The learning cycle is an approach to science instruction gaining increasing favor within the science education community. With its roots in the Science Curriculum Improvement Study (SCIS), the learning cycle is experiencing a revival. Evidence can be found by examining recent curriculum materials whose development was supported by the National Science Foundation. It is reasonable to argue that the widespread inclusion of the learning cycle in these materials represents an endorsement of the instructional approach.
The degree to which the curriculum writers explicitly enacted the learning cycle varies across the projects, yet clear references are made to this approach at some point in all of the programs' descriptions. ScienceforLife and Living, written by the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS, 1992), and the INSIGHTS modules, written by the Education Development Center (EDC, 1994), are exemplary elementary science programs that provide clear guidelines to teachers on the use of the learning cycle. The BSCS materials make use of a five-phase leaming cycle called "The 5 Es"--Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate. The EDC curriculum relies upon a four-phase learning cycle--Getting Started, Exploring and Discovering, Processing for Meaning, and Extending. Independent of the labels ascribed to the phases, the learning cycle represents an inductive application of information processing models of teaching (Weil & Joyce, 1978). As such, they place a premium upon not only the content students are expected to learn but also emphasize an understanding of the thought processes involved in the construction of new knowledge.
Apart from the prevalence of the leaming cycle in a host of curricula, it is unclear how congruent implementation by classroom teachers is with the intent of the model. The direct instruction model is so deeply ingrained in the teaching tradition that resistance is to be expected. Cynics might charge