Inquiry

1
Inquiry Learning in an ICT-rich Environment
Jan-Marie Kellow
2
Research Questions

• How do teachers use ICTs to support their
  students learning when involved in the inquiry
  process and what are their perceptions of this
  use?

• How do students use ICTs to support their
  learning when involved in the inquiry process and
  what are their perceptions of this use?

3
Common Elements

• Student-centred learning
• An investigation into a question, problem,
  conflict or idea
• Authentic, meaningful learning
• Student ownership
• Students construct meaning
• Scaffolding to support learning
• Teacher modelling
• Teacher as guide or facilitator

4

• Inquiry is a systematic investigation or study
  into a worthy question, issue, problem or idea.
• www.galileo.org/inquiry-what.html

5
Authentic learning is

• Construction of knowledge, through disciplined
  inquiry, to produce discourse, products and
  performances and that have meaning beyond success
  in school.
• Wehlage, Newman Secada

6

• It is sentimentalism to assume that the teaching
  of life can be fitted always to the childs
  interests just as it is empty formalism to force
  the child to parrot the formulas of adult
  society.
• Interests can be created and stipulated.
• Bruner

7
Questions
Student ownership
8

• Relevance does not have to be pre-existing for
  the student. Not all students arrive at the
  classroom door interested in learning about verb
  constructs, motion and mechanics, or historical
  timelines, but most students can be helped to
  construct understandings of the importance of
  these topics. Relevance can emerge through
  teacher mediation.
• Brooks Brooks

9
The Opoutere Learning Journey

• 4. Sort/Sift/Analyse
• Sort and Sift
• Analyse
• Apply to task
• 5. Create and Communicate
• Create a product and/or take action
• Communicate to others
• 6. Evaluate
• Evaluate Product (effectiveness)
• Evaluate Process (efficiency)

• 1. Set the Scene
• Prior Knowledge
• Motivation
• 2. Task
• The Question
• Brainstorming
• Subsidiary Questions
• Plan
• 3. Find and Gather
• Sources of Information
• How to find Information
• Accuracy

10
(No Transcript)
11
Inquiry

• Should we clone endangered animals?
• Should Marineland be allowed to get a new
  dolphin?
• www.opoutere.schoolsonline.co.nz/
• username password exgroup2

12
(No Transcript)
13
(No Transcript)
14
(No Transcript)
15

• Youve got to go in there and have a look at the
  sites that mainly youre going to be using. I
  liken it to taking the kids down to Te Papa and
  saying Okay guys go for it. They might know
  what theyre looking for, but do you want them to
  meander their whole day looking for the
  information, or do you want to point them in the
  right direction?
• (Teacher)

16
Complex Concepts
Resourcing
17
Decision making
Topical Issue
Primary Sources
18
You can get a lot more information
Books dont have those stupid ads that pop up on
the screen.
The internet is not usually out-of-date.
You just have to pick up the book and look at a
page.
Books are easy to find sometimes. So long as you
dont have to go to the library and go through
all the books.
The internet is easier to use.
There aren't many good books out there.
The net is fast
19
(No Transcript)
20
Unless students are trained to use the advanced
features of search engines like Google, they tend
to gather huge piles of pages that contribute
little to understanding. Some have likened these
piles of information to a landfill. Jamie
McKenzie (fno.org)
Google Search Results
21

"Children who are in this concrete-operational
stage seek information that exactly matches their
own search terms or the terminology used by the
teacher or in the assignment. In other words,
they are concrete thinkers and have trouble with
anything that is not an exact fit with their
understanding of the question." Hirsch, 1999
22
(No Transcript)
23

• My Task Log
• Our Key Question Should we clone endangered
  species?
• Week 4 What we did
• Read the book How to clone a sheep
• Visited websites www.synapses.co.uk/science/clone
  www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe/02/14/cloned.dolly
  .dies/index.html
• What we found out
• Scientists cloned a sheep called Dolly. It took
  100s of attempts. Dolly has no father.
• Dolly died aged six. Sheep usually live to 10 or
  12.
• She died of a disease that young sheep dont
  usually get.
• What next?
• Confirm facts on Dollys death from two other
  sources.
• Find out if any endangered animals have been
  cloned.
• If they were, how long did they live?

24
http//rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php
25
Self- Assessment
26
(No Transcript)
27
Parents
Very helpful Helpful Neither Helpful nor Unhelpful Unhelpful Very Unhelpful Not Used
How helpful was it for your child to be able to view resources related to their project at home via the KnowledgeNet? 5 2 0 0 0 1
How helpful was it for your child to be able to work on their project at home via the KnowledgeNet? 3 4 0 0 0 1
How helpful was it to be able to see, via the KnowledgeNet, what your child was working on at school? 4 3 0 0 0 1
28
Issues and Solutions

• Passwords pages
• Slow dial-up computer problems

Demonstration Group not class Weblinks and
resources for all Filamentality or Class wiki
29
Work in groups
Only one computer?
Rosters
Allow more time
Flexible timetabling
Pub charities
Mobile laptop pods
Use computers in other classes
30
Reading Levels
Preview and bookmark sites Use child-friendly search engines sites Used a wide variety of resources including books, videos etc. Students work with a more able buddy Teacher reads articles onto tape Shared reading of difficult sites









31
Student Skills

• Model inquiry/ Shared Guided inquiry
• Preview bookmark suitable sites
• Model demonstrate note-taking,
• skim scan etc.
• Model uses of ICT
• Buddy/partners
• Peer tutoring

32
When schools put the cart before the horse -
buying technology for the sake of technology
without asking critical questions about purpose,
use and the classroom impact of such tools - they
are inviting disappointment. Jamie
McKenzie www.fno.org/jan02/overequipped.html

• Useful ICTs
• Internet
• Computers
• Data projector
• LMS eg KnowledgeNet
• IWB eg ACTIVboard
• Digital camera
• Scanner

33
Summary

• Authentic learning involves knowledge
  construction through disciplined inquiry and
  outcomes that have meaning beyond success in
  school
• Topics do not have to be student-initiated for
  students to have ownership
• Guided inquiry is essential for young students
  and those new to inquiry
• Making weblinks and resources available to
  students is really helpful

34

• The internet provided access to primary sources
• ICTs aided the decision-making process
• ICTs helped overcome the problems caused by the
  difficulty level of the topic
• ICTs helped overcome resourcing issues
• The full model is likely to work only if a high
  of students have broadband internet at home
• This model should work effectively with a small
  group eg. reading group

35

• www.inquiringmind.co.nz
• jkellow_at_xtra.co.nz
• References weblinks available on my blog
• www.efellows.org.nz/?qblog/18