Mindlab by Unitec: Inquiry Led Learning & Teaching As Inquiry

Week 14 - DCL - Inquiry Led Learning

"This week we explored the integration of 'Inquiry' in the classroom to create independent motivated students who take responsibility for their learning.

What is Inquiry-Based Learning?

"This video explains the teaching methodology Inquiry-Based Learning. 

It was created for the Inspiring Science Education Project as part of a 

series of videos to promote the use of  Inquiry-Based Learning."

Pedagogical and technological innovations are redefining education and while there is great debate on the relevance of traditional education there is also increased support for the resurgence of traditional education ideals linked to higher order thinking and inquiry.

The demands of an evolving knowledge based society requires learners to be independent thinkers as well as interdependent collaborative learners who work together.

There is significant need for students to understand the processes of critical thinking that improves their ability to reason, evaluate, judge and assess. Critical or reflective thinking is integral to inquiry and to the process of forming an opinion or building knowledge."

nQuire - Young Citizen Inquiry

 

(video by Open University)

Inquiry Lead Teaching Report  (downloadable text version)

Inquiry Learning in an ICT Rich Environment (downloadable text - PDF version)

Week 14 - LDC - Teaching as Inquiry

"Teaching as Inquiry aims to achieve improved outcomes for all students. Equally, the teaching as inquiry cycle provides a framework that teachers can use to help them learn from their practice and build greater knowledge. It includes three inquiry aspects.

The Focusing Inquiry

In the focusing inquiry, teachers identify what they want their students to achieve. What do they need to learn next to reach these goals?

The Teaching Inquiry

In the teaching inquiry, teachers select appropriate teaching strategies, looking at best practice and research literature. They plan to gather evidence of success for their students.

The Learning Inquiry

The learning inquiry takes place both during and after teaching. Teachers monitor and reflect on their students’ progress. They use this information to feed back into their practice.

Collaboration

Although teachers can work  independently, it is better if they support each other, providing different perspectives and sharing ideas, knowledge, and experiences."

"Learning to be a New School - Building a Curriculum for new times" (online text version).

 

David Perkins - "40 Years of Teaching Thinking: Revolution, Evolution, and What Next?"

Video blurb: "Today, national and international educational frameworks commonly include a range of thinking skills, often as part of 21st century skills or competencies. Although policy probably promises more than practice delivers, teaching thinking in some form has become a presence in many classrooms. All this began with revolutionary zeal in the thinking skills movement of the 1970s and 80s. Over the decades, skepticism about teaching thinking emerged from IQ advocates ('people can't get smarter'), the back-to-basics movement ('no time for frills like thinking'), and the notion of situated learning ('good thinking requires saturation in a discipline'). Meanwhile, both research and practical classroom experience have evolved our ideas about what thinking skills are, whether and how they can be taught, and what place they might take amidst competing educational agendas..."