Why Inquiry Learning is Worth the Trouble
Nearly seven years after first opening its doors, the Science Leadership Academy public magnet high school* in Philadelphia and its inquiry-based approach to learning have become a national model for the kinds of reforms educators strive towards. But in a talk this past weekend at EduCon 2.5, the school’s sixth-annual conference devoted to sharing its story and spreading its techniques, Founding Principal Chris Lehmann insisted that replicating his schools approach required difficult tradeoffs. “This is not easy. Lehmann’s 90-minute question-and-answer session tackled coming to terms with the impact of a shift to inquiry-driven learning by defining three steps: the enigmatic meaning of inquiry-based learning; the visible changes that signal a shift to that approach; and the potential drawbacks that shift may surface. In a true inquiry-based model, how learning happens isn’t as important as whether that learning encourages students to try to learn even more.
How to Bring Playfulness to High School Students
It’s easy to focus on academics and college transcripts when children become tweens and teens, but retaining the agency and creativity inherent in play is crucial for them, too. But what is the high school equivalent for the kind of inquisitive learning that happens when little kids play in the sandbox, finger-paint, build with blocks or play make-believe? “When your 4-year-old is dipping his hand in the rice table, he’s learning really important things about tactile touch,” said Denise Pope, senior lecturer at Stanford’s Graduate School of Education and co-founder of Challenge Success. Teenagers need creative outlets, just like elementary school children. There are several ways to encourage teenagers to learn playfully. Free Choice Time: Student-Directed Learning During free-choice time in preschool, kids are encouraged to choose their own activity: dressing-up corner, painting at an easel or even just reading a book. “It’s important that they’re doing it for its own sake. Play Resources
The Thrill of Converting Math-Haters Into Appreciators Through Inquiry
A good portion of the adult population hates math, and a lot of people believe they aren’t good at it so they avoid it completely. Those perceptions often come from their experiences learning math in school, which may not have been positive. In her Atlantic article Jessica Lahey writes about a Cornell professor who takes special pride in teaching non-math majors to appreciate numbers. “Twelve years of compulsory education in mathematics leaves us with a populace that is proud to announce they cannot balance their checkbook, when they would never share that they were illiterate.
Inquiry Learning Vs. Standardized Content: Can They Coexist?
By Thom Markham As Common Core State Standards are incorporated from school to school across the country, educators are discussing their value. It may seem that educators are arguing over whether the CCSS will roll out as a substitute No Child Left Behind curriculum or as an innovative guide to encourage inquiry rather than rote learning. In reality, as time will prove, we’re arguing over whether content standards are still appropriate. Everyday there is less standardization of information, making it nearly impossible to decide what a tenth-grader should know. Beyond the core literacies of reading, writing, computation, and research, the world-wide culture of innovation, discovery, multi-polarity, interdisciplinary thinking, and rapid change depends on the explosive potential of the human mind, not entombed truths from the past. There is only one resolution to the debate. So how can you, as a teacher, help move the dialogue forward? But PBL is the near-term solution. REDEFINE RIGOR.
Math and Inquiry: The Importance of Letting Students Stumble
For subjects like math and foreign language, which are traditionally taught in a linear and highly structured context, using more open-ended inquiry-based models can be challenging. Teachers of these subjects may find it hard to break out of linear teaching style because the assumption is that students can’t move to more complicated skills before mastering basic ones. But inquiry learning is based on the premise that, with a little bit of structure and guidance, teachers can support students to ask questions that lead them to learn those same important skills — in ways that are meaningful to them. This model, however, can be especially hard to follow in public school classrooms tied to pre-set curricula. Science Leadership Academy, which has an established track record as an inquiry-based school, has just opened a second campus in Philadelphia called the Beeber school, whose teachers are still adapting to the inquiry model. Katrina Schwartz
Librarians on the Fly: Apps for the Inquiry Process
Our school just unrolled the first phase of our 1:1 iPad program tonight. In preparation of this big event, I spent some time this summer looking into how I could support and guide students through the research process using apps. It was tougher than I expected to build a list like this.... Apps come and go.Opinions vary.And upgrades can leave a favorite app on the bottom of the heap.But it was also a lot of fun to read through suggestions, try new apps, and build a chart that includes all phases of the research process. At my school, we follow Kath Murdoch's Inquiry Cycle so I have grouped the apps according to the steps of that model. My simple hope in sharing this is that I get you thinking about which apps you use with students during the research process.
How to Spark Curiosity in Children Through Embracing Uncertainty
In the classroom, subjects are often presented as settled and complete. Teachers lecture students on the causes of World War I, say, or the nature of matter, as if no further questioning is needed because all the answers have been found. In turn, students regurgitate what they’ve been told, confident they’ve learned all the facts and unaware of the mysteries that remain unexplored. Without insight into the holes in our knowledge, students mistakenly believe that some subjects are closed. But our collective understanding of any given subject is never complete, according to Jamie Holmes, who has just written a book on the hidden benefits of uncertainty. He wants students to grapple with uncertainty to spark their curiosity and better prepare them for the “real world,” where answers are seldom clear-cut or permanent. “We’re much more certain about facts than we should be,” Holmes said. Address the emotional impact of uncertainty. Assign projects that provoke uncertainty. Linda Flanagan
High Tech Reflection Strategies Make Learning Stick
Share to Learn: Teacher George Mayo helps students Fernando, Binyam, and Johana edit their blog posts before publishing them. In their blogs, the students record podcasts and write about a novel they read. When he started teaching middle school five years ago, George Mayo immediately began using blog posts to teach writing because he knew that there are myriad benefits to using the technology. At his Maryland middle school, Mayo asks his students -- many of whom struggle with reading and writing -- to create at least one blog post a week. Indeed, as Mayo anticipated, blogs have consistently inspired the emerging writers in his classroom to reflect on their progress. Sam, one of Mayo's former students, came to enjoy blogging so much that last spring, he asked Mayo whether he could continue his blog after the school year ended. Sam's reaction is exactly what Mayo had in mind when he introduced his classroom to blogging. "It's powerful stuff for students," Mayo adds. Questions That Inspire
