Engaging Students in Shared Inquiry

2013

2010

The big shift is to move from holding the information and doling it out like charity to creating the circumstances where it is imperative to inquire, search out, and interrogate the information we locate. If at present it isn't possible to merge the work of adults and the work of students because we don't value the contribution young children can bring to cultural development of the world's good, we can rely on proven drama systems to create 'the mirror to nature' and harness, through identification and empathy, the life knowledge which children will bring generously to meet us half-way.

2013

Nana & Tata. Love you everything! I want to thank my brother Rene, and my sisters Lisa and Yvette for always being there for me. Being Mexican means my family is everything, so it's my privilege to acknowledge the other members of my "immediate" family for their continuous love and support: Beka, Robbie, Monique, Isabella, Zach, Christian, Sophia, and our angels, Grandma Dolores, Grandma Chris, Uncle Frankie, Auntie Gina, Bob, and Ryan. I also want to thank my extended family, my many aunts, uncles and countless cousins as well as in-laws, who have always been fun to be with. A special thank you to Rose for being a wonderful mother-in-law and Gramgram to Beto. Thank you to my baby boy, Beto. I started this process when you were just nine months old, so you only know mom as spending most of her time doing her school work. Thank you for being patient when I had to study or write. No matter what work I had to do, though, I always made sure to put you first and I am so proud of the way you are growing up to be a kind soul. No matter how big you get, you are always, always welcome to sit on my lap so I can wrap my arms around you! Finally, thank you to Robert for being the best supportive husband. I feel so blessed to have you in my life. You are always there for me and put me first. You are my best friend. I look forward to continuing our life together. My love for you… "Multiply it by infinity, and take it to the depth of forever, and you will still have barely a glimpse of what I'm talking about." vi ABSTRACT Linda Darling-Hammond (2008), a member of President Obama's education transition team, published a collection of chapters, each written by prominent researchers in the field of education. Throughout this compilation, the idea of using inquiry in the classroom was heralded again and again. Darling-Hammond argued for the "implementation of inquiry-based curriculum that engages children in extended, constructive work, often in collaborative groups, and subsequently demands a good deal of self-regulated inquiry" (p. 13). Significant in Darling-Hammond's message was that educators need to provide students with experiences that allow them to become inquirers who can construct their own knowledge. However, while the professional literature provides many examples of inquiry in action in classrooms, there has been less written on teachers who adopt an inquiry stance. By focusing on the beliefs and practices of a veteran teacher, this study fills a gap in the existing literature and has implications for pre-and in-service teacher educations as well as teacher educators. Through the use of qualitative research methods (Merriam, 2009; Wolcott, 2008), life story interview methods (Cole & Knowles, 2001; Rossman & Rallis, 2003), and interview data analysis (Spradley, 1979), the purpose of this study was to understand the life experiences, beliefs, and practices of an educator, Kathryn Mitchell Pierce, who embraces inquiry in her classroom and beyond. Kathryn's story and her beliefs about inquiry have deepened and broadened my understandings of what it means to live a life of inquiry. Her story brings to light the vii belief that inquiry is a not a series of steps that a teacher follows in the classroom. Rather it is a way of being, a way of living a life. To Kathryn, living the life of an inquirer means being reflective of her actions in both her personal life and her classroom, being open to continuous learning, and constantly seeking opportunities to learn with others. viii

ABOUT FOUNDATIONS, 1999

Analytic Teaching, 1996

Proceedings of the 18th International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS), 2024

In response to the increasingly complex social identity development of students, China's education reform focuses on developing students' core competence. The South China PLC is a professional learning community participated by Chinese teachers, which aims to provide support for teachers' professional development, help teachers design and implement inquiry projects, so as to cultivate students' core competence and implement the requirements of education reform. This paper reports on the trajectory of one teacher, Mr. Z, who gradually developed a student-centered teaching philosophy and understanding of inquiry methods with the help of researchers and other participants. Over the course of 2 years, Mr. Z designed and implemented an inquiry curriculum, enacted it in his classroom, then revised the curriculum based on his experience.

There is increasing agreement among those who study classrooms that learning is likely to be most effective when students are actively involved in the co-construction of meaning through discussion of topics that are of significance to them. This paper reports the results of an extended collaborative action research project in which teachers attempted to create the conditions for such discussion by adopting an inquiry approach to the curriculum. A quantitative comparison between observations made early and late in the teachers' involvement in the project showed a number of significant changes in the characteristics of teacher-whole class discourse, with a shift toward a more dialogic mode of interaction. Nevertheless, the frequency of stretches of "true discussion", as defined by , remained low. When the same observations were examined qualitatively, however, there was clear evidence of an increase over time in the teachers' success in engaging students in co-constructing accounts and explanations. The paper concludes with a reconsideration of the purpose of "dialogue" in the classroom and of teachers' goals and strategies in trying to achieve it.

2017

Educational Research Review, 2017

Inquiry-based education receives much attention in educational practice and theory, since it provides pupils and teachers with opportunities to actively engage in collaboratively answering questions. However, not only do many teachers find this approach demanding, it also remains unclear what they should do to foster this type of learning in their classrooms. Our research question was: Which teaching strategies are used by K-12 teachers when promoting inquirybased education in their classrooms and what are the reported outcomes? After searching for empirical studies on this topic, we examined 186 studies investigating different ways in which teachers can promote inquiry-based education. Analyses revealed varying teaching strategies, differing with regard to direction (teacher directed, student directed and mixed) and different perspectives of regulation (meta-cognitive, conceptual, and social regulation). Results show that important teacher strategies in metacognitive regulation are: focussing on thinking skills, developing a culture of inquiry, supporting inquiry discourse, and promoting nature of science; in conceptual regulation: providing information on the research topic and focussing on conceptual understanding; and in social regulation: bridging the gap between high and low achievers, organizing student learning in groups and focussing on collaboration processes. Highlights: • Inquiry-based education can be promoted in different ways by teachers in their classrooms • Teachers should give room for more student-direction, and mixed direction • Metacognitive, conceptual and social regulation by the teacher are important