Using the Internet to Promote Student Inquiry
Bronfman Jewish Education Centre Professional Day
October 22, 2002, 10h45-12h00
Agenda
What is Inquiry?
(with thanks to John
Dewey)
•
Thinking arises from experience
•
Any experience which involves contact with a new situation
or material proceeds initially through trial and error
•
Trial and error consists initially of more-or-less inchoate
interaction of the person’s energy with the materials
•
By seeing how to materials respond to this interaction, the person
begins to learn about the materials, and can begin to plan more fruitful
interactions
Some interactions involve thought; others are completely inchoate or completely
routine
•
To arouse thought, the situation must be sufficiently new to
block routine from dealing effectively with it, but not so new as to give the
learner no leverage for building on prior experiences or knowledge
•
Effective situations for inquiry are those that arouse the learner’s
interest and engage his or her activity
•
Out of school experiences are often more engaging than in-school
experiences
•
Learners need something to do and something to learn
•
The activity called for should be the kind that requires thinking:
the “intentional noting of connections”
-
To create an inquiry-based lesson, teachers need to supply: an intriguing
question or problem, some information that can help spark a solution, and
some activities designed to lead the students to a solution. (See Jamie
McKenzie's article: The Slam-Dunk Digital Lesson, at http://fno.org/sept02/slamdunk.html)
What makes a problem a good candidate
for inquiry?
The following questions (From John Dewey) may aid in making such discrimination.
•
Is there anything but a problem? Does the question naturally
suggest itself within some situation or personal experience? Or is it an aloof
thing, a problem only for the purposes of conveying instruction in some school
topic? Is it the sort of trying that would arouse observation and engage experimentation
outside of school?
•
Is it the pupil's own problem, or is it the teacher's or textbook's
problem, made a problem for the pupil only because he cannot get the required
mark or be promoted or win the teacher's approval, unless he deals with it?
Summary:
•
Does the problem lead to observation, experimentation, thinking?
•
Does the student care about the problem?
One important issue in framing student inquiry
• The
best kinds of problems arise from the students’ own experiences
• Schools
have “curriculums” or agendas for student learning that often “push out” the
students’ own experiences
• Methods
need to be found to enable student interests and school subject-matter to interact
in dynamic and contextual ways
Why is inquiry a good thing?
• The
future is uncertain: young people need skills for solving future (not-yet-defined)
problems
• The
world is diverse: people need practice dealing with “messy”
reality and complex situations
• Morality
requires inquiry, not just the application of predefined rules
Examples of problems likely to generate student inquiry
•
Science for older kids: Predict the effects of global warming
on your future.
(see http://www.epa.gov/globalwarming/impacts/)
How
does the Web help support Inquiry?
The Web includes a relatively robust range of resources related to almost
any subject (educational or not!) you can imagine:
Text: http://remember.org/soapmaker/
Current events: http://www.israeldaily.com/
Images: http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/vie/Eilat.html
virtual reality: http://www.stoa.org/metis/
Maps: http://www.mideastweb.org/maps.htm
Models: http://www.yucs.org/~rweiser/mikdash/mizbeach.html
Games: http://www.prongo.com/lemon/index.html
Sacred texts: http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0101.htm
Sacred readings: http://www.maxsynagogue.com/
Timelines: http://www.archpark.org.il/index.asp
How does the Web help support Inquiry? continued
• The
Web facilitates coordinated communication between students and other people
all over the world
• The
Web can support an astonishing array of activities (computerized and not)
• Web-based
lessons or units can allow students to work at their own pace, or outside of
the regular school day
Dangers on the Web
•
Inappropriate content (pornography,
advertising, inflammatory web sites; no examples needed!)
•
Difficult searching (needle in a haystack; too much of
a good thing)
•
Mindless surfing (like channel-surfing
on TV!)
•
Endless perfectionism (“just let me look a little while
longer for the perfect picture to illustrate my report”)
How to avoid the dangers
•
Teachers must review and select appropriate content
•
Students need to learn how to distinguish valuable material
from propaganda
•
Searching skills need to be taught
•
Students should pursue specific tasks rather than merely
surfing (more on this in a moment)
•
Focus should be on content and not making things “pretty”
or “cool”; need evaluative rubrics to encourage substantive improvements in
products of student work
Webquests
•
Definition: “An inquiry-oriented activity in which some or all
of the information that learners interact with comes from resources on the Internet."
--Bernie Dodge (San Diego State University)
•
Elements:
–
Introduction: creates context for learning; relates task
to other subjects or future events
–
Task: must be a real open-ended question with multiple
possible responses
–
Description of Process: includes level of detail appropriate
to task and learners; includes description of roles within a cooperative group
–
Resources: both Web-based and other resources (paper,
people, tools)
–
Assessment: usually includes rubric containing criteria
and developmental scale
–
Conclusion: provides opportunity for closure, connection
to bigger picture or issues
Example Webquests
•
A curriculum web is a web page or pages designed to support
a curriculum (which is a plan for a sustained process of teaching and learning)
•
Webquests are a type of curriculum web, organization
around one investigation or inquiry. Curriculum webs can also be designed to
support multiple inquiries, an entire unit, or several units.
•
The Web Institute for Teachers at the University of Chicago
teaches teachers how to make curriculum webs
Example
Curriculum Webs
developed
in the Web Institute for Teachers, University of Chicago
• “Who
Am I?,” self-identity and discovery for sophomore high school language
arts http://curriculumwebs.com/Whoami/
OTHERS
for you to EXPLORE.
The Web Institute for Teachers web site
is http://webinstituteforteachers.org
To purchase Curriculum Webs: A Practical Guide to Weaving
the Web into Teaching and Learning (2003; Allyn & Bacon), click here.
Contact Craig Cunningham:
Email: c-cunningham@uchicago.edu
Phone: 1-773-702-4885
Home page: http://craigcunningham.com