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Plagiarism
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Independent Learning
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Undergraduate Research
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Engaging Students
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Learner-centred Teaching/Learning
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Annual Teaching Excellence Award
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Lifelong Learning
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Balancing Theory and Practice
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Learning with Technology
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Reflective Learning
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Active Learning
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Balancing Teaching and Research
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Preparing for the First Lecture/Class
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Interactive Technology in Education
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Collaborative Learning
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Student Motivation/Teacher Motivation
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Discussion in the Classroom
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IT-supported Learning Strategies
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Heterogeneous Student Body
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Postgraduate Supervision
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PDP-T Research Projects
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- Vol. 6 No. 11, Nov 2003 |
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Cultivating Leaders
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NUS Outstanding Educator Award
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Constructivism
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Continuing Education
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Cross-disciplinary Teaching
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Curriculum Design/Programme
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Demonstration-Based Teaching
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Discipline and Counselling
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Emotional Intelligence
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IT in Education
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Large-Group Teaching
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Learning Styles
- Vol. 5 No. 6, Sep 2002
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Problem-Based Learning
- Vol. 3 No. 3, Aug 2000 |
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Small-Group Teaching
- Vol. 2 No. 3, Apr 1999 |
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Spoon Feeding
- Vol. 3 No. 2, May 2000 |
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Student Assessment
- Vol. 2 No. 4, Aug 1999
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Student Management
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Teaching Evaluation
- Vol. 3 No. 1, Jan 2000 |
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Thinking Skills
- Vol. 5 No. 4, Jul 2002 |
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| Spoon
Feeding |
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May 2000, Vol. 3 No. 2 |
 Print-Ready |
| Spoon-Feeding |
Professor
K.P. Mohanan
Department of English Language & Literature/
Deputy Director, CDTL |
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The Concept of Spoon-Feeding
What is spoon-feeding? It might be useful to begin with
dictionary definitions of spoon-feeding as the first step
towards an answer.
| Spoon-fed: |
1. Fed with a spoon. |
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2. Treated with excessive solicitude; pampered. |
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3. Given no opportunity to act or think for oneself:
Having always been spoon-fed, she couldn’t meet
the challenge of college. |
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| Spoon-feed: |
To cause to be spoon-fed. |
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(Webster’s Encyclopedic
Dictionary of the English Language) |
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| Spoon-feed: |
If you spoon-feed someone, you do everything for them
or tell |
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them everything that they need to
know, thus preventing them from having to think or act
for themselves. e.g. There is a tendency to spoon-feed
your pupils when you’re teaching because it is
quicker and easier. |
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(Collins Cobuild English Language
Dictionary) |
In the literal sense of the term, ‘spoon-feeding’
refers to performing a physical action for children that they
can do on their own, or which they are ready to learn to do
with some effort. The result of spoon-feeding in the context
of eating is the inhibition of the development of the capacity
to feed oneself. Translating this into the pedagogical domain,
we may say that if students are capable of doing X, or are
at a stage that they can learn to do X with some struggle
on their part and help from the teacher, the teacher’s
doing X for the learner constitutes spoon-feeding. The result
of spoon-feeding in the academic context is the inhibition
of the development of the capacity for independent thinking
and learning. Hence, spoon-feeding in pedagogy would be the
activity of preventing possible mental development by doing
for the learner what the learner could have done for himself/herself.
To appreciate this concept of spoon-feeding, we need to understand
what spoon-feeding impedes, namely, the capacity to learn
independently and the capacity to think independently.
Independent Learning and Independent Thinking
What do we mean by ‘independent learning’?
Suppose we say that dependent learning is characterised by
the need to depend upon educational institutions and teachers
to learn something, it would then follow that independent
learning is characterised by the capacity to learn without
depending upon educational institutions and teachers.
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