VO: Successfully incorporating inquiry-based learning in the classroom
requires teachers to make use of a toolkit of specific teacher skills
that promote openness and curiosity.
In this video we'll examine many of these skills and show them in action.
Let's begin.
A big part of inquiry-based learning is that it allows the teachers
and the students to go down paths of discovery that are completely unexpected
To be able to accomplish this however requires
flexibility and patience from the teacher.
it's easy to see the questions
that students asked as distractions that have to be put aside in order to have
time to cover all the content.
Student: How does a pulley work?
Novice to inquiry: I'm sorry we just don't have time to go over that.
Student: But...
Novice to inquiry: No, just stop.
VO: Embracing these questions however can lead to powerful teachable moments.
Students coming up with questions on their own is a wonderful thing, because that means that the
students motivation to learn more about that particular topic is high.
Student: Miss T., how does a pulley work?
Andrea: Basically a pulley works by helping us lift a heavy load...
VO: Here Andrea chooses not to put aside the student's question.
She's being flexible by taking time to focus on this moment.
But because as an elementary school teacher is limited
this might mean that Andrea will have to find time later in the week to go over
the students question or she might have to extend the current lesson and push
back a following lesson to another time.
Another instant where teacher flexibility comes into play
occurs when a student goes about solving a problem
using an unexpected methodology.
It can be tempting for teachers in these instances
to steer the students towards the correct methodology or solution in
order to save time or stay in line with the lesson plan.
Novice ot inquiry: No, no, no. That's not how it's done.
Let me show you how to do it.
VO: Here we can see how Andrea responds to a student going off the beaten track.
These, deviations brought on by the student however are not wrong
and can lead to some very interesting moments
Andrea chooses to embrace the deviation.
The role of the teacher during inquiry-based activities is that of the facilitator.
Andrea here wants to open as many doors as possible for her students.
She wants to encourage their thinking and promote dialogue so that they can
understand and justify the decisions when playing.
Andrea tries to stay away from closed questions.
They tend to put an end to dialogue really fast.
Novice to inquiry: I see that you've used inclined planes that are not very steep.
Did that work for you?
Student: Yes.
Novice to inquiry: Okay...
VO: Instead Andrea pushes her students by making use of open-ended questions.
Asking students to explain why they think something didn't work or to let them
speculate what would happen if a variable changed is a great way to
develop her students critical thinking skills.
Andrea: What do you think the purpose was?
Student: So that goes straight down, so then they can make a barrier.
VO: To help her with this she could always use the
smarter science "Predict, Explain, Observe, Explain" methodology.
When students engage in inquiry-based learning
there is inevitably going to be some trial and error.
Making mistakes and having solutions not work are good things.
Like in real life, it often takes many failures to get to a successful solution.
Failing should not be discouraged, it's a great way to learn.
Novice to inquiry: If your design isn't the first time is at the end of the world?
Student: No.
Novice ot inquiry: Well actually, if you fail now
you're probably gonna fail for the rest of your live.
Frankly failure is not an option.
VO: Failing can however be discouraging to students
and prevent them from wanting to continue trying.
Andrea wants to cultivate the idea
that failing is not a bad thing
Andrea's strategy to go about this is to setup proper expectations
before starting any activity.
Andrea wants the students to get used to the idea that if
something doesn't work it's good practice to stop, observe what didn't
work and then take the time to think of a solution.
Student: I can't get him off.
Andrea: Okay. Is that the end of the world class?
Class: Noooo.
Andrea: No, I think this is a good time to stop...
VO: Students can have trouble with this concept at first
but by nature they have an intrinsic resilience to failure.
Andrea: What do you think?
Student: I think you should put the support a little higher.
VO: Andrea also wants to let her students know that it's also okay for them
to let go of an idea if they get stuck in a rut.
Andrea: Liam, what do you think?
Student: I think we'll try.
Andrea: Let's go ahead and try it.
VO: Not all ideas work out in the end and just because they've invested time into
an idea doesn't mean that that idea has to be seen to completion.
VO :It's inevitable that during inquiry-based learning activities
students will ask questions that teachers don't know the answer to.
It can be scary and frustrating for teachers to go into an activity knowing that
students will test the limits of their knowledge.
Teachers don't have to know all of the answers.
Novice to inquiry : A simple machine is a mechanical device that changes the
direction or magnitude of a force. The use mechanical...
Many teachers are not engineers or biologists. That's fine.
Not knowing all the answers makes teachers look human and more relatable.
Novice to inquiry: Let's get back to mechanical advantage for a moment. What this is, is a measure of the
force amplification achieved by using something like a simple machine.
It all has to do with the law of the lever.
A lever being a movable bar that pivots on a fulcrum attached
or positioned on or across a fixed point.
VO: But instead of answering a question with "I don't know",
it is possible instead to use "I don't know" as a starting point for deeper inquiry.
Even without expertise, teachers can still offer lots of useful information
about the process of asking good questions and finding answers efficiently.
Here andrea is being asked a question that she doesn't know the answer to.
Student: Miss T., can we use this book for support?
Andrea: I don't know, I guess so. Let's try it out.
VO: She does recognize however that because her
class has been doing related inquiry activities her and her students
have the tools available to answer the question.
Andrea: Great job! It works.
VO: We see a very powerful teachable moment where the
students questions has led to an entirely new spontaneous activity.
Because it's the student's own question the student is motivated to take
ownership of the experiment and to figure out the answer.
Andrea's role is to be the guide in the answer finding process.
She supports the students and gently nudges them in the directions
that have a good chance of finding the answer.
Here's another example where the student asked Andrea question that she can't answer.
Andrea: Yes?
Student: Did the Egyptians use an inclined plane to make a pyramid?
VO: This question however is more knowledge-based
and doesn't lend itself well to testing in class.
Andrea: Let's do some research and find out.
VO: Andrea can still create a teachable moment out of this
by using this as an opportunity to have the students practice researching skills.
Success in activity design is about sparking curiosity
and allowing the students to feel good.
Whatever the activity is it needs to have a hook.
A hook can be something like a story that has tension and the need for resolution
It can also be an element of surprise where a prop behaves in an unexpected way.
These are elements that lead the students to want to know more.
These are things that make it so that the students want to find out the answer.
The final episode in the series focuses on the techniques that can be used to
help students develop important inquiry-based learning skills.