How to Develop Inquiry Based Learning Activities
Mick HealeyHE Consultant and Researcher, UK
[email protected]; www.mickhealey.co.uk
• HE Consultant and Researcher; Emeritus Professor University of Gloucestershire (UoG), UK; Visiting Professor University College London, UK; The Humboldt Distinguished Scholar in Research-Based Learning McMaster University, Canada; Adjunct Professor Macquarie University, Australia; International Teaching Fellow, University College Cork, Ireland; Visiting Fellow University of Queensland, Australia
• National Teaching Fellow and Principal Fellow HE Academy• SEDA@20 Legacy Award for Disciplinary Development• Economic geographer and previously Director Centre for Active Learning UoG • Ex-VP for Europe International Society for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning• Advisor to Canadian Federal Government ‘Roundtable on Research, Teaching and Learning
in post-Secondary Education’ (2006)• Advisor to Australian Learning and Teaching Council / Office of Learning and Teaching
Projects on the ‘Teaching-research nexus’ (2006-08), ‘Undergraduate research’ (2009-10); ‘Teaching research’ (2011-13 ); and ‘Capstone curriculum across disciplines’ (2013-15)
• Advisor to League of European Research Universities (2009)• Advisor to EU Bologna and HE Reform Experts on research-based education (2012)• Research interests: linking research and teaching; scholarship of teaching; active learning;
developing an inclusive curriculum; students as change agents and as partners
Brief biography
Designing inquiry based learning activities
One minute each way
In pairs you each have ONE minute to tell your partner about one experience you have or would like to have of designing an inquiry based learning activity
The job of your partner is to listen enthusiastically but NOT interrupt.
Developing a question
Anticipating possible answers & determining
relevant information
Identifying resources & gathering information
Assessing information
Weighing evidence & synthesising
understandings
Communicating newunderstandings
Evaluating success
Self-reflection &Self-evaluation
Model of the inquiry process (Justice et al., 2007)
Engaging a topic & building basic knowledge
Taking responsibility for learning
Forms of IBL
IBL activities may be designed to last over different lengths of time:
• A short exercise in a class, • A whole class• A whole semester course• A whole program
Examples of inquiry based learning
In pairs one should read cases study 1 and the other case study 2 (pp2-4 and pp5-8).
Discuss the similarities and differences.
Does IBL enhance student learning?
Increasing evidence that shows:
• enhanced academic achievement, student perceptions, process skills, analytic abilities, critical thinking and creativity (Prince & Felder, 2006)
• deeper understanding, higher degree of reflection, more motivated and achievement of higher order learning (Berg et al., 2003)
• higher grades, more Honours, better retention (Justice et al. 2007b)
Stage of inquiry learning
Upon successful completion of this course a student should be able to:
1.develop a researchable question and give a rationale for its significance;
2.choose appropriate research methods to obtain information relevant to answering the question;
3.critically evaluate the validity and relevance of sources;
4.communicate a coherent response to the research question and interpret the findings in a wider context;
5.critically reflect on the learning process.
Break out activity
Establish 5 small groups• Each group takes one stage of inquiry learning
• Identify c3 activities that you could do with your stage to develop the students’ skills in this stage
• Record your activities on the chart paper – be prepared to share in plenary
20 minutes
“Once you have learnt how to ask questions – relevant and appropriate and substantial questions – you have learnt how to learn and no one can keep you from learning whatever you want or need to know.”
Postman and Weingartner (1971, 23)
Mainstreaming undergraduate research and inquiry: discipline and department strategies
!nquiry planner, and active learning suggestions
In groups of 5 look at:– 2. Inquiry Planner – (pp9-10)
– 3. Inquiry Based Learning in a Professional Learning Context – (pp. 11-13)
– 4. Activities to get students active in their learning (pp13-17) (2 people)
– 5. The inverse or flipped classroom (p.18)
Discuss ideas which are transferable
Time: 15 minutes
The inverse or flipped classroom
Source: http://ctl.utexas.edu/teaching/flipping_a_class/what_is_flipped
The inverse or flipped classroom
The experiential flipped classroom model (Source: Gernstein 2012)
Modes of IBL
• Importance of scaffolding provided by lecturer and development of independence in learner
• Structured – where lecturers provide an issue or problem and an outline for addressing it
• Guided – where lecturers provide questions to stimulate inquiry but students are self-directed in terms of exploring these questions
• Open – where students formulate the questions themselves as well as going through the full inquiry cycle
(after Staver and Bay, 1987)
(Spronken-Smith et al. 2009)
(Spronken-Smith et al. 2009)
Anticipated Challenge Areas
Each table should come up with a question concerning a challenge they face in developing inquiry based learning into their classes which they would like help with.
Keep the question short and simple
Allocate 5 minutes
Break out activity
Pass your question to the next table
Identify one key strategy for answering the question that you have received.
Allocate 5 minutes