IBL Week 7 Post

IBL Week 7 Post

During the course of this class, we examined the topic of inquiry based learning from theory to practice.  I am now able to describe the inquiry process as well as identify the key components of an inquiry-based classroom.  At first, IBL seemed to fit nicely with science and hands-on lessons and I struggled to see how other curricular areas could be expanded.  However, the introduction of the 5E Instructional Model that was developed by the Biological Science Curriculum Study (BSCS) helped me to see how IBL can truly be implemented into an content area.  The process of backward design is time intensive, but ultimately, helps keep the focus on the learner.  This process has three essential steps:

◦       Determine the overarching concept of the 5E sequence.

◦       Design the "Evaluate" and decide what evidence students will produce to demonstrate understanding of the overarching concept.

◦       Design the "Engage," "Explore," "Explain," and "Elaborate" components of the 5E sequence.

Definitely a process that takes time to become familiar with but can meet the needs of the teacher and learner.  Perhaps the most insightful aspect of this course for me was unit 5.  We explored how technology can be used in the inquiry process to motivate and engage learners while enhancing the product and process.  I learned how technological tools can be used for a variety of activities that can support inquiry-based learning. These tools can be used to develop students' abilities and understandings about inquiry and process skills that were covered in unit 2, as well as integrating the essential features of inquiry presented in unit 3.  Our high school is a one-to-one high school where every student has a laptop and technology is heavily integrated into every class.  I appreciated exploring Edmodo, Blabberrize, and Animoto.  These were sites that the students have not come across in their experiences in other classes and enjoyed using to meet their needs.  They use Moodle and Google Docs heavily on a daily basis, so these sites resources were a nice change of pace for them.

For me, this course also allowed me to explore how technology can be used to enhance student engagement in the classroom. Some of the web-based technologies that I explored have already been implemented in my classroom.  As I mentioned throughout the course, I teach gifted education to students in grades 8-12.  I feel that implementing IBL can positively influence student’s GIEP goals.  As I mentioned above, I feel that the 5E model will be extremely valuable during the goal setting process for these students.  Prior to setting a goal, I plan on allowing students to time to identify issues, ideas, or projects that will engage them.  Based on that information, they will have the opportunity to explore the topic selected in depth, and then explain and elaborate on their findings.  Prior to selected the goal, we will decide how their product will be evaluated using varied types of formative assessments.  

Week 6 IBL Post

Week 6 IBL Post

This unit focused on applying what we’ve learned in the course up until this point to lesson planning process.  We looked at how we could incorporate aspects from previous units including the abilities and understandings of inquiry, process skills, and essential features of inquiry and how we could apply all of these into the concept of backwards design.  The 5E Instructional Model was presented with the goal being to allow teachers to examine a lesson planning/presentation model that supports both backward design and inquiry skills.  Both of these encourage teachers to embed 21^stcentury skills and technology into the process and require the use formative assessments to monitor student acquisition of knowledge and adjust teaching as necessary.

We learned that backwards design is an instructional design method invented by Wiggins and McTighe and is part of their larger Understanding by Design framework. As the name implies, it begins with the end in mind. As such, this model focuses the teacher on asking what students should know, understand, or be able to do at the end of the lesson or unit of study.  The 5E Instructional Model that was developed by the Biological Science Curriculum Study is a model that uses backward design.  The 5E model focuses on engage, explore, explain, elaborate and evaluate.  When used effectively, this model can be implemented by the teacher to deliver the curriculum at the classroom level.  This concept has possibilities, but the template provided in the course was difficult to navigate and could use some improvement.  The picture above  is a screen shot of the 5E model lesson that I created.  It provides a visual aid on the planning process.  I hope to incorporate a modified version of this into my daily planning/instruction.  I feel that the 5E lesson plan template above was confusing and time consuming but feel that with practice, it will become easier and more natural.

IBL Week 5 Blog

IBL Week 5

During week five, we explored what engagement is and how students can be engaged in the process of learning.  Ultimately, we explored how student engagement can be enhanced through the use of appropriate web-based technologies.  We explored a variety of Web 2.0 tools and how they could be incorporated in our classrooms.  By exploring some of these tools, I came across two sites that were interesting to me and hopefully my students.  I created a Blabberize account as well as an Edmodo and developed activities for students in my classes to explore these tools to hopefully excite them and engage them in the learning process

We previously explored the critical role that communication plays as an essential skill for 21st Century learners and schools.  Communication is a major competency for students to master upon completion of high school whether pursuing higher education or entering the workforce.  Thus, it is critical that all teachers, in all disciplines, support various opportunities to develop communication skills in their classrooms.

There are countless ways to communicate by using technology in the classroom.  The paradigm shift in education requires students today to show teachers what they know using a variety of skills and methods.

The topic of communication and the concept of inquiry based learning can best be linked by developing a scientific explanation (McNeill, Lizotte, Krajcik, & Marx, 2006). The word "scientific" is used to refer to and relates more to the approach of creating a question, formulating a claim (hypothesis), determining supportive evidence (data) and then formulating a conclusion.

In our course readings, we explored the following:

 Components

◦                Make a claim about the problem.

◦                Provide evidence for the claim.

◦                Provide reasoning that links the evidence to the claim.

Definitions

◦                Claim: An assertion or conclusion that answers the original question

◦                Evidence: Scientific data that support the student's claim that must be appropriate and sufficient. Can come from an investigation or other sources, such as observations, reading material, archived date, etc.

◦                Reasoning: Justification that links the claim and evidence. Shows why the data counts as evidence to support the claim, using appropriate scientific principles.

Qualities of the communication

◦                Write the explanation so others can understand it.

◦                Use precise and accurate scientific language.

◦                Write clearly so that anyone interested in the explanation can understand it.

◦                Articulate your logic.

McNeill, K. L., Lizotte, D. J., Krajcik, J., & Marx, R. W. (2006). Supporting Students' Construction of Scientific Explanations by Fading Scaffolds in Instructional Materials. Journal Of The Learning Sciences, 15(2), 153-191.

IBL Unit 4 Post

IBL Unit 4 Post

This week the course readings introduced the three Principles that Support Student Learning:

·            Students come to the classroom with preconceptions about how the
world works. If their initial understanding is not engaged, they may fail to grasp the new concepts and information, or they may learn them for purposes of a test but revert to their preconceptions outside the classroom.

·            To develop competence in an area of inquiry, students must (a) have a deep foundation of factual knowledge, (b) understand facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework, and (c) organize knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval and application.

·            A "metacognitive" approach to instruction can help students learn to take control of their own learning by defining learning goals and monitoring their progress in achieving them (pp. 1-2).

Donovan, M. S., & Bransford, J. D. (2005). How students learn: History in the classroom (pp. 1-2). Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

During this unit we began to look at the concept “in order for students to (a) have a deep foundation of factual knowledge, (b) understand facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework, and (c) organize knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval and application." It is our job a classroom teachers to create goals, objectives, and learning activities that support the curriculum that they teach and link it with the process skills of inquiry, essential features of inquiry, and the abilities and understandings of inquiry.

We spent this unit identifying and describing the difference between facts and concepts, we compared and contrasted investigable and non-investigable questions, looked at how to turn non-investigable questions into investigable ones.

Facts:

Facts or definitions are isolated pieces of information. The focus is on verifiable and discrete details.

Concepts:

Concepts are over-arching ideas that clearly show the relationships between facts. They are frequently abstract.

The course readings have shown that these two terms are interconnected in the content that is taught to students. Essentially, facts are what students need to know in order to obtain an in depth knowledge of a concept and begin to use higher order thinking skills. Facts are used to uncover concepts. This is not say that there are not different levels of On the other hand, concepts are often seen as “big ideas.”  As such, they are often presented with "real-world" connections. Inquiry based learning generally focuses on investigations that are conducted around facts and students are asked to apply the knowledge that they have gained from those investigations to a new situation.

When planning for inquiry, the curriculum that is delivered does not always support inquiry based learning at first glance. We this unit exploring where teachers can go to see if the curricular goals that are being taught align with the state standards in Pennsylvania.  The interactive web-portal, Standards Aligned Systems, (www.pdesas.org) provides a resource for teachers.

WEEK 3 Post

WEEK 3 POST

For me, this week was very insightful because I learned about the characteristics of each type of inquiry.  I learned that inquiry can look quite different and take a a number of different forms, several essential features need to be present in order to foster inquiry-based learning. The image above is helpful for me as it allows one to see the continuum of inquiry and the various forms that it can take.  Below are the key concepts we focused on this week.

Essential Features of Classroom Inquiry:

◦                The learner engages in questions that can be investigated.

◦                The learner gives priority to evidence in responding to questions.

◦                The learner formulates explanations from evidence.

◦                The learner connects explanations to knowledge.

◦                The learner communicates and justifies explanations.

The course reading highlighted that these features can range from student directed to teacher directed, but in the end they should be present in an inquiry based classroom. It’s important to note that not all of these features need to be addressed in every lesson because some lessons simply don’t lend themselves to certain features. But inquiry can’t exist without any of these features being present.

Characteristics of Each Type of Inquiry

Teacher-Directed (structured inquiry) In this type of inquiry teachers craft high quality tasks. These tasks should target a student's "celebration of understanding." This is where students are expected to apply and use information in some way. The tasks are fully supported by quality resources at levels appropriate to the students' skills. Students who have worked through a number of such tasks, been supported with extensive scaffolding, have developed their own understanding of "good inquiry," will have built and developed some foundational inquiry skills and will have experienced success.

Teacher-Student Shared (guided inquiry)- This type of inquiry-based learning puts the student in a position to move into tasks that they negotiate with the teacher. These tasks will bring with them more issues in terms of availability and suitability of information, less scaffolding support, and require skills at a more advanced level. Students will be supported to negotiate high quality tasks that target application of information.

Student-Directed (open inquiry)- This type of inquiry based learning is the ultimate goal of "good inquiry." Here students who have developed a sound set of learning and information skills are equipped to work as independent learners. It is helpful for teachers to:

·            identify the skills they believe independent learners will have when they leave the school

·            develop a rubric of stages of development in those skills

·            determine what stage of development students need to be at in the chosen skills to be ready for progression to the next stage of independence

Multidisciplinary- a method, or set of methods, used to teach a unit across different curricular disciplines. Students analyze questions and issues from multiple curricular disciplines and perspectives.

WEEK 2

WEEK 2 POST

The image above (http://route21.p21.org/) helps to illustrate how inquiry based learning can be used to develop the essential skills required for success in the 21st century.  This week, or readings focused on the components necessary for establishing a highly effective inquiry based learning classroom environment. When done so effectively, these components establish a community.  During this week our topics addressed how to successfully build such a community within the classroom setting.  At the heart of inquiry based learning is the essential component in the process that requires students to feel empowered, and allowed to share ideas, thoughts and feelings.

Perhaps the most influential information shared through the course readings this week were the abilities necessary to do inquiry and the understandings about inquiry.  Each of the two categories are below with a short explanation shared in the course content section if the class readings.
Abilities Necessary to Do Inquiry

• Identify questions that can be answered through investigations.
• Design and conduct an investigation.
• Use appropriate tools and techniques to gather, analyze, and interpret data.
• Develop descriptions, explanations, predictions, and models using evidence.
• Think critically and logically to make relationships between evidence and explanations.
• Recognize and analyze alternative explanations and predictions.
• Communicate procedures and explanations.

Understandings About Inquiry

• Different kinds of questions suggest different kinds of investigations.
• Current knowledge and understanding guide investigations.
• Technology used to gather data enhances accuracy and allows us to analyze and quantify results of investigations.
• Explanations emphasize evidence, have logically consistent arguments, and use principles, models, and theories.
• New knowledge advances through legitimate skepticism.
• Investigations sometimes result in new ideas and phenomena for study, generate new methods or procedures for an investigation, or develop new technologies.

I also learned that about process skills that are associated with inquiry based learning (observing, questioning, planning and investigating, formulating explanations, making predictions, analyzing data, and communicating) have often been thought of and referred to as "soft skills." These very skills are the skills employers deem essential to students' future success.  However, often time, these skills rarely acknowledged in a typical curriculum.  However, these skills can be promoted through the use of inquiry based learning activities.

WEEK 1 Post

WEEK 1 POST

        The graphic above really helps to understand the fact the inquiry based learning is a process.  What appeals most to me about inquiry based learning in my current teaching role is the notion that all learning begins with the learner.  One must consider what the students know and what they want to learn.  These two premises are the foundation for learning.  This week I was able to gain an understanding that inquiry based learning is a process.  In reading through the course material, the statement "inquiry is an approach to learning that involves a process of exploring the natural or material world, that leads to asking questions and making discoveries in the search for new understanding" seems to make the most sense to me.

      In this process, the student should always be at the center of the process and the teacher should acts as a guide  to facilitate this process.  Some view this as a shift in acceptable and needed behaviors for both students and teachers in a traditional educational setting.  Because IBL is a viewed as a process, it can be troublesome to specifically define it.  Traditional educational approaches often subscribe to a specific set of rules and a specific order of events to facilitate a lesson.  This necessitates that a specific format is used for the lesson that will dictate how it is written and will look when delivered in order to maximize student learning.  The IBL model makes this virtually impossible for two main reasons;

• Since it's student centered and students always change (i.e., backgrounds, preconceptions, strengths, weaknesses, and needs) the process will always change based upon the students and their specific needs and interests.
• Since the process is dynamic, what the teacher must do during a lesson to help students reach the desired learning goals in one lesson will not necessarily need to happen in each lesson.

      I think that an important point to remember is that it is difficult to find a one-size fits all model for IBL or education for that matter. Research points out that there are a number of models to choose from when focusing on creating an inquiry based learning environment.  I look forward to learning  about these as we progress through the course.  By drawing on the students' own background and experiences, the teacher will be able to identify ways to connect to the topic and will engage students in the learning process.  It is this personal connection to learning that increases a student's motivation to explore, read, and struggle with difficulties as they arise.

Resources:
http://www.cii.illinois.edu/InquiryPage/inquiry/definition.html
http://www.cii.illinois.edu/InquiryPage/
http://www.neiu.edu/~middle/Modules/science%20mods/amazon%20components/AmazonComponents2.html#components