Ded Vs. Ind Teaching Strategies, Fall 2005

I like both of the teaching strategies. A con that I see with Deductive is that you are just telling the kids the information and they are never critically thinking about what they are learning. A con that I see with Inductive is that what if you teach a child a topic that they honestly still do not understand after you have taught it three times or more using that same strategy. Some kids need to be told exactly what they are learning through Deductive in order to better understand the topic. Deductive is easier to teach when teaching lower level math (which I am teaching so I can only speak on that topic) because the students have not yet began to learn to think critically. They need the foundation of math and Algebra in order to learn in higher level subjects. I have used both strategies in my classroom thus far this year. I use Deductive everyday and I used Inductive when teaching Order of Operations this year. For my students and for me, the Deductive Strategy works best. As a first year math teacher I have not seen math in a while and there are some concepts that I still have to get used too again. In order for me not to be confused or for the students not to be confused, I am going to have teach it straight to them by using Deductive. Once I have mastered a topic or thought about it in depth before I teach then I will start using the Inductive teaching strategy for a few lessons.