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Inquiry learning / Effective pedagogy / Media gallery / Curriculum stories Vic Hygate, Windsor School, Christchurch The biggest difference for me as a teacher with ‘inquiry’ is it’s that shifting your students from knowing about their world to understanding their world - and understanding is so much more than knowledge! If I think about my own life, I studied French at high school and I passed French exams. But recently I've been to France and I've actually had to use French and that's actually given me a whole different understanding of the French language - and how much I knew and how much I didn't. Whereas, when I did it in an exam it was a little bit different. So inquiry for me is the way I get my children to move from knowing into understanding. There's two ways that I tend to frame my inquiries. The other way that I tend to frame my inquiries is through a provocative statement. I think the biggest thing in inquiry, as a teacher, is it's changed the way we plan. At the end of this, what is the understanding that we want our children to walk away with?
Inquiry-based Learning: Explanation What is inquiry-based learning? An old adage states: "Tell me and I forget, show me and I remember, involve me and I understand." The last part of this statement is the essence of inquiry-based learning, says our workshop author Joe Exline 1. Inquiry implies involvement that leads to understanding. "Inquiry" is defined as "a seeking for truth, information, or knowledge -- seeking information by questioning." A Context for Inquiry Unfortunately, our traditional educational system has worked in a way that discourages the natural process of inquiry. Some of the discouragement of our natural inquiry process may come from a lack of understanding about the deeper nature of inquiry-based learning. Importance of Inquiry Memorizing facts and information is not the most important skill in today's world. Through the process of inquiry, individuals construct much of their understanding of the natural and human-designed worlds. Inquiry is important in the generation and transmission of knowledge.
Introduction 1. Students learn isolated skills and knowledge, starting with the simple building blocks of a particular topic and then building to more complex ideas. While this appeals to common sense (think of the efficiency of a automobile assembly line), the problem with this approach is the removal of any context to the learning, making deep understanding of the content less likely. Perkins calls this approach elementitis, where learning is structured exclusively around disconnected skills and fragmented pieces of information. 2. The solution that Perkins offers to the typical classroom experience is what he calls learning by wholes, structuring learning around opportunities to experience or engage in the topic as it would exist outside of school. An example of ‘learning by wholes’ can be found in my own Cigar Box Project, a year-long, grade 7 study where students explored 5 themes in Canadian history. Inquiry as “Play” Structuring Inquiry with Liberating Constraints Moving From Theory to Practice
1. Action-inquiry, work-focused learning | A Pattern Language for action-inquiry, work-focused learning Picture Introduction Based on the Ultraversity Project, this collection of patterns identifies the key innovations developed to teach an undergraduate programme of some 300 student researchers, supported entirely online and having collaboration between learners as a central component. The Essence of the Problem To widen participation in HE for those who current provision does not fit. The Problem in Detail How to provide a highly personalised, collaborative experience that is supported through online communities and that has authentic work-focused learning for student researchers who wish to study at a full-time rate whilst working full-time with the aim of improving the work that they do. The Solution Personalised learning Learners identify subject knowledge that is relevant to their own work context and needs. Inquiry-based learning This methodology has an emphasis on critical reflection on an individual’s work practices and inquiry into their work context. Assessment for learning Like this:
The Academy of Inquiry Based Learning Visible Thinking Purpose and Goals Visible Thinking is a flexible and systematic research-based approach to integrating the development of students' thinking with content learning across subject matters. An extensive and adaptable collection of practices, Visible Thinking has a double goal: on the one hand, to cultivate students' thinking skills and dispositions, and, on the other, to deepen content learning. By thinking dispositions, we mean curiosity, concern for truth and understanding, a creative mindset, not just being skilled but also alert to thinking and learning opportunities and eager to take them Who is it for? Visible Thinking is for teachers, school leaders and administrators in K - 12 schools who want to encourage the development of a culture of thinking in their classrooms and schools. Key Features and Practices At the core of Visible Thinking are practices that help make thinking visible: Thinking Routines loosely guide learners' thought processes and encourage active processing. License
Contextual Learning Contextual Learning According to Hull's (1993) definition of contextual learning, learning occurs only when learners connect information to their own frame of reference: Karweit (1993) defines contextual learning as learning that is designed so that students can carry out activities and solve problems in a way that reflects the nature of such tasks in the real world. Research supports the effectiveness of learning in meaningful contexts (Carraher, Carraher & Schleimer, 1985; Lave, Smith & Butler, 1988). Resnick (1987) points out that schools emphasize symbol manipulation and abstraction instead of the contextualized learning that is used in the world outside of school. For further information, refer to contextual learning (National School-to-Work Learning and Information Center, 1996a). info@ncrel.org Copyright © North Central Regional Educational Laboratory.
May and Mahavier methods - CAPABLE: Calculus Acquisition through Problem and Activity Based Learning Here are two methods that I (Amy Ksir) know of for turning any course into an inquiry-based course. The first method I learned from E. Lee May, and so I am calling it the May method. I am trying it in Calculus I, Fall 2009. You use the regular textbook and follow the syllabus. But instead of lecturing on the material, you just assign the problems. The other method I have not tried, but have heard Ted Mahavier describe it several times. Inquiry-Questions - home Universal Design for Learning in the Classroom: Practical Applications Tracey E. Hall, PhD, is Senior Research Scientist at CAST, a not-for-profit research and development organization whose mission is to improve education for all learners through innovative uses of multimedia technology and contemporary research in the cognitive neurosciences. Dr. Hall has more than two decades of experience in the areas of curriculum-based measurement, teacher professional development, special-needs instruction and curriculum design, progress monitoring, and large-scale assessments. Anne Meyer, EdD, a clinical psychologist, is Chief of Education Design and Co-Founder of CAST. David H.
Resources — Academy of Inquiry Based Learning Course materials are listed on this page. These materials are not necessarily peer reviewed. If you have course materials you would like to share, please send them to us. Math and Decision Making (pdf) (Liberal Arts Math), by Doug Shaw The University of Michigan Department of Mathematics has field tested IBL course materials. IBL Course materials are available at The Journal for Inquiry Based Learning in Mathematics. Discovering the Art of Mathematics, Westfield State University, has course materials. AIBL has course materials for courses for future elementary school teachers, real analysis, intro to proofs, and a 6th grade IBL math curriculum.
Steps to Inquiry voicEd.ca has invited Canadian bloggers writing about education to post their “best” entry of 2012. This may a piece of writing to which they feel particularly attached, something that received some good response, or an entry that got others thinking in a different way. We’ll be featuring these pieces in this space over the next couple of weeks with the hopes that readers might find them to be a good review of where our thinking has taken us over the past year. Feel free to join in the conversation, or submit your own entry for posting! The following blog entry is from Louise Robitaille who blogs at Inquiry-based Learning. Step 1: Teachers gather and collect as much information as possible on the subject, to help students with research, investigations and inquiries. Step 2: Teachers help to develop background knowledge for students. Step 3: Teachers share mentor texts and model lessons. Step 4: Teachers give students a choice of what they would like to learn more about.