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Inquiry based learning – posing a question & investigating As a year 2 student asked during our investigation about soil, “can we eat soil?” IBL - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLQPXd8BiIA
Inquiry based learning – posing a question & investigating
As a year 2 student asked during our investigation about soil, “can we eat soil?”
IBL - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLQPXd8BiIA
9/2/11
2
Why student voice?
• In a tradi\onal classroom, the teacher ‘determines what is to be learned, how it is learned and the pace and rhythm of the learning. The learner, to a large degree, loses control. With someone else in charge, personal growth (and mo\va\on) diminishes’
• (Brooks and Brooks 1999:46)
© KATH MURDOCH 2011 text slides only
ANending to the founda\ons
• Community • Choice and voice • Building learning power
© KATH MURDOCH 2011 text slides only
“ We are all responsible for our own learning. The teacher’s responsibility is to create educa:onal environments that permit students to assume the responsibility that is righ=ully and
naturally theirs.”
Brooks and Brooks 1999: 43
© KATH MURDOCH 2011 text slides only
What makes a successful learner in a professional development workshop?
A. Seeks connec8ons between ideas presented and own context.
B. Maintains an open mind – willing to review/change thinking
C. Willingly par8cipates in tasks
D. Makes clear notes for future reference
E. Ask ques8ons for clarifica8on
F. Avoids distrac8on and stays focussed
G. Offers ideas and sugges8ons to the group
H. Makes a plan for immediate and future use of new learning
I. Seeks feedback and sugges8ons for growth/improvement © KATH MURDOCH 2011 text slides only
9/2/11
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• Who’s got the power? • What makes a great community? • How and why do people’s bodies change over \me? • Why can’t we survive without invertebrates? • Where do I belong? • Does history make us who we are? • Do people need heroes? • What does it mean to make a healthy choice? • What makes it move?
What’s worth inquiring into?
© KATH MURDOCH 2011 text slides only
Scaffolding tasks toward deeper understanding
• A model is not a recipe! It is a framework. It provides a general guide for planning, teaching and –most importantly – thinking about how to construct a journey of inquiry with and for students.
• Arrange the tasks in the envelope in a way that best ‘makes sense’ to you – and resonates with your framework or model for a unit of inquiry…
© KATH MURDOCH 2011 text slides only
A model for inquiry based planning
© Kath Murdoch 2010 © KATH MURDOCH 2011 text slides only
Sequencing the inquiry
© Kath Murdoch 2010 © KATH MURDOCH 2011 text slides only
8/24/10
1
The inquiring Classroom What do effec6ve inquiry teachers DO?
© Kath Murdoch
August 2010
Text slides from conference keynote address
© Kath Murdoch 2010
Confident, connected, acCvely involved, life long learners.
• To cope with the demands of the 21st century, students need to know more than core subjects. They need to know how to use their knowledge and skills-‐by thinking criCcally, applying knowledge to new situaCons, analyzing informaCon, comprehending new ideas, communicaCng, collaboraCng, solving problems, and making decisions.
© Kath Murdoch 2010
THE INQUIRING CLASSROOM
• …. A place where teachers support their students to inves6gate quesCons, problems, passions and interests about the world both around and within them. In an inquiring classroom, the student is researcher – both in collabora6on with others and as an individual.
© Kath Murdoch 2010
• …in the inquiring classroom, the focus is on learning to learn alongside learning about ‘big ideas’ that helps us make sense of the world.
• In an inquiring classroom, it is the LEARNER that constructs his/her understandings – moving from the known to the new.
© Kath Murdoch 2010
• “It is the person who gently closes the classroom door and performs the teaching act…the person who puts into place the end effects of so many policies, who interprets these policies during their 15,000 hours of schooling”. Ha`e 2003
© Kath Murdoch 2010
“ We are all responsible for our own learning. The teacher’s responsibility is to create educa:onal environments that permit students to assume the responsibility that is righ=ully and
naturally theirs.”
Brooks and Brooks 1999: 43
© Kath Murdoch 2010
8/24/10
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• Pedagogy should, at its best, be about what teachers do that not only helps students to learn but acCvely strengthens their capacity to learn.’
• David Hargreaves, Learning for Life, 2004
© Kath Murdoch 2010
TOP 10 PRACTICES OF THE EFFECTIVE INQUIRY TEACHER
© Kath Murdoch 2010
PracCce 1
Work in ways that challenge more students to think more deeply more of the 6me. EffecCve Inquiry teachers
rarely think ‘for’ students – rather they quesCon, prompt and scaffold in ways that assist students to do more thinking for themselves.
© Kath Murdoch 2010
PracCce 2
• EffecCve inquiry teachers teach students about thinking. They use specific vocabulary to describe thinking and build students’ tool kit of criCcal, creaCve and reflecCve thinking skills and strategies. They help students ‘noCce’ their thinking and ask students to share their thinking and thinking processes with each other.
© Kath Murdoch 2010
PracCce 3
• EffecCve inquiry teachers deliberately provoke curiosity and wonderment. They encourage and celebrate quesCons and explicitly teach students about how to ask different kinds of quesCons. They model what it means to be a conCnuously curious person.
© Kath Murdoch 2010
QuesCons drive learning
• What makes a great narraCve?
• How do good teams work together? • How can science help us cook? • What does it mean to be healthy?
• What’s the REAL cost of what we buy?
© Kath Murdoch 2010
8/24/10
3
PracCce 4
• EffecCve inquiry teachers invite students’ voices into the learning process. They CO construct learning experiences, intenCons and success criteria. They rouCnely involve students in making decisions about their learning.
© Kath Murdoch 2010
PracCce 5
• EffecCve inquiry teachers help students make connec6ons between the ‘ known’ and the ‘new’. They work with students to assist them to see how their thinking grows and changes over the course of an invesCgaCon.
© Kath Murdoch 2010
PracCce 6
• EffecCve inquiry teachers explicitly teach the skills and processes used by researchers. They help students see themselves as capable researchers who have several ‘methodologies’ available to them.
© Kath Murdoch 2010
PracCce 7
EffecCve inquiry teachers ensure that students have the ‘bigger picture’. They provide students with a context and purpose for their learning – and they have a clear picture of what that bigger picture is themselves.
© Kath Murdoch 2010
PracCce 9
• EffecCve inquiry teachers ‘let kids in’ on the secret. They share learning intenCons with their students. Their planning is transparent.
© Kath Murdoch 2010
PracCce 10
• EffecCve inquiry teachers focus as much on ‘process’ as they do on content. They regularly invite students to plan and reflect on ways in which they will learn. Their feedback to students focuses on learning behaviors and skills as well as understandings. They pose quesCons about process and build it in to their everyday discourse. …(Guy Claxton’s) split screen teaching!
© Kath Murdoch 2010
A few resources
• Wonderopolis
• Stumbleupon
• Literacy shed • Curiosity.com
• Na[onal Geographic
© KATH MURDOCH 2012
Teach through compelling ques[ons
• What makes a great poem?
• Does the past make us who we are?
• Where’s the maths in the Olympics?
• What’s big?
• What makes a paiern a paiern?
• What is art? • How does the land change?
• What’s fair?
© KATH MURDOCH 2012
FRAMING THE INQUIRY
initial student input...What do we know students are interested
in learning about and doing? What does THIS group of students need?
System level Curriculumwhat connections can
be made (does the context led itself to standards)
Learning intentionswhat do we want students
to understand? (How do these understandings link to the 'big idea'...)
to be able to do? and to be?
How might we know they have learned these things?
Context for inquiry: project, problem, event
essential questionIs it worthwhile?
BIG IDEAS - what robust
concepts drive this inquiry?
© Kath Murdoch 2010
phases of inquiry
Sorting outanalysing information,looking for patterns,
reviewing thinking, making meaningexpressing new understandings
Going furtherPersonal and small group pathways of investigation
taking learning further, personalising
Finding out: gathering information from a range of sources -
working as researchers - continuing to raise questionslearning skills of investigation
Tuning in to students' thinking. Establishing the 'known',
connecting to students' lives, sense of purpose for inquiry
first thinkingfirst invitation for questions
Synthesising and reflectingreviewing earlier thinking,
identifying changes in understanding, making connections between ideasidentifying what has been learned
Acting and applyingsharing new learning with others
making a difference with my learningapplying to new contexts
creating/constructing/doing
© Kath Murdoch 2010
Developing learning assets in the inquiry classroom
We are researchers: curious, courageous, critical
We are thinkers: open minded, flexible, persistent
We are collaborators: empathetic, compassionate, reliable
We are self managers: resilient, responsible, reflective
We are communicators: confident, responsive, respectful
Tuesday, 24 September 2013
Dear Parents and Carers,
Having just attended a professional learning day last Wednesday, which was titled,
“Beyond units of work: inquiry as a mindset for improving teaching and learning” and
presented by Kath Murdoch of the University of Melbourne, I am keen to put some of the
ideas into practice.
I have already had the opportunity to incorporate inquiry learning techniques into our
1/2TK learning and the resulting interest was fantastic.
On Friday afternoons, we usually have ‘Friday Fun’. Beginning this Friday, 30th August, I
wish to make a slight modification to this and to call it “iTime”. iTime will be an
opportunity for individual students to learn about something that they have a passionate
interest in through investigation.
Students will be asked to come up with a question that they can investigate on Friday
afternoons. They will also have to plan the resources that they will require. Whilst there are
resources available at school, they may have to bring some things from home to undertake
their investigation.
I urge you to discuss with your child the things they may be interested in learning about.
Preferably, these will be things that they can investigate in one learning session. That is
within an hour, so they will need to come up with a new learning focus each week.
If you are available to assist on Friday afternoons, we would most welcome your assistance.
If you can assist during any of these times, please advise me by e-mail on
Yours sincerely,
Tony Kennedy
1/2TK – Lilly Pillies
Name: ____________________
I would like to learn about:
____________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________
My question for investigation is:
____________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________
Things that I will need are:
____________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________
Will I need to bring anything from
home? YES / NO
I will need to bring:
____________________________________
____________________________________
I have spoken with an adult about
my idea.
YES (Signed _______________________)
iTime — 1/2TK
Individual learning licence
· I can be trusted to manage
my own behaviour.
· I can be trusted to work
independently.
· I can be trusted to be
responsible and
considerate of other
learners.
· I can be trusted when moving
around the school.
· I can be trusted to use other
learning spaces in a caring
and responsible way.
· I will be confined to the
classroom if I break any rule.
Student name: _____________
Signed: ___________
