community of inquiry in template

Study skills:

Improving Learning through

The formation of a Community of Inquiry

The importance of inquisitive mind and the value of supporting social presence

in a learning environment

Learning Outcomes• To enable students to appreciate that learning is less about being able to

cite the right answers but more about actively being engaged in the process of learning.

• To empower students through proper understanding to appreciate and utilize both collaborative learning and private study within i3L community

• To encourage students not to be ashamed of asking questions in their study and to develop critical thinking and a genuine sense of curiosity in their intellectual endeavor that they will retain well beyond the narrow confines of their formal education.

Ludwig Boltzmann

(February 20, 1844 – September 5, 1906)

Outline

• Learning as a process of inquiry• Development of Learning through the

formation of a Community of Inquiry• Elements of a Community of Inquiry• Summary

Recent Development in Learning Theory

• Constructivist Theory

• Meaning should not be constructed in isolation.

• Improving the learning process qualitatively through the application of critical thinking and interaction

Learning through the process of inquiry

• Application of critical thinking through inquiry

• An inquiry is any process that has the aim of augmenting knowledge, resolving doubt, or solving a problem.

• It is essential that students be ACTIVELY engaged in the PROCESS OF INQUIRY in their learning.

Why?


Because…When action is divorced from thought, teaching becomes information transmission by a kind of scholastic pipeline into the mind of the pupils

whose business is to absorb what is transmitted (Dewey & Childs, 1981, pp. 88-89)


Able to answer anything…it has been programmed to

Able to find solutions or recognize patterns as long as the required information is made available

Unable to find creative solution or to complete the picture of understanding.In fact it lacks understanding of things. It is merely able to compute even when the computation is meaningless albeitcorrect.

You’re much more than a computer, So don’t behave as if you were a computer.

It is okay not to know, we can find out

It is okay to be wrong, take lessons from them

It is more important to know why thanto be able to remember the correct answer


• Two fundamental ways to qualitatively improve your learning: application of critical thinking and interaction

• One way to practice critical thinking is by actively engaging your mind through the inquiry process.


• Interaction to improve learning can be practiced in the presence of a community of learning

• For optimum learning, higher education experiences are best conceived as communities of inquiry.

• A community of inquiry describes intellectual exchanges between all involved in the process of learning i.e, between the students themselves and between students and the instructors.

• A community of inquiry is inevitably described as the ideal and heart of a higher education experience.

A Community of Inquiry

• A community of inquiry is characterized by:

Purposeful, open, and disciplined critical

discourse and reflection.

• Thus educational inquiry is both a reflective and collaborative experience.

1. Purposeful, open, and disciplined critical discourse

• Purposeful:First, learning is a process to investigate problems and issues—not to memorize solutions.

Learning is focused on intended goals and learning outcomes.

Learning must be purposeful, but flexible, to explore unintended paths of interest.


• Open:The individuals must have the freedom to explore ideas, and to question and construct meaning.

If learning is to be a process of inquiry, then it must focus on questions, not just on answers.

Learners must be free to follow new leads, to question public knowledge, to explore questions and to construct and confirm resolutions collaboratively.


• Disciplined (self-control):Educational experience is a commitment to scholarship.

It requires the discipline to interact academically and respectfully with members of the community as they engage in the pursuit of common goals.

Second character of CoI: Reflection

• To Reflect: is to think deeply or carefully about something.

• To ‘take in’ what has been collaboratively discussed.

To construct meaning.

• To tie in loose ends and make sense of what has been discussed or debated. To get a picture of understanding. A personal review or trace back.

• It’s a personal activity involving self

Three elements that are present in a Community of Inquiry

• The three elements present in a Community of Inquiry are:

Social Presence, Cognitive Presence, Teaching Presence

The three elements in a Community of Inquiry

Social Presence

• Students in a community of inquiry must feel free to express themselves openly in a risk-free manner.

• They must be able to develop the personal relationships necessary to commit to, and pursue, intended academic goals and gain a sense of belonging to the community.

Social Presence

• The formal categories of social presence are:

Open communication, enabling open and purposeful discourse

Group cohesion, enabling collaboration

Affective/personal relationships, developing camaraderie

• These categories are progressive in the sense that they establish, sustain, and develop a community of inquiry.

Social Presence

• What are the factors that make Social Presence to work as a community?

Cognitive Presence

• Cognitive presence is a recursive process that encompasses:

States of puzzlementInformation exchangeConnection of ideasCreation of concepts

Testing of the viability of solutions

Practical Inquiry Model to represent Cognitive Presence

Bloom’s Taxonomy

Teaching Presence

• In an educational context, teaching presence is essential to bring all elements together and ensure that the community of interest is productive.

• Teaching presence provides the design, facilitation, and direction for the educational experience.

Matching Learning Outcomes

• Introduction to Life Sciences, Molecular & Cellular Biology, General & Organic Chemistry

• Show good understanding of meiosis and mitosis

• Explain the structure and reaction mechanism of various organic compounds

• Account for different theories of disease and immunity to disease

The three elements in a Community of Inquiry

Community of Inquiry -- Summary

• Learning is a process to investigate problems and issues—not to memorize solutions.

• If learning is to be a process of inquiry, then it must focus on questions, not just on answers.

• Understanding is enhanced through interaction in the community.

• Personal relationships may be an artifact of a successful community of inquiry although they are not the primary goals.


• Sustained communities of inquiry are dependent upon purposeful and respectful relations that encourage free and open communication.

• Teaching presence gives direction and facilitation in a community of inquiry to ensure it stays on the proper purpose.


• By focusing on the process of inquiry, higher-order thinking and learning emerge.

• Higher-order thinking is being conceptually rich, coherently organized and persistently exploratory (Lipman, 1991)


• The process of inquiry requires considerable intellectual discipline and through the discipline of inquiry, participants acquire the attitudes and skills to become critical thinkers and to continue their learning BEYOND THE NARROW SCOPE AND TIME LIMIT OF A FORMAL EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE.

Welcome to i3L

I wish you a thrilling intellectual journey

andfor you to seize future opportunities

with intellectual ingenuity and finesse through academic excellence