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. Students learn about a particular topic. 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” Moving From Theory to Practice
MindShift MindShift explores the future of learning in all its dimensions. We examine how learning is being impacted by technology, discoveries about how the brain works, poverty and inequities, social and emotional practices, assessments, digital games, design thinking and music, among many other topics. We look at how learning is evolving in the classroom and beyond.We also revisit old ideas that have come full circle in the era of the over scheduled child, such as unschooling, tinkering, playing in the woods, mindfulness, inquiry-based learning and student motivation. We report on shifts in how educators practice their craft as they apply innovative ideas to help students learn, while meeting the rigorous demands of their standards and curriculum. Contact the us by email.
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. 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?
How to Make Your Classroom a Thinking Space Editor's note: The following is an excerpt from Thinking Through Project-Based Learning: Guiding Deeper Inquiry by Jane Krauss and Suzie Boss. It was published this month by Corwin. Take a moment and imagine a creative work environment. Was your mental picture anything like either of the workspaces shown in these photos? Photo of High Tech High in San Diego. Photo credit: High Tech High Think back to your mental image of a creative workplace. Fine-Tune the Physical Environment for PBL Birkdale Intermediate School in New Zealand has a long tradition of teaching through inquiry projects. This school has intentionally developed a climate and curriculum to encourage deep thinking, which is reflected by the physical environment. Many schools don't have budgets for this kind of wholesale remodeling. Small adjustments in the learning environment will better accommodate the various tools and patterns of interaction that come into play during projects. Independent work. Student presentations.
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. Furthermore, involvement in learning implies possessing skills and attitudes that permit you to seek resolutions to questions and issues while you construct new knowledge. "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. The Application of Inquiry
Teacher to Teacher Learning by questioning, exploration and discovery as opposed to memorization and drill. Inquiry learning is driven by student questions Inquiry learning encompasses a range of instructional practices that focus on students learning through generating questions and exploring material within the framework of course curriculum with guidance from instructors (Lee, Greene, Odom, Schechter, & Slatta, 2004). This is an approach to learning that is applicable across academic departments, from education to science majors (Wyatt, 2005) and can prepare students to become life-long learners. Justice et al. (2007) described the process of inquiry as a cycle, illustrated as follows: Teaching for inquiry is immersion learning Abrami et al. (2008) distinguished between courses that infuse critical thinking skills into content-focused instruction, as opposed to immersing students in critical thinking by making the course itself about critical thinking. References Brew, A. (2003).
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? 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. A key feature of the Visible Thinking approach is the Teacher Study Group as described in the School-Wide Culture of Thinking section. License
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:
Project Based Failing: The Goal is NOT Student-Centered Over the past five years, I have spent a great deal of time shifting 20% of my class from being teacher-centered to student-centered. That was a fail. I’ve written a fair amount about the 20% Project and why I believed that it was important to have class time when the teacher is off center stage while shifting emphasis on the students. This model energized and liberated many of my students, while it confused and terrified others. The problem, though, is that a 20% Project should NOT be a student-centered project. However human-centered is a specific term that comes from the design-thinking framework that Molly Wilson introduced to our entire school last week. A student-centered project is one that focuses on the creator’s needs and desires, where an audience-centered or user-centered project focuses on the actual person who would use the project. Next year during the 20% Project, I would like to see empathy be a more structured component of the project.
The Academy of Inquiry Based Learning The inquiry cycle « Chip’s journey Inquiry cycle Drawing from Dewey’s four impulses of the learner in The School and Society; the stages of reflective action from How We Think, and the fundamental idea that learning begins with the curiosity of the learner, we can envision a spiral path of inquiry: asking questions, investigating solutions, creating, discussing our discoveries and experiences, and reflecting on our new-found knowledge, and asking new questions (Bruce & Bishop, 2002). Each step in this process naturally leads to the next: inspiring new questions, investigations, and opportunities for authentic “teachable moments.” Each question leads to an exploration, which in turn leads to more questions to investigate (Bruce & Davidson, 1996). We need to interpret the cycle as suggestive, neither the sole, nor the complete, characterization of inquiry-based learning. Despite these complexities, the steps and cycle outlined can be helpful in highlighting aspects of an otherwise opaque process.. Ask Investigate Create Notes:
Inquiry-Questions - home 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. 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.