Tradition is easy to justify, whereas innovation requires a carefully prepared rationale. When we are content with what we traditionally do in the mathematics curriculum, almost any traditional justification seems substantial.
A method of teaching that is lauded by many mathematics educators is the method of guided discovery. Among the advocators of this method, there are some who believe that asking the student to verbalize what he has discovered as soon as he has made the discovery is ineffective because he does not have the linguistic capacity.1 Moreover, some argue that if the premature verbalization is incorrect, the basic insight may actually be mutilated.2 Others doubt this and question the adequacy of the evidence advanced by the former group to support their contention.3
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