There
are many discussions happening about 21st Century teaching and
learning. Lots of conversations about skills such as collaboration, adaptability,
creativity, effective communication and the ability to analyze and synthesize
information.
How
do we help kids prepare for a world where knowledge is abundant and
opportunities for learning are everywhere?
One
strategy for bridging this gap is the use of an “Inquiry” or “Active Learning”
lesson design. Although not exactly new, the use of inquiry is challenging for
teachers, students and parents who are unfamiliar with it. Randall D. Knight at
California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo has compiled a list
of research-based active learning strategies most suitable for teaching physics
in his book, Five Easy Lessons: Strategies for Successful Physics Teaching
(Addison Wesley, 2004). These strategies for active learning and inquiry can
apply to any content area but have been used in science education for years.
Knight
points out that active learning strategies have five traits, which are quoted
here from his 2004 book:
•
Students spend much of class time actively
engaged in physics. The engagement consists of thinking,
talking, and doing physics, not merely listening to someone else talk about
physics.
•
Students interact with their peers. Communication
between and among individual students and groups is an important component of
knowledge construction - developing, sharing, and evaluating ideas and
processes.
•
Students receive immediate feedback on their
work. Students receive corrective feedback from their
peers or the teacher as appropriate to the learning situation. Students must
have a standard against which to measure their propositional and procedural
knowledge.
•
The instructor is more of a facilitator, less
of a conveyor of knowledge. The saying, "The teacher
should be a guide on the side, and not a sage on the stage" is a statement
that helps make the point. Students should "construct" knowledge from
observations and reflections whenever possible. This includes the development
of concepts and laws from first-hand laboratory experiences.
•
Students take responsibility for their
knowledge. This includes student
metacognition (knowing what one knows and doesn't know) and self regulation
(bringing oneself into compliance with expectations).
Inquiry
is more difficult than it may sound. It is a strategy that challenges many of
our traditional ideas about how classrooms should be organized and what
teachers should be doing. It feels “loosely constructed” and can be particularly
hard for students who are most successful when they have very clear guidelines and
feel most effective when given highly organized directions. Inquiry feels
sloppy at times and requires a very different kind of thinking.
It
is critical that students gain understanding and practice with inquiry-based
lessons because they mimic many of the experiences that they will have when
they participate in college coursework and the workplace. Employers continue to
echo that they need talented young people who are able to find creative
solutions to problems without needing a lot of direction. Successful people
today are prepared to create their own jobs and not assume that they will one
day be working for someone else.
Inquiry
is important. We have to model it and help our kids have the “grit” to figure
things out.
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