Scott writes:


> Some of us oldsters were taught deductive reasoning; however, I prefer the
> inductive approach.  Give sufficient very specific examples "good" and 
> "bad"
> and let the students come up with the general rule.

This sounds fine and dandy but it fails to address the following problems:

1.   Variable IQ results in variable success on the part of students.

2.   This means that as some students are not successful, the teacher must 
finally resort to direct explanation to make sure that everyone understands 
thus partially defeating the purpose of the original exercise.

3.   There is ample research to demonstrate that students on the whole 
prefer the deductive approach. (refs on request)

4.   The weaker students end up being passive as they know that sooner or 
later the brighter students (or the teacher) will provide the answer. 
Further, in my experience and based on a study done by one of my students, 
the brighter students resent being put with less bright students because 
they end up doing all the solving in group work

5.   There are numerous problems which even the brighter students cannot 
solve.   I doubt, for example, that there are many students who could work 
out the function of the semi-colon.

6.   There is NO empirical evidence as far as I know demonstrating that the 
inductive is more effective than the deductive whereas at least in the case 
of SLA, there is ample evidence for the opposite. (refs on request).

By the way, could Scott explain exactly what he means by 'deductive 
reasoning'..

Ron Sheen

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