#3

Visiting my first middle school was an enlightening experience. The teacher, Mr. Meeks, used a very involved teaching method. He did not sit and watch the students struggle when they got stuck. He gave a quick lecture to explain the project and the objectives of the project, and then let the kids go to work. The structure of his class was very exploration-guided. The students had to experiment to do their assignment and prepare for the building process of their project.

I like his method of a quick lecture followed by an activity. It helped get the kids focused on the right thing and gave them needed guidance, but allowed them the time to get the work done. However, this system left room for the students to be confused and have to guess some to figure out what the true purpose of the assignment was. The method leaned to a "experiment first, learn why later" attitude from the students. Many just played around until something worked for them. Some proceeded to try to figure out why it worked, and others just accepted that it worked. Trial and error.