot advance without clear, unambiguous, and replicable procedures. The second issue is about the place of direct instruction in the context of a constructivist perspective. Simply put: “When is it appropriate to use direct instruction?”. The answer to the question is certainly not “never.” Even the most zealous constructivist would acknowledge that there exist combinations of time, place, topic, learner, and context, when it is optimal to simply tell students something, or to show them something, or to give them explicit instruction about something. But how can we identify and characterize such instances?
