Inquiry Teaching/Learning Strategies
Eli Spina (MCDB) – [email protected]
“The meaning of ‘knowing’ has shifted
from being able to remember and repeat
information to being able to find and use it.”
(National Research Council, 2007)
Learning Goals
1. Comprehend constructivist learning theory
and teaching practices
2. Analyze an inquiry based learning exercise
3. Synthesize a conceptual framework of inquiry
based teaching & learning strategies
Constructivism
“Humans generate knowledge and meaning from
an interaction between their experiences and their
ideas.” - Wikipedia
Proponents:
Dewey – “Directed living”
Montessori – Practical play
Piaget – Accommodation and assimilation
Vygotsky – Zone of proximal development
Bruner – Discovery learning (pure inquiry)
Schemata
“Sets of linked mental representations of the
world… used to understand & respond to
situations.”
Assimilation: using an existing schema
to deal with new information
Accommodation: existing schema
are changed to deal with
new information
McLeod, S. A. (2009)
Inquiry Based T/L (IBTL)
Pose questions instead of presenting facts.
(Banchi & Bell, 2008)
PXnL
Similarities
• Social constructivist origins
PBL
• Active engagement
• Foster collaborative skills
POGIL
PLTL
• Individual responsibility to the
group
• Group responsibility to ensure
shared understanding
Differences
• Varied duration
• Open ended
• Often uses primary literature
• Short, focused activities
• Learning cycle of exploration,
invention & application
• Supplemental sessions
• No instructor presence
• Peer leaders promote within
group interaction
(Eberlein et al., 2008)
Etymology of Subfields
Late 1800’s: Constructivism
1990’s: IBTL becomes popular
• PBL (Project based learning)
• PLTL (Peer led team learning)
1999: POGIL (R. Moog et al.)
2004: Widely cited literature review supporting
pure open inquiry as ineffective or even detrimental
to naive learners. (Mayer)
2005 – 2015: Many publications using POGIL in CS,
engineering, chemistry & med schools
An Example of Effectiveness
*
Lower-level questions:
Knowledge & Comprehension
Higher-level questions:
Application & Analysis
(Soltis et al., 2015)
*All exams were 50 MC questions.
http://www.learnnc.org/
Inquiry Inception
1) What is scientific inquiry?
Warner Bros. Pictures
2) How can inquiry be used to construct
knowledge?
a. What is learning? Active learning?
b. What is knowledge?
Brainstorm answers in pairs/groups of 3.
Griffith’s Experiment (1928)
(Mulligan, 2014)
What’s the role of the instructor?
How would you approach IBTL depending on:
Environment?
Goals?
Engagement/Authenticity?
Assessment?
Others…?
How should the instructor & students interact with
each other and the course content?
How To (Re)Organize These Ideas?
•
•
•
•
•
Sequence
Cycle
Concept map
Lists
Table
• Others…?
Content
Student
Inquiry
Instructor
Environment
What Just Happened?
•
•
•
•
I posed a question = guidance
You read & brainstormed ideas = “research”
We discussed as a group = reflection/discourse
We co-created a final product = authenticity
Active learning was incorporated
Inquiry Based
Learning
using peer-teaching, discussion
and reflection. This only required
minor background knowledge and structured
delivery of guiding questions.
chipbruce.net
Learning Goals
1. Comprehend constructivist learning theory
and teaching practices
2. Apply IBTL to analyze an IBTL exercise
3. Synthesize a conceptual framework
of IBTL strategies
Garrison & Anderson (2003)
Final (Evaluative) Thoughts
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