Am I Being Helpful or Promoting Helplessness?

As a student teacher working with younger elementary level children, orchestrating lesson plans as well as having the opportunity to scribe for students during test times I have gained an understanding of some of the accommodations crucial to effective learning for all the students in a class.  The necessity to promote a student's own sense of discovery rather than simply drilling facts and words through rote practice and expecting that "lightbulb" moment to occur is not aiding the student in making connections for themselves and progressing through stages of deeper learning.  We are not able to properly assess understanding by simply observing how well a student can memorize a word or fact. Asking direct questions, gently guiding the students to the right path of focus without bombarding them with facts and abstract questioning. While providing more open ended questions for students in senior grades can provide a nice challenge and  potential for teachers to truly evaluate if a student is progressing smoothly to a stage of Formal Operational Learning, as we have learned from Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development, through elementary school assessment it is vital to strengthen Concrete Development and ensure your class is seeing every step of their path, rather than attempting to take larger strides and miss some important points of the learning process.