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.