This week I met with Sister Rosemary Nyirumbe, the nun for whose orphanage we are creating and adult basic education program for the abused child mothers that she takes in whose lives and education have been disrupted by war. Sister Rosemary is passionate that her girls have access to education so that they can find their own voices and move beyond their circumstances. Sister's work began because of her own inquiry into circumstances in her country, and she is not afraid to communicate what she knows and believes, collaborate with diverse groups of people, create opportunities that help the downtrodden build self-worth, and critically evaluate circumstances. Listening to her reinforced for me that supporting literacy, new and old, is the foundation to empowerment for all learners.
Learners are also empowered when they are able to ask questions about topics of interest and use those questions as a guide to finding information they can use to enrich their lives. So this week, we are beginning to read and discuss about inquiry. While inquiry does include communication, collaboration, and comprehension, critical thinking is going to be a key focus here as is creativity. Before you begin reading, I'd like you to respond to these questions: what does inquiry mean to you? What might be some advantages to doing inquiry with students at the age level you are interested in? Some challenges? Why do you think critical thinking is key to inquiry? What is the creative part?
This week you are reading 2 articles and 3 book chapters. I'd suggest reading the Johnson chapter first, followed by the two articles. Read the BABR chapters last. They are really full of tools and strategies for inquiry, so much so that I was a bit overwhelmed! Here is some vocabulary I"d like for you to use in your blog discussions: locate, evaluate, synthesize, integrate, divergent search phrases, repurposing, reinforcement, problem posing, online search, search engines, search strategies, curating, organizing, summarizing. I'd like each blog group to synthesize the information and collaborate on creating a definition of inquiry learning grounded in all of the readings for this week. Make this synthesis a generative synthesis (see the DeSchyver article for a definition of this term). Then I want you all to be critical evaluators. Divide up the tools from BABR chapters to try out--your leader can either make assignments or you can volunteer. Critically evaluate the tools that you tried out and write about them in your blogs. Don't forget the lists of tools that we started in your blogging groups last weekend in class and return to those Google docs and add in any that fit.
Remember that this week you need to fill out the Virtual Check In form (http://goo.gl/forms/bNU839rZvq). Please do this by Thursday midnight. I"ll check regularly and get back to you. Have a good fall weekend.
Inquiry is the exploration of an idea, concept, or something. It is like an investigation into something. I think guided inquiry is a great way to learn in the classroom. In my experience this establishes the teacher more in the role of facilitator. To be totally transparent, I haven’t thought a lot about inquiry and reading together. I could see that inquiry is easier to do for science or a thematic unit (I teach second grade) with ties into reading. The biggest challenges I see to setting this up in a classroom would be the time required, using the required curriculum, and ensuring all the required standards are met through inquiry. When inquiry is used in the classroom, students need to be taught how to think critically about what is being read and used as sources for exploration. The digital world is full of great information but not all of it is truthful. It is essential that students be taught the steps to think critically to ensure their ability to evaluate and analyze the topic of study and resources used. Guided inquiry in itself can be very creative. There are a variety of ways it can be utilized in the classroom. Inquiry is also open-ended. Students lead the direction of the project and the teacher simply helps provide tools and guidance.
ReplyDeleteWhen I think of inquiry, I envision asking questions with the purpose of investigating an area or topic, which may lead to additional questions, resulting in increased knowledge. Working with elementary school children it is important to foster their sense of curiosity, and most importantly not make school a place where there is a right and a wrong answer for all content they are introduced to through their classes. The challenge for many teachers, administrators, and policy-makers is a mixed bag of interpretations of what schooling should be. To support a child’s curiosity child need to pose questions, use their background experiences coupled with areas and subjects of interest, and situate those topics and subjects authentically.
ReplyDeleteCritical thinking is an integral component in inquiry and investigations because critical thinking by nature questions the status quo. Critical thinking challenges the accepted or current understandings. Through questioning, investigating, and allowing oneself to be open to different interpretations, change may occur. Change may not be the desired outcomes of some who have put the current excepted standards, boundaries, rules, laws or social understandings in place. Ensuring that inquiry is fostered and supported in school is giving students the tools and dispositions to question, reason, and judge situations and circumstances themselves, rather than relying on others to lead their silent voices. The creativity comes into play in using critical thinking skills in creative ways to have a voice to promote change—change that will benefit people and as I’ve begun to understand, democratic societies.
What does inquiry mean to me? I think inquiry is inquiring, asking, wondering, being curious, and wanting to learn something. Inquiry learning in the classroom engages students naturally, as it is based on their interests. It is active, hands-on learning in which the teacher is a facilitator, coach, and encourager instead of being the all-knowing, omnipotent knowledge-giver.
ReplyDeleteWhat might be some advantages of doing inquiry with pre-k students? Pre-K students are full of questions and curious about the world around them. By listening to their interests and letting them take an active role in what they are learning—they will definitely be engaged and interested! Another advantage is that inquiry learning requires hands-on participation which pre-k students definitely require.
Challenges? Some of the challenges of using the inquiry model include the ease and ability to meet required guidelines and skills within a preset time frame since you are not following a prescribed text or manual. Another challenge is that not all students are interested in the same topic so you may have several small groups of learners completing different inquiry projects. This could be difficult for the classroom teacher to guide multiple learning experiences.
Why do you think critical thinking is key to inquiry? I believe critical thinking skills are integral for the inquiry method. Students may begin with surface-level questions and learning about a subject. With the guidance of the teacher they will learn to think more critically about the information and form new questions that will deepen their knowledge and skills to find answers. Rote learning, worksheets, etc…are not the emphasis in inquiry learning. Thinking critically is a major component in the inquiry process.
What is the creative part? In my opinion, creativity plays an important role in the inquiry process. The students can brainstorm creative ways to share the information they have learned. They could decide to write a class book, make an artistic representation, use a word web to show learning, make a class power-point presentation…the list goes on and on with how students can represent their learning creatively. I feel like it is my job, as the teacher, to guide their learning by asking questions that will scaffold their learning and deepen their understanding by providing creative tools, texts, and experiences for the students to internalize learning.
What does inquiry mean to you?
ReplyDeleteInquiry is the means by which you ask questions and investigate a topic, person or something that you would like to more about.
What might be some advantages to doing inquiry with students at the age level you are interested in?
I am interested in teaching elementary aged students. I think some advantages to doing inquiry with these students may include but not limited to-:
Knowing their level of comprehension, this will help me as the teacher to know where to start in the teaching process.
Understand their likes and dislikes. This will help me incorporate topics and activities that they like. This will help to keep them engaged and interested in what is being taught. I also think that another advantage might be that as the teacher I will be able to know and understand the best instructional strategies that provide for optimum comprehension in the classroom. Students engaged in inquire will be alert of their surroundings and they are able to decipher right from wrong.
Some challenges of inquire as a teacher may come in the form of adaptation. Gaining information from the students that may be different from what you though you would get would make a means for new train of thought and delivery of information. For students, they might not know how to “dig deep.” Giving one worded answers or only seeing the cup as half full can obstruct their thoughts from actually seeing/knowing the real meaning behind situations presented to them.
Why do you think critical thinking is key to inquiry?
I think critical thinking is key to inquiry because it allows both the teacher and the student to think outside the box. It allows for different points of views to be formed, and the ability to understand that there can be many sides to a story. Critical thinking to inquiry shows that everyone can be open to new ideas, change, interests and even vulnerability. It allows us to learn from our mistakes.
What is the creative part?
The creative part of inquire is the way in which teachers and or students are able to present the information they have gained.
In my opinion inquiry is the way in which one tries to obtain or gather information from a specific source in order that they may know more about what they are looking for. Some ways one can inquire may be through questioning and discussion and also through research and investigating.
ReplyDeleteAt the elementary level engaging in inquiry with students always for me as the teacher to understand their train of thought, where they are with regards to their comprehension on a specific topic and it also allows me to create lessons to fit their understand. I will not teach above their level of understanding, I will give suitable activities, use appropriate technology, and will be able to ask more questions along the way.
Unfortunately, inquiry at this age can come with some challenges on both sides. Students can become frustrated with questioning as the teacher can become discouraged with the lack of participation by the students. Also, students may shy away from answering or answering honestly because they may feel as if they are wrong and their peers may laugh at them.
Last, I think that critical thinking is key to inquiry because both teachers and students are able to look and think beyond what is being asked, read and or discussed. Critical thinking helps students to expand their learning as well as their intellectual horizons. I think the creative part or inquiry is when teachers are able continuously provide different ways and use different tools to gather information from students. For example, instead of always just asking questions teachers can become creative when they incorporate technology, arts and craft, different environments, other teachers and community individuals.
Inquiry, to me, is the process of thoroughly exploring and vetting a topic. Curiosity creates the question; question leads to a series of experiments and/or research that gives more information with which to create a guess answer for the question or, at the very least, a strong observation; the research and experiments are vetted for validity and, if found false, are disregarded. This continues until the inquirer has an adequate answer to the original question and that all supporting experiments and research have been validated. I guess I see it as a kind of scientific process--hence the need for critical thinking.
ReplyDeleteOther than being used to come up with the question, creativity finding the ways in which to answer that question. One person may want to research the question, but another may want to experiment, focusing on an aspect of the question others may not have seen before or testing an element someone else couldn't see.
Inquiry is a phase of questioning led by curiosity. When you inquire you question, explore, and analyze something. In early childhood education inquiry based learning is highly respected and practiced because it allows teachers to differentiate based on individual needs and levels. It can also led to higher level thinking for students. The challenge for my age level is that it can be messy and loud sometimes. I don’t mind this but some administrators think that if they are being loud that it’s out of control. A challenge for the teacher is that you must gradually give up control to your students. If you are promoting autonomy this task is easier than one may think. Critical thinking is key to inquiry because there is no one answer and you can explore and analyze multiple aspects of concepts and skills. In turn inquiry promotes critical thinking skills that are needed in all learning domains. Creativity can be intertwined in all and any activities just by having individuals involved. It is amazing the amount of diversity and creativity that people bring to the table and can express in inquiry based learning. Because it isn’t rigidly planned people often feel more comfortable to express their creativity in these circumstances.
ReplyDeleteInquiry is investigating or exploring a topic or concept using a variety of subtopics, methods, and activities. This gives you the opportunity to use children's interests and gives them responsibility for their own learning. Inquiry based teaching and learning is active, hands on, and interactive. Some challenges include the idea that teachers have to have expectations explained and understood by students in order to be successful. Teachers need to be able to give them control. Also, some principals are stricter about using textbooks and standards and whatever else. My principal told us to do what we want but to document and assess. So I have a lot of freedom.
ReplyDeleteStudents have to be able to think critically about the topic at hand in order to fully understand. Children are expected to explore the topic on a level deeper than surface or general. Creativity can come into play in the way that lessons are presented and how the topic is explored. There is also a lot of room for final or culminating projects that children can use their knowledge and creativity.
Inquiry is a process in which children experiment, explore, observe, research, and interact with a concept or idea in order to find the answers to their questions.
ReplyDeleteThe main advantage when doing inquiry in early childhood is that children are very inquisitive and have a lot of questions. There is a lot of opportunity to help them build general background knowledge and to make connections. The main challenge when teaching through inquiry in kindergarten is scaffolding the research part of the process for non-readers. Another challenge is thinking of developmentally appropriate ways that children can show what they have learned by the end of an inquiry unit.
Critical thinking is key to inquiry because students must think metacognitively about what they already know about a topic. Then they must use their current knowledge to generate questions about what they want to know. Finally, as they learn new information, they must evaluate it in order to decide if it answers their questions and to determine how organize it within existing schema. Creativity is used in inquiry when children synthesize information in order to make a product, solve a problem, etc.
I agree with everyone's definitions of inquiry, and would add that it is more student-led than teacher-led. The teacher acts as a facilitator of the researching and exploration that happens. Students are able to organically explore an interest in order to add it to their toolbox of knowledge. The challenges that come with open inquiry instruction are time constraints, alignment to curriculum and standards, and teaching students how to properly research and explore, and use meaningful discourse when doing so. The obvious advantages include teaching students this real-world skill of exploring a topic of interest, and reinforces that learning has a purpose and a meaning for them.
ReplyDeleteBeing creative when carrying this out includes knowing what to research and where to look for information (other than the teacher). Students can also use creativity to share the information learned as well. Critical thinking plays a big part in inquiry as well because students are asked to discuss, explore and find ways to fit pieces of new knowledge together.
I would define inquiry as a progression of questions that are asked in an effort to explain and/or understand. When in relation to learning and a classroom setting, inquiry reflects the Constructivist theory, and involves developing a deep understanding of the content, partnerships and/or collaboration with "experts" in the content area, and authentic applications of the learned content.
ReplyDeleteThere is so much focus on test preparation and performance in the elementary schools and classrooms that inquiry based learning provides students with an authentic learning experience. It allows them to see relevance in their work, and minimizes the apathy towards school and learning that is currently running rampant in classrooms. Inquiry based learning is demanding and helps to develop the "21st Century Skills" within participants. It can help develop a love for school and problem solving at an early age, which is so important!
(Un)Fortunately (depending on how you look at it), inquiry based learning is time consuming and can be messy and loud. Some teachers may describe it as chaotic, as there tends to be a lot going on at all times. It can also be frustrating, as oftentimes the learners must change directions and/or adjust their focus as their work progresses.
In a traditional inquiry learning situation, it is the instructors role to facilitate thinking NOT by asking the questions, but by engaging the student in conversations and situations in which the learner asks the questions based on their learning. This innately requires critical thinking because superficial questions would be easily answered by observation, whereas more critical questions would reflect a deeper understanding of the content and processes.
The creativity component can be easily recognized as learners take control of their own inquiries, either in topic, methodology, product, or a combination of these. In my opinion, the most effective and authentic inquiry projects allow students to experiment and select all of these, which should reflect the needs of the project, but also reflect the needs and desires of the learner as well.
Inquiry means questioning either verbally, textually, or even silently. The advantages of doing inquiry with my students, adult learners ranging from 20s to 50s, can be diverse. The first and foremost advantage is the fact that inquiry prompts my students to think about a topic critically. To question, people must “think” critically about their decision about the question by asking these questions to themselves: what is my question about? why is it significant at this point? how can I articulate my questions?...and etc. There are much more thoughts involved actually. By answering these types of questions at the speed of light in a classroom, sometimes it takes more time to articulate though, my students will critically think not only about the topic, but also about how to make meanings for the topic. Particular, my students are international ESL students; therefore, authentic and open-ended inquiry will give them a real desire to “verbally output” their target language features, e.g., English language grammar knowledge, how to pronounce words, and various strategies about speaking cohesively. Also, inquiring with each other will help them build up a learning community, which is essential in learning and in NL as well.
ReplyDeleteOne challenge for my students would be that inquiry could make them feel nervous, especially when they are not from a culture, which fosters open discussion. Honestly, discussion-based class was quite new to me when I came in the US as well, although now I am a big fan of it and teach my classes in that way. Likewise, some of my students might ask me this question if I persevere with inquiry-based classes, “teacher, I don't want to discuss. I want 300 super vocabulary words to remember.” Actually, one student from another culture asked me this question a few months ago. However, my stance is positive even for this group of students, because, in my experience as a teacher, they became accustomed to it by realizing the advantages of inquiry-based classes.
As mentioned briefly, I believe critical thinking is essential in inquiry. Students need to reflectively think about a topic with all of the 6 lenses of Bloom’s taxonomy, at the speed of light, and decide whether to ask a question. In other words, when they articulate their questions, it means that they processed the topic all the way through the Bloom’s taxonomy. This notion could be critiqued easily because it looks too theoretical; but still that should be what it is in terms of what’s happening in the students’ mind when inquiring. In addition, I want to emphasize the metacognitive aspect, which can only happen when they make inquiries. What I mean is that when a student ask a question either verbally or textually, the question became an “agenda” for the student as well as others. Therefore, the student can metacognitively evaluate his/her idea through self- or group-discussions later on. With this in mind, the creative parts lie at the beginning phase very prominently and also at the follow up discussion phases as well.
What does inquiry mean to you? What might be some advantages to doing inquiry with students at the age level you are interested in? Some challenges?
ReplyDeleteI think inquiry is just discovery. I think this is learning on your own and figuring it out yourself. This is a very powerful way to learn and I think it can really solidify the knowledge for the student if he/she can make their own discovery. Inquiry with elementary age children can be a very valuable way of teaching. Kids are more likely to remember a word if they found it in the text and looked it up, as opposed to me telling them what the word is and what it means. Inquiry is having a question and figuring out your own answer. I think this skill can be taught early on but it comes with some challenges for the younger ones. The skills of inquiry and the questions students need to ask themselves while reading need to be taught and modeled, especially for younger students who may not have as much experience. But, I think they can pick up inquiry learning very easily, because kids are naturally curious.
Why do you think critical thinking is key to inquiry? What is the creative part?
The creative part is coming up with the questions for inquiry. Students have to think deeply about what they are reading and what they do not know. What they do not know leads to questioning and inquiry. Hopefully the students will then make it a mission to find out the answer(s) to the question(s).
It is difficult to just choose three most important things I learned this semester about New/new literacies. Perhaps the one that stood out to me the most was the use and study of the six social practices. I am second grade teacher and hopefully reading specialist in the future. I think it important to move students past mere word calling to really engaging in text as a social practice in light of the 21st century. As educators no matter the role we fill, we need to continually evaluate how we move students past the view of literacy as word calling to being engaged as collaborators. Our pedagogy should reflect this view of new literacies.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, I valued comparing and contrasting critical literacy and critical thinking. Using my own words as a definition, critical literacy is participating in the role of literacy in a way that evaluates and engages the reader beyond consumer (social practice). It also involves the view that literacy isn’t static but ever changing in relationship to what is around it. I realize that this isn’t a comprehensive definition, but it is still developing and changing in my mind.
Additionally, it was just great to be reminded that no matter the level of the student, through the affordances of various types of technology, differentiation can and should occur. Moving the classroom to more technology in a 1:1 ratio can help with this process. Hopefully, I can write a grant in the future for my class.
I think that I have me a few of my goals. I have integrated more technology into the classroom and in the communication process with parents. I would still like to discover how, as a reading specialist, technology could be integrated as a coach or in the intervention process.