Expository-style teaching explains a subject, usually through lecturing, for students to absorb and later recall. Exegesis-style teaching explains a subject in its real-world context, usually through hands-on activities, for students to experience and later use in their daily lives. For example, a math teacher employing expository-style teaching might teach her students the multiplication tables in an effort to enable them to multiply small numbers. On the other hand, a math teacher employing exegesis-style teaching might teach her students when it is appropriate to use multiplication in real life scenarios, such as determining tip or figuring out how much of a certain building material is needed. In “Democracy and Education,” psychologist and educator John Dewey maintains that expository teaching explains material with the end goal of having students understand said material, exegesis in teaching explains material with the end goal of having students interpret or analyze the material.
Expository-style teaching encourages students to analyze a subject so as to understand its intricacies and details. Exegesis-style teaching encourages students to analyze a subject to understand its relation to other subjects, as well as everyday life. For example, an English teacher might have his students write an expository essay analyzing the plot and main characters of a short story they read in his class. He might then ask his students to write an exegesis essay that analyzes how the plot and main characters of the same short story connect with biographical or historical data relating to the author. Expository and exegesis style teaching both encourage students to analyze subjects, though the purposes behind this analysis is slightly different. Critical pedagogue Paulo Freire maintains that expository teaching emphasizes analysis of the subject at hand, while exegesis emphasizes analysis of the subject in context.
Dewey states that expository and exegesis style teaching verge from each other on the point of interpretation. For instance, a history teacher using expository style teaching might present basic dates and facts about the Vietnam war, while a different teacher using exegesis style teaching might present these dates and facts and encourage her students to consider how and why the presented information is relevant to the modern day. The latter teacher presents material that requires thoughtful interpretation and eventual application.
Both Dewey and Freire agree that expository and exegesis style teaching also verge dramatically in terms of the degree to which the former does not emphasize critique, while the latter does. A science teacher employing the expository style might move through a science textbook’s chapter quickly and smoothly, never stopping to question how the information was gathered or presented. That same teacher would switch modes to exegesis style teaching if he were to encourage students to question the veracity of the information in the textbook. Students might ask if the information is up-to-date, if the researchers quoted have any biases. In this way, exegesis style teaching requires students to engage in thoughtful critique of the information they are presented in a class, as well as the manner in which that information is presented.