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Critically discuss the inquiry approach in the context of teaching and learning
Importance of education in Science
Importance of education in Science
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An open inquiry based pedagogical approach is about communicating, reflecting, collaborating and analysing the student’s thoughts, ideas and questions. (Lutheran education qld) This constructivist approach allows students to collaboratively question and interpret their ideas and develop them further with the help of a teacher who scaffolds their journey and aids in developing broader concepts. At the core of this pedagogical style needs to be the students ideas, thoughts, questions and observations.(Ontario 2013)
The teacher’s role within the inquiry approach is to scaffold student’s investigations and share the responsibility of learning with the students. (Ontario 2013) This can be a challenge for teachers that are new to the inquiry practice
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It looks at the political, economic, historical and social factors within their world and requires students to understand how each of these relate to each other. The subject aims to equip students with the necessary understandings of the world around them that will be required throughout their lifetime. (ACARA 2016a) An Inquiry teaching approach is most commonly associated with the science curriculum but this pedagogical style is becoming increasingly popular for other subjects. (Lupton 2012) This is a positive about the Inquiry approach as research has indicated that hands on and self-directed learning which gives control to the students contributed to their learning and allows for a deep understanding and better performance. (Barron & Darling-Hammond …show more content…
The framework contains five outcomes and is a play-based curriculum which essentially allows for children to use an inquiry process to engage with people and objects. The outcomes are designed to inspire conversations and encourage children to look further, question and to be active participants in their learning which essentially is using an inquiry approach. (DEEWR 2009) When addressing the early years the EYLF outcome one “Children have a strong sense of self”, encourages children to be able to begin to investigate their family and their position and identity within their family. Utilising the scaffolding process, teachers could develop family identity through effective conversations and questioning within the home corner, this then could lead to the children drawing their family or bringing in photos of their family. This learning process would involve aspects of all the outcomes, in particular outcome 1 Children have a strong sense of identity. (DEEWR
Parr, Graham 2010, Inquiry-based professional learning : Speaking back to standard-based reforms, e-book, accessed 29 May 2014, .
education by the students learning how to look beyond instructions and the students are free to
The concept describes that our knowledge is something to be constructed internally rather than reflected from external realities. After the initial proposition of constructivism there came about the idea that “a reasonable conclusion is that at least three levels of constructivist advocacy appear frequently in contemporary educational literature”, according to Null 2004. Those three levels include epistemological constructivism, which focuses on issues like race, gender, and class and how issues like these need to be fixed. Next is instructional constructivism, which focuses on individual learning in the classroom. The last is prescriptive constructivism, which focuses on the relationship between teacher and student and proposes that teachers instruct with their students rather than at their students. No matter what level it is being taught, the basis of constructivism is to move away from the traditional practice of teaching the classroom through lecture primarily, and to adopt teaching the classroom through
Cohen, L., Morrison, K. and Manion, L. (2011) Research Methods in Education. 7th ed. London: Routledge.
Inquiry-based learning is geared with a student-centered approach, where teachers use the scaffolding technique to help students move toward stronger understanding of the subject area. Being directed towards a Science class, Forrest discovered that the literacy skills of listening, reading, writing, and speaking are all components of the inquiry process and are essential to learning in a Science classroom. Methods of using inquiry-based learning in a Science classroom includes; active reading where students are given a purpose for reading, scaffolding or teacher provided guidance, and collaboration in small groups to provide feedback on a specific source. The goal of active reading is to help students focus their inquiries on specific topics in an effort to increase learning. Another discovery that was made is that Middle-school students enjoy gaining new knowledge, especially when it is presented in a social way where they can provide their own ideas and listen to the ideas of their classmates which further promote their literary proficiencies. The article concludes that using inquiry-based literacy strategies will motivate and engage students in all subject
This framework is used by ECE to guide and develop quality education programs. Upon planning a learning experience, small group or whole class experience, I have effectively incorporated one or more of the learning outcomes. The EYLF is made up of principles, practices and five outcomes which enhance and develop a child’s learning through play-based experiences (EYLF, 2009, p.9). Each outcome contains sub-strands which guide your experience and focus on the child’s social and emotional development, as well as language, numeracy and literacy skills (Commonwealth of Australia, 2017). Using the EYLF as a curriculum framework allowed me to develop and create skilled appropriate lessons, experiences which challenged and captivated the children’s attention, and I gained appropriate information to assess the children’s individual abilities (Australian Government: Department of Education and Training,
The desire to learn new things means that both sides, students and teachers, must have an engaged pedagogy. According to hooks, an engaged pedagogy is both sides are willing to learn and grow. Not only the students are empowered and are encourage sharing things about themselves and learning new things but teachers are also meant to do these things (21). This is a barrier because if students and teachers are not willing to learn and grow democratic citizens cannot be created. This is so because people will not be educated of differences and others react and deal with different things in society. This goes along with the importance of self-actualization of teachers in the class...
Education needs to become an inquiry process between teachers and students. Doing so will decrease all the teacher-student contradiction. Students will then discover that they have the power to educate teachers. Rather than fitting into the world as it is, students will become knowledgeable about their society and shape it to what it could be. Students who are well informed about their world will develop into participatory citizens who are eager take action of responsibility and work toward improving their society and the world since they are aware it. Freire supports this system as the only concept
The term constructivism has been used to explain everything from school reform to teaching styles, and most importantly related to a learning theory. As you can imagine the term Constructivism has the potential to develop many misconceptions since it lacks a universal definition. “Constructivism is an important theory of learning that is used to guide the development of new teaching methods”(Baviskar, Hartle & Whitney, 2009, p.541). The framework of constructivism is built upon the understanding that “learning is an active process that is student centered in the sense that, with the teachers help, learners select and transform information, construct hypothesis’, and make decisions”(Chrenka, 2001, p.694). It is important to understand that when speaking about constructivism we are referring to a learning theory not teach...
Inquiry Learning is a way to make the student find their own answers for their questions (Lakes Matyas, Ph.D). Posing a question for the students is a way to get them started. Then, by guiding the students on their own different searches, they all come together in the end to share their findings to answer the question.
Among many teaching styles and learning theories, there is one that is becoming more popular, the constructivist theory. The constructivist theory focuses on the way a person learns, a constructivist believes that the person will learn better when he/she is actively engaged. The person acts or views objects and events in their environment, in the process, this person then understands and learns from the object or events(P. Johnson, 2004). When we encounter a certain experience in our life, we think back to other things that have occurred in our life and use that to tackle this experience. In a lot of cases, we are creators of our own knowledge. In a classroom, the constructivist theory encourages more hands-on assignments or real-world situations, such as, experiments in science and math real-world problem solving. A constructivist teacher constantly checks up on the student, asking them to reflect what they are learning from this activity. The teacher should be keeping track on how they approached similar situations and help them build on that. The students can actually learning how to learn in a well-planned classroom. Many people look at this learning style as a spiral, the student is constantly learning from each new experience and their ideas become more complex and develop stronger abilities to integrate this information(P. Johnson, 2004). An example of a constructivist classroom would be, the student is in science class and everyone is asking questions, although the teacher knows the answer, instead of just giving it to them, she attempts to get the students to think through their knowledge and try to come up with a logical answer. A problem with this method of learning is that people believe that it is excusing the role of...
...g experience is child-centred. “Constructivist classrooms are structured so that learners are immersed in experiences within which they may engage in meaning-making inquiry, action, imagination, invention, interaction, hypothesizing and personal reflection.” (Gray, A) The constructivist approach is one that more teachers need to adopt in their classroom, it is incredibly beneficial. The approach will not only improve the child’s learning but also the teachers learning of their students.
In Science, teachers serve as the facilitator of learning, guiding them through the inquiry process. Teachers must ask open-ended questions, allow time for the students to answer, avoid telling students what to do, avoid discouraging students’ ideas or behaviors, encourage to find solutions on their own, encourage collaboration, maintain high standards and order, develop inquiry-based assessments to monitor students’ progress, and know that inquiry may be challenging for some students so be prepared to provide more guidance. There are three types of Science inquiry: structured, guided, and open. Structured is the most teacher-centered form of inquiry. This type of inquiry is mainly seen in laboratory exercises where the teacher needs to provide structure, however the students are the ones who conduct the experiment and find conclusions. Guided inquiry is where the students are given tools to develop a process and find the results. As an example, the teacher would instruct the students to build a rocket, but not tell them how to design it. This leaves creativity and uniqueness for the students to be able to apply their knowledge and skills. Open inquiry is when students determine the problem, i...
Constructivism is a philosophy of learning founded on the premise that, by reflecting on our experiences, we construct our own understanding of the world we live in. Each of us generates our own “rules” and “mental models,” which we use to make sense of our experiences. Learning, therefore, is simply the process of adjusting our mental models to accommodate new experiences. The purpose of learning is for an individual to construct his or her own meaning, not just memorize the “right” answers and regurgitate someone else’s meaning. Since education is inherently interdisciplinary, the only valuable way to measure learning is to make the assessment part of the learning process, ensuring it provides students with information on the quality of their learning. Assessment becomes part of the learning process so that students play a larger role in judging their own progress.
I would like to teach K-3. I believe that these years of education is very crucial for learning and developing their skills. Inquiry-based learning will only enhance these curious students to explore, share ideas and ask questions. Our role as a teacher will help identify needed resources and monitor, guide the students inquiry. Children learn by doing.