5 Tools to Help Students Learn How to Learn Helping students learn how to learn: That’s what most educators strive for, and that’s the goal of inquiry learning. That skill transfers to other academic subject areas and even to the workplace where employers have consistently said that they want creative, innovative and adaptive thinkers. Inquiry learning is an integrated approach that includes kinds of learning: content, literacy, information literacy, learning how to learn, and social or collaborative skills. “We want students thinking about their thinking,” said Leslie Maniotes a teacher effectiveness coach in the Denver Public Schools and one of the authors of Guided Inquiry: Learning in the 21st Century. “When they are able to see where they came from and where they got to it is very powerful for them.” A good example is a long term research project. During the process, students will go through different stages of emotions. [RELATED READING: Creating Classrooms We Need: 8 Ways Into Inquiry Learning]
Science Education on the Edge · Experimenting with student-centered science education Curious Homework: An Inquiry Project for Students and Parents Photo credit: iStockphoto International educator Scot Hoffman is a big believer in the power of curiosity to drive learning. After nearly two decades of teaching around the globe, he also realizes that school isn't always so hospitable to inquiring minds. I first met Hoffman a couple years ago during a visit to the American School of Bombay in Mumbai, India. Here are highlights of our recent conversations about The Curiosity Project. What was the inspiration for this idea? Scot Hoffman: In about my third year of teaching -- this was back in the 1990s -- there were a couple students I just wasn't reaching. Another inspiration was a set of questions that a former professor, Dr. What is curiosity? Those questions reminded me of the writers' workshop model. How do you encourage students to be more curious learners? Hoffman: A teaching partner and I started by interviewing curious people in front of our students. After a few of these interviews, we told students: Now it's your turn. It's Time!
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. There is only one resolution to the debate. If you’re a teacher in tune with the needs of your students, you sense the disconnect between the curriculum and reality. So how can you, as a teacher, help move the dialogue forward? But PBL is the near-term solution. REDEFINE RIGOR. TEACH INQUIRY SKILLS. MAKE COHORTS AND TEAMS THE PRACTICE, NOT THE EXCEPTION. team learning. SEE THE BALANCE BETWEEN INQUIRY AND CONTENT AS A DYNAMIC.
Seeing, wondering, theorizing, learning: Inquiry-based instruction with Kishia Moore There they go — Mitchell County teacher Kishia Moore and her class of seventeen first graders — up Gem Mountain not far from their school, Greenlee Primary, to pan for gemstones for use in their NC Standard Course of Study-mandated science unit on minerals. And here the kids come, back down the hill, dirty, damp, and hauling impossibly heavy — for the kids’ size, that is — loads of rocks that during the next five to six weeks, they will study, sort, measure, weigh, scratch, break if possible, discuss, compare, draw pictures of, polish in noisy rock tumblers, and, ultimately, fashion into items of jewelry. If Ms. Moore employed traditional teaching methods, her next tasks would be to explain the sorting and measuring processes and then direct her students through those processes. Ms. The definition Ms. The theory Ms. How, it may be legitimately asked, can traditional teaching methods be characterized as obstructing learning? Answers Ms. The method Ms. Next, Ms. Classroom activity Thinking maps
Reading Comprehension and Considerate Text, Teaching Today, Glencoe Online Inquiry-Based Approaches to Learning Few things excite teachers more than when their students take over the role of grand inquisitor. When students begin formulating questions, risking answers, probing for relationships, we know they've entered the zone where learning occurs. Not surprisingly, few things excite students more than when they are actively engaged in learning so much so that they forget the clock. These experiences are the goal of inquiry-based learning, an active, student-centered, educational method whose roots go back to the educational philosopher John Dewey. The basis of the inquiry-based approach is to facilitate student-generated questions as the core part of the learning process. After students learn effective questioning techniques, they begin researching to pursue answers and will, consequently, make their own discoveries. What are the steps of inquiry-based learning? What makes inquiry-based education different? What are the advantages to inquiry-based learning?
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. 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. “Rather than saying, ‘We’re going to study immigration,’ I took them through a process where they become interested in it themselves,” she said. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
TWT: Inquiry-based Learning Strategy What is Inquiry-based learning? The old adage, “Tell me and I forget, show me and I remember, involve me and I understand” describes the core of inquiry-based learning. Inquiry is the process of seeking truth, information, or knowledge by questioning. The process of inquiring begins with gathering information and data through applying the human senses: seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling. Inquiry-based learning processes vary. How does inquiry-based learning encourage student learning? Memorizing facts and information is not the most important skill in today’s world. What does inquiry-based learning look like in the classroom? The following example elaborates on the five steps listed above: questioning, planning and predicting, investigating, recording and reporting, and reflecting. Additional Information on the Five Steps for Inquiry-based Learning Questioning, Planning and Predicting, Investigating, Recording and Reporting, and Reflecting.
Learning Science Through Inquiry Frequently Asked Questions About Inquiry Workshop 1 | Workshop 2 | Workshop 3 | Workshop 4 | Workshop 5 Workshop 6 | Workshop 7 | Workshop 8 Contributing Authors: Christine Collier - principal of the Center for Inquiry, a K-8 magnet/option school in the Indianapolis Public School district Judith Johnson - associate professor of science education at the University of Central Florida; associate director of the Lockheed Martin/University of Central Florida Academy of Mathematics and Science Lisa Nyberg - assistant professor in the education department at California State University, Fresno Virginia Lockwood - staff developer and consultant, District 2 New York City 1. Inquiry teaching is allowing students’ questions and curiosities to drive curriculum. 2. In an inquiry-based classroom, students aren't waiting for the teacher or someone else to provide an answer — instead, they are actively seeking solutions, designing investigations, and asking new questions. 3. top 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.
Investigating Animals: Using Nonfiction for Inquiry-based Research ReadWriteThink couldn't publish all of this great content without literacy experts to write and review for us. If you've got lessons plans, activities, or other ideas you'd like to contribute, we'd love to hear from you. More Find the latest in professional publications, learn new techniques and strategies, and find out how you can connect with other literacy professionals. More Teacher Resources by Grade Your students can save their work with Student Interactives. More Home › Classroom Resources › Lesson Plans Lesson Plan Overview Featured Resources From Theory to Practice Young children are fascinated with the world around them, showing intense interest and curiosity about animals and their lives. back to top Animal Inquiry Interactive: Students can use this online to tool to help them focus and organize their research about animals. This lesson focuses on teaching primary students doing research with nonfiction, informational material how to document their discoveries. Further Reading
Inquiry-Based Lesson Plans Inquiry Learning Student understanding is the central focus of inquiry learning. Students actively participate in inquiry learning experiences by developing questions and investigating to find solutions. Teachers facilitate learning as students engage in active problem solving, the construction of meaning and the communication of new understandings to students, teachers or other important adults. Teachers guide student learning by selecting, designing and planning learning tasks, asking probing questions, observing students at work to identify misconceptions and planning follow up experiences. Though inquiry learning is a component of all areas of the curriculum, mathematics and science is the focus of the elementary inquiry lessons. Search for a Lesson Plan Return to Teach 21 Home
JIBLM.org - Journal of Inquiry-Based Learning in Mathematics - IBL Course Notes in Mathematics Inquiry-based Learning - About Us What is IBL? - The Academy of Inquiry Based Learning Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL) is a student-centered method of teaching Mathematics. At the college mathematics level one of the forms of IBL is the Modified Moore Method, named after R. L. Boiled down to its essence IBL is a teaching method that engages students in sense-making activities. E. Inquiry-based learning (IBL) is a method of instruction that places the student, the subject, and their interaction at the center of the learning experience. A typical day in an IBL math course is hard to define, due to the variance across the environments and needs at institutions across the nation and world.