Inquiry learning is a critical part in today’s education. As
it was mentioned in the How to learn?
From Mistakes video, her grandmother “went to school to get information
because that’s where it lived”. We now face a time that students don’t have to
be at school because the information is everywhere. Educators are in a very
critical position to increase the learning interest and skills of students. The
reading from Implementing Inquiry states
that “The power of inquiry-learning is its potential to increase intellectual
engagement and foster deep understanding through the development of hands-on,
minds-on and research-based disposition towards teaching and learning. How do
we as teachers do this? Many times, inquiry learning is looked at as projects
that students can do. I know that I have been guilty of this in my own
classroom. Throughout our reading resources we find that inquiry is much more
than that. Inquiry learning is used to “provide opportunities for both teachers
and students to collaboratively build, test, and reflect on their learning” (Implementing
Inquiry). Teachers must have a different mindset while approaching inquiry
learning. Students need to be in control of their learning and facilitated by
the teacher. This is often hard to do because teachers like to be in control of
the learning environment. I know in my classroom it is hard for me to grasp
this concept. I know that it will be beneficial to my students, but I like to
know what direction they are headed. Teachers can prepare themselves for this
learning environment by becoming learners too. Teachers can learn how to
effectively change their classroom environment to increase inquiry skills among
their students. In the article Implementing
Inquiry, it states that “[Inquiry] requires that teachers see themselves as
learners and researchers of both the subjects they teach and their professional
practice as a whole. Education is a lifelong learning career. Educators are
faced with new challenges every day. Just as the speaker, Diana Laufenberg, spoke
about how veteran teachers may have different thoughts and actions toward
Inquiry learning, it is important that you believe in your students as she
believed in hers. Inquiry learning takes a lot of planning and thought. The
learning should be meaningful to develop a deep understanding of the content. In my classroom I would like to create an
Inquiry based learning environment that teaches students to go on a journey,
where they will have to dig, seek, ask and grow as learners. They will have to
apply skills and knowledge and possibly imagination to reap an exciting
learning adventure that will take them to deeper understanding.
I have chosen to develop some mini lessons on the unit of
Geometry with a focus on area and perimeter. Students will develop a better understanding
of area and perimeter by the questions that they will investigate and answer
using different technologies and skills relating to real world scenarios.
Lesson 1 Questions:
-What is perimeter?
-What is area?
The first task/lesson that students will partake in is a
basic study skills lesson on the definition of area and perimeter. The students
will use search skills to develop a poster to express what area and perimeter
are without using the wording of a definition. The students will become experts
on the definitions of area and perimeter. This lesson will also focus on the
proper techniques of searching on the web and the ethical way to use internet
resources. Students will also develop skills of digital citizenship as they
investigate.
Lesson 2 Questions:
-When drawing rectangles using the same area, will the
perimeter stay the same?
-When drawing rectangles using the same perimeter, will the
area stay the same?
-If shapes have the same area, do they always have the same
perimeter?
Students will partake in a study of using different rectangles
to see how measurements will affect the area and perimeter.
Lesson 3 Question
-What can you conclude about the relationship between area
and perimeter?
*Students will be able to investigate and explain their
findings with different means of technology. This will also allow students to
develop computer skills. During the lessons students will explore the meaning
of area and perimeter and develop and deeper meaning of them instead of just
definitions. Students will share their understanding with peers when developing
posters and other uses of technology such as google slides. The lessons will
allow students to connect with information on the web through digital
citizenship. The students will also be assessed by their deep understanding of
the content using different ways of expressing their learning through posters,
google slides and final presentation task.
