Traditional engineering instruction is deductive, beginning with
theories and progressing to the applications of those theories.
Alternative teaching approaches are more inductive. Topics are
introduced by presenting specific observations, case studies or
problems, and theories are taught or the students are helped to
discover them only after the need to know them has been established.
This study reviews several of the most commonly used
inductive teaching methods, including inquiry leaming, problembased
leaming, project-based learning, case-based teaching, discovery
learning, and just-in-time teaching. The paper defines
each method, highlights commonalities and specific differences,
and reviews research on the effectiveness of the methods. While
the strength of the evidence varies from one method to another,
inductive methods are consistently found to he at least equal to,
and in general more effective than, traditional deductive methods
for achieving a broad range of leaming outcomes.