Today
I’m going to be talking about a method of teaching that emphasizes a new style
of learning that is yielding fantastic results in schools. This relatively new
style is called inquiry-based learning. This design is resonating well with students
as it includes the ability to interweave curriculum, instruction and assessment
throughout its use. This backwards design of teaching has plenty of benefits
and really forces the students to think along the lines of problem solving. This
cool new learning style is often defined as the future direction for 21st
century educators.
First
I just want to talk about some of the main features of inquiry-based learning.
It promotes students to creatively think and problem solve situations that are
defined as being real world. Students gain this real world experience by
formulating questions and gathering evidence to discover the truths about the
topic. This is drastically different from the old story of education or even
the current story that we have at Brock University. By this I’m referring to
the ridiculous amount of times we (as students) had to learn about a topic that
held no real-world or practical connection. We simply memorize a bunch of
theories and equations with the hope of one day using them in our lives. This
inquiry based learning style creates opportunities in which students can not
only learn about materials and topics but also apply them across the
curriculum. It rids the system of this memorization style of learning that is
set in place for the sole purpose of summative assessment at the end of the
term. This is a perfect example of assessment of learning being replaced by the
new formative assessment for learning. In this new style of assessment that is
used in inquiry based learning, it is important to understand that the process and
investigation period are the most important periods of assessment and the final
or summative form is not the main aspect of the learning style that a teacher
is looking for.
Now
that you have an idea of what inquiry based learning emphasizes and why it is
being implemented in schools, I will tell you how to get it all started! A
discipline based (or teacher based) inquiry approach usually begins with a
knowledge-building activity to gain the attention of the students. From here
they begin to build off of each others ideas and begin the process of critiquing,
providing evidence and composing arguments to back up their ideas. Those skills
are a perfect example of how inquiry based learning can teach students real
world abilities that can be transferred into their lives outside of the school
walls. Students then perform certain projects or activities to discover
knowledge about their desired topic. It is important to note that the topic is
not singular in that it only covers one specific aspect of the curriculum. The
idea behind this style of learning is that it incorporates a general theme or
concept that can be translated or understood in different areas of the specific
disciplines curriculum.
Image taken from http://www.worksheetlibrary.com/teachingtips/inquiry.html
Okay
so now you have a really good understanding of the inquiry based learning
approach, now I bet you’re wondering why I’m bothering writing about it? Well
the answer is simple, I will one day become an educator in the public sector
and this style of teaching really promotes the kind of interest and thirst for learning
that I want to instill into my students. It correlates directly to my topic of
last weeks blog in which I discussed the importance of knowing your students
with the goal to keep them interested and create a real intrinsic motivating
fire inside them. Combining the knowledge of my students (that I gathered from
getting to know them that is discussed in my blog from a week ago) interests
and creating an inquiry based learning project will be a perfect way to create intrinsic motivation and teach them
real world skills simultaneously! Of course I don’t have personal experience to
tell you that the combination of these two topics will guarantee the results I’m
suggesting it will produce. However, at the end of the day I know if I teach
them through the old story of education that I went through as a student then
they will not be able to excel and find themselves and their true interests.
So
as a teacher I will be sure to try this inquiry based learning with my
students. I will be the expert in the classroom that reinforces the perspective
of whatever subject I am teaching them. It is also important to understand that
in the 21st century, inquiry based learning should be taught with
current resources (such as advanced technology), in order to provide the
information students might need. For example in the textbook it describes a
specific project in which students were able to contact fellow students across
Canada through the use of skype to get a different perspective on Canadian history
(the Cigar Box Project). In this case technology was used creatively, but
always in the service of learning. This even holds true in our current
education class where we use blogs (technology) as a way to connect with
different people in order to get a different perspective on a subject that we
may not be able to see because of certain biases. That is why at the end of the
inquiry based learning project students are required to critique their own work
to see if any biased representations might be present in their final product.
In conclusion this style of
inquiry based learning is extremely relevant to me as a future educator because
it is something I can take into my classroom and use first hand with real
students. I can hopefully integrate personal interests with real world skills
in order to help my students flourish into the individual adults they wish to
become.
Goodbye for now,
- S
