The ideological origin of the discovery teaching method can be traced back to the "midwifery" teaching method of Socrates, an ancient Greek philosopher, and the teaching ideas of modern western educators such as Rousseau, Stilwell and Spencer. However, the widespread use of this method among teachers in contemporary countries is the result of the active advocacy of American educator Bruner.

Bruner's famous thesis constitutes the theoretical basis of discovery teaching method. Bruner believes that it is important to learn and understand general principles, but it is particularly important to cultivate an attitude, that is, to explore new situations, make assumptions, speculate on relationships, and apply their abilities to solve new problems or discover new things.

Bruner believes that the task of educators is to transform knowledge into the form of development, and to characterize the development order of the system as a teaching design model, so that students can learn by discovery. The so-called discovery, of course, is not limited to the action of discovering things that human beings have not yet known, but also includes all forms of acquiring knowledge by themselves with their own minds.

Characteristics of discovery teaching method

(1) Teachers focus on inspiring and guiding students. Only through independent thinking and practice can students acquire knowledge and skills. At the same time, teachers pay attention to the organic combination of students' learning, questioning, thinking, arguing and doing, which is beneficial for students to solve problems, explore skills and develop their learning ability in an all-round way.

(2) Teaching should follow the dialectical relationship that "external factors play a role through internal factors", and start with cultivating students' learning motivation, stimulate students' interest in learning and cultivate their internal motivation of self-motivation.

The problem is not to teach him all kinds of knowledge, but to cultivate his interest in learning. When his interest is fully increased, teaching him the methods of studying problems, that is, "cultivating interest" and "teaching methods" are two basic elements of discovery education.

(3) Solving problems and finding learning results are found through teachers' inspiration and guidance and students' active participation in the teaching process, which makes the learning process and results more conducive to students' memory retention and even unforgettable.

However, this teaching method also has shortcomings. Its disadvantage is that it takes more time, prolongs the teaching process, and is not conducive to students' systematic mastery of knowledge, skills and skills.