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.
Brian, you're lucky I was up waiting for the election results! :)
ReplyDeleteI think the QFT is a great system. It's an effective method to integrate student and teacher interaction without making the role too one-sided. I think that more collaboration needs to happen in the classroom. It can be awfully easy for a teacher to just assume the role of head of the class and not take any suggestions or ideas from the students. I've observed too infrequently a strong and effective student-teacher relationship, and i remember from my own middle and high school experiences that there was very little questioning from the teachers.
It's also important that the teacher is still the guide in this process. Students learn best from example, in my opinion, and the issues that plague the classroom are not going to be resolved without strong teacher motivation.
QFT and other question systems are awesome...I am personally re-engaging how to stimulate student question creation and developing follow-up activites based on their questions. We just began our Dream School project and they have been doing their Open Minds to develop their foundational ideas on schools they want to create. Our school just recently chose to emphasize student questioning in our classes, and I'm applying some of the practices our texts provide.
ReplyDeleteSo today student wroote on whether mixed age environments are age specific schools would be best. I then had them write three questions that come to mind about the topic, and then prioritize their top choice. Students came up with:
"How could mentorship be encouraged in a K-12 school?"
"With a mixed-age classroom, should there be two teachers per class?"
"Even if a school is one age group, could students meet other schools with different ages, adn what would be the results?"
I really didn't know what to do next--so I had the students work in small groups at their table. They were asked to choose question from each person, and come up with three resposnes to the question. I had not taken this project to that level, and I see how it is going to change the dynamic of the final essay, as I think I am going to ask students to list possible questions and possible responses based on Internet periodical research.
It is evident that the teacher process for writing lesson plans will also change once student questioning becomes the center--I would want to use those questions to inform my own research for the following week's work, and ask students to possibly co-plan some things with me.
Make Just One Change presents an interesting model for inquiry. While I think it is important to encourage students to ask their own questions, there also needs to be clear guidelines on where students can find and/or propose credible answers/solutions. This reminded me of the Think-Puzzle-Explore Routine from "Making Thinking Visible." Essentially, this routine also invites students to ask their own questions. The idea of allowing students to generate their own questions, in a way, helps guide the teacher in the teaching. This is truly student-centered. In a way, the students tell us where their curiosities lie instead of us attempting to direct their curiosity toward a predetermined path. That being said, I like the way the text offered this technique as part of a unit and to spark interest or as a closing structure for a unit. To be honest, I would be hesitant to try this technique in depth as a first year teacher because I think that there is a place for inquiry-based learning (i.e. the Think-Puzzle-Explore) in more structured curriculum. It would be cool to jump into this with students after you have built relationships and know their learning styles and personalities to do a co-planning unit with the students.
ReplyDeleteIn the first four chapters of Make Just One Change, introduces the Question Formulation Technique, which the authors urge educators to include as a component of the classroom curriculum, regardless of the subject or grade level. I think that this technique can have a very positive effect on student learning, since it creates a major shift from the teacher as focus of inquiry to the student. I also believe that the three threads that feed into the process, divergent thinking, convergent thinking and metacognition, are powerful skills individually, but when they are brought together in QFT, students are equipped to develop deeper understanding. In addition, it helps to foster other important skills such as prioritization, organization, etc. Ultimately students are able to carry these skills beyond the classroom and apply them to real-world situations.
ReplyDeleteI really like the notion that the more questions come into a student’s head, the more learning is expanded and the more students challenge themselves. Once again, the student-centered nature of this inquiry is excellent; however, it’s important for the teacher to align this technique with the lesson plan, as well as offer criteria or guidelines for the selection of priority questions. The teacher should be the “guide on the side” throughout the entire process. Again, one of the attractive characteristics of the QFT is that it can be incorporated into any curriculum, so that the teacher is modifying or augmenting his or her current practice, not altering it.
I was thinking about ways to structure a QFT project in a history classroom, and at first I was hesitant because, as another professor once said, "Kids don't know what they don't know." In other words, students might not have enough prior knowledge or a high enough comfort level with the historical discipline in general to be able to structure an entire unit around this method. However, I think smaller QFT projects would be think the QFT system would be an interesting way to have students work on research projects collectively before they branch off on their own. Inquiry is also a great method to use with Primary Sources at the beginning of a new unit or discussion. Do I think that using QFT will improve classroom management? Possibly, but I feel like it's a chicken and egg situation. You can only have a really good inquiry project if students are engaged and on task, which in turn reinforces students' engagement and focus. What I do think is that in the much broader scheme of things, using QFT and other inquiry-based methods do give students ownership of their learning, and in the long run this will go a long way toward helping students to make progress as lifelong learners.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the QFT can be effective in increasing class participation. The QFT encourages all students to ask questions especially questions that they may feel embarrassed to ask aloud. Therefore, it is good that students are not allowed to discuss or judge the questions at first. The QFT process allows students to analyze and prioritize their questions. It encourages students to take what they have learned and figure out how they can use it again in the future in a way that will benefit their learning. I am not certain that the QFT will be effective in classroom management techniques since there are teachers who are great at teaching content but poor in managing their students’ behavior. It is possible that the QFT will help struggling students improve academically and as a result inequities in education will be lessened.
ReplyDeleteBrian, thank you for your response, and my apologies for responding so late. I wanted to address your 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.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the use of QFT can be helpful in all of the areas mentioned (class participation, classroom management, and enhance teachers efforts to address inequalities in education).
To address the aspect of QFT in class participation, the QFT is a good universal practice that can be used across all subject matter. For instance, for math, students may have questions about percentages, and they can prioritize what aspects about percentages should be asked about first, following with the remainder of the information. From there, the teacher and the students can figure out what's next, and then reflect on the whole process. Having a system like this is effective because it gives students a chance to question aspects about a particular topic that they may not understand, and gives them the chance to decide within their questioning what things may be important as opposed to what is not as important.
Viewing QFT in terms of classroom management from my perspective would mean that an activity such as this would automatically promote thinking, structure, and focus. Therefore, classroom management in a QFT activity would be automatically more controlled (I believe) because of the nature and the structure of the assignment.
Lastly, I believe that implementing the QFT method in the classroom would enhance teachers efforts to address inequities in education in that this method allows students to question the content being taught, which means that their questions could be varied in nature, and I even think that having an activity such as this that does not necessarily have a lot of boundaries or restrictions makes for total inclusion among all students-the scholar, the student with special needs, the student that does not fully understand the concept, the student that doesn't want to give the wrong response, the student that isn't fully engaged, and the like.
I think that the QFT process does have merit and once it can be fully implemented than many if not all of the benefits will be actualized. I am inclined to agree that students may not know how best to question, and so in order to be fully successful, it would be best if a lot of groundwork about questioning took place before this strategy was implemented. Once students are able to be more fluent in a content area, then they can develop more comprehensive and thoughtful questions. There is also a great deal riding on the first step of this process where the teacher provides the impetus for questions. I imagine that this is a talent that would have to be developed, as selecting thought provoking content for this step may be difficult. If successful, however, I can see this strategy promoting deep understanding of a subject for students.
ReplyDeleteTo answer the question you posed directly, yes, I think the QFT model would increase class participation, benefit classroom management, and certain inequities in education - only if done correctly of course. In terms of increasing class participation, I think this would certainly open up more students. This is because students will be able to participate on two levels, the whole class level and the small group level. Students who don't feel comfortable speaking to an entire class have the option to participate in a smaller, less threatening setting. Also, since students are instructed to ask questions at will, students don't have to be shy about whether or not they know the answer or how others would judge the value of the question since all questions get written down. This would obviously lead to more class participation.
ReplyDeleteRegarding classroom management, group work is always a good idea. Students are typically kept on task because they don't want to be the reason why their group doesn't finish. Also, a disruptive student would only be limited to disrupting that particular group rather than the whole class. Having tasks assigned to students in the group also helps so that they have clear objectives to reach and each member feels like they are part of a team.