Pop the Question

I did not think I could transition to full inquiry AND meet the requirements of the curriculum UNTIL I realized constructivism must guide my inquiry.  I have always used hands on activities in my classroom, but when chemistry became a tested subject I found myself wanting to give more and more direct instruction.  I wanted to make sure I covered the material, and consequently I found myself losing the interest of more and more students.  After much reflection, I realized the students needed their learning to be authentic, but I still wondered how to do that and teach all the required skills.  Have you pondered the same question?

How does inquiry work?  Has my paradigm shifted enough?  Learning to Pop the Question…

My Inquiry Evolution: 

First, my work with the South Mississippi Writing Project (SMWP) has given me a model of inquiry and constructivist learning to help me guide students the way a tour guide efficiently leads a foreigner to make sure they do not miss the best sights.  In this model, the teacher uses carefully chosen strategies and materials to strategically guide students to the places that allow them to make discoveries and construct their own learning along the way.  Much reading, writing, sharing, reflecting, and revising is done along the way.

Second, my recent experience with Project Based Learning (PBL) taught me that I can hold the role of a performing arts master teacher who is responsible for teaching techniques to my students, requiring them to practice and expecting them to pass performance tests to prove their acquisition of skills.  From PBL I also learned the importance of student generated questions in authentic learning.  Students determine the “Need to Know” questions based on the task at hand.  From PBL, I also learned about metacognition.  I had been using metacognition with the SMWP, but I did not really grasp its greatness until I saw it in the PBL workshop. 

Finally, my views were shaped by ACT Quality Core Training.  It taught me rigor can be accomplished and encouraged through the powerful strategies that require writing to learn.

The summation of my experiences leads me to understand that teachers know things the students don’t know, and as we use authentic situations to teach through inquiry, we must help set the stage and ensure students learn the proper techniques without missing the best sights along the way.  In order for students to construct their own learning, teachers must actively construct a path of learning for them to follow and embed opportunities to experiment and write throughout the journey. 

Dance to Your Own Music… NOT

Inquiry, which I am going to dub “teacher influenced student inquiry”, is different from free discovery learning.  The students are not really free to dance to their own music as discovery learning may suggest, because that is unrealistic in most science classes like chemistry.  Imagine students being allowed to flit with and possibly mix two incompatible chemicals!  Therefore, the use of constructivism and metacognition by the masterful choreographer (teacher) is the key to making inquiry work.  Like a beautiful performance on the stage, inquiry has the power to inspire awe in beholder.  The enjoyment brought to the stage by a performance is not only the result of technical classes (direct instruction), rehearsals (student practice), corrections and revisions, but also that of cooperation and most importantly the culmination of the vision and encouragement of the choreographer (teacher) mixed with hours of work behind the scenes that others never see. 

Popping the Question

How in the world do teachers fully implement an inquiry classroom, and complete the required curriculum with the depth of knowledge required for standardized testing?  The answer is a well-choreographed classroom where the teacher knows how to pop the question.  Just as music influences the style of dance one chooses to exude, well prepared teacher prompts can influence and spur seemingly improvisational student questions in a subject area.  Prompts that lead to student questions and authentic learning include, but are not limited to, discrepant event demonstrations, projects to tackle, challenge based learning and problems to solve.  These invitations to student initiated inquiry will allow the magic of the dance in your subject area to take place as students learn, practice and prepare in your classroom so that they can shine on the public stage when they perform on standardized test or present their findings to the public. 

Invitation to the Dance

Successful inquiry, inquiry that leads to deep understanding, is a hands-on journey which is stealthily constructed and skillfully guided by the teacher to sway the movement of the students.  I invite you to join me in the dance of inquiry this year.  What skills will you teach together through inquiry?  How will you help your students generate useful and meaningful questions that will teach your curriculum as they construct meaning for themselves?

  

For more information visit these websites...

Project Based Learning (PBL) Buck Institute for Education www.bie.org
www.edutopia.org

Challenge Based Learning (CBL) www.ali.apple.com  
http://www.challengebasedlearning.org 
Problem Based Learning in Science   www.udel.edu 
Active Physics ppt example
ACT Quality Core  www.act.org

SMWP http://www.usm.edu/south-mississippi-writing-project

NWP www.nwp.org