This episode is the ninth out of a series of 12 blogs about Mosston & Ashworth's Spectrum of Teaching Styles. Today we (Alba and Risto) will talk about Style H-the Divergent Discovery Style. This blog is based on episode 264 of the podcast Playing with Research in Health and Physical Education. This blog is almost verbatim from the podcast, so if you prefer the audio version, here is the link for episode 264. You can also listen to the first episodes of this series in the following links #254, #255, #257, #259, #260, and #261, #262, #263 or read the first eight blogs #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, and #8. All of the podcasts are listed by category on a google doc that you can find as the pinned tweet on the account @theHPEpodcast on Twitter. Alternatively, you can find it here. You can find the website where you can download the book for free and find more information and resources at the end of this blog.
In our last episode, we explained the convergent discovery style in which there was one answer or possible way of solving a challenge selected by the teacher and the students had to produce questions or engage in trial and error to solve the problem. The main difference in the divergent discovery style is that the students produce multiple answers to one question or problem selected by the teacher. Quick recap, the human knot challenge that we mentioned in our last episode about the convergent discovery style had only one way of being solved. Learners engaged in trial and error, but all got the same answer in the end.
Now, let’s think of another cooperative game to have a similar example to explain the difference between the convergent and divergent styles. Let’s say that the teacher provides four different objects to students, a scooter, a rope, a poli spot, and a plastic softball base. Students have to work together to get all of their peers from one point of the gym to another without stepping on the floor (and for safety without stepping on the scooter). There are many possible ways that the learners can use these objects to get to the other side. They may use all the objects or just a couple. For example, students can use the bases and the poli spot to set an island farther away from the beginning point and bring another peer to them using the rope and the scooter. Another group may choose to not use the rope and scooter and only use the base and the poli spot by setting one in front of the other and passing one person per time to the other side. So, the simple problem explained by the teacher to get all peers from one spot to the other without stepping on the floor led to multiple divergent possible solutions by the students. Depending on the time you have in class, you should ask students to try as many different possibilities as they can.
So, again
Convergent discovery has one single answer, and the students produce the questions to find that answer selected by the teacher. Learners’ multiple questions converge to one answer.
In divergent discovery there is one question, and the students produce multiple answers. One teacher’s question and multiple learners’ answers diverge from it.
The divergent discovery style is more student-centered than teacher centered. Meaning that the students have more decision-making power. The divergent discovery style develops learners’ emotional confidence and their capacity to produce multiple solutions to a single problem in unfamiliar situations. At this point, the parameters of content go beyond the known and expected by the teacher.
This style needs extended classroom time to allow students to expand their cognitive experiences. In doing so, students develop new links among the information learned, look for new paths and strategies to solve problems and explore new possibilities. The teacher needs to be able to manage the multiple responses found by the learners. To do so they apply the reduction process in which they reduce the many responses to the most feasible level. What this means is that after students find multiple answers, they have to assess the responses and decide which ones are the most feasible to successfully complete the task.
It is important to have the patience to allow students to find multiple responses before reducing them or presenting any criteria for reduction. If the teacher rushes into the reduction process or tells the learners that this will be done before they produce responses, the thinking process of the learners will be inhibited, and they will look for memory solutions rather than discovery. In other words, if the teacher tells the students that they will reduce their responses they may think that there is a “correct answer”. The result will be that students will look for the answers that they believe the teacher is expecting instead of trying to discover new possibilities.
Looking at the anatomy of this style, the teacher still makes specific subject matter decisions. Meaning that the teacher is responsible for choosing the topic or content that will be covered, developing the question or the situation that the learners will engage in, and designing the logistics of how to deliver the problem to the learners.
Now, for the first time, the students engage in discovering and producing options that are related to the subject matter. What this means is that learners take the role of producing or discovering multiple responses, designs, or solutions to the specific problem or question that was offered by the teacher. The students also self-assess the responses and reduce them to the feasible options, as mentioned above.
One more important recap. In our first episode about the spectrum, we mentioned that every style has a bond or interaction among teaching behavior, learning behavior, and specific objectives. This is the O-T-L-O and each style has a specific one. In the divergent style, a shift in the decisions from the teacher to the learners starts to happen and that creates a new O-T-L-O relationship. This is because the students in this style are now more immersed in the subject matter decisions than in any of the previous styles.
So, up to this point, the teacher was responsible for making all the subject matter decisions while the learners replicated and performed what was expected by the teacher or discovered what the teacher guided them to. In the divergent discovery style, the learners go beyond the known and expand their boundaries. In this process, learners make decisions regarding the subject matter.
Let me try to explain it this way: the teacher still makes all the decisions in the pre-impact set, so, in the planning phase. However, in the impact set, meaning during the lesson, the learners make decisions regarding the subject matter through the production of multiple ideas. While students are navigating possibilities the teacher provides neutral feedback acknowledging that their responses are acceptable and encouraging them to continue looking for new answers. The teacher only provides corrective feedback if the students move away from the original question. Finally, in the post-impact set, that is the part of the lesson after the activity, learners assess if their ideas and solutions were or were not appropriate for the task selected.
The subject matter objectives of the divergent discovery style are to
produce multiple responses to a single question or problem,
develop divergent thinking in cognitive operations,
expand content boundaries. So, see the content learned as evolving and not static,
and assess the solutions to be able to organize them for specific purposes.
There are also multiple behavior objectives. Mainly this style focuses on
Engaging learners in divergent discovery and activate their divergent thinking,
Encouraging students to become emotionally, cognitively, and socially secure to move beyond memory or production of skills being able to take the risk of producing new ideas and alternatives to solve a problem.
Recognizing that people are able to develop different approaches and respect the ideas of others
Feeling the emotion and cognitive energy of producing multiple divergent responses to a stimulus
PE and other movement settings provide a rich variety of opportunities to use this style of teaching. There are always new movements to create, new strategies, different pieces of equipment to use, and new combinations of movements possible to discover. These possibilities enhance learners’ creativity and provide the opportunity for them to create things that not even the teacher thought about before.
Let’s think about one more example. Say the teacher is teaching locomotive activities and tells students to go back and forth from one side of the gym to the other in as many different ways as they can think of. The problem presented is to get to the other side of the gym in different ways. Students may walk, run, jog, skip, etc. They can do this in different directions such as to the front, backward, and sideways or even in different levels like high, low, etc. while the learners are discovering new ways of getting from one point to the other, the teacher observes, provides neutral and encouraging feedback, and makes sure that their practice is safe. After the learners discover the variety of ways that they can move, the teacher asks them to share what they did. Students can then reflect on the different locomotive possibilities.
Just like in previous styles, it is important to explain the expectations that you have as a teacher before starting the activity. Remember to emphasize the new teacher and learner’s roles, what divergent discovery or production means, and that there is no single correct answer being sought.
The divergent discovery style is prevalent and essential to society. Developing the skills of producing alternative designs to life situations, different possibilities of solving problems, thinking of multiple options, and searching for different opportunities, allow society to keep evolving. This style creates the possibility for change and the development of contributions to humanity in every aspect of society.
“The variety of human movement is infinite” (p. 248). So, in PE and other physical activity settings, using this style to teach learners how to create new possibilities can modernize and innovate traditional practices. More importantly, learning how to develop new forms of movement can provide opportunities for a variety of people with different characteristics, needs, and skill levels to engage in physical activities and sports through personalized experiences.
Once again, we encourage you to download the book that is free and linked in the notes of all of the spectrum episodes in this podcast. The chapter about the divergent discovery style has a lot of detail to help you design your lesson. You can find great examples of how to word your tasks, design activities, and much more. That’s all we have for you on this one. I’ll be back soon with blogs explaining the next teaching styles.
Thanks for reading!
Alba and Risto
For more resources see below:
Full Cite: Mosston, M., & Ashworth, S. (2008). Teaching physical education: First online edition, 2008. https://spectrumofteachingstyles.org/index.php?id=16
Visit: https://www.spectrumofteachingstyles.org
Twitter: @spectrumots