Colin'smum, this reminds me of an article I read talking about very young children and helping them discover vs showing them things. They gave small kids a toy with several functions, and either said "hmmm, I wonder what this does?" or "let me show it, it can light up". The kids who were shown how it lights up would make it light up a few times, then wander off, the kids who were handed the toy and asked a question discovered many more of the functions and played with the toy for longer.
I'm not a teacher of adult or children, but I try and use that sort of technique, to have them figure out the rule or algorithm themselves.
