What is learning? To some people, the mere mention of learning reminds them of their days sitting inside of a classroom getting bored on things they will never use again. This is not how learning should be! Our universe is a dark cave, filled with wonders, mysteries and excitements ready to be discovered; learning is like using a flashlight to guide us and help us observe our surroundings as we venture deeper and deeper! Not to mention that most important of all is that learning never stops; it is an on-going process that constantly redefining our understanding of this world and it reaches far beyond the bounds of classrooms. Now that is exciting! However our current education systems left a lot to be desired when it comes to helping students to learn. Fortunately, in British Columbia, the education system is going through an overhaul of its teaching practices and with it; it is bring in the new inquiry based learning curriculum that will hopefully make learning fun again.
I am sure just like myself, many other fledging teacher are properly wondering what exactly is inquiry based learning, and if we are to create an inquiry based classroom, what must we consider in order to successfully create such a classroom? I am sure like all other teachers, those who enter this field want to make do it right by their students. I want to take every opportunity to maximize my student’s learning and enjoyment of school. I think this new style of teaching holds real promise to help me achieve this goal. This is why this question has thoroughly intrigued me and has led me down a journey of research, recollections, and reflections. Hopefully in this essay I will help define and answer what is learning by inquiry, why we should use it, and how to successfully create an inquiry based classroom; to be more specific, a science classroom since I will be teaching science.
First, I will define what inquiry based learning is all about, and what the advantages of it are.
Inquiry has become the new hot buzz word in education system. You can hardly go anywhere without seeing or hearing the word inquiry. Interestingly learning through inquiry is not a brand new concept; on the contrary most people have done it for many years without really knowing it. I am of course speaking of when people are still children. As children, people know very little about this world, and every little things intrigue them. According to human development course book, kids between the age of 3- 8 are often highly curious about the world. They are often motivated to explore and learn about their surroundings. Young children’s mind is usually filled with tons of I wonder questions such as “I wonder how the clock works” (Woolfolk & Perry, 2015 p.335). They go about using their five senses to get a feeling the world around them, slowly making sense of everything. Unfortunately this love for discovery diminishes to the point of none existence by the time they reach high school (Woolfolk & Perry, 2015 pm. 312). This concept of using our five senses to gather information and applying them into our learning is the essential for” learning by inquiry”. In an inquiry classroom, student would be in some sense transformed back into their younger self; becoming someone who is very much still interested in discovery. Inquiry teaching uses previous experience and knowledge of the students. It makes use of multiple ways of understanding and students get to take on new perspectives as they explore issues, content, and questions. This way, it is hoped that students will learn their course material better, but also develop properly learning skills. These skills can then be applied to future situations students may face during school or work (Collier, Johnson, & Nyeberg, n.d.).
So why should we teach using inquiry based learning? In an inquiry based classroom, students are not simply waiting for information to be spoon fed to them by a teacher. They are instead actively seeking out solutions, while design ways to investigate their questions, at the same time asking more questions. It teaches students that the e teacher is not the only source of information, and gives the initiative for learning back to the students. They are required to make observations, analyse information, building on existing information and then drawing conclusion from them. In the tradition classroom, students rarely ask questions. They are static empty tanks that teachers try to fill with their knowledge. Essentially students are only learning what the teacher brings to the table. Often students are expected to listen to the teachers and then regurgitate the facts that they may or may not believe. This type of teaching while can get some of the information across, and socializes the students, it does teach what the students need in order to become successful. Our modern society is a fast paced, rapid evolving world where there are vast amount of constantly updating information. To understand them all, students must be able to problem solve and think critically, instead of just memorizing facts and information. Luckily inquiry teaches students to properly seek out information and find appropriate solution to problems (Collier, Johnson, & Nyeberg, n.d.).
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So what’s next? How could teachers turn their old traditional classroom into the classroom of the 21st century?
The first thing is create a classroom community that allows the exchanges of ideas. Classroom is a scary place for most students; they are constantly being evaluated by teachers and peers alike so students must feel comfortable enough to speak in front of everyone. To achieve this, first the teacher must reconsider their roles in the classroom. Try to be a facilitator of learning rather than a dictator. While there will continue to be lecturing time, the teacher will no longer be the sole sources of information. Secondly, to build a healthy classroom community for inquiry, students must feel safe. This means that the teacher should be supportive of student’s responses and questions. Students will are generally afraid of making mistakes (Woolfolk & Perry, 2015)., so, instead of quickly shutting the student down, ask more questions which will help steer the student onto the right track. Also, any bit of disrespect should be promptly dealt with in a non-punitive manner. Always remind the class that everybody’s participation is important, and that even wrong answers can help us eventually lead to the right answers. Finally, having small group discussion is critical. Often a lot high school students are very self-conscious and hate participating in while others are so shy and timid that they are completely forgotten in a large discussion. Also assign roles to each students to keep them engaged and accountable. This way teacher will build up student’s interpersonal skills, and will foster proper discussions in classrooms.
After creating a safe environment where students are comfortable to share and discuss ideas, it is important to have lessons planed in a way that supports inquiry based learning. First the teacher should allocate time in their lesson to allow for students to discuss things they learn in class. More often than not, teachers, especially those who are new, stick fiercely to the PLO curriculums. They anxiously plan their lesson trying to pack every bit of information that’s in the textbook into their lessons, however it does very little for inquiry based learning to happen. Teachers needs make a conscious effort to have activities that caters to inquiry based learning. Secondly, teachers need to forgo the idea that learning can be planned. Sometimes students will ask questions and discussion that leads to a topic that might not be in the lesson plan (Collier, Johnson, & Nyeberg, n.d.). This is a highly uncomfortable position for teachers because they feel they are not in control of the class; however it is during these discussions the students are learning not only the school material, but also gaining critical learning skills. By being supportive at this crucial time, teacher will help students take control of their own learning. Furthermore, teacher should take every opportunity to bring the real world into the classroom. Teachers can bring current events into the classroom, or bring students to different field. Often these experiences are more real to the students, and they feel that what they are learning actually has an impact. Also these real world events, help to unlock the otherwise very confined minds of the students, and help students step outside what they are used to, and think with different perspectives. Often materials learning in class does not truly reflect how actually things work, so it is up to students to take in this new information and transforming their understanding (Collier, Johnson, & Nyeberg, n.d.). For example when learning about the cell structure, students are presented with a model of a cell, however not all cells look like that, and many have different other components and functions.
What does a teacher look like in an inquiry based classroom? As the essay discussed before, the teacher’s role changes from the lecturer to the facilitator, however there is far more than just that. Teachers are the “leader, the coach, the question asker, the seeker of resources, and the theory builder” of the classroom (Collier, Johnson, & Nyeberg, n.d.). After watching video of “A Teacher’s Role In Inquiry” I came to the following conclusions. First, the teacher in the video sat with her kids in the same table instead of standing in the front of the class lecture. Her being among the students signals to her students that she is also a fellow learner and not the person standing in the front of the class who knows all the right answer. Students are better able to relate to her, and she put less distance between her and the students. She also spoke with passion about things she believed in, and students can feel that the teacher is really interested in what she is teaching, and also she enjoys being around them. This make students pay more attention when she is speaking, and far more likely to put up their hands to share their answers. More importantly, the teacher is active. She is constantly scanning the room; watching her students and taking down mental notes on each individuals and their performance for that day. If there is a problem, she would then investigate that problems and try to talk with the students. She also took interest in her students. Not only did she ask about their problems, but also about their interests. She really got to know her students as people. Moreover, to her the teaching does not end after the student leaves her classroom. During that time, she reflect on her lessons, and what the kids did, and try to pin point who needs more help and where. She also was collaborating with colleagues, discussing which teaching practices they thought was good, and what could be improved upon (Kosoff, Barlowe,Weber & Grumbach, n.d). Finally it is also important for the teachers to be upbeat to show that they want to be there. Student will respond positive to such a teacher. So it is very important for teachers to balance their work life and personal life; to have time for them and get enough rest.
Now there is a perfect classroom environment and an excellent, cheerful, supportive, and understanding teacher to lead the inquiry, the next question would be how to implement inquiry based learning into that classroom. It is not as simple as asking student questions. There are three general forms of inquiries. 1) Structured inquiry; involves teacher giving students a problem to solve and tells them what method to use, but do not tell the student the desired outcome of the inquiry so students must find it themselves. 2) Guided inquiry; students are provided a problem and the materials to solve that problem, so they have to come up their own methods of solving the problem. 3) Open inquiry; students are to formulate their own problems, and come up with their own ways to solve their problems (“What does Inquiry-based Science Involve? | K12 Academics,” n.d.). The most important part is to understand when to use which inquiry to help student learn. For example in the beginning of the school year, it would be unwise to have student to do open inquires. At that stage, student will be at a loss of what to do because they have little prior knowledge that they can build upon. This new inquiry hype has led many people including myself to believe that inquiry is all teachers will be doing inside of a classroom. However lecturing still will play a critical part of learning. Next comes with asking the right questions. It is important to note that not all questions are the same; there is a proper way to ask something that fosters inquiry. Questions such as “What are you thinking, and why do you think that? What do you notice, and what does it make you wonder? “How is this helping us as scientists?” are open ended in nature and are subjective in nature. These types of questions are not demanding for one single “right” answer, but open to different types of interpretations that can be investigated further (Wolf, n.d.). Questions like this will engage student’s brain, as they delve into their mind to find the answers. In one article a teacher had her students made mind maps of water. The student practiced with ways to come up with questions by building on previous questions.
After posing the right questions, the student must then go off do their investigations. This is a crucial step of the inquiry process. Teacher must teach student how to access information they need. It is important for student to learn how to access information is because in today’s world information is incredibly massive and constantly updating. So even if student can memorize everything they need to know for a lesson, it would be outdate very quickly. Unfortunately finding reliable information is not as easy as looking things up. Student must be taught to be critical of the sources of their information. Majority of the information are found on the internet, and usually with just a few clicks, students will have in their hands vast amount of information. However, not all these information are creditable and student must be able to distinguish those they can trust and those that are fraudulent. It is also important to show students how to use data bases. While it is not as easy as going to search engines such as Google, these data bases are an important source of scientific resources. Furthermore, a lot of information found in these data bases is not easily accessed through generic search engines, so having students going there would be advantageous (Collier, Johnson, & Nyeberg, n.d.).
When it’s all said and done, comes the assessment. It is said that learning and assessment goes hand in hand. This is especially true when introducing students to a new concept of learning such as inquiry based learning, because it can help the teacher find out what is working what is not working. Formative assessment such as observation, and note taking are great ways to identify the needs of a certain student, and make rapid adjustments to fit the needs of that student. Summative assessments are good way to assess if the student has learned the necessary knowledge and skill from the inquiry they did. usually a rubric will be used to assess if the student has obtain a certain sets of skills, and it is a good idea to have student help with their own rubric that way they know exactly what they want to learn and how they will be graded. Finally, a summative assessment should be in the narrative form, which gives a report to the student showing if the students have demonstrated what they knew and how it can relate to their prior knowledge and their understanding of ideas. This report gives the students a clear understanding of what they have learned, and what they need to improve in terms of further learning. (Collier, Johnson, & Nyeberg, n.d.).
In my investigation, I came to the conclusion that to teach inquiry is not as simple as it sounds. It really requires the teacher to be on top of his or her game, and be an active participant in his or her classrooms. Mindfulness is the key. Far too often we go about life on autopilot without really connecting to our thinking and emotions. Being a teacher require us to consciously make changes in what we do things. Taking time off during the day to refocus is incredibly important. Every aspect of the classroom from the lesson plans to the classroom environment is somehow linked to the success of the classroom itself. Without one, there will be no inquiry based classrooms. Undoubtedly, there will certainly be uncomfortable moments when class lesson does not go according to plan. The ability to be flexible will be incredibly advantageous. It is also clear that student need to be properly prepared before launching an inquiry based investigation. They need to be taught knowledge they can use as scaffolding, as well as how to access the plethora of information available to them. Also inquiry is not limited to students. Teachers should have inquiries of their own, such as this one to help them become better teachers. Finally, inquiry is not simply asking question, but asking the right questions. Questions that are open ended in nature are great way to get student started on their inquiry process. The most important finding from this project is how powerful a tool inquiry can be. We learn a lot about inquiry in class, but never did it make more sense to me than now. While asking these questions, and doing my research, I was able to reflect on everything I found with earnest. I was able to connect all the bits and pieces I learned in class and through research and connect them into a whole picture. In my mind I can clearly envision a classroom, where I can implement inquiry, and how I would go about doing it. I just feel that I have this clarity I would never gotten simply by siting in a classroom. By piecing everything together, it has given me a new perspective to think about teaching using inquiry. I think this assignment not only taught me how to implement inquiry, but demonstrated to me the effectiveness of inquiry and made me a true believer of inquiry based learning.
This project however is simply a beginning of a journey. I think down the road I want to investigate ways of preventing teacher burn out. As I mentioned in the essay, teacher play a very active role in inquiry based classroom. This will be very demanding, and the teacher’s ability to perform will have a direct impact on the success of the classroom. So to knowing how to prevent burnout, or identify signs of burnout and having solution to burnout will be very valuable.
Reference:
Collier, C., Johnson, J., & Nyberg, L. (n.d.). Learning Science Through Inquiry. Retrieved January 21, 2016, from https://www.learner.org/workshops/inquiry/resources/faq.html
Kosoff, S., Barlowe, A., Weber, T., & Grumbach, A. (n.d.). A Teacher’s Role In Inquiry. Retrieved January 21, 2016, from https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/inquiry-based-teaching-roles
Mathis, G. (2015). Inquiry-Based Learning: The Power of Asking the Right Questions. Retrieved January 21, 2016, from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/inquiry-based-learning-asking-right-questions-georgia-mathis
What does Inquiry-based Science Involve? (n.d.). Retrieved January 18, 2016, from http://www.k12academics.com/education-reform/inquiry-based-science/what-does-inquiry-based-science-involve#.VqBlYfkrKUl
Wolf, D. P. (n.d.). The Art of Questioning. Retrieved January 21, 2016, from http://people.usm.maine.edu/tcrabtree/MTL_ONLINE/Readings_627_files/05-artofquestioning.html
Woolfolk, A., & Perry, N. (2015). Child and adolescent development (2nd ed.). Pearson.