Discovery Learning

“Discovery learning” is a label that has been prominent in discussions about education, including science education, since at least the 1940s.

Like all popular terms in education, discovery learning has taken on a range of meanings, but most often it refers to a form of curriculum in which students are exposed to particular questions and experiences in such a way that they “discover” for themselves the intended concepts. The student’s inquiry is usually “guided” by the teacher and the materials, for example, through “Socratic” questions, because no one expects them to arrive on their own at ideas it took scientists centuries to develop.

Many scholars, including the authors of this entry and the editors of this encyclopedia, see the term as having little value today. This is in part because some proponents of “discovery learning” make extreme claims for the benefits they see in student discovery of concepts and in part because the term has become rather debased by its highly...