EDUC 450 – Inquiry Seminar I
Inquiry Seminar (I) is designed to engender
- an understanding of teaching as a moral and intellectual activity requiring inquiry, judgement and engagement with multiple others—students, parents, colleagues, scholarly community.
- an appreciation of the importance of research in understanding curriculum, teaching and learning.
- a desire to engage in one’s own educational inquiries—to become students of teaching.
Visit UBC’s BEd program webpage and become familiar with the links, powerpoint and examples of past Inquiries.
http://teach.educ.ubc.ca/students/courses/inquiry/
http://www.mmecarr.ca/POT/inquiry-overview-june2012.pdf
Ethics in your Inquiry:
Teacher Candidates do not have ethical approval to conduct first-hand research involving their students. This is not an empirical research project but, rather, a review of educational research. They may make general observations based on what they experience on practicum, but they should not be filming or interviewing students or instructors. They may converse with them and record general impressions, but that is the extent of it.
We have tried for several years to find ways to have instructors act as Principal Investigators, submit a BREB application, etc., but this has not proven fruitful. Among other reasons, the “captive audience” nature of students in classrooms means that they are not free to withdraw from scrutiny. You’ll note that the wording in the course syllabus does not refer to first-hand research.
There is a note on p. 3: *In light of the challenges associated with the ethical issues in real classrooms, the child study could be generated using existing films and text that capture teachers’ classrooms and their interaction with children in vivid and realistic terms.
Forexample Avoir/Être or “Les choristes” (films) or Spud” (text).
Notes for your Inquiry:
*It should be underscored that this is an educational study and not a research study. You are learning about a topic and contemplating what it means to your emerging practice.
How your Inquiry Proposal Can Take Shape:
Your introduction should define the key term in your questions (i.e: Problem Based Learning), then compare it with how educators and scholars define it, then write a solid literature review and then establish some links to practice.
Previous Inquiry Project Representations 2014: Here you will find a variety of ways to represent your final Inquiry project.
http://itec-ubc.ca/wordpress/educ451120/inquiry-project-2/inquiry-project-examples/