Inquiry Based Learning – What I Learned

Today wraps up my Inquiry Based Learning class and I can firmly say that I learned far more about Inquiry Based Learning than I realized there was to learn! I thought I had a general understanding of this practice, but I learned that there was so much more to it and there were so many details and important steps needed to create a truly valuable Inquiry Based Learning experience.

The biggest change I experienced as a learner and a teacher during this class is a large amount of new knowledge, ideas, and strategies. I learned so much from the reading and articles that were a part of our weekly content and also so much from my classmates as they posted their ideas, lessons, and units. In my final blog post for my Inquiry Based Learning class, I have reflected on my newly gained understandings and insights.

Inquiry Based Learning…

• is a dynamic process driven by investigable questions.
• focuses on students using process skills to learn content.
• provides opportunity for students to develop process skills which will serve them well in their future studies and employment.
• can be teacher-directed, teacher-student shared, or student-driven, depending on the activity and circumstances.
• has essential features including engaging in questions, giving priority to evidence, using evidence to formulate explanations, making connections, and communicating and justifying explanations.
• can be enhanced by the use of web 2.0 tools to engage, create, and communicate.
• can be planned well following the 5E instructional model, beginning with the end goal in mind, and helping students connect prior knowledge to new learning.
• should be assessed with both formative assessments, frequently and during the learning in order to make instructional adjustments, and with summative assessments at the end of the unit.
• can be effectively assessed with the use of rubrics to assess content and process skills.

There are several steps that I have started to take and will be taking in order to provide valuable inquiry learning for my students. The following are my action steps:

1. Give students a topic and have them start to ASK QUESTIONS! What do they think of? What do they wonder about? What could we explore and learn about related to this topic?
2. Focus on teaching process skills and provide more opportunities to put process skills to use.
3. Leave behind the role of instructor more often and give my students more control and say in how we learn about a topic. Give prompts or give some suggestions as needed.
4. Use the 5E instructional model to plan my units and lessons.
5. Incorporate and offer additional Web 2.0 tools.
6. Increase my use of rubrics for assessment of content and process skills.

I have learned that I can bring a lot more inquiry into my classroom which will increase student engagement and knowledge that will more likely be committed to long term memory. It is really important to me that my students care about what they are learning and have the desire to dig deeper and learn more because they are genuinely interested. I believe following the action steps I listed above will help me create a positive, engaging classroom.