EDIM 513 Final Thoughts

As our inquiry-based learning class comes to end, I wanted to reflect on some of the things that I have learned over the past two months. Coming into this class, I had a general idea of what inquiry-based learning was. However, I did not realize everything that went into making a successful inquiry-based learning lesson. What I thought was inquiry-based learning was still very teacher-driven and focused on the final product. I have learned that to be truly inquiry-based, the main focus must be put on the process of learning rather than what is actually learned. While I still struggle with this concept, I do see the importance of teaching students how to figure out problems and come up with solutions to problems that haven't happened yet. This is a great way to prepare them for the 21st-century workforce that many will be entering soon. One of my favorite things that I am taking away from the class is the 5e process way of creating lessons. This is a great way to guide students on how to approach a problem, while still giving them the freedom to solve it in their own way. Overall, I look forward to implementing many of the strategies I learned in this class, into my teaching in the fall.

-Kyle

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

EDIM 513 Week 3 Updated Thoughts on Inquiry Based Learning

After investigating inquiry-based learning for the past two weeks, my views about the topic have not changed very much. I still believe that inquiry-based learning is a skill that needs to be taught to students at a young age. I also still believe that students need some form of direct instruction to give them the background knowledge that they can then use to form their own inquiry-based explorations and questions. The key to this as a teacher is to guide the students without simply giving them all of the information and answers. I also still believe that students who are given the opportunity to learn about things that they want to know about leads to a much more engaged student population. The challenging part about this as a teacher is keeping the students within the curriculum, while still giving them the largest amount of choices possible.  One thing that I have realized over the past few weeks is that the level of inquiry-based instruction in a classroom can be looked at on ...
Read more

EDIM 513 Initial Thoughts on Inquiry Based Learning (u01a1)

When I first heard the term inquiry-based learning two years ago, my mind immediately went to chaos in the classroom. My apprehension stemmed from my view that inquiry-based learning had to involve every student picking different topics and presenting in a million different ways, all while I “guided” them in the least intrusive way possible. While in an ideal situation this is how inquiry-based learning would look, many of us know that this is not always the case. Coming into this class, I had some background knowledge of inquiry-based learning thanks to my district’s emphasis on the topic in the last two years. Thankfully this has helped transform my view on inquiry-based learning to a more manageable system of front-loading students with direct instruction, which gives them the base knowledge they need to succeed. I have also learned that giving students choice, does not have to be a free for all. A lot of student choice can be controlled by setting parameters that do not change the ...
Read more