Inquiry based learning is a term I would often hear but I did
not fully understand what it looked like in the classroom and in the library. After taking the time to research online I’m
beginning to understand how this shift in teaching can be used to engage
students across the curriculum.
I began my research by looking for
scholarly articles and I found a few interesting articles however most were not
suited for elementary school or focused mainly on science based projects. Since I was not entirely satisfied with my
article search, I will need to continue my search and I hope to find articles
that cover other elements of the curriculum as well.
My website search was more successful and provided me with
resources that explained inquiry based learning in a step by step approach as
well as focusing on particular aspects of inquiry based learning such as classroom
management. Some of the better resources
were teachers who created videos and explained their own personal experiences
with this teaching method. As I
mentioned in my previous post, the difficult part was not finding good, easy to
use information, the problem is sifting through all of it. The websites also
provided a variety of sources for several subject areas. The best site for this was galileo.org. This is a site dedicated to inquiry based
learning and there are many practical resources for mathematics, social studies
and science.
I was surprised to even find a few
sites that had some information about doing inquiry based learning in a French
Immersion classroom. Inquiry based
learning can be difficult to do in French Immersion classes especially in
primary grades since students don’t always have the necessary vocabulary or
reading skills in the French language.
Throughout my exploration I have been able to
piece together many different elements that make up inquiry based
learning. Now that I have a clearer
picture of what it looks like, sounds like and feels like, I feel less
intimidated by it and more comfortable sharing this information with my
colleagues. Many of the resources showed
a realistic approach to implementing inquiry based learning. They highlighted the difficulties and
struggles that teachers faced but the evidence of it making a difference with
students was so strong that in the end I feel that it is worth the extra effort
it takes to switch how I teach in the classroom and in the library. As I mentioned before, my end goal is to
create a website that I can share with my colleagues with easy to use links and
videos. I feel that with this deeper
investigation I have a nice collection of resources that cover the necessary
aspects of inquiry based learning.
A very good overview of your experiences so far in exploring online for good resources to support implementing Inquiry Based learning. Your experiences are very familiar, as once we start to explore implementation, we see many people experimenting, reflecting and responding to their student's needs and finding new ways to support their independent learning. A little more specific discussion of your key websites would provide a little more context to your post, but it was still very insightful and valuable for others.
ReplyDeleteHi Anica
ReplyDeleteThat's great that you found some resources for FI, I was at a dual track last year and agree, the teachers found practical inquiry quite difficult, particularly for the primaries.
The galileo website looked like it had some good information. I always wonder about the practicality of TRUE inquiry in our classrooms and though of it again when reading the classroom design section. THe amount of manipulatives, resources and materials needed seem to be huge. I know for a lot of primary teachers that's the hard part, we only get $150/yr for classroom funds and even that is earmarked for things like pencils and such (atrocious isn't it?!) I can't imagine starting an inquiry based classroom from scratch.
Thanks for your overview of inquiry-based learning. This is an area I am currently exploring as well through LLED 469. I will need to look through the Galileo site more thoroughly as it sounds like it will be a great resource.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't thought of the difficulties that primary FI teachers might face when attempting inquiry. Thanks for pointing this out, I am glad there are some resources out there!
I am also overwhelmed a bit when faced with all the different styles of inquiry-based learning and trying to sift through all the information in order to move forward. Did you end up finding a style of inquiry that you liked the best and will try?