Reinventing the Classroom Experience: Learning Anywhere, Anytime

Googling it is quick and easy, but you’ll need to sort through a lot of results.

Reliable if they know how, but not always available.

Videos show you the steps, but you’ll still need to focus and follow through to finish the repair.

ChatGPT can walk you through the steps, but you’ll still need to focus and follow through to finish the repair.

Learning through exploration provides a structure for students to grapple with content by exploring concepts and connections. Exploration tends to focus on learning concepts.

Learning through direct instruction provides students with a clear, structured explanation and can be accessed independently through formats like video, audio, or text. Direct instruction tends to focus on skills.

Correct. This is exploration. Students use manipulatives, guiding questions, and peer discussion to uncover different representations. The teacher facilitates and gives feedback, but the learning comes through discovery.

Not quite. While students are practicing a math skill, they are not following a teacher-modeled process. Instead, they’re experimenting with different approaches and making meaning through exploration.

Correct. This is direct instruction. The teacher explicitly explains and models the process, and students follow a predetermined structure. Even though they are active, they are not discovering independently.

Not this time. Exploration would involve students investigating how to measure on their own. Here, the teacher provides direct instruction and students practice it.

Exactly! This is exploration. Students use internet research, guiding questions, and graphic organizers to construct knowledge. The teacher guides and gives feedback but doesn’t supply the answers directly.

Not quite. Direct instruction would involve the teacher explaining the perspectives or showing them in a video/text. Here, students uncover the perspectives themselves, learning through exploration.

Correct. This is exploration. Students use tools, guiding questions, and a graphic organizer to analyze and make their own meaning. The activity emphasizes higher-level thinking and student-generated discovery.

Not quite. Direct instruction would mean the teacher explains the differences first. Here, students are the ones uncovering the knowledge through observation, learning through exploration.

Correct. This is direct instruction. The video delivers the content with clear explanations. Students engage actively by answering questions and building a timeline, but the knowledge comes from the teacher-provided lecture.

Not this one. Exploration would require students to investigate primary sources or research causes on their own. Here, the information is given to them through direct instruction.

Correct. This is exploration. Students are actively investigating patterns using manipulatives (cards/pictures) with guiding questions (“Which words make the /sh/ sound?”). They construct meaning themselves before the teacher provides feedback.