Inquiry-Based or Discovery Learning
Students learn through exploring and asking questions about topics they consider interesting (Shindler, 2009). In this regard, student learning occurs in a classroom that fosters inquisitiveness and motivation. In an inquiry-based classroom, students are engaging with the curriculum through questioning (Shindler, 2009). It enables them to elicit their thinking by observing their environment and forming questions about it (Shindler, 2009). Then as a class, students can work together to find the answers and solve the problem or task (Shindler, 2009). When implementing an inquiry-based activity in the classroom, the teacher should initially direct the students toward something in particular (Shindler, 2009). …show more content…
In this regard, this type of learning is not typically familiar to students and at first, it is perhaps best to scaffold students through the process (Shindler, 2009). More specifically, when asking students to look at their surroundings, a teacher can prepare a list of questions for them to answer. Students can then use these questions as guiding points to come up with more detailed ones. For example, I would give students large situational problems to solve. Normally, in these types of problems, students are only asked to find the answer to one large question. It is up to the student to figure out what are the steps needed such to answer the question. In order to get them ready for the situational problem they needed to solve at the end of the term, I gave students a practice one to solve prior to it. In the practice situational problem, I asked students to answer questions such to get all the necessary information to solve the last question. In this way, I directed the students through the problem, but I also enabled them to figure out if the method I gave them was the best one to solve the problem. I had many students question my process and ask me if they can use a different method to solve it. Therefore, they used my initial questions as guidance, but eventually, this guidance was not
Students learn through exploring and asking questions about topics they consider interesting (Shindler, 2009). In this regard, student learning occurs in a classroom that fosters inquisitiveness and motivation. In an inquiry-based classroom, students are engaging with the curriculum through questioning (Shindler, 2009). It enables them to elicit their thinking by observing their environment and forming questions about it (Shindler, 2009). Then as a class, students can work together to find the answers and solve the problem or task (Shindler, 2009). When implementing an inquiry-based activity in the classroom, the teacher should initially direct the students toward something in particular (Shindler, 2009). …show more content…
In this regard, this type of learning is not typically familiar to students and at first, it is perhaps best to scaffold students through the process (Shindler, 2009). More specifically, when asking students to look at their surroundings, a teacher can prepare a list of questions for them to answer. Students can then use these questions as guiding points to come up with more detailed ones. For example, I would give students large situational problems to solve. Normally, in these types of problems, students are only asked to find the answer to one large question. It is up to the student to figure out what are the steps needed such to answer the question. In order to get them ready for the situational problem they needed to solve at the end of the term, I gave students a practice one to solve prior to it. In the practice situational problem, I asked students to answer questions such to get all the necessary information to solve the last question. In this way, I directed the students through the problem, but I also enabled them to figure out if the method I gave them was the best one to solve the problem. I had many students question my process and ask me if they can use a different method to solve it. Therefore, they used my initial questions as guidance, but eventually, this guidance was not