Guiding and Designing Inquiry

Textbook Learning Versus Learning from Student Led Research

I've spent the last 15 years studying inquiry based learning, thinking about the research (Kuhlthau) that explains how students go through a process when they are learning from multiple sources of information and asking their own questions.  This is so different from textbook learning.  And now we are in a time when open ed resources are widely available, and textbooks are taking a backseat.  It's an exciting time in the "wild west" of information for educators.

But to make this shift so that what and how we teach in this environment of information abundance has effects that positively impact student learning is not a cake walk.  That's why I'm happy to be a part of the creative team who designed the Guided Inquiry framework to support teachers to guide learning experiences for students that begin with their own curiosities and move directly into the curriculum.  We call this the third space.

There are many challenges to inquiry learning in school but one of the challenges that teachers often mention is doubt that students will learn what the course requires if it is taught in an inquiry approach.  This team explained it this way-

One of the ELA teachers voiced a concern that some of her students veered completely away from the original topic of our OPEN with their research questions. For example, we gave students readings about "X" during EXPLORE, which some found very interesting; some of those students ended up being curious about drones, self-driving vehicles, etc., since the articles were largely about technology. In the end, the student and the teacher struggled to find a way to tie what the student produced back to the opening topic of urbanization. Our supervisor echoed the teacher's concern, reinforcing that we've all seen so many times students don't address the assigned topic in an essay or paper. (OPEN and EXPLORE are two phases in the beginning of the Guided Inquiry Process designed to build curiosity and provide time for students to learn about the topic before finding their focus for their research.)

Guided Inquiry Design places the teacher in the role of instructional designer. As the designer of inquiry learning we can design the learning experience more tightly so the right questions do arise.  

Notice in this comment- the teachers got creative and placed resources about future cities in front of the students- and what happened?  They got curious about those aspects of the article.  This is natural.  I've seen it happen over and over again in my work with teachers.  

So what to do?

1. Choose resources that really match the learning outcome.   A tangentially related video or article that has exciting content, probably will steer your students to ask questions about it, rather than the topics at hand. Be really careful what they consume in the early phases is really important. Curating sources that are focused on the aspects of the topics you are teaching is important. The school librarian can help you find the right sources.  This will take some time to get right, but there's no real harm done when sources aren't perfect.  Just keep reflecting on what you used and what effect it had on students' learning and inquiry.  Then adjust.  

2. If you do choose to put that video in. Remind the students as they Identify, or through the Explore phase, "So, as a class, we are hoping to learn more about X through this inquiry.  Is this more about ____ or more about X?  What do you think learning about this will help you understand about this (insert main concept you are trying to teach X)?  Or what connections are you making from this to the major concept of the unit?

3. Provide a rubric for the focus so they know they can look at their area of interest, but in their quest, they have to show a connection to the big idea that the Inquiry Community is investigating. 

4. Or let them learn about whatever it is and then in the end have them circle back to the original idea and now that they know about their own topic through their own research, let them apply this new learning to the concept in an essay.  This would be a useful exercise for them.  Give them a resource from the beginning and help them to make the bridge and connection.  

Learning from inquiry is an amazingly fluid process.  There are many ways to guide students through this process through your planing, in the design of the unit, the curation of resources(or not!) and of course how you interact with students along their learning journey.  These are just a few of the strategies offered  with the use of the GID framework.  

Stay Curious!

Leslie Maniotes, PhD 

Learning in Trust and Trust in Learning

It's a real struggle for many teachers to let go of content and control. It can be hard to let go to trust your students to know that they have the best intentions at heart.  But the more you can do this, the deeper the students will delve into their learning.  

Read and imagine this exchange between Eve, Poppy, Pam, and Lizzie (pseudonyms), a smart group of fourth grade girls of mixed ethnicity in a Title One school in Colorado.

The scene- the students are in Inquiry Circles discussing the book they are reading, The Watsons Go to Birmingham:1963 (Curtis). In this part of the conversation they are examining characters in the text while learning about the civil rights era in the United States.

Here, they wonder about Bryon the older brother in the story. The girls discuss whether or not he can be trusted, or is telling the truth.  In the beginning of the conversation the teacher (Ramona) is not at the group. She enters about half way through and contributes to the conversation. She is monitoring more than one Inquiry Circle and dips in and out of the meetings occurring around the classroom. Eve's job in the Inquiry Circle is to encourage making connections to the text, and so she begins:

Eve:        Does anyone have a connection to that?  Byron trouble.  Does one of you?  (Pointing her pencil at each of the three other girls.)

Poppy:   Yes.

Pam:       Can you tell your connection?  Lizzie, you go first.

Lizzie:    How like my brother every time- 'cause when we got our bunk beds, I got to sleep on the top. And he was like, “On the bottom is better!”  And it’s not!  Because it’s all like you could hear the person move on the top, and he was just fooling around with me just to try to go up there.

Poppy:   My connection is from my big brother, Ben.  He’s thirteen.  And when I try to call my mom’s he acts like he’s not there. And then she actually calls out his name. He’s like really there and so she’s like Ben go away!

Ramona: And so you gotta judge him out a little bit.

Poppy:   And so he usually does that every day that I usually see him. And so now I don’t even believe him when he’s trying to tell the truth because-

Ramona: So you don’t trust him.

Poppy:   Yea.  It’s kind of like  “The Boy Who Cried Wolf.”

Ramona:  So, do you think Byron’s gonna be like that?  I assume you’re talking about Byron even though I wasn’t here.

Poppy:   Yea.

Eve:        (Raises her hand to speak) Well, one time I was about six years old and my brother- I used to sleep with my brother, because I was afraid of the dark. And one time he told me to go get him a glass of milk with the light on.  He turned the light off and he’s like there’s a monster coming for you that just ran under the bed. So now I don’t trust him anymore.

Ramona: Sometimes, it’s hard to trust your big brothers and sisters.

Poppy:    'Cause they always try to fool you around and try to make you believe. 

First of all, what's notable in this scenario is that these 4th grade girls know how to "do" an Inquiry Circle on their own. They draw each other in for comment, do not hog the conversational floor, and they build on each others ideas. It's a real conversation. They are able to dig into this character collectively and by the end they show they really "get" Byron and his motivations.

Secondly what is notable is how the teacher assumes the best in her students. Rather than assume they are off task with their discussion of the connections to their families, she assumes that they ARE talking about the text. She knows that it was Bryon, in the book, that they must be referring to in their connections, even if Byron's name is not yet mentioned. The teacher's preparation for today's Inquiry Circles is evident in her knowledge of the book, its characters, and what the students read for this meeting. This preparation allowed her to drop into the conversation and guide them fluidly.  But, that preparation at home the night before was not enough.  Here, her preparedness is clearly paired with her trust in the girls ability to have an academic conversation about the text on their own. She prepared them for this and now she can trust that the conversations are good in that space. And she is right! That is the art of teaching.

This three minute interchange is a powerful example of the art of teaching.  Ramona accomplished so much in this short interchange.  She gently brings them back to the text with positive intention, and got an affirming response from Pam. She affirmed, to the girls, that they were on the right track by engaging in real conversation with them. She validated their third space interactions (it's hard to trust your big brothers and sisters).  And, she checked and confirmed that the goal of the conversation was directly related back to the book. All of this was done in a way that kept the conversation going, and built rapport with her students through the learning.

This example gives us a look into the classroom of an expert teacher, who has mastered that art. She trusts that they want to learn. She affirms their contributions, and validates their connections to the work.  It sounds simpler than it is.  But it is definitely something to strive for as we develop our own art.

If I were to assess this collaboration on a Common Core Rubric, these girls would be all scored as advanced.  And the teacher... well, she's pretty amazing!