ABSTRACT
A common characteristic of the methods considered is that they take as their starting-point the subject matter that is to be taught. To a greater or lesser extent they also pay little attention to the needs and interests of the learner. The narrower topic of discovery methods is best illustrated by the passage from Rousseau's Emile in which the child's curiosity and independent motivation are both harnessed to stimulate him to find answers to questions which he has himself formulated. Rousseau's ideas, though, were extremely influential. Indeed their influence can be traced via Pestalozzi and Froebel in Europe to Dewey in America and through these educators to the twentieth-century progressive school movement in Europe and the United States. Dilemmas and problems can arise, of course, not just in relation to scientific questions, but also in areas of pure thought such as mathematics or logic, as well as in relation to the study of history.
