b When they learn the information in context, they may be more likely to
remember it than if they are taught from a textbook exclusively. Related to the teaching writing, Discovery Learning method has some
advantages as proposed by Hanafi and Suhana 2009, 79. They are as follows: 1
Student learn how to write through a process of discovery 2
Assisting learners to elaborate readiness, as well as mastery of writing skills in the cognitive process
3 Learners acquire knowledge related to write a text so that it can be
understood individually and settles in his mind 4
Method of discovery excites students in learning the concepts of writing. 5
Discovery learning method allows learners to move forward according to its own abilities
6 Strengthen and increasing the self confidence since the learning process
tends to the students centered with a very limited role of the teacher. The teacher is a facilitator of learning or friend.
b. The Disadvantages of Discovery Learning
According to Mendikbud 2013, some advantages of using Discovery Learning Method are:
1 This method raises the assumption that there is a readiness of mind to
learn. The students who have low intelligent, will have difficulty in thinking or expressing abstract or relationships between concepts, written
or oral, and finally will cause frustration.
2 This method is not efficient to teach many students, because it will take a
long time to help them find a theory or solving other problems. 3
Teacher and students who usually applied the old method will be difficult to understand the new concept in the new method. Consequently, the
teaching learning process does not run 4
Teaching discovery is more suitable for developing understanding, whereas to develop aspects of concepts, skills and overall emotional still
have less attention. 5
In some disciplines , such as Science, it still lack of facilities for measuring ideas expressed by the students
6 Not provide opportunities to the students to find and discover the
material of lesson they like because it has been pre-selected by the teacher.
Murphy, Malloy, and O’Brien 2010 in their article propose some disadvantages of applying the Discovery Learning method. They are:
1 Not easy to implement
Learners need to possess a number of cognitive skills and be intrinsically motivated to learn
2 Pure Model vs. Guided Model
Teachers have found that discovery learning is most successful when students have prerequisite knowledge and undergo some structured
experiences. Most researchers would argue that pure discovery learning as a
general and global teaching strategy for beginning and intermediary learners doesnt work. The debate on how much guiding is needed is somewhat open.
3 Sometimes huge cognitive overload, potential to confuse the learner if no
initial framework is available, etc. 4
Measurable performance compared to hard-core instructional designs is worse for most learning situations.
5 Creations of misconceptions knowing less after instruction
6 In order to benefit from a discovery situation, students must have basic
knowledge about the problem and must know how to apply problem-solving strategies. Without this knowledge and skill, they will flounder and grow
frustrated. Instead of learning from the materials, they may simply play with them.
7 Critics believe that discovery learning is so inefficient and so difficult to
organize successfully that other methods are preferable. This seems especially true for lower-ability students. Discovery methods may make too many
demands on these students because they lack the background knowledge and problem-solving skills needed to benefit.
Related to the teaching writing, Hanafi and Suhana 2009, 79 proposed some disadvantages of using Discovery Learning method. They are as follows:
1 This method is based on the assumption that there is a readiness of
mind to learn. It means the students should have the prior knowledge of genre text. The students who are less intelligent and have difficulty in
thinking or expressing the relationships between concepts and the written text will be frustrated.
2 Discovery Learning is more suitable for developing understanding,
while developing aspects of concepts, skills and overall emotions received less attention. Therefore, in teaching writing, it really needs
method which can develop the concepts and skill. 3
It does not provide opportunities for students to discover what they want, since the text or the material has already been chosen by the
teacher. Overall process of discovery is based on the teacher guidance. 4
Teachers and students are already very familiar with the old style of teaching writing; therefore it will be disappointing method.
C. Direct Instruction
