Since each student has their own learning style and comes from a unique perspective, it has always stuck me as most appropriate for teachers to facilitate learning, rather than deliver knowledge. I have incorporated this idea into my lesson planning as often as possible, partly by designing activities that encourage student to discover important ideas on their own- a method referred to in class as the inductive strategy. The method engages the students in at least two apparent levels of learning. Students 1) Think about the content material they are studying and derive the main idea on their own such that they have ownership of the lesson 2) Learn how to think and derive concepts on their own- an important skill.

Thursday's lesson on mitosis is one example of how I have used the inductive strategy in the classroom. Students were first given three minutes to think about all that they know about the cell and genetics, and to try to derive a possible process of cell division. Next, students were given small pieces of construction paper, each depicting one phase of mitosis, and told to work individually to put the pieces in an order that might be used for cell division. Students were then instructed to look up mitosis in their books, and to label each of the pictures they had ordered with the correct name of the phase. Students wrote the description of each phase in their own words next to the appropriate phase name. The class reviewed the concept together, with the students participating in the discussion. Finally, students were assigned a short paragraph for homework in which they were required to write out the process of mitosis, including all of the phases, in their own words.

While students did not learn the process of cell division by memory as indicated by Friday morning's quiz, they did actively consider the process and use more thinking skills than they might have in a lectured lesson. Hopefully they are one baby-step closer to working comfortably scientific modes of questioning.