Creating Classrooms We Need: 8 Ways Into Inquiry Learning If kids can access information from sources other than school, and if school is no longer the only place where information lives, what, then happens to the role of this institution? “Our whole reason for showing up for school has changed, but infrastructure has stayed behind,” said Diana Laufenberg, who taught history at the progressive public school Science Leadership Academy for many years. Laufenberg provided some insight into how she guided students to find their own learning paths at school, and enumerated some of these ideas at SXSWEdu last week. 1. BE FLEXIBLE. The less educators try to control what kids learn, the more students’ voices will be heard and, eventually, their ability to drive their own learning. Laufenberg recalled a group of tenacious students who continued to ask permission to focus their video project on the subject of drugs, despite her repeated objections. 2. Laufenberg’s answer: Get them curious enough in the subject to do research on their own. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
4 Phases of Inquiry-Based Learning: A Guide For Teachers According to Indiana University Bloomington, Inquiry-based learning is an “instructional model that centers learning on a solving a particular problem or answering a central question. There are several different inquiry-based learning models, but most have several general elements in common: Learning focuses around a meaningful, ill-structured problem that demands consideration of diverse perspectivesAcademic content-learning occurs as a natural part of the process as students work towards finding solutionsLearners, working collaboratively, assume an active role in the learning processTeachers provide learners with learning supports and rich multiple media sources of information to assist students in successfully finding solutionsLearners share and defend solutions publicly in some manner” The process itself can be broken down into stages, or phases, that help teachers frame instruction. 4 Phases of Inquiry-Based Learning: A Guide For Teachers 1. Student-to-material. 2. 3. 4.
The Inquiry Process Explained Visually for Teachers Learning is all about being curious and inquisitive. It is a process in which learners explore the unknown through their senses using both sensory and motor skills. Being involved and engaged in the learning task is the key to a successful learning journey and to elicit this kind of engagement from learners, teachers need to nurture a learning environment where students take responsibility for their learning and 'where they are only shown where to look but not told what to see'. Such environment definitely requires a solid approach and an informed strategy to learning one that is dubbed: inquiry-based learning. Inquiry-based learning is essential in developing the most solicited 21st century skills : problem solving and critical thinking.As a teacher, you might be wondering about ways to inculcate the precepts of strategy into your teaching and lesson planning.
Inquiry Learning Ideas for Math and Science With iPads Digital Tools Laurie Sullivan/Flickr By Sam Gliksman The following is the second of a series of excerpts from Gliksman’s book iPad in Education for Dummies. We tend to split science and humanities as though they were separate branches of life. But no matter what profession we choose — artist, plumber, historian, or salesman — we all use some form of scientific inquiry in our daily lives. Today’s interconnected world demands that the doctor, engineer, pharmacist, and scientist increasingly master skills that used to be classified within the domain of the arts. More than any other academic disciplines, science and math draw their meaning by relating to life in the “real” world outside the classroom. Granting students the freedom to inquire and explore makes them the investigators of life’s mysteries. This chapter looks at tools that can be used with the iPad to help you investigate phenomena and collect data. Submitted by: Dr. Submitted by: Dr. • Does the sun really rise in the east? Related
Evaluación - Instrumentos centrados en el alumno - Solución de problemas Solución de Problemas Diariamente es necesario enfrentar problemas y conflictos a los cuales se les deben encontrar soluciones aceptables de acuerdo al contexto. El proceso de solucionar problemas implica una serie de capacidades y habilidades del pensamiento que es importante desarrollar y evaluar en la preparación académica. La resolución de problemas es una actividad cognitiva que consiste en proporcionar una respuesta-producto a partir de un objeto o de una situación. Una de las capacidades más importantes en la resolución de problemas es la de hacer preguntas que permitan surgir de un conflicto y sortear la dificultad, algunas preguntas pueden servir para identificar el problema, otras para buscar alternativas, etc. Es posible preguntarse: ¿qué es lo que hace problemática esta situación? Capacidades de los alumnos que son susceptibles de evaluarse: • Capacidad para identificar problemas. • Definición y representación de los problemas con precisión.
SNewco: RT @califone: 50 Useful Apps For Students With Reading Disabilities Whether you’re the parent of a child with a reading disability or an educator that works with learning disabled students on a daily basis, you’re undoubtedly always looking for new tools to help these bright young kids meet their potential and work through their disability. While there are numerous technologies out there that can help, perhaps one of the richest is the iPad, which offers dozens of applications designed to meet the needs of learning disabled kids and beginning readers alike. Here, we highlight just a few of the amazing apps out there that can help students with a reading disability improve their skills not only in reading, writing, and spelling, but also get a boost in confidence and learn to see school as a fun, engaging activity, not a struggle. Helpful Tools These tools are useful for both educators and students with reading disabilities alike, aiding in everything from looking up a correct spelling to reading text out loud. Speak It! Fundamentals Reading Writing Spelling
Is School Enough? Documentary Film Delves In A documentary film premiering on public television today — “Is School Enough?” — takes the viewer inside the lives of teens from various backgrounds and reveals the importance of tapping into students’ passions to drive their learning. These are some of the covered topics. Students at English High School in Boston helped pilot a social networking and planning tool called Community Planit. The online platform offers participants a series of missions, problems to solve and questions to answer about how the school district could improve and meet student needs better. As a player completes missions, he receives tokens to spend on the priorities he’d most like to see in school. “I’m always trying to keep my ear to the ground to get my kids involved with meaningful projects,” said Xavier Rozas, instruction technology coordinator at English High School. In fact, the English High School students’ engagement with Community Planit was crucial to its success as a planning tool for the district.
Kagan Structures for English Language Learners Dr. Spencer Kagan and Julie High To cite this article: Kagan, S. & J. High. Kagan Structures for English Language Learners. Kagan Structures are radically transforming classrooms across the United States and in many parts of the world. Let's do a thought experiment. Classroom A: Traditional. Classroom B: Group Work. Classroom C: Kagan Structures. On the surface of it Classrooms B and C appear radically different from Classroom A, but not that different from each other. Why Classroom A Fails. Why Classroom B Fails. Why Classroom C Succeeds. All of the Kagan Structures are very carefully designed. Positive Interdependence. Individual Accountability. Equal or Equitable Participation. Simultaneous Interaction. Structures Produce Gains. What are the Kagan Structures? Sample Kagan Structures Structures Not Lessons. Advantages of Kagan Structures for English Language Learners. Adapting Kagan Structures for Levels of Language Development. Pre-Production. Early Production. Speech Emergence.
21st Century Skills Definitions The IMLS Project Team and Task Force considered the list of skills commonly referred to as "21st Century Skills" and modified it slightly to better align with library and museum priorities.1 The resulting list includes the following additions: Basic Literacy, Scientific & Numerical Literacy, Visual Literacy, Cross-Disciplinary Skills, and Environmental Literacy. Not every skill on this list will be aligned with every institution’s vision and mission. Further, not every community will prioritize the same skills. Library and museum leaders should consider this list as a starting point beyond which it should be customized to fit the unique character, requirements, and priorities of the institution and its audiences. Reason Effectively Use various types of reasoning (e.g., inductive, deductive, etc.) as appropriate to the situation Use Systems Thinking Analyze how parts of a whole interact with each other to produce overall outcomes in complex systems Make Judgments and Decisions Solve Problems 1.
20 Questions To Guide Inquiry-Based Learning 20 Questions To Guide Inquiry-Based Learning Recently we took at look at the phases of inquiry-based learning through a framework, and even apps that were conducive to inquiry-based learning on the iPad. During our research for the phases framework, we stumbled across the following breakdown of the inquiry process for learning on 21stcenturyhsie.weebly.com (who offer the references that appear below the graphic). Most helpfully, it offers 20 questions that can guide student research at any stage, including: What do I want to know about this topic? How do I know I know it? These stages have some overlap with self-directed learning. References Cross, M. (1996). Kuhlthau, C., Maniotes, L., & Caspari, A. (2007).
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