Inquiry Based Learning

Diffusion and Integration Of Technology In Education

By Tenai Bullock

Innovation In Action…

“Inquiry based instruction is based on John Dewey’s philosophy that education begins with the curiosity of the learner, we use a spiral path to inquiry, asking questions, investigating solutions.”

In addition, creating new knowledge as we gather information, discussing our discoveries and experiences, and reflecting on our new found knowledge (www.cii.Illonois.edu/InquiryPage.)

‘Inquiry based learning is an instructional method developed during the discovery learning movement of the 1960’s. Inquiry learning is a form of active learning , where progress is assessed by how well students develop experimental and analytical skills rather than how much knowledge they possess (wikipedia.com,Inquiry-based_learning).

Innovation In Action..

• ”The lead thinkers for this innovation based on wikipedia, “John Dewey, Piaget and Vgotsky because they all believed that knowledge is built in a step-wise fashion and learning proceeds best in group situations (wikipedia, Inquiry-based_learning).

Hills And Valleys And Inquiry

”The lead thinkers for this innovation based on wikipedia, “John Dewey, Piaget and Vgotsky because they all believed that knowledge is built in a step-wise fashion and learning proceeds best in group situations (wikipedia, Inquiry-based_learning).

From Inquiry to Innovation

‘In the years 2005 until current years, inquiry based learning is an innovation that more and more schools and educators are implementing in their classrooms due to increased demand for students to think critically and analyze the data they are given for various subjects, including science and math.

Educators are being asked to “think outside the box” to engage their students in activities and lessons that reinforce the concept of cooperative learning groups and higher order thinking skills.

From Inquiry to Innovation

From 1840-1950: the emergence of correspondence schools in Europe, Iowa, NY and Latter Day Saint’s University.

From 1951- 1982: the launching of PBS educational TV programs, British Open University is founded and Dr. Michael Moore publishes the first theory of distance education.

From 1982-1999: the National University Teleconferencing Network is created, the American Study of Distance Education is created at Pennsylvania State University and the U.S. Department of Education creates Star Schools.

First “cyber school” launched in Eugene, Or; 1st online university launched- Jones International University, the term “e-learning” arrives on the landscape and e-learning 2.0 emerges as a new term in the distance learning lexicon.

2009-Present: portability of technology and wireless devices; immersive learning environments (www.usdla.org/mini_websites/timeline/start.html

The percentage of people engaged in distance education has been steadily increasing over the past 120 years to. The information on the S-curve shows that over the years the participants in online education have steadily increased and predicted to increase even more in the future.

S-Curve

S-Curve for Inquiry Based Learning

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Who is Curious About Inquiry

“An inquiry based learning approach has been increasingly promoted as a mainstream teaching approach, especially since the implementation of the No Child Left Behind, in 2001, education initiative (wikipedia,Inquiry-based_learning).The marketing of inquiry based learning is directed towards educators, particularly, science educators.

As stated in wikipedia,” is open learning and teaching in that students have to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the results they collect them and decide their value. Open lessons are more dynamic and less predictable than traditional lessons (wikipedia,Inquiry-based_learning).

Attributes of Innovators

• The early adopters in my field of work

would be educators, administrators and district supervisors because they are the ones responsible for providing direct and indirect instruction for students. The strategies that I feel are most persuasive in making sure they adopt the innovation are compatibility because the inquiry learning strategy is essential for building students’ comprehension and knowledge.

• The laggards in terms of rejecting this innovation are people who are not familiar or comfortable with allowing students to guide their learning and instructional activities. The strategies that I feel would help them move forward in adopting this innovation would be for educators to engage themselves in inquiry based learning staff developments to see how their students would experiment with the new learning process.

III. I believe that observability and relative advantage are the best combination of attributes to help this innovation reach critical mass because observability has to do with how society is observing or analyzing your innovation and relative advantage has to do with how society is adapting to your innovation.

Critical Mass

• I believe that a decentralized approach would work best in the adoption of my innovation because inquiry based learning can be solved using a variety of methods in addition to multiple approaches. Limiting the approach to a more centralized approach will lead to a narrow viewpoint of how to solve the problem and that is the exact opposite to inquiry based learning.

• The key agents of change in my organization are educators-teachers in particular, because they are the ones who are in direct contact with the students and they are the facilitators of the key concepts and topics the students need to be mastering.

• I believe that this innovation has met critical mass in society because in today’s classrooms the curriculum is being driven by more inquiry based learning and cooperative learning groups. The students are then being evaluated using these new standards on their state assessments by having their assessments delivered to them on the computer and the questions are no longer only multiple choice but more open ended with more than one solution.

Inquiry Leads To Champions

• “A growing body of research demonstrates that students learn more deeply if they are engaged in activities that require applying classroom-gathered knowledge to real-world problems (www.edutopia.org/inquiry-project-learning-research).”

• We as educators are in the business of shaping young minds and inquiry learning is about developing those young minds.

• Students are more successful when they are taught how to learn as well as what to learn (www.edutopia.org/inquiry-project-learning-research).”

• Let’s continue to create creative, innovative learners who will one day sit where we are and make decisions that will impact the world!

• Inquiry based learning is just that a question based learning problem that we have the solution to- innovation in learning and education that leads to successful students.

References

www.cii.Illonois.edu/InquiryPage.  www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inquiry-based_learning.  www.usdla.org/mini_websites/timeline/start.html. www.youtube.com/garfield/window/shades www.youtube.com/mountian/view/elementary/school. www.youtube.com/talahi/elementary/ science/express. www.youtube.com/using/inquiry/circles. (www.edutopia.org/inquiry-project-learning-research).”