5 Ways to Help Your Students Become Better Questioners The humble question is an indispensable tool: the spade that helps us dig for truth, or the flashlight that illuminates surrounding darkness. Questioning helps us learn, explore the unknown, and adapt to change. That makes it a most precious “app” today, in a world where everything is changing and so much is unknown. And yet, we don’t seem to value questioning as much as we should. For the most part, in our workplaces as well as our classrooms, it is the answers we reward -- while the questions are barely tolerated. To change that is easier said than done. How to Encourage Questioning 1. Asking a question can be a scary step into the void. 2. This is a tough one. 3. Part of the appeal of “questions-only” exercises is that there’s an element of play involved, as in: Can you turn that answer/statement into a question? 4. 5. If the long-term goal is to create lifelong questioners, then the challenge is to make questioning a habit -- a part of the way one thinks.
What is Inquiry-Based Learning (And How Is It Effective)? | GradePower Learning The key to success for students is making sure they are engaged with any material they are learning. Sometimes, that’s easier said than done. For many students, the traditional classroom approach leaves them bored and unengaged. As a result, they aren’t effectively learning (or understanding) the material being taught. That’s where inquiry-based learning comes in. What Is Inquiry-Based Learning? Inquiry-based learning is an approach to learning that emphasizes the student’s role in the learning process. Inquiry-based learning uses different approaches to learning, including small-group discussion and guided learning. Is Inquiry-Based Learning Effective? Just like experiential learning, inquiry-based learning actively engages students in the learning process. We retain 75% of what we do compared to 5% of what we hear and 10% of what we read. The Benefits Of Inquiry-Based Learning Enhances learning experiences for children Teaches skills needed for all areas of learning Creates a love of learning
Resources and Downloads to Facilitate Inquiry-Based Learning Create Learning Environments That Foster Inquiry Plan Curriculum That Supports Inquiry Use Strategies to Increase Inquiry in the Classroom Conduct Activities That Promote Inquiry Query Books: Ask students to chronicle their ideas, ponderings, and questions. (Edutopia, 2014)Hackathons: Check out a hackathon playbook to plan activities that provide experiences with overcoming failure. Downloads and Examples From Schools That Work Edutopia's flagship series highlights practices and case studies from K-12 schools and districts that are improving the way students learn. At Wildwood IB World Magnet School, teachers use student questions to drive lessons, and channel student curiosity into student-centered projects. video See how Ralston Elementary School teachers guide the inquiry process over a series of lessons and teach students how to ask deeper questions to prepare them to lead their own inquiry into specific problems.
10 Tips For Launching An Inquiry-Based Classroom Transforming teaching practices is a long, slow road. But increasingly schools and teachers experiencing success are sharing their ideas online and in-person. Science Leadership Academy opened as a public magnet school almost ten years ago in Philadelphia. The educators that make up the school community have spent nearly half that time sharing best practices through a school-run conference each year and more recently by opening a second school in Philadelphia. Diana Laufenberg was one of the first SLA teachers and has gone on to help foster inquiry at schools around the country, most recently by starting the non-profit Inquiry Schools. It takes time to build up a strong inquiry-based teaching practice, to learn how to direct student questions with other questions, and to get comfortable in a guiding role. 1. Every teacher has a “bucket” of stuff she is responsible for teaching her students, known as standards. 2. 3. 4. 5. She doesn’t think it’s that different from history. 6. 7. 8. 9.
CoI Framework | CoI An educational community of inquiry is a group of individuals who collaboratively engage in purposeful critical discourse and reflection to construct personal meaning and confirm mutual understanding. The Community of Inquiry theoretical framework represents a process of creating a deep and meaningful (collaborative-constructivist) learning experience through the development of three interdependent elements – social, cognitive and teaching presence. Social presence is “the ability of participants to identify with the community (e.g., course of study), communicate purposefully in a trusting environment, and develop inter-personal relationships by way of projecting their individual personalities.” (Garrison, 2009) Teaching Presence is the design, facilitation, and direction of cognitive and social processes for the purpose of realizing personally meaningful and educationally worthwhile learning outcomes (Anderson, Rourke, Garrison, & Archer, 2001). Garrison, D. Related Files
Compelling Questions and Stultifying Questions Some questions are more powerful, more important and more engaging than others. Some are quite boring. They will cause students to "lose enthusiasm and initiative, especially as a result of a tedious or restrictive routine." (Quoting from the Apple Dictionary's definition of "stultify.") The failure to know the difference between compelling and stultifying can undermine the success of even the most ambitious and well intended reform effort. Imagine two high school students riding home on the bus. One girl shakes her head and moans in exasperation. "I sure don't know," replies her friend. "Yeah," mutters her friend. "Beats me!" © iStock Good intentions are not enough In 2013, the NCSS (National Council of the Social Studies) approved the “C3 Framework" (College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards), promoting the use of Compelling Questions along with what they called Supporting Questions. Compelling questions focus on enduring issues and concerns.
Bringing Inquiry-Based Learning Into Your Class In the shallow end of the Types of Student Inquiry pool, Structured Inquiry gives the teacher control of the essential question, the starting point—for example, “What defines a culture?” or “What is the importance of the scientific method?” These questions are not answered in a single lesson and do not have a single answer, and, in fact, our understanding of an essential question may change over time as we research it. In Controlled Inquiry, the teacher provides several essential questions. And finally, in the deep end of the inquiry pool, Free Inquiry allows learners, with the support of the teacher, to construct their own essential question, research a wide array of resources, customize their learning activities, and design their own summative assessment to demonstrate their learning. How Are the Types of Student Inquiry Helpful? Inquiry is most successful when strongly scaffolded. How to Move Forward in Adopting Inquiry Second, think big and start small.
TPACK: Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge Framework Technology has become an increasingly important part of students’ lives beyond school, and even within the classroom it can also help increase their understanding of complex concepts or encourage collaboration among peers. Because of these benefits, current educational practice suggests that teachers implement some form of technology in their classrooms – but many teachers face difficulties in doing so. Cost, access, and time often form considerable barriers to classroom implementation, but another obstacle is a lack of knowledge regarding how technology can best be used to benefit students across diverse subject matter. See also: Instructional design models Punya Mishra and Matthew J. According to the TPACK framework, specific technological tools (hardware, software, applications, associated information literacy practices, etc.) are best used to instruct and guide students toward a better, more robust understanding of the subject matter. References Mishra, P., & Koehler, M.
Many, Many Examples Of Essential Questions by Terry Heick Essential questions are, as Grant Wiggins defined, ‘essential’ in the sense of signaling genuine, important and necessarily-ongoing inquiries.” These are grapple-worthy, substantive questions that not only require wrestling with, but are worth wrestling with–that could lead students to some critical insight in a 40/40/40-rule sense of the term. I collected the following set of questions through the course of creating units of study, most of them from the Greece Central School District in New York. Or maybe I’ll make a separate page for them entirely. See also 8 Strategies To Help Students Ask Great Questions Many, Many Examples Of Essential Questions Decisions, Actions, and Consequences What is the relationship between decisions and consequences? Social Justice What is social justice? Culture: Values, Beliefs & Rituals How do individuals develop values and beliefs? Adversity, Conflict, and Change How does conflict lead to change? Utopia and Dystopia Chaos and Order Creation Sources