Humans are born naturally curious. Infants begin exploring as soon as their eyes can focus and their hands can reach. As the child grows, the inquiry becomes verbalized with a string of continual “why?” questions. But something happens after children enter formal schooling. The questioning stops. The curiosity levels. The creativity dwindles. It is time for the adults to ask why. Perhaps American young people lose their sense of inquiry due to the format of their education. More than academic knowledge is passed to the younger generation. So are the social dictates that one should do what they are told, follow rules, and not debate. But without inquiry, young people lose the ability to reason. They become followers, not leaders. A chosen few become inquirers while the masses learn to submit to the understanding of others. This creates disturbing scenarios when we consider the history of the world.
What is Inquiry-Based Learning?
Fortunately, there is inquiry-based learning. Inquiry-based learning gained popularity in the 1960s as a part of the constructivist philosophy. It is based on the need to question why and how things work and then form ideas about the world around us. Inquiry learning teaches students how to see patterns and meanings behind events, develop in-depth knowledge that can be applied to a variety of situations, and master investigative skills that will lead to a lifetime of learning. To begin, students need to learn how to process information, observe, infer, measure, analyze, and evaluate—all critical thinking skills necessary in every subject.
OERs and Inquiry
Inquiry-based learning is utilized at varying levels of complexity in K-12 education. In its simplest form, inquiry-based learning starts with guiding questions. The teacher can begin by providing these questions or by helping students devise their own questions. As students seek answers to these questions through the exploration of sources and lab experiences, they record and summarize their results. As students get older, they can begin seeking their own sources of information and sharing their learning with others. Finally, students learn how to summarize, compare, and report their findings.
High school and college students can take inquiry learning to an even higher level through deductive and inductive thinking. Deductive thinkers are given generalized assumptions. They apply these assumptions to various situations and explore the relationships between them. They then test the assumptions and apply it to specific situations. Inductive thinking is the opposite. Students are given a specific situation. They compare the situation to other similar situations and look for patterns and similarities. They test these patterns on new situations until they can apply a generalized assumption to all situations.
Studies have shown that education organized around a problem or inquiry is both motivating and effective. Informal use of OER materials for inquiry-based learning projects allows students to freely use, adapt, and distribute material as they compare, test, and formulate theories. Educators can seed exploration with OER resources tailored specifically to the topic or allow students to explore on their own. As the students create new knowledge sets, these sets themselves can be added to the OER collection for future use. Students can become citizen scientists who contribute to global understanding. This culture of collaboration and discussion facilitates change and innovation.
High school and college students can take inquiry learning to an even higher level through deductive and inductive thinking. Deductive thinkers are given generalized assumptions. They apply these assumptions to various situations and explore the relationships between them. They then test the assumptions and apply it to specific situations. Inductive thinking is the opposite. Students are given a specific situation. They compare the situation to other similar situations and look for patterns and similarities. They test these patterns on new situations until they can apply a generalized assumption to all situations.
Studies have shown that education organized around a problem or inquiry is both motivating and effective. Informal use of OER materials for inquiry-based learning projects allows students to freely use, adapt, and distribute material as they compare, test, and formulate theories. Educators can seed exploration with OER resources tailored specifically to the topic or allow students to explore on their own. As the students create new knowledge sets, these sets themselves can be added to the OER collection for future use. Students can become citizen scientists who contribute to global understanding. This culture of collaboration and discussion facilitates change and innovation.
OER Science Strategies
The use of OER materials changes the way we teach. It promotes a more transparent, collaborative, and inclusive learning environment (Scanlon, 2012). The development of web-based interfaces such asnQuire help students progress through their scientific inquiries. Teachers can choose from ready-made inquiries or modify existing ones. They can even create their own to be shared with others. A similar platform called iSpot allows participants to contribute to a global knowledge of wildlife through local observation and data sharing. ISpot works with Open University to offer free courses on the environment.
The best way to start using OERs in the inquiry-based classroom is to starting exploring current OER collections. A great place to start is OER Commons.
- Be sure to evaluate the source. Remember that all OERs are not created equal. Evaluate them like any other source.
- Start with an existing course that aligns with what you want to teach. Modification and creation of new OERs will come with experience.
- Develop a set of seed questions for your students. Students will need topic related questions for the inquiry. For scientific inquiry, you may also wish to ask students to define:
- What to change
- What to measure
- What to keep the same in order to make it a fair test
- How to observe and measure the effect of what has changed
- How to collect data
- How to record data
- How to make sense of their results
- Whether they trust their results
- Allow students to explore. This is a student-centered approach. Facilitate the learning experience by helping students focus on the inquiry question, but encourage divergent thinking.
Soon your students will become both better problem-solvers and innovators.
Rachel E. Kovacs, 11/2013
Rachel E. Kovacs, 11/2013
References
Annenberg Foundation. (2013). Frequently Asked Questions. Retrieved from Learning Science Through Inquiry: http://www.learner.org/workshops/inquiry/
Charles, K., & Rice, O. (2012). How Science Teachers Can Use Open Educational Resources to Revitalize Lessons. Science Educator, 55-56.
Educational Broadcasting Corporation. (2004). What is inquiry-based learning? Retrieved from Concept to Classroom: http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/inquiry/
Saskatoon Public Schools. (2013, November 4). What is Inquiry? Retrieved from Instructional Strategies Online: http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/pd/instr/strats/inquiry/index.html
Scanlon, E. (2012). Open Educational Resources in Support of Science Learning: tools for inquiry and observation. Distance Education, 221-236.
Schmidt-Jones, C. A. (2012). An Open Educational Resource Supports a Diversity of Inquiry-Based Learning. The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 1-16.
WETA Washington, D.C. (2013). Inquiry Chart. Retrieved from Reading Rockets: http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/inquiry_chart/
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