Inquiry-based learning

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Contents

[edit] Goals

The primary goal for this course is to provide an introduction to a way of thinking about learning as it occurs in libraries, museums, homes, and workplaces, as well as in formal educational settings. In order to explore that, we will read about, observe, and engage in inquiry-based learning. We will examine the creation of environments in which learners are actively engaged in making meaning through personal and collaborative inquiry. The course will also examine challenges to inquiry-based instruction, including those related to management, assessment, basic skills, cultural differences, and pedagogical goals.

Issues include integrating across traditional curricular areas, the use of themes and projects, student-centered learning, and connections among formal and informal learning settings, and the larger society. One major issue is the role for teachers--whether classroom instructors, water quality engineers interacting with a citizen environmental action group, librarians assisting their patrons, museum staff developing "living history" activities, urban youth teaching others the art of hip hop poetry and music, or grandmothers sharing home remedies with their granddaughters--as inquirers about their own and others' learning. The course provides an opportunity for dialogue about these issues.

There are no required texts to purchase initially. In the beginning, we will draw liberally from articles available online or in the University e-reserves. We will also draw from a selection of books on specific topics, especially in connection with the class inquiry.

[edit] Activities

[edit] Readings and discussions (40%)

The focus is on inquiry teaching and learning, including rationales, approaches, implementations, challenges, and dilemmas. Inquiry-based learning does not ignore the usual focus on content: "What should be taught? What do learners need to know?," or method: "How should we teach?" but it begins with even more basic questions. We will explore at least one of these each week. We will discuss articles drawn from a diverse collection of readings, including descriptions of classrooms and other learning settings, analyses of student learning, theoretical analyses of inquiry, and critiques of these approaches. These articles are meant to be read and thought about within the context of our own inquiry projects.

After the first few weeks, students will lead the class discussions. This will work out to one to three sessions, and may be done in teams. For that week, you may use the inquiry unit as shown in the syllabus, select one from the list under "Other questions," or create an entirely new question. You may use an existing unit as it stands or revise it to reflect your own interests. (If you choose to revise a unit, you should move the old content to the end under a heading such as "other activities.")

One student each week will be asked to write a short reflection on the unit, and post it in the Class notes section of the Bulletin Board. This will also serve as a shared memory on what we did that day, as well as a repository for citations, announcements, and such that may arise in the discussions.

[edit] Inquiries into inquiry (60%)

During class, we will engage in our own inquiries into a variety of topics. Through these activities we will establish a common experiential base for our conversations about learning.

In the first week or two, we will designate a whole class inquiry from among Possible class inquiries. Students will then select a topic (ideally within that, but not necessarily). There will then be five assignments related to the inquiry. The word counts are simply to give an idea of the expected scope, and are not a rigid requirement. In fact, we will discuss all aspects of the requirements in relation to the whole class inquiry and individual goals for the class.

  1. Feb. 14: How inquiry is fostered (or not) in a discipline or learning setting (~250 words)
  2. Feb 21: Annotated Bibliography for inquiry-based learning (three entries each)
  3. Mar. 7: Draft/outline of a contribution to the Inquiry kit (~1250 words)
  4. Mar. 14: Responses to two projects of other students (~200 words each)
  5. Apr. 11: Class presentations begin (15 min. + 15 min. discussion)
  6. Apr 18: Final report (~2500 words)

Discussions about these in inquiries will continue in the Bulletin Board. The texts are posted to the Document Center. Note that both of these online venues are private to members of the class.

[edit] Weekly questions and schedule

As Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner discuss in Teaching as a Subversive Activity, asking fundamental questions can get you into a lot of trouble. Simple and obvious assumptions about teaching and learning, such as "We need to have clear (even national) standards for what is to be learned," "Learning objectives should be explicit," "The instructor should always provide clear explanations," "Learning should proceed from simple tasks to more complex ones," "It's important to determine the learner's readiness to learn, "One has to learn the basics first," and many more, turn out to be neither simple nor obvious.

[edit] Jan. 24: What assumptions do we make about teaching and learning?

Consideration of some of the assumptions we make about teachers and teaching, students, learning, and the interactions among these.

  1. Introductions/course goals
  2. Syllabus/expectations
  3. Choosing a class inquiry | Journal of Education for Library and Information Science special issue
  4. What is inquiry-based learning?
  5. Assumptions about learning
  6. Discussion of the readings

Investigate

Required

Bohannon, Laura (1971). Shakespeare in the bush. In James P. Spradley and David W. McCurdy, eds., Conformity and conflict: Readings in cultural anthropology . Boston: Little Brown and Company.

Bruce, B. C., & Bishop, A. P. (2002, May). Using the web to support inquiry-based literacy development. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 45(8), 706-714.

Dewey, John (1912). The child and the curriculum.

[in class] Easley, J. (1987). A teacher educator's perspective on students' and teachers' schemes. In D. Perkins, J. Lochhead, & J. Bishop (Eds.), Thinking: The second international conference (pp. 507-527). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Short, K. et al. (1996). Does Inquiry Make a Difference? Examining Our Beliefs About Curriculum In Learning together through inquiry: From Columbus to integrated curriculum. Stenhouse.

Recommended

About Learning: Theories on How People Learn. Examines 12 different theories on how people learn, including Constructivism, Behaviorism, Piaget's Developmental Theory, Neuroscience, Brain-Based Learning, Learning styles, Multiple Intelligences, Right and Left Brain Thinking, Communities of Practice, Control Theory, Observational Learning, Vygotsky and Social Cognition, and Problem Based Learning.

How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School Recent research provides a deep understanding of complex reasoning and performance on problem-solving tasks and how skill and understanding in key subjects are acquired.

Zajda, Joseph (Ed.) Learning and teaching. ISBN 1-875-40808-8 Explores major and current themes in the learning/teaching process - from an international and comparative perspective. The authors debate such issues as learning and cognitive processes, students in the classroom and teaching styles. Their views are based on either the findings of original research or observation as experienced teacher educators. Topics covered include learning enhancement, reflection in education, cognition, excellence in education, special schools, classroom interaction, discrimination, assessment and what makes a "good" teacher.

Discuss

Consider each of the eight assumptions in the Easley article, working in small groups. Which of these are true, sometimes true? What factors might cause you to question any of them?

  1. Teachers should regularly lead class discussions, presenting clear explanations and examples of basic concepts and/or asking questions so that students can piece together the principles desired.
  2. All teachers need to master their subjects, as a prior condition to trying to teach them.
  3. Teachers can and should transmit their knowledge to pupils.
  4. Teachers should, at first, present simple and easy problems and tasks, in order to build pupils' courage to tackle more difficult and unfamiliar tasks.
  5. Teachers should give equal attention to all pupils.
  6. Teachers should give quick feedback on pupils' work, indicating clearly what is wrong and why.
  7. Children should focus first on content and second on means of expression.
  8. Children should strive to understand their teachers and the textbooks.

Easley, J. (1987). A teacher educator's perspective on students' and teachers' schemes. In D. Perkins, J. Lochhead, & J. Bishop (Eds.), Thinking: The second international conference (pp. 507-527). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

[edit] Jan. 31: How do we construct knowledge?

  1. class notes
  2. POE: raisins in soda
  3. discuss readings
  4. shape of the earth
  5. Ames experiments
  6. refine class inquiry
  7. discussion leading

Constructivist learning is based on the learner's active participation in problem-solving and critical thinking regarding a learning activity which the or she finds relevant and engaging.

Investigate

Dewey, John (1938/1997). Chapter 3, Criteria of experience from Experience and education. Macmillan.

Ryder, Martin. A useful set of definitions and readings on constructivism

Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (1994). Constructing knowledge in the classroom. Classroom Compass, 1 (3).

Wyett, Jerry L. (1998). John Dewey & Earl Kelley: Giants in democratic education. Education.

Recommended

Kelley, E. C. (1947). Education for what is real. New York: Harper.

Create

Experiment with the Adelbert Ames demonstrations.

Discuss

We often speak of teaching as a way of transmitting knowledge, from the expert to the novice. But going back at least to the days of Socrates is the recognition that important ideas can never be simply told; they must be constructed anew. Our ability to make meaning out of prior knowledge and new experiences is a powerful attribute of the way we think. It is also a necessary condition for learning.

An example, drawn from the research of Bill Brewer and Stella Vosniadou, may help here. If you ask a child of age five to draw a picture of himself standing on the world, you might see something like a stick figure standing on a line representing a flat world. That's not surprising; most of our daily experience supports that idea that we live on a gigantic plain. So, if an adult were to ask, you might hear this dialogue:

Adult: Tell me the shape of the world.
Child: The world is flat. I can see it.

If the adult were to insist, you might hear:

Adult: No, the world is round.
Child: Oh! The world is round? Like a pancake!

This would be a rational and creative solution to the apparent contradiction between his experiential reality and the statement of the adult. Of course, the adult might be a bit frustrated:

Adult: No, no. It's round like a ball! Look at this picture of the world taken by astronauts in outer space.
Child: Now I see! There are two worlds, the one in space is round, and the one we're standing on is flat.

Although this example artificially compresses a long developmental sequence, the overall pattern is very real. Children who say funny, even bizarre things, are often making perfectly reasonable inferences combining observation, theory, and creative problem solving. In that sense, their thinking is scientific, even if the particular statements vary from currently accepted scientific concepts or might change as they integrate more observations.

[edit] Feb. 7: What is inquiry-based learning?

Discussion leaders: Mihye, Luisa

  1. Mining the museum: An installation by Fred Wilson
  2. Vallance, Elizabeth (2004, July). The adventures of Artemis and the Llama: A case for imaginary histories in art education. Journal of Art Education
  3. What do you see?
  4. DIME, April 21-23
  5. "Rulers" from Wally's Stories, by Vivian Paley

Investigate

Bruce, Bertram C. Searching the Web: New domains for inquiry, 348-354, Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy.

Donnan, Caroline S. (1988). Following our forebears' footsteps: From expedition to understanding. In V. Rogers, A. D. Roberts, & T. P. Weinland, (Eds.), Teaching social studies: Portraits from the classroom (Bulletin No. 82). Washington, DC: National Council for the Social Studies.

Harste, Jerome, & Leland, Christine H. (1998). No quick fix: Education as inquiry. Reading Research and Instruction, 37(3), 191-205.

Hawkins, David (1965/1974). Messing about in science. In The informed vision: Essays on learning and human nature (pp. 63-75). New York: Agathon.

Review the Inquiry Page. See especially: the Quotes collection, the sections under the introduction to Inquiry, and the articles listed in that section.

Recommended

Olson, Steve, & Loucks-Horsley, Susan (Eds.) (2000). Inquiry and the National Science Education Standards: A guide for teaching and learning. Washington, DC: National Research Council.

Create

Develop your own definition of inquiry-based learning and share it with the class. How would you campare it with other approaches, such as "learner-centered instruction," "open education," "project-based education," or "investigation-based learning."

What is the relation of inquiry-based learning to constructivism?

Discuss

Collaborative inquiry about inquiry: Take 5-10 minutes to write about a meaningful learning experience you have had. This can be from a school or university class, a work activity, a summer camp, a museum, an interaction with friends or family. The main criteria is that the experience led to learning that was significant and memorable for you.

There will be an opportunity to share what you wrote, but no one will be required to share or to report everything they wrote down. We'll then discuss these experiences in small or large groups and look for patterns. What questions about inquiry does this suggest?

[edit] Feb. 14: How can we create contexts to support inquiry-based learning?

Discussion leaders: Doriet and Gardner

  1. clowning
  2. bibliography discussion
  3. announcements: DIME meeting, April 21-23; Ron Eglash visit, April 24-28; Youth conference, April 29; Inquiry group, 4-5 on Tuesdays, starting April 21
  4. Jean Umiker-Sebeok: visitor stances in museums
  5. Tree of Life

Investigate

Required

Beyer, B. K. (1971). Inquiry in the social studies classroom: A strategy for teaching. Columbus, OH: Charles E. Merrill.

Lake, Kathy (1994, May). integrated curriculum. School Improvement Research Series, Close-up #16. Portland, OR: Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory.

Semper, Robert. Science museums

Vallance, Elizabeth. The Adventures of Artemis and the Llama: A Case for Imaginary Histories in Art Education

HIGHLY Recommended

Fred Wilson's "Mining the Museum" Sample images and an account of docents' experiences

Recommended

Beane, J. (October, 1991). The middle school: The natural home of integrated curriculum. Educational Leadership .

Brandt, Ron (1993, April). On teaching for understanding: A conversation with Howard Gardner. Educational Leadership, 50 (7).

Brown, John Seely, & Duguid, Paul (1993, March). Stolen knowledge. Educational Technology , pp. 10-15.

Fogarty, R. (1991). The mindful school: How to integrate the curricula. Palatine, IL: Skylight Publishing.

Lansdown, B., Blackwood, P. E., & Brandwein, P. F. (1971). Teaching elementary science through investigation and colloquium . New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.?Shows the learning that occurs when students are immersed in an environment with rich materials and ample opportunities for dialogue.

Pearce, C. S. (1999). Nurturing inquiry: Real science for the elementary classroom . Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Rosebery, A. S., Warren, B., & Conant, F. R. (1992). Appropriating scientific discourse: Findings from language minority classrooms. Draft of article in The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 2 (1), 61-94.

Websites

Teaching and Learning Resources in Central Illinois A list of museams, projects, schools, and other education related facilities that are creating contexts to support inquiry-based learning.

Museum Learning Collaborative "Established to further theoretically driven research on learning in museums. Includes annotated literature database for museum professionals, museum studies students and others interested in informal learning."

Visualizing Earth New technologies of remote-sensing, visualizations and geographic information systems have revolutionized how scientists investigate the Earth. Visualizing Earth presents the findings of a research project on understanding how students learn to work with and make meaning of images and visualizations.

Reflect

How do the characteristics of a learning environment shape the kinds of learning that can occur there? For example, most people would say that it is important to know whether the learner is required to be there. Others have talked about how learning can be framed by space or by time. Thus, a classroom might say "it's 10 o'clock, so we do math." A library might say "this is the science space, so you can explore science questions best here." There are also interesting hybrid cases: the librarian who works with teachers; the school group that goes to a museum; the person who comes to a library, but studies a topic systematically using an online tutorial.

What other such differences do you see? How do any of these constrain the nature of learning? To explore these questions, you could look at the Open Directory Museum category, or consider a list of sites for learning in the local Illinois area.

[edit] Feb. 21: How can scaffolds for learning be provided?

  1. Llama article and activity
  2. A Private Universe

Discussion leaders: Amelia and Gigi

Investigate

Required Vallance, Elizabeth. The Adventures of Artemis and the Llama: A Case for Imaginary Histories in Art Education

Video interview with Yrjo Engestrom

Victor Kaptelinin & Bonnie A. Nardi: Activity Theory: Basic Concepts and Applications

Vygotsky, Lev (1930). Mind in society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Wells, G. (2000). Dialogic inquiry in education: Building on the legacy of Vygotsky. In C. D. Lee and P. Smagorinsky (Eds.), Vygotskian perspectives on literacy research. New York: Cambridge University Press, (pp. 51-85).

Recommended

Biology Guided Learning Environment BGuILE is designed for high school biology courses. It includes a computer-based learning environment and associated classroom activities in which students conduct authentic scientific investigations.,

Jerald Zacharias, one of the leaders in the science education reform of the 60s and 70s, used to hand out a card with a list of heuristic ploys for thinking.

What is Activity Theory?

[edit] Feb. 28: What tools, media, resources, or environments are most supportive of learning in different contexts of learner and task?

  1. Moomin mugs

Discussion leaders: Amelia

Investigate

Each technology brings with certain affordances, which make some actions easier, and constraints, which make other actions more difficult. This is the "soft determinist" view of technology, articulated well by Raymond Williams:

Determination is a real social process, but never (as in some theological and : some Marxist versions) as a wholly controlling, wholly predicting set of causes. On the contrary, the reality of determination is the setting of limits : and the exertion of pressures, within which variable social practices are profoundly affected but never necessarily controlled. We have to think of determination not as a single force, or a single abstraction of forces, but as a process in which real determining factors - the distribution of power or of capital, social and physical inheritance, relations of scale and size between groups - set limits and exert pressures, but neither wholly control nor wholly predict the outcome of complex activity within or at these limits, and under or against these pressures' (Williams 1990, p. 130).

See a video of Richard Lavoie talking about learning disability, which illustrates dramatically how different leraning styles affect one's learning and performance.

One framework to consider is a technology taxonomy, which attempts to shift the focus from technical features to pedagogical goals:

Bruce, Bertram C., & Levin, James A. (1997). Educational Technology: Media for Inquiry, Communication, Construction, and Expression and Roles for new technologies in language arts: Inquiry, communication, construction, and expression.

Rubin, Andee (1996, May). Educational technology: Support for inquiry-based learning technology. In Fulton, et al. (eds.), Infusion and school change: Perspectives and practices.

Williams, Raymond (Ed.) (1990). Television: Technology and cultural form (2nd ed.). London: Routledge

Office of Learning Technologies, a federal Canadian office established to help build a culture of lifelong learning, "to raise awareness of the opportunities, challenges and benefits of technology-based learning and to act as a catalyst for innovation in the area of technology-enabled learning and skills development."

International Society for Technology in Education a nonprofit professional organization "dedicated to promoting appropriate uses of information technology to support and improve learning, teaching, and administration in K-12 education and teacher education."

Learning Technology, an online newsletter of the IEEE Computer Society

Create

Investigate how information technology tools have been applied to enhance learning in an area you know well. Use web searches, educational software catalogs, sites on educational software, software outlets, etc. to locate these. For example, search on TuCows <a href=http://www.tucows.com/>http://www.tucows.com/</a> for "learning." You may consider any of various media, e.g., video, the web, CD-ROMs, and standalone devices such as computer-based probes, graphing calculators, Lego/Logo, GPS, and videodisk. Also, see the references below.

Identify one approach that you feel has demonstrated success or strong promise. This could be a technology already present in your workplace which you haven't had the time to investigate thoroughly before. Evaluate this technology for ease-of-use and usefulness. If you find an evaluation checklist that you feel is particularly well-designed or relevant to this task, please share that information with your classmates. You don't have to use any formal checklist or taxonomy. The key thing is to be clear about what you see as the special strengths and limitations of the technology you have chosen.

Summarize your findings, including tables, diagrams, photographs, etc, as appropriate. You may use any format you choose as a means to organize your comments. The analysis should show that you're able to evaluate strengths and weaknesses of different approaches. A possible structure would be,

  1. Rationale for the approach taken,
  2. Related efforts, including those using earlier technologies,
  3. Technologies employed here,
  4. Results of use,

Discuss

Post your analysis on the Bulletin Board, with a URL pointing to your summary.

Reflect

Network science a decade later: The internet and classroom learning. A multi-year NSF-funded study on how internet use supports science education in classrooms.

McKenzie, Jamie. From now on. A newsletter on internet-enhanced education.

Harvard Education Letter. The digital classroom. A collection of essays addressing critical issues in educational technology.

Healy, Jane. Faliure to connect. Healy reports on a multi-year investigation to study how technology can help or hinder education.

Means, B. (1994). Technology and education reform: The reality behind the promise. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

[edit] Mar. 7: What is the Artform process for making sense of experience? Class Meets at the Krannert Museum

  1. Gwladys Spencer's list--a guide for the kit? See Bruce, B. C. (2003). Constructing a once and future history of learning technologies. In B. Bruce (Ed.), Literacy in the Information Age: Inquiries into meaning making with new technologies, pp. 20-28. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
  2. Revisit Discussion "What does inquiry mean?"
  3. Messier 12
  4. continue discussion of -ible/-able?
  5. coffee rings
  6. strawberry milkshake machine

Discussion leaders: Gigi and Gardner

Topic: Artform and other methods of teaching the arts (concentration on the visual arts)

Required Readings

What is VTS?

What is VTS? Part Two

A Summary of Suzanne Langer

Urban Screens: The Beginning of a Universal Visual Culture, by Paul Martin Lester

Recommended Site to Browse

The Literacy through Photography project sponsored by the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University.

About Artform

The Artform process was created as a structured means of articulating an art experience, or for that matter, any experience, including especially those that may be difficult to express through ordinary verbal language. It has been used in therapy situations to enable people to cope with traumatic events, as well as in a variety of settings as a mode of response to movies, paintings, books, and other art works. Although it may be criticized on the usual grounds for questioning any structured approach to response, it works especially well in helping repondents enter into a dialogue with an experience, and to move from initial responses to more complex and personal ones.

Investigate

The Artform approach is a method for making sense of experience in group or individual contexts. It is based indirectly on the aesthetics of Suzanne Langer, who, in a modern version of Plato's imitation theory, argues that works of art formulate the 'inner life,' which words are unable to articulate. Thus, elements of art are not intrinsically formal, but instead, created to express inner feelings:
For the elements of music are not tones of such and such a pitch, duration and loudness, nor chords and measured beats; they are like all artistic elements, something virtual, created for perception . . .sounding forms in motion. [Langer, p.107].
Langer, Suzanne (1953). Feeling and form . London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

Create

Level of Questioning Tasks Confronting Participants Sample Questions
OBJECTIVE: Questions allow participants to recall the experience in its entirety by focusing on discrete elements.

Participants are required to engage perceptual skills of isolation, retention, and recall.

What object do you recall from the picture?What word do you remember from the song?
SUBJECTIVE: Questions increase involvement with the experience by permitting slight modification of it. Participants are required to perform action over and against the experience in itself, to "tamper" with it using supplied categories. What would you remove from this experience? What would you add to this experience?
EXPRESSIVE: Questions encourage extensive personal involvement in the modification of the experience. Participants are required to increase their control over and identification with the experience by creatively interacting with it using personal categories. Where would you stand in this picture? Who would you want to see in this film? What background music would you play for this scene?
INTERPRETIVE: Questions encourage extensive personal involvement in the modification of the experience. Participants are required to reconceptualize the experience in gestalts of their own devising, usually stories or other structured narration. What would you title today? Tell a story behind this picture?
CONCRETIZING: Questions encourage participants to connect the newly integrated experience to their own life experiences. Participants are required to respond to the new gestalts with stories from their own lives and are allowed to "assign meaning to their situations." Where have you experienced this scene in your own life?
RESPONSIVE: Questions enable participants to sum up the significance of the experience and to respond to it. Participants are required to bring closure on the process and on the newly integrated cognitive structure by means of their own active response. What does this experience say to you? What do you say to this experience?

[edit] Mar 14: How can we view the process of teaching as inquiry into learning?]

Discussion leaders: Luisa

Exploring ways to view teaching as research, and therefore as a way into learning.

Investigate

Duckworth, E. (1987). Teaching as research. In "The having of wonderful ideas" and other essays on teaching and learning. New York: Teachers College Press.

Easley, J. A., and Zwoyer, R. 1975. Teaching by listening: Toward a new day in math classes. Contemporary Education, 57(1), 19-25.

Paley, Vivian G. (1981). Wally's stories: Conversations in the kindergarten. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Paley, Vivian G. (May, 1986). On listening to what the children say. Harvard Educational Review .

Recommended

Hubbard, R. S., & Power, B. M. (1993). The art of classroom inquiry: A handboolk for teacher-researchers. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Discuss

Dialogues in Methods of Education is a group of educators who have been meeting twice a year since 1980. Members include teachers at all levels, specialists, administrators, and researchers. Discussions range across the curriculum. The dialogues touch many topics, including hands-on learning, problem solving, collaborative learning, innovations in teaching, making sense of student work, assessment, communication with parents, and multicultural classrooms. Two-day conferences are held in the spring and fall. DIME members' primary interests are in the "everyday problems" of classroom teachers.

[edit] Mar: 28: What roles do or should a teacher play to facilitate learning?]

Meet in 112 LIS today

Discussion leaders: Gardner and Luisa

Investigate

Boomer, Garth (1984). English teaching: Art and science. Address given as a keynote at the annual conference of the National Council for the Teaching of English (NCTE). Detroit.

Katie Bridges, Marian McPhee, & Tom Appenzeller Comparative study of structured and inquiry learning Three middle school teachers describe their and their students experiences with different teaching styles

Cisneros, Sandra (1991) Barbie-Q, followed by online teaching tips and criticism of this story

Finally, here's a sample usage of Barbie from a student project

Create

Web Portal for Educators offers web tutorials on various topics realated to teaching.

Discuss

1. After reading Boomer, the Cisneros story, and the online criticism of this story, be ready to tell us how you would want to teach the story using inquiry principles.

2. The activity for class includes the exploration of the following sites in regards with our study of the Moon.

Earth and Moon Viewer offers images of Earth and Moon at this moment.

Lunar Phases Web tool offers an interactive tutorial for Moon Phases.

3. During class discussion, we started talking about the planets--a thorny topic, as it develops. Is Pluto "really" a planet, or is just a big iceball? If we call Pluto a planet, what about other objects in the Kuiper Belt, which ranges further form the sun? As an example, see this interview of Jim Kaler, who discusses Sedna as a planet.


The point of discussion is what could be structured and what could be inquiry-oriented learning in teaching "Lunar Phases?"

The discussion would go towards two directions:

a) How does the teaching approach influence teacher's role?

b) How does the role of the teacher influence the teaching approach?

Additional question: Does the assessment tool make a difference between structured and inquiry-based learning?

[edit] Apr. 4: Relation of learning to work and play

Discussion leaders: Mihye, Doriet

Investigate

Hinn, D. M., Twidale, M. B., & Wang, X. C. (2004). [http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/ICALT.2004.1357403 Collaborative Learning of Computer Applications in the Contexts of Work, Learning and Play]. GSLIS Technical Report. ISRN UIUCLIS--2004/2+CSCW. ICALT 2004.

Osborne, M. D. and Brady, D. J. (2001). Constructing a space for developing a rich understanding of science through play. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 33(5), 511-524.

Wigginton, E. (1989). Foxfire grows up. Harvard Educational Review, 59(1):24-49.

[edit] Apr. 11: Moving forward on the kit

Investigate

Create

  1. Luisa: planetarium

Discuss

Describe the most interesting, important, or surprising aspect of your inquiry case to a partner.

[edit] Apr. 18: Inquiry kit review and presentation

  1. Amelia: Adler Planetarium
  2. Gardner: Inventory of kit wiki
  3. DIME meeting presentation
  4. Doriet: model for moon phases

[edit] Apr. 21-23: DIME meeting

Dialogues in Methods of Education

[edit] Apr. 25: Connecting the means and ends

Discuss

  • DIME meeting

Create

  • View tubes (toilet paper tubes)
  • Vygotsky's forbidden colors game: Players answer a set of questions without using certain words in their answers. There are a series of tasks, in each of which the player is asked a set of questions. Several of these questions have to do with color (for example, "What color is ... ?").

Investigate and DIscuss

Addams, Jane (1896). A Modern Lear. Speech given at the Chicago Woman's Club and the Twentieth Century Club of Boston.

Addams, Jane (1909). The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets. Macmillan. Introduction and Chapter 1.

Bruce, B. C., & Easley, John A. Jr. Emerging Communities of Practice: Collaboration and communication in action research. Educational Action Research, 8(2), 243-359.

Eglash, Ron, Crossiant, Jennifer, Chiro, Giovanna Di, & Fouché, Rayvon (Eds.) (2004). Appropriating Technology: Vernacular Science and Social Power. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Introduction

[edit] May 9: Closing/Opening

  1. Adler Planetarium visit
  2. DIME newsletter
  3. Fall Inquiry-Based Learning course at Paseo Boricua
  4. Fall/Spring faculty seminar
  5. Next steps for the kit
  6. Next steps in life
  7. ICES forms

[edit] Other questions

[edit] What is an Inquiry Unit?

Discussion leaders:

Original author: Jenny Robins

Rationale of the Unit In a traditional classroom, the instructor sets goals, generates objectives, plans a curriculum, then delivers the curriculum, and finally, tests to see how well the learner has met the objectives. In contrast, an Inquiry Unit of instruction, the instructor sets goals, but students create their own objectives. The teacher coaches learners through the investigations, creations, and discussions necessary to achieve their objectives. Finally, both the process and the products of instruction are evaluated, by both the learner and the instructor. This unit generator helps guide learners toward their objectives. The instructor "spins" units designed to guide learners, then uses the original, master unit to manage and evaluate the learners inquiry.

Investigate

Background

The Inquiry Page has been under development for almost five years. It was first used in a professional development class for teachers. The unit is a way for learners to store both the process and the products of their learning. The unit was further developed so that it could be used by instructors to track, record, and journal their own inquiries. Units could then be used interchangeably in a number of classes. K-12 teachers observed that they could also use units to direct their students' learning. See The Inquiry Unit story.

Readings Theorists will recognize the debt owed to: John Dewey Lev Semenovich Vygotsk Susan Loucks_Horsley Jack Easley

Websites Open Directory The Gateway Eisenhower National Clearinghouse

Resources The World Wide Web The curiosity of the learner The communicative ability of the instructor The world around us

Create

Tutorials Instructors create tutorials for learners using the Inquiry Unit. Tutorials can involve traditional teacher-directed approaches, or student-directed approaches, or anything in between.

Class Activities The unit generator can be used as a management tool for instructors who must manage a dozen of more simultaneous, individualized student learning experiences.

Labs The unit generator can be used in conjunction with any web-based or physical labs, to describe the experimental protocol or to use as an electronic lab notebook.

Outside activities Inquiry units can be used to journal student work, describing both the process and products of learning.

Open-ended problems Are any valid problems closed-ended?

Discuss

Face-to-face dialogues Learners take possession of their knowledge through their words. Talking to others also gives learners a chance to practice and rehearse what they know. Practice creates the readiness that leads to a feeling of professionalism for the learner.

Group dialogues Group discussions allow for informal criticsm which fine tunes thinking for all group members.

Online dialogues The Internet, including email, blogs, discussion forums, etc., provides for non-intrusive, online conversations with others with similar interests, either peers or mentors.

Written dialogues Writing causes the learner to formulate and crystalize concepts. Writing also is a method to demonstrate what the learner knows.

Class discussions Instructors and students can lead class discussions, providing a more directed discussion than would normally occur in the casual free-flow of group communications.

Presentations Computing technology allows learners to incorporate a variety of media in presentations. This is an ideal way for students who are visually, aurally and/or spatially oriented to display their understanding of their topics.

Reflect

Assessment

Related questions Where do we go from here?

Responses This Inquiry Page will never be complete. Thanks to responses from others, the site keeps improving. We welcome any comments you have on ways this site can be made to better suit you needs.

Unit story This is a work in process. Progress has been exciting as new uses for this site and this tool are found. We welcome your participation.

Credits & Acknowledgements Credit goes to the many colleagues and researchers that have contributed to this project over the years.


[edit] Participatory action research

See also Participatory Design.

Investigate

Carr, W., & Kemmis, S. (1986). Becoming critical: Education, knowledge, and action research. London: Falmer.

Reardon, Kenneth (1998). Participatory action research as service learning. New directions for teaching and learning , 7, 57-64. (Available through the UIUC Library Gateway)

Coupal, Francoise, & Sinoneau, Marie (1998). Case study of PE in Haiti. In E. Whitmore (Ed.), Understanding and practicing participatory evaluation. New directions for evaluation, N.8. (pp.69-80). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Porter, Honnet, & Poulsen, Susan. (1989). Principles of good practice for combining service and learning. Racine, WI: Johnson Foundation.

[edit] How is knowledge-making changing in communities of inquiry

[edit] How can teaching and learning through Inquiry be presented as a workshop?

Co-Authors: Heather Booth, Chip Bruce, Juna Snow, Cheryl Malone, Christine Jenkins, Katherine Ryan, Jenny Robins

Rationale of the Unit: This unit is based on the structure of the workshop on Teaching and Learning Through Inquiry (February 21, 2001).

Investigate

Background

What is Inquiry?: It's an activity in which the learner extracts meaning from experience. It is manifested in a variety of curricular and instructional approaches, which can be roughly grouped according to the aspects of the inquiry cycle they emphasize:

Ask: open school; problem-based learning
Investigate: materials-based, resource-based learning; investigation-based, research-based learning
Create: project-based learning
Discuss: cooperative learning; writing process
Reflect: constructivist learning; reader response; service learning

slide show providing background on Inquiry Teaching and Learning

Readings

Committee on Development of an Addendum to the National Science Education Standards on Scientific Inquiry, Center for Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Education, National Research Council (2000). 'Inquiry and the National Science Education Standards: A Guide for Teaching and Learning.' National Academy Press, Washington D.C.

Eisenhower National Clearinghouse for Mathematics and Science Education, Ideas that Work: Mathematics Professional Development US Department of Education. http://www.enc.org/resources .

Eisenhower National Clearinghouse for Mathematics and Science Education. Ideas that Work: Science Professional Development http://www.enc.org/resources

Valdez G, McNabb M, Foertsch M, Anderson M, Hawkes M, and Raack L. "Computer-Based Technology and Learning: Evolving Uses and Expectations" [NCREL, www.ncrel.org North Central Regional Educational Laboratory ] 2000.

Bruce, B.C. "The Inquiry Page: A collaboratory for curricular innovation." Learning Technology, 3(1). 2001.

Bruce, B.C and John A. Easley Jr. Emerging Communities of Practice: Collaboration and communication in action research. ] Educational Action Research, 8(2), 243-359.

Easley, J. (1987). A teacher educator's perspective on students' and teachers' schemes. In D. Perkins, J. Lochhead, & J. Bishop (Eds.), Thinking: The second international conference (pp. 507-527). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Websites

The Inquiry Page World Watcher: Environmental Science Field Test Opportunity
Digital Cultural Heritage Project National Biology Digital Library Project

Resources

Annenberg Video Series on Inquiry

Create

Class activities

Session A: Dr. Cheryl Malone (GSLIS): "Investigating Government Information: Where to Begin?" In this hands-on session, you will create inquiry units that explore the many potential uses of government information in K-12, undergraduate and graduate level classrooms; in library instruction programs; and in your own research projects. View an Inquiry Unit of this session.

Session B: Dr. Christine Jenkins (GSLIS) "Inquiry-Based Book Discussions: Investigating Multiple Meanings of Texts" this session will introduce you to the basics of creating and facilitating an inquiry-based book discussion. You will also have the opportunity to participate in an inquiry-based book discussion.

Session C: Dr. Katherine Ryan (College of Education) "Assesment Issues in an Inquiry Classroom" This session will introcuce and discuss accountability and defensibility issues of inquiry curriculum for teachers, administrators, and parents.

Discuss

Visit and Discuss

Inquiry Page Partner Project Exhibits that workshop participants have created and that are set up around the hall.

Group dialogues

"Assumptions About Learning"

"Making Inquiry Happen"

Reflect

Jenny Robins (GSLIS), The Inquiry Page Collaboratory

Inquiry workshop slide show

[edit] What does it mean to know something?

[edit] How do personal goals relate to how we perceive the world and how we learn?

[edit] Why should anyone learn a given skill or bit of knowledge?

[edit] How does what happens in a learning setting relate to the world beyond?

[edit] Where and how does learning occur?

[edit] What is the purpose of education?

[edit] Is teaching possible?

[edit] Related Links

hello kitty digital camera

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