Verbal Design A Simulated Research Activity plcmets Simulated
Verbal Design: A Simulated Research Activity plcmets
Simulated Research Activities • • • Hands-on Inquiry Simulations Data Sets Evidence Evaluation Verbal Design of Research plcmets
Verbal Design of Research • Learners are given a question and must design an investigation that can answer it • Learners determine what counts as evidence for a claim and figure out how to collect that evidence • This requires learners to consider the same types of issues as scientists, such as type of design (e. g. experimental, survey), need for controls, bias, measures, and sampling plcmets
An Example • As a teacher, you know that asking effective questions can enhance learning for students. But in inquiry activities students should take charge of at least part of their process and you wonder if asking students to answer questions controls their process. Should you give students a list of written questions at the beginning of an inquiry activity or stop periodically during the activity to ask a question and have the class discuss it? Or are there better ways to use questions? plcmets
An Example • Research Question: What is the best way for teachers to use questions in inquiry activities? • Task: Design a research study that can help to answer this question. plcmets
Some Things to Consider • You might need to refine your question. • What are the outcomes you’re trying to impact? Content knowledge? Quality of a student product from the activity? Ability to do inquiry? Motivation? • What can you use as evidence of an effect on the outcomes you’ve selected? (Measures) • Do you need a control group? • Suppose you use different types of questioning techniques with different classes. What if the classes are different? plcmets
The Goal of Verbal Design Activities • Get learners to wrestle with the many different aspects of the design of an investigation. These aspects are similar to the ones that scientists consider as they design investigations. plcmets
How to Design a Verbal Design Activity • Provide some startup activities that engage learners and get them to share their prior knowledge on the topic; this can focus on the big ideas • Pose a question • Provide descriptions of resources (both existing information and instruments that can be used to gather additional data) • Have students work in groups and interrupt periodically to get them to share ideas • Each group should have a write up of their design • Debrief! Make sure you tie the verbal design activity back to the big ideas plcmets
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