Inductive versus Deductive

Are you an inductive or deductive thinker?
Are you an inductive or deductive teacher?

Inductive thinking takes a concept from the specific to the general, and relies on observations and experiences. For example, if you notice that it hurts every time when a bee stings you, you can assume it will hurt in the future when a bee stings you.

A deductive thinker looks at a concept from the general to specific, and relies on rules, laws, principles, and accepted theories. For example, if you are aware that when a bee stings you, it injects poison into you that causes pain, then you can conclude it will hurt when a bee stings you in the future.

Most teachers, with good intentions, begin their units by focusing on the smaller elements, building into a whole, larger picture. This is not necessarily how all students think, though. Read Summarization in Any Subject by Rick Wormeli to learn some ways to include summarization activities that assist your inductive AND deductive thinkers.



One strategy from Wormeli is called Backwards Summaries. This is where you give the final product to students, and ask them to come up with the criteria and specific components that made the product considered successful. For example, show your students a final writing sample that has the highest score on a rubric. Ask students what specific criteria the written response has that made it a perfect score. Or, give students a paragraph, and ask them to come up with the graphic organizer that the paragraph was completed from.

I highly suggest Wormeli's Summarization book. It is well worth the money.