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 Structured Inquiry, the teacher also controls specific learning activities, the resources students will use to create understanding, and the summative assessment learners will complete to demonstrate their understanding. In Controlled Inquiry, the teacher provides several essential questions. How Are the Types of Student Inquiry Helpful? Inquiry is most successful when strongly scaffolded. This structure allows us to successfully address the curriculum and the “must know” content and skills of each discipline, grade level, and course. Second, think big and start small.
Crafting Questions That Drive Projects Which comes first, the driving question or the learning goals? I think it depends. The most successful projects feed off of students’ passions. Don’t be afraid to tap into them. In my first year of teaching, my fifth graders were obsessed with SpongeBob Squarepants. What adventures would SpongeBob have during the Great Depression? So, to develop a driving question, you can use students' interest as a starting point and then creatively connect learning standards. Some of the learning aims my school had for students in math were working with decimals and graphing data. So, you can start with a topic or you start with learning standards to develop a driving question.
The art of inquiry: 10 practices for the inquiry teacher — Kath Murdoch Of all the blog posts I have written, the one that has been read, reposted and mentioned most often- is “How do inquiry teachers teach?” That was back in 2014. "How we teach slowly shapes the way young people respond to the unknown – to change, challenge, complexity and uncertainty….Our teaching can steer them toward becoming more positive, confident, and capable in the face of difficulty. What we teachers DO, SAY and think matters. Over the last few years, I have had the joy of collaborating with hundreds of teachers in a quest to dig deeper into the pedagogy of inquiry. So a new book is on its way! I am doing something I have not done before. The practices reflect what we have noticed when teaching 4-12 year olds. (not really in order...) 1. Inquiry teachers provoke, model and value curiosity – and they do this in a myriad of ways. 2. We all agree that questions lie at the heart of true inquiry. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Driving Questions Now that we have looked at how to ask questions, let's look at why we ask questions. What is our objective? The kind of question we ask our students changes depending on how far along we have progressed in a project and on the mastery level of our students. As students proceed through a project, we can identify two levels of progression: horizontal and vertical. The major horizontal questioning stages encountered in the classroom are outlined below. At the Beginning of a Project: Brainstorming: The driving question is posed to get students' juices flowing about a topic. Organization: These driving questions help organize students' gathered thoughts into several overarching themes. During a Project: Exploration: The teacher chooses about five overarching ideas (key understandings) to focus on and asks open-ended questions to encourage students to expand their thinking on a topic and elaborate on those thoughts. Clarification: Student ask questions to clarify a point or a concept.
Using Project-Based Learning To Flip Bloom’s Taxonomy For Deeper Learning | TeachThought Using Project-Based Learning To Flip Bloom’s Taxonomy For Deeper Learning by Drew Perkins, Director of TeachThought PD One of the central features of high quality project-based learning is the pedagogical relationship between the Driving Question and the “Need to Knows” that stem from it. In the video below I use the Explain Everything app to show how teachers and schools, using a process of rich inquiry, can leverage great thinking and learning by flipping how you approach the concepts behind Bloom’s Taxonomy. Instead of starting at the bottom and focusing on the teaching and learning of content prior to moving up, consider flipping that approach by starting at the top and asking students to create an authentic product with a strong Driving Question. Doing this can help the teacher facilitate deeper learning of the content and skills we find at the lower level as students identify and pursue what they need to know, remember, and understand to create and meet the challenge of the project.
The Jigsaw Classroom 4 Things All Project-Based Learning Teachers Should Do | TeachThought 4 Things All Project-Based Learning Teachers Should Do by Lauren Ayer, M.Ed. Gone are the days when students were expected to sit passively at desks while teachers lectured endlessly, expecting children to soak up the information being thrown at them. In today’s educational environment, students are expected to collaborate, think critically, and work together to develop innovative projects and answers to complex questions. To support this mission, many schools have begun to take part in a practice known as Project-Based Learning (PBL). Making a shift from traditional forms of learning to PBL can be challenging. 4 Things All Project-Based Learning Teachers Must Do 1. This is where the teacher-prep comes in. What content do you want students to understand by the end of the project? Planning project based learning takes time. 2. So you’re ready to start your project. Begin, then, by generating questions. Find out what students think they know about a topic. Go on field trips. 3. 4. Conclusion
20 Collaborative Learning Tips And Strategies For Teachers 20 Collaborative Learning Tips And Strategies For Teachers by Miriam Clifford This post has been updated from a 2011 post. There is an age old adage that says “two heads are better than one”. Consider collaboration in recent history: Watson and Crick or Page and Brin (Founders of Google). Yes, those two were of course Bill Gates and Paul Allen, the founders of Microsoft. Collaborative learning teams are said to attain higher level thinking and preserve information for longer times than students working individually. Groups tend to learn through “discussion, clarification of ideas, and evaluation of other’s ideas.” Collaborative learning teams are said to attain higher level thinking and preserve information for longer times than students working individually. Many consider Vygotsky the father of “social learning”. What are some ways to include best practices for collaborative learning in our classroom? 1. 2. 3. 4. Successful interpersonal communication must exist in teams. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.