Elementary my dear Watson...

In teaching grammar, we have been asked to identify which of two strategies we would feel more inclined to implement - inductive or deductive teaching. This made me think of the stories I used to read and watch on TV about Sherlock Holmes and his eternal best friend, Doctor Watson. During the investigations of the various crimes in which the pair would become involved, Holmes would often deduce the perpetrator of the crime based on the actions of the criminal and the evidence left behind. However, what for me provided a twist to the stories, was Holmes' ability to infer the personality of the criminal without ever having met them. This was provided through inductive theory, and using a huge background of knowledge of the type of criminal that would commit such a crime. I was enthralled by the story lines, and engrossed in the mystery. Was I experiencing flow? Absolutely.

I believe that a learner who is involved in any kind of activity, whether learning for the sake of learning or learning for need, uses both inductive and deductive strategies regardless of how the material is presented. As an experienced instructor, I start presenting a new topic by investigating prior knowledge. This gets the class set up into inductive mode. By applying the principles of the learner's previous knowledge, we move back and forth between inductive to deductive and back again with relative ease. I am thrilled every time I see my learners experience that "Aha!" moment of discovery.

I am not uncomfortable with either of these strategies, and try to remain flexible in the use of them. There have been times when I have prepared a deductive presentation of material for what I have seen as a topic with which my learners are totally unfamiliar, only to have a comment or question move me into an inductive mode and lay the prepared material to one side.

My preference is an inductive learning strategy. For example, whenever I am asked "Teacher, how do I...?", my first response is to ask, "What have you tried?" Excessive deductive teaching, I have found, creates a dependency on the teacher's knowledge, and the learner becomes less likely to attempt the (subject) on their own for fear of failure.

I like the material in the course we are presently taking that addresses moving the learner to independent use of the learned material. This provides a happy medium for me between the deductive strategy of "This is how you do it." to the inductive strategy of "Is this how you do it?"