For my blog this week I am going to be discussing the concept of Inquiry Learning. The quote I have included above is from Benjamin Franklin and I believe that it describes Inquiry Learning perfectly. Inquiry Learning is about involving students in their own education and can be described as going where students' interests are (Drake, Reid & Kolohon, 2014). Learning is sparked from students completing the sentence, "I am wondering ..." Although it seems that Inquiry Learning is simply letting children do whatever they want, it is actually quite structured and needs to be implemented properly in order to be beneficial. Drake et al. (2014) state that "students can play an active role in the design of their own learning while still adhering to the rigour of the inquiry model," (p.97). I have done some research on Inquiry Learning to further my understanding of the topic and I have found a lot of information from the Galileo Educational Network's website and from a teacher blog by Angie Harrison.
The Galileo Educational Network is an organization that provides innovative teaching and learning strategies (Drake et al., 2014). This network has done plenty of research of Inquiry Learning. They describe Inquiry Learning as using your questions to understand the things around you. They believe that understanding comes from people working together and interacting to solve problems, make discoveries and explore the world around them.
In order to use Inquiry Learning properly, the following dimensions must be present:
1. Authenticity - there must be a real world problem to solve
2. Academic Rigour - students should be building knowledge that leads to deeper understanding
3. Assessment - assessment is on-going, students are provided with feedback and teachers reflect on their contributions to students' learning
4. Beyond the School - students learn competencies that can be used in everyday life
5. Digital Technology - technology is used to show different types of learning and is appropriate to the learning at hand
6. Active Exploration - students are actively engaged
7. Connecting with Expertise - students interact with adults other than their teacher
8. Elaborated Communication - students share their opinions and their support/ critique of other students' work
Teachers can incorporate these dimensions into Inquiry Learning to make sure it is being done correctly. In order to implement Inquiry Learning in my future classrooms I will follow these steps. Before implementing this in my classroom I want to also do more research on Inquiry Learning by reading textbooks, looking at videos and blogs, attending conferences and hopefully seeing this teaching style in action. I found a video on YouTube that explains a teacher's point of view on how she started using Inquiry Learning in her classroom - you can view it here. I found this video very helpful because although I want to use Inquiry Learning in my classroom I am hesitant about how to incorporate it. My educational experiences have been in traditional classrooms and as I continue further in my teacher education I am continuously learning about different teaching styles. I think teaching is about trial and error and what works for one class may not work for another. I want to be open to trying new things in each class as I know each lesson and activity will differ depending on my students. My job as a teacher is to use my knowledge to help create learning experience that are meaningful for my students. I want to monitor and reflect on my practices to ensure my students are benefitting from my teaching.
When reading up on the topic of Inquiry Learning, I came across Angie Harrison's blog. Angie is a teacher in Ontario who has written about her teaching experiences in her blog and specifically, her use of Inquiry Learning. In her blog, Angie reflects on her need to step back when students are learning and not give them all of the answers. She notes the importance of asking scaffolding questions such as "What do you think you should do?" or "What do you need from me?" in order to allow students to solve problems on their own. Angie talks about the importance of giving her students time just to be creative and to provide them with the materials to do that. Angie's blog is a great resource for other teachers as she shares her experiences, lessons, activities and videos of her class (I have left a link to her blog here if you are interested in reading it). I think teacher blogs are a great way for us to share our knowledge and to learn from others. Keeping a blog and reading blogs is a great way to try out new things and to be exposed to different types of teaching. I think EDUC 4P17 has exposed us to blog writing and I hope to continue my blog into my teaching career.
Overall, Inquiry Learning is a new way for students to learn. It teaches students how to solve problems, work together, ask questions and become active in the world around them. When done properly I believe this is a great way for students to be active in their education and engage in their learning. I want to continue to explore this teaching style as I hope to use it in my classroom in the future.
References
Drake, S.M., Reid, J.L. & Kolohon, W. (2014). Interweaving curriculum and classroom assessment: Engaging the 21st century learner. Canada: Oxford University Press.
Harrison, Angie. Expanding teaching, exploring technology. Retrieved from: http://techieang.edublogs.org/
Galileo Educational Network. What is Inquiry? Retrieved from http://galileo.org/teachers/designing-learning/articles/what-is-inquiry/
Benjamin Franklin quote retrieved from http://www.quotesvalley.com/tell-me-and-ill-forget-show-me-and-i-may-remember-involve-me-and-ill-understand-9/
I love the quote that you began your blog with this week! I think that this quote is a great example of the importance of inquiry learning in the classroom as it shows that children are able to learn to the best ability when they are fully involved in their education. When thinking about this I think about the idea of assessment for learning. It reminds me of assessment for learning because when you are assessing children throughout their learning process it allows them to be involved in their education in a more holistic way.
ReplyDeleteI also understand why you are nervous about implementing inquiry learning in your classroom. I have also only experienced more traditional classrooms so I find it difficult sometimes to imagine new methods being used in real classroom situations. I think that it is important for teachers to stay up to date on these methods through collaborations with their peers, professional development and research.
I think it is great that you are also reading also reading blogs done by other teachers as this is a great strategy to learn new things to implement into your classroom, as well as a way not connect with other professionals who may be able to provide you with a new perspective.
I have really enjoyed reading your blogs!
Your blog this week was very insightful! I completely agree that inquiry learning does seem like you just let the students have free reign of what they want to do with little structure. But I think that is this lack of structure sometimes that student thrive off of. I appreciated that you included that 8 dimensions to incorporate into an inquiry based classroom. This makes it feel more within the grasp of teachers who may feel a little uneasy about implementing this into their classroom.
ReplyDeleteMy question to you is weather you think that having every single subject inquiry based would be beneficial, or is there a fine balance between inquiry based teaching and the traditional teaching method. I think there is a fine balance between the two of them. There are skills like handwriting that cannot be taught trough investigating and questioning. Therefore there is that find balance between knowing when to allow students to investigate.
Finally, I liked how you included the link to Angie Harrison’s blog. However, I think it would have beneficial for your blog to also include the link to the Galileo Education Network’s website for other teachers to go and investigate and read even further into depth. I did appreciate the elaboration that you did include about this organization.