How Can I Balance Discovery-Based Teaching with Explicit Teaching?
Meg Gorzycki, Ed.D
The Basics
The best way to teach remains the subject of debate and controversy. One of the fundamental arguments
concerns the extent to which instructors should be directive, declarative, and explicit, and the extent to which
they should facilitate students’ discovery in research processes, problem-solving, self-paced learning, and
student driven course outcomes and standards of achievement.1
Declarative and explicit instruction offers the advantages of being relatively easy to design (as information is
readily transmitted via the lecture), and allowing the instructor a great deal of control over the pace of learning,
the standards of competence, the scope of learning, and the depth of learning. The disadvantages include the
potential for students to feel that their input in their own learning does not matter, and the potential narrowing
of outcomes concerning skills and cognitive development.
Discovery-based instruction offers the advantages of robust opportunities for student engagement, a flexible
approach to learning, and a safe environment in which students can experience the strengths and limitations of
autonomous learning. The disadvantages include the potential to not meet the course objectives and
institutional expectations for learning, and the potential to compromise high standards of competence.
All Balance is Relative
Exemplary teaching is a series of difficulties to be overcome and discernments that attend matters of students’
readiness, student’ academic needs, and students’ formation in the deepest cognitive and civic sense.2 While
many salient moments in teaching and learning emerge organically and spontaneously in the classroom, it is
imperative that instructors take care to design instruction that meet the institution’s obligations to students, the
academic community, and professions in which students will serve. The following are key considerations:
 Do students have sufficient experience and prior knowledge to meet high expectations for independent and
discovery-based instruction?
 Are the available resources, including time, to support discovery-based teaching available and accessible?
 What are the specific objective for discovery-based teaching and are they well-aligned with the general
course objectives and outcomes?
 What are the essential differences between offering the lesson with explicit instruction with discovery-based
and/or autonomous learning?
 What are the risks and trade-offs implicit in both approaches to a given lesson or course content?
 Do lectures typically recapitulate assigned readings, or do they embody new insights and information not
readily apprehended by self-studies and discovery-based teaching?
 Does instruction prepare students to effectively and accurately critique their own work?
1
2
Tobias, S. & Duffy, T. (Eds.) (2009). Constructivist theory applied to instruction: Success or failure? NY: Taylor and Francis.
Barzun, J. (1991). Begin here: The forgotten conditions of teaching and learning. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.