What is inquiry-based learning?
An old adage
states: "Tell me and I forget, show me and I remember, involve me and I
understand." The last part of this statement is the essence of
inquiry-based learning.
Inquiry is defined as a seeking for truth, information, or knowledge
-- seeking information by questioning.
Inquiry-Based
Science Pedagogy versus Traditional Science Pedagogy
In a traditional science classroom,
the teacher uses a textbook and worksheets to transmit knowledge and explain
conceptual relationships to students. Students listen to their teachers and are
later responsible for memorizing the information to restate on a test or some
other written evaluation of knowledge.
The
instructional approach in an inquiry-based science classroom looks very
different from a traditional science classroom. Teacher and student roles are
shifted, as well as the kinds of learning activities and evidence for learning.
Teachers in inquiry classrooms take on the role of a coach and model learning
and inquiry processes for students. Furthermore, student engagement in an inquiry
curriculum is a must.
The authors of Make
Just One Change argue that formulating one’s own questions is “the
single most essential skill for learning”—and one that should be taught to all
students.
The Question Formulation Technique
This technique helps students learn how to produce their own
questions, improve them, and strategize on how to use them
The QFT has six key steps:
Step 1: Teachers Design a Question Focus. The Question Focus, or
QFocus, is a prompt that can be presented in the form of a statement or a
visual or aural aid to focus and attract student attention and quickly
stimulate the formation of questions.
Step 2: Students Produce Questions. Students use a set of
rules that provide a clear protocol for producing questions without assistance
from the teacher. The four rules are: ask as many questions as you can; do not
stop to discuss, judge, or answer any of the questions; write down every
question exactly as it was stated; and change any statements into questions.
Before students start generating their questions, the teacher introduces the
rules and asks the students to think about and discuss possible challenges in
following them.
Step 3: Students Improve Their Questions. Students then improve
their questions by analyzing the differences between open- and closed-ended
questions and by practicing changing one type to the other. The teacher begins
this step by introducing definitions of closed- and open-ended questions. The
students use the definitions to categorize the list of questions they have just
produced into one of the two categories. Then, the teacher leads them through a
discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of both kinds of questions. To
conclude this step, the teacher asks the students to change at least one
open-ended question into a closed-ended one, and vice versa, which leads
students to think about how the phrasing of a question can affect the depth, quality,
and value of the information they will obtain.
Step 4: Students Prioritize Their Questions. The teacher, with the
lesson plan in mind, offers criteria or guidelines for the selection of
priority questions. In an introduction to a unit, the instruction may be,
“Choose the three questions you most want to explore further.” When designing a
science experiment, it may be, “Choose three testable questions.” An essay
related to a work of fiction may require that students select “three questions
related to the key themes we’ve identified in this piece.” During this phase,
students move from thinking divergently to thinking convergently.
Step 5: Students and Teachers Decide on
Next Steps. At this stage, students and teachers work together to decide how to
use the questions. One teacher, for example, presented all the groups’ priority
questions to the entire class the next day during a “Do Now” exercise and asked
them to rank their top three questions. Eventually, the class and the teacher
agreed on a question for their discussion
Step 6: Students Reflect on What They Have
Learned. The teacher reviews the steps and provides students with an
opportunity to review what they have learned by producing, improving, and
prioritizing their questions. Making the QFT completely transparent helps
students see what they have done and how it contributed to their thinking and
learning. They can internalize the process and then apply it in many other
settings.
Question
Based on what you have read, in your opinion could using the QFT
consistently increase class participation, classroom management, and enhance
teaches efforts to address inequities in education.
