When I think back to the years I attended the school, the world of learning and instruction today as we know it can best be described as student driven focusing on relevant information to motivate and enhance the students’ learning experience. We are so far advanced from the traditional school days I spent in the elementary classroom where every facet of our learning was based on textbooks and the written lessons within them. The materials used were often outdated, as you could see easily in the front of the textbooks by the signatures of my fellow scholars before me dating several years back. Everything I learned during the year was outlined between the worn pages barely held together by the frayed bindings of the textbook. I can promise you
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The teacher takes on the role of a facilitator engaging students to achieve lesson objectives by allowing students to define the information and methods of their learning experience. The teacher is no longer the source of information, but a fundamental participant in learning process. Questions and curiosity aren’t just allowed – they are encouraged. Have you ever experienced that pivotal moment when a child masters a task or experiences an “aha moment” and all the wheels begin to turn? Or witnessed the pride and confidence in their face when they explain a concept that is truly relevant to their understanding of the world around them? Inquiry-based teaching allows the student to ask questions relevant to their interest and helps fuel their desire to gain knowledge to answer those questions. According to Sweetland and Towns (2008), “When teachers choose to use an inquiry-based approach, they commit to provide rich experiences that provoke students’ thinking and curiosity; to plan carefully-constructed questioning sequences; to manage multiple student investigations at the same time; to continuously assess the progress of each student as they work toward their solution or final product; and to respond in-the-moment to students’ emerging queries and discoveries.” Students are more engaged in the lesson because it is fueled by their own curiosity to seek out answers to questions which have …show more content…
It’s being given data, observing it and using curiosity to process and drive answers that are relevant to students’ interest to help students understand the world around them in ways which enhance their learning experience and retention. Inquiry-based learning allows teachers to accomplish meeting standards while empowering students to ask questions that are relevant to them. It opens opportunities to explore and engage students in an education that is fueled by passionately pursuing their interest and not just limiting them to chosen materials by the teacher, but by guiding them to reach further explore even more information. Inquiry-based learning allows for the teacher to be flexible with concepts and allowing students to move lessons in more effective and engaging ways. “Kids are hitting standards with the bigger questions and being able to create evidence of their understandings and learning in all kinds of ways that the kids get to pick,” as quoted by Mary Beth Cunet, Ed. D., principal (Wildwood IB World Magnet School,
The teacher takes on the role of a facilitator engaging students to achieve lesson objectives by allowing students to define the information and methods of their learning experience. The teacher is no longer the source of information, but a fundamental participant in learning process. Questions and curiosity aren’t just allowed – they are encouraged. Have you ever experienced that pivotal moment when a child masters a task or experiences an “aha moment” and all the wheels begin to turn? Or witnessed the pride and confidence in their face when they explain a concept that is truly relevant to their understanding of the world around them? Inquiry-based teaching allows the student to ask questions relevant to their interest and helps fuel their desire to gain knowledge to answer those questions. According to Sweetland and Towns (2008), “When teachers choose to use an inquiry-based approach, they commit to provide rich experiences that provoke students’ thinking and curiosity; to plan carefully-constructed questioning sequences; to manage multiple student investigations at the same time; to continuously assess the progress of each student as they work toward their solution or final product; and to respond in-the-moment to students’ emerging queries and discoveries.” Students are more engaged in the lesson because it is fueled by their own curiosity to seek out answers to questions which have …show more content…
It’s being given data, observing it and using curiosity to process and drive answers that are relevant to students’ interest to help students understand the world around them in ways which enhance their learning experience and retention. Inquiry-based learning allows teachers to accomplish meeting standards while empowering students to ask questions that are relevant to them. It opens opportunities to explore and engage students in an education that is fueled by passionately pursuing their interest and not just limiting them to chosen materials by the teacher, but by guiding them to reach further explore even more information. Inquiry-based learning allows for the teacher to be flexible with concepts and allowing students to move lessons in more effective and engaging ways. “Kids are hitting standards with the bigger questions and being able to create evidence of their understandings and learning in all kinds of ways that the kids get to pick,” as quoted by Mary Beth Cunet, Ed. D., principal (Wildwood IB World Magnet School,