ABSTRACT

We have known for more years than we might care to admit (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2000) what a classroom should look like in order for substantive learning to take place. However, instead of a learn-by-doing pedagogy (aka project-based learning, inquiry-based learning, active learning, etc.), didactic pedagogy/direct instruction still rules the land. Whether it is a teacher at the front of the room expounding, or a Khan video expounding, or an electronic whiteboard instead of a blackboard at the place of the expounding, or even if the students can immediately respond to the expounding with a clicker—that is still direct-instruction pedagogy, and we all know that direct-instruction pedagogy, although useful in places, ought not to be the overwhelmingly dominant pedagogy. So, why hasn’t this pedagogy been replaced by the better, learn-by-doing pedagogy?