What do we already know about inquiry based teaching and learning?

1. What do we already know about inquiry based teaching and learning?

2. Student voice and choice • Questions and concepts • Collaborative work • Strategic thinking • Authentic investigations • Student responsibility • Student as knowledge creator • Interaction and talk • Teacher as model and coach • Cross disciplinary studies • Multiple resources • Multimodal learning • Engaging in a discipline • Real purpose and audience • Caring and taking action • Performance and self assessments • Teacher selection and direction • Assigned topics and isolated facts • Solitary work • Memorization • As if/surrogate learning • Student compliance • Student as information receiver • Quiet and listening • Teacher as expert and presenter • One subject at a time • Reliance on a textbook • Verbal sources only • Hearing about a discipline • Extrinsic motivators • Forgetting and moving to the next unit • Filling in bubbles and blanks Inquiry Approach Coverage Approach

3. “Teachers lead students on lively, sociable inquiries that investigate big ideas so deeply that kids enjoy, remember, and often act upon them…These teachers view the curriculum as an overarching umbrella for self-selected inquires into a topic related to the curricular content.” S. Harvey and H. Daniels Inquiry Circles in Action: Comprehension and Collaboration, 2009

4. What content is best suited to inquiry learning? • students show curiosity • practical connection to the real world • topic is rich • interpretation and analysis are required • subtopics to be explored • opportunity for debate • a values, social or moral dimension • multiple outcomes, understandings or solutions • investigation leads to even more questions, problems or puzzles

5. Why “bother” with inquiry? • Teacher heavy upfront and during… • Passion/choice leads to engagement! • We know that people become invested in learning that offers choice.

6. Immerse • Invite curiosity • Build background knowledge • Find topics • Wonder • For example, in our new Social Studies curricula, essential questions are: • Gr. 2: Community: How do we meet needs and wants in my community? • Gr. 4: Saskatchewan: What can be done to ensure continued sustainable • development in Saskatchewan? • Gr. 8: Canadian Society: How do you define Canadian culture and identity?

7. Investigate • Develop questions • Search for information • Discover answers • Ask more probing questions • Search and research Subsidiary Questions: How is a need different than a want? Could different people have the same needs or the same wants? What are some examples of a need? What are some examples of a want?

8. Coalesce • Refine research • Synthesize information • Make inferences and draw conclusions • Build knowledge

9. Go Public • Share learning • Demonstrate understanding • Take action • Activism – doing something specific • Awareness – educating others • Aid – contributing your own resources.

10. How is this different than a project? • Projects may have more teacher control; Inquiry is driven by students as they have more responsibility for determining their learning. • Teacher often chooses topics in project work. • Lack of authentic purpose or audience • Lack of models and modeling • Projects often focus on research technicalities instead of content and thinking • Projects often lack well structured student collaboration • Go Public is not always present in projects.

11. How do I assess inquiry • A rubric is required as the tool needs to be broad use…see sample