The Laboratory Method in mathematics is primarily based on the maxim:
2026
The Laboratory Method in mathematics is primarily based on the maxim:
Answer: B. Learning by doing — Concept. A maxim of teaching is a general guiding principle that decides how learning is to be organised. The maxim "learning by doing" holds that a…
- A.
Learning by memorising
- B.
Learning by doing
- C.
Learning by observing others
- D.
Learning by listening
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Correct answer: B
Concept. A maxim of teaching is a general guiding principle that decides how learning is to be organised. The maxim "learning by doing" holds that a mathematical truth becomes clear and lasting when the learner personally performs the operation — handling material, measuring, constructing, verifying — instead of receiving a finished result. A method built on this maxim therefore makes the pupil the doer, and treats the generalisation as something to be arrived at through the pupil’s own activity rather than something to be accepted on authority.
Application. The Laboratory Method places pupils in a mathematics laboratory stocked with instruments, models, graph paper, geoboards and measuring tools. The teacher sets a problem; each pupil carries out the measurements or manipulations, records the observations, and induces or verifies the generalisation from those observations. A typical laboratory sequence runs:
A generalisation is proposed for testing — for example, that the three angles of a triangle add up to 180°.
Each pupil draws and cuts out several paper triangles of clearly different shapes — acute, obtuse and right-angled.
The three corners of each triangle are torn off and laid side by side about a common point on a straight edge.
In every triangle tried, the three torn corners together fill exactly a straight angle, so their sum is 180°.
The pupil states the generalisation as the outcome of an operation the pupil performed — which is exactly what the maxim "learning by doing" prescribes.
Contrast with the other maxims. Each maxim answers the question "what is the pupil doing while the knowledge is being formed?", and each is the basis of a different teaching method:
Maxim | What the pupil is doing | Method built on it |
|---|---|---|
Learning by memorising | Commits the finished result to memory and reproduces it | Drill and rote practice |
Learning by doing | Performs the operation and reads the result off his or her own work | Laboratory and activity methods |
Learning by observing others | Watches while the teacher or a peer performs the operation | Demonstration method |
Learning by listening | Follows a spoken exposition and takes notes | Lecture method |
Result. Because the pupil in a mathematics laboratory reaches the result through work done with his or her own hands, the Laboratory Method in mathematics is primarily based on the maxim "learning by doing".