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Inquiry Learning and Teaching
Dr. Vickie Harry |
Inquiry Overview
The National Science Education Standards (1996) call for dramatic
changes throughout school systems. The organization of the Standards
outlines a set of outcomes for learning, teaching, professional
development, and science education programs where inquiry is central
to science learning. What is inquiry? What are the strategies,
skills, and attitudes required of science teachers for the
implementation of the standards? The following standards require
inquiry learning and teaching. Teaching Standard A: Teachers of
science plan an inquiry-based program for their students;
Professional Development Standard A: Professional Development for
teachers of science requires learning essential science content
through the perspectives and methods of inquiry; Science Content
Standard A: (K - 12) Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry,
understanding about scientific inquiry; and Program Standard B: The
program of study in science for all students should be
developmentally appropriate, interesting, and relevant to students’
lives; emphasize student understanding through inquiry; and be
connected with other school subjects.
Inquiry is a multifaceted activity. The reader of the Standards
easily perceives its importance. Is inquiry dominant in science
classrooms? Are students of science collaborating, thinking
critically and logically, or proposing and answering questions?
There are small pockets of exemplary science programs in classrooms
where learners and teachers are engaged in inquiry. There are many
other places where students sit in traditional rows, read the
science textbook, memorize vocabulary, and answer the questions at
the end of the chapter.
The National Science Education Standards (NSES) are a call to
action. In inquiry-based classrooms, learners (including the
teacher) are engaged in doing science. They are making observations;
posing questions; examining resources; planning investigations;
reviewing what is already known; gathering, analyzing, and
interpreting data; proposing answers, explanations, and predictions;
and communicating the results. The learners build and construct
knowledge and understanding of scientific ideas as well as an
understanding of how scientists work.
The NSES (1996) describe scientific inquiry in the following manner.
“Scientific inquiry refers to the diverse ways in which scientists
study the natural world and propose explanations based on the
evidence derived from their work. Inquiry also refers to the
activities of students in which they develop knowledge and
understanding of scientific ideas, as well as an understanding of
how scientists study the natural world.” Inquiry also involves
making observations; posing questions; examining books and other
sources of information to see what is already known; planning
investigations; reviewing what is already known in light of
experimental evidence; using tools to gather, analyze, and interpret
data; proposing answers, explanations, and predictions; and
communicating results. Inquiry requires identification of
assumptions, use of critical and logical thinking, and consideration
of alternative explanations.
Additionally, the NSES (1996) further explain inquiry in this way.
“Inquiry is a set of interrelated processes by which scientists and
students pose questions about the natural world and investigate
phenomena; in doing so, students acquire knowledge and develop a
rich understanding of concepts, principles, models, and theories.
Inquiry is a critical component of a science program at all grade
levels and in every domain of science and designers of curricula and
programs must be sure that the approach to content, as well as the
teaching and assessment strategies reflects the acquisition of
scientific understanding through inquiry. Students then will learn
science in a way that reflects how science actually works.”
Young children are natural theory builders. All the objects around
children provide invitations for inquiry as they observe and
interact with the environment. Children make sense of their
observations for themselves and form answers to their investigations
based on their experience, comprehension, evidence, and reasoning.
First-hand learning in the here-and-now world, child-initiated
learning, and age-appropriate learning experience and content are
the responsibilities of the teacher of young children. The teacher
asks a question, provides a tool, or suggests a course of action to
the learner to move the child forward in his or her thinking (Seefeldt,
C. & Galper, A., 2002).
Inquiry experiences in science begin with questions about phenomena
that are interesting and familiar to learners. Productive questions
develop children’s curiosity, broaden children’s thinking skills,
and increase children’s knowledge. As children collect and organize
data to answer questions, they construct knowledge, new concepts,
and skills. The process of inquiry-based science encourages children
to observe, collect, handle, describe, become puzzled by, and ask
questions during active learning that is guided and facilitated by
the teacher. As learners actively build and construct knowledge and
theories about the world, teachers do not tell them about science
concepts. Instead, inquiry into authentic questions asked as a
result of real-world experiences generates scientific thinking using
the science process skills. |
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Classroom Examples of Inquiry: Learning and
Teaching |
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Preliminary and/or Engage
Phases of Learning |
During the preliminary phase of learning and teaching in science,
learners and teachers actively engage in inquiry. Teacher pose
questions about what children know about the concept to be studied.
For example, children love rocks and they build theories about the
rocks they observe and collect. When children bring rocks to school
or go rock hounding to find some rocks to study, the teacher and the
children ask questions about the rocks. The answers to the questions
provide information about what the learners already know about the
properties of rocks. Asking productive questions assists the teacher
with this process. For example, the teacher asks, “What do you
notice about your rock?” or “Where did you find your rock?” These
questions require children to generate answers by engaging in
firsthand experiences and/or by thinking about prior experiences.
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Focus and/or Explore
Phases of Learning |
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Exploration and discovery require the use of the
science process skills. In a unit about rocks, the teacher
identifies the goals and objectives for the learners, based on the
information he or she learned about what the children already know
about the concept. When studying the properties of rocks, children
use the science process skills to discover the physical properties
and attributes of rocks. Inquiry in science means studying the
natural world and then proposing explanations about the discoveries
made based on the data collected. Young children use the science
process skills of observing, classifying, comparing and contrasting,
measuring, collecting and recording data, and generalizing when
studying the properties of rocks. The teacher designs learning
activities to engage the learners in using simple equipment and
tools to gather data and to extend the senses. Simple instruments
such as hand lenses, rulers, tape measures, and balances provide
more information than learners obtain using only their senses. As
learners gather, analyze, and interpret the data, they build and
construct knowledge about the properties of rocks. They become
familiar with the materials, think about what is happening, ask
questions, clarify their views, and share their ideas with
classmates.
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Challenge, Explain, and/or
Elaborate Phases of Learning |
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During the challenge phase of inquiry learning and teaching, the
learner solves practical problems using the newly constructed
knowledge and skills about the concept. While actively engaged in
using science process skills to learn about properties of rocks,
children observed, classified, compared and contrasted, measured,
collected and recorded data, and generalized about the attributes of
rocks required for sorting and grouping. The questions generated and
answered throughout the process of addressing the objectives for the
lesson raise new questions. For example, after establishing their
own attributes and categories for sorting and grouping rocks,
learners may ask how geologists sort and classify rocks. This
inquiry requires a new investigation where learners discover, using
books or Internet resources, the tests scientists use for
classifying rocks. Asking children to use the scientist’s
classification system is a performance assessment of the science
process skills children learned while using their own classification
systems. |
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References |
National Research Council. (1996). National Science Education
Standards. Washington, D.C: National Academy Press.
Seefeldt, C. & Galper A. (2002). Active Experiences for Active
Children Science. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill. |
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Internet Links |
Education Resource Information Center
The Educational Research Information Center (ERIC) is a well-established and extensive resource on topics of interest to science
educators: topics including inquiry, science investigations, technology,
questioning, assessment, and many more.
Constructivism as a Referent for Science Teaching
An essay on Constructivism as a Referent for Science Teaching. Talks about the constructivist
epistemology and constructivist oriented teaching.
Center for Inquiry-Based Learning
The Center for Inquiry-Based
Learning is a group of scientists and science educators who are
developing exercises and training teachers in the use of
multidisciplinary, hands-on, minds-on, discovery methods for teaching
science.
Inquiry-Based Learning
Provided on this site are links to
Classroom Applications of Inquiry,
Curriculum, and
Professional Literature on Inquiry
as well as other websites dealing with inquiry in learning & teaching.
Fermilab LInC Project Examples
The Fermilab LInC program develops
teams of educators (all grades and subjects) to integrate technology in
the classroom to support inquiry-based student-directed investigations on
real-world issues. Technology empowers students to reach beyond the
classroom walls to collaborate with experts and students in other
locations, and to publish original work to a world-wide audience. LInC can
be offered in face-to-face, partial-online, or full-online formats. Each
course is highly-interactive as educators design and use
technology-supported engaged learning curriculum units and publish their
work on the Web. Classroom teachers, technology coordinators, staff
developers and library media specialists can take LInC courses, typically
offered for 2-6 graduate credits. A LInC Facilitators' Academy is also
available to help teams develop knowledge, materials and strategies for
facilitating staff development in their own school or district.
Smithsonian Education - Educators Home Page
Smithsonian
lesson plans emphasize inquiry-based learning using primary sources and
museum collections. Each plan is print-friendly and provides you with all
the materials you need—photographs, reproductions, handouts, activities,
suggested strategies, standards information, and additional online
resources.
Science Learning Network Inquiry Resources
Links to many different scientific
topics are included. Reference activities are included on many of the
individual sites.
The Lesson Plans Page - Science Lesson Plans
Lesson plans for all age groups are provided on this site.
Starbase Atlantis Pittsburgh
Starbase Atlantis Pittsburgh is an excellent web site for inquiry, investigation, and design technology. Extensive, eclectic, and a bit eccentric like its developer, Uncle Earl, the site is a goldmine of outstanding resources for teachers. Be sure to explore the boxes for Resources for Teachers, Parents, and Kids and the Big, Big Categorized Resource Collection. See especially the references on Science Inquiry, Standards, Curriculum. |
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