Inquiry TeachingLearning Strategies Eli Spina MCDB ejspinagmail com

Inquiry Teaching/Learning Strategies Eli Spina (MCDB) – ejspina@gmail. com “The meaning of ‘knowing’ has shifted from being able to remember and repeat information to being able to find and use it. ” (National Research Council, 2007)

Learning Goals 1. Comprehend constructivist learning theory and teaching practices 2. Analyze an inquiry based learning exercise 3. Synthesize a conceptual framework of inquiry based teaching & learning strategies

Constructivism “Humans generate knowledge and meaning from an interaction between their experiences and their ideas. ” - Wikipedia Proponents: Dewey – “Directed living” Montessori – Practical play Piaget – Accommodation and assimilation Vygotsky – Zone of proximal development Bruner – Discovery learning (pure inquiry)

Schemata “Sets of linked mental representations of the world… used to understand & respond to situations. ” Assimilation: using an existing schema to deal with new information Accommodation: existing schema are changed to deal with new information Mc. Leod, S. A. (2009)

Inquiry Based T/L (IBTL) Pose questions instead of presenting facts. (Banchi & Bell, 2008)

PXn. L Similarities PBL • Social constructivist origins • Active engagement • Foster collaborative skills POGIL PLTL • Individual responsibility to the group • Group responsibility to ensure shared understanding Differences • Varied duration • Open ended • Often uses primary literature • Short, focused activities • Learning cycle of exploration, invention & application • Supplemental sessions • No instructor presence • Peer leaders promote within group interaction (Eberlein et al. , 2008)

Etymology of Subfields Late 1800’s: Constructivism 1990’s: IBTL becomes popular • PBL (Project based learning) • PLTL (Peer led team learning) 1999: POGIL (R. Moog et al. ) 2004: Widely cited literature review supporting pure open inquiry as ineffective or even detrimental to naive learners. (Mayer) 2005 – 2015: Many publications using POGIL in CS, engineering, chemistry & med schools

An Example of Effectiveness * Lower-level questions: Knowledge & Comprehension Higher-level questions: Application & Analysis (Soltis et al. , 2015) *All exams were 50 MC questions. http: //www. learnnc. org/

Inquiry Inception 1) What is scientific inquiry? Warner Bros. Pictures 2) How can inquiry be used to construct knowledge? a. What is learning? Active learning? b. What is knowledge? Brainstorm answers in pairs/groups of 3.

Griffith’s Experiment (1928) (Mulligan, 2014)

What’s the role of the instructor? How would you approach IBTL depending on: Environment? Goals? Engagement/Authenticity? Assessment? Others…? How should the instructor & students interact with each other and the course content?

How To (Re)Organize These Ideas? • • • Sequence Cycle Concept map Lists Table • Others…? Content Student Inquiry Instructor Environment

What Just Happened? • • I posed a question = guidance You read & brainstormed ideas = “research” We discussed as a group = reflection/discourse We co-created a final product = authenticity Active learning was incorporated Inquiry Based Learning using peer-teaching, discussion and reflection. This only required minor background knowledge and structured delivery of guiding questions. chipbruce. net

Learning Goals 1. Comprehend constructivist learning theory and teaching practices 2. Apply IBTL to analyze an IBTL exercise 3. Synthesize a conceptual framework of IBTL strategies

Garrison & Anderson (2003)

Final (Evaluative) Thoughts Was this useful? • Evaluate our summary of IBTL and usefulness in undergraduate science education • Evaluate your own understanding of IBTL • Evaluate benefits/drawbacks of other approaches for IBTL