Journal Link

RSA #3 Inquiry-Based Learning

Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925, George Bernard Shaw said, ‘What we want to see is the child in pursuit of knowledge, not knowledge in pursuit of the child” (Shaw. G.). Teachers and parents worldwide would agree that we need to engage our students to teach them. In my high school classroom, students participate in a joke of the day and nominate one another for who will contribute the next days joke; If our students are not engaged we end up with students in the mind-set, much like a joke recently posted on our board which stated: “What do you call a person who keeps on talking when people are no longer interested? –A teacher.”  Rather than lecture students to boredom, teachers can involve students in learning through inquiry-based learning. 

In this week’s module reading, I discovered three levels of inquiries for this pedagogy: structured, guided, and open. Structured and guided are more intermediate in this pedagogy because the instructor provides the question, while guided inquiry allows more student-responsibility in the lesson. Open inquiry requires high order of thinking and students take the lead in this method.  Lastly, there is coupled inquiry where the instructor blends two of the three levels to better fit the needs of students (2014).

“The Role of General Inquiry knowledge in Enhancing Students’ transformative Inquiry processes in a Web-Based Learning Environment” is a study that argues inquiry-based learning, also named student-lead or “science learning is regarded internationally as an effective learning approach…however, it is not actively used in many schools” ((Maeots,M. & Pedaste,M. p1. 2014). The study conducted was to prove how students who engage in inquiry-based learning are more likely to retain information than those who do not engage. “The results of this study supports…there are significant positive correlations between post-level transformative inquiry processes and general inquiry knowledge”(Maeots,M. & Pedaste,M, p29. 2014.). Some ways to apply IBL in classrooms is through guest speakers, interactive media lessons from Prezi or Powerpoint, demonstrations, class discussions and questioning are just a few listed from 21st century HSIE (Marsh, C., & Hart, C. 2011). 

References

 George Bernard Shaw Quotes. (n.d.). Quotes.net. Retrieved September 15, 2014, from http://www.quotes.net/quote/427.

Marsh, C., & Hart, C. (2011). Teaching the Social Sciences and Humanities in an Australian Curriculum (6th ed). Malaysia: Pearson Education.Retrieved from http://21stcenturyhsie.weebly.com/inquiry-pedagogy.html

Maeots,M. & Pedaste,M. (2014.).The Role of General Inquiry knowledge in Enhancing Students’ transformative Inquiry processes in a Web-Based Learning Environment Retrieved from http://web.b.ebscohost.com.cucproxy.cuchicago.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=0fee2d80-62b0-4109-a086-250fd875ce09%40sessionmgr113&vid=4&hid=128

Crombie, S. [Scott Crombie]. (2014, March 26). What is Inquiry-Based Learning? [Video File]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u84ZsS6niPc