{"id":5140,"date":"2018-02-17T10:56:43","date_gmt":"2018-02-17T17:56:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2018\/?p=5140"},"modified":"2018-02-17T10:56:43","modified_gmt":"2018-02-17T17:56:43","slug":"relating-inquiry-and-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2018\/2018\/02\/17\/relating-inquiry-and-science\/","title":{"rendered":"Relating Inquiry and Science"},"content":{"rendered":"

SKI WISE Forum<\/p>\n

I found the articles about WISE very interesting and thought provoking.\u00a0 So much of what we teach as \u201cscience\u201d is not so much science as scientific information \u2013 facts and concepts of what we have learned and currently understand about our world.\u00a0 But, science at its core is not information, but a process \u2013 a process of inquiry and discovery about ourselves, our world, and our place in it.\u00a0 I found the WISE goal to make the process<\/em> accessible to students of all ages a laudable one.\u00a0 Too often what we consider learning in our students is rote repetition, rather than thinking, investigating, or drawing conclusions.\u00a0 In contrast, Linn et al, (2003), put forward 4 SKI principles: (1) making thinking visible, (2) making science accessible, (3) helping students learn from each other, and (4) promoting lifelong learning- \u00a0to help students do<\/em> science rather than remember<\/em> it.\u00a0 Williams et al, (2004), describe WISE as an organizational platform to support teacher\u2019s use of inquiry activities in the classroom, and to allow students opportunity for self-direction.\u00a0 I like the opportunities it provides, and feel it would be a useful tool to incorporate in my classroom.<\/p>\n

What I found when trying inquiry activities is comparable to what was expressed by Furtak (2006), that students recognize they are not truly discovering something new, that the answers ARE known, and so they want to find out the \u201creal\u201d answer and compare their findings to it.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure how to get past this.\u00a0 Most of the obvious questions and answers around us have already been explored and students don\u2019t have the knowledge or expertise to ask and investigate truly unknown questions.\u00a0 The students recognize that they are in an artificial world of science, where what they are doing doesn\u2019t matter to the \u201cworld of science\u201d beyond themselves.<\/p>\n

In science, there are \u201cright\u201d answers, explanations that fit the evidence better than others, so it is natural for students to want to measure their success to the known standards.\u00a0 There is a trade-off here between the \u201cdesired understandings\u201d and the \u201cprocess of inquiry\u201d.\u00a0 I would argue that effective science teaching would find a balance between the two.\u00a0 Teacher training is important to set up inquiry activities in an effective manner, and to provide support to teachers on how to interact with the students in an inquiry environment. \u00a0I think the approach that Doug took, (Furtak, 2006), is the best one, talking to them about the value of thinking, testing, figuring things out for themselves \u2013 the process<\/em> of learning, as opposed to the information itself.\u00a0 However, young children don\u2019t have this level of awareness yet, so it may be a tough sell in lower elementary.\u00a0 I also think it is wise to discuss and reflect on inquiry findings after the activity to support student understandings and avoid misconceptions.\u00a0 I don\u2019t see inquiry learning being used best in isolation, but rather interspersed with other learning and teaching strategies for a full, well-balanced learning experience.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Can inquiry teaching be used effectively in isolation?<\/li>\n
  2. Is science learning possible without inquiry?<\/li>\n
  3. Which is the best description: science as inquiry, science is inquiry or inquiry build science?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n

      \n
    • Furtak, E. M. (2006). The problem with answers: An exploration of guided scientific inquiry teaching.\u00a0Science Education, 90<\/em>(3), 453-467.<\/li>\n
    • Linn, M., Clark, D., & Slotta, J. (2003). Wise design for knowledge integration.\u00a0Science Education, 87<\/em>(4), 517-538<\/li>\n
    • Williams, M. Linn, M.C. Ammon, P. & Gearhart, M. (2004). Learning to teach inquiry science in a technology-based environment: A case study.\u00a0Journal of Science Education and Technology, 13<\/em>(2), 189-206.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      SKI WISE Forum I found the articles about WISE very interesting and thought provoking.\u00a0 So much of what we teach as \u201cscience\u201d is not so much science as scientific information \u2013 facts and concepts of what we have learned and currently understand about our world.\u00a0 But, science at its core is not information, but a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44810,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44810"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5140"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5141,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5140\/revisions\/5141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}