Dive Into Inquiry


Book Description

Want to make learning more meaningful in your classroom? Looking to better prepare your students for the world of tomorrow? Keen to help learners create authentic connections to the world around them? Dive into Inquiry beautifully marries the voice and choice of inquiry with the structure and support required to optimise learning for students and get the results educators desire. With Dive into Inquiry you'll gain an understanding of how to best support your learners as they shift from a traditional learning model into the inquiry classroom where student agency is fostered and celebrated each and every day. This book strikes a perfect balance of meaningful pedagogy, touching narrative, helpful processes, original student examples, and rich how-to lesson plans all to get you going on bringing inquiry into your classroom. After reading this book educators will feel equipped to design their own inquiry units in a scaffolded manner that promote a gradual shift of control of learning from the teacher to the learner. Exploring student passions, curiosities, and interests and having these shape essential questions, units of study, and performance tasks are all covered in this powerful book. Learn to keep track of the many inquiry topics in your classroom and have students take ownership over their learning like never before! Trevor MacKenzie provides readers with a strong understanding of the Types of Student Inquiry and proposes a framework that best prepares both educators and learners for sharing the unpacking of curriculum in the classroom as they work together towards co-constructing a strong Free Inquiry unit. Helpful illustrations for in-class use, examples of essential questions from a variety of disciplines, practical goals for making progress in adopting inquiry into your practice, and powerful student learning on display throughout, Dive into Inquiry will energize, inspire, and transform your classroom!




Inquiry and the National Science Education Standards


Book Description

Humans, especially children, are naturally curious. Yet, people often balk at the thought of learning scienceâ€"the "eyes glazed over" syndrome. Teachers may find teaching science a major challenge in an era when science ranges from the hardly imaginable quark to the distant, blazing quasar. Inquiry and the National Science Education Standards is the book that educators have been waiting forâ€"a practical guide to teaching inquiry and teaching through inquiry, as recommended by the National Science Education Standards. This will be an important resource for educators who must help school boards, parents, and teachers understand "why we can't teach the way we used to." "Inquiry" refers to the diverse ways in which scientists study the natural world and in which students grasp science knowledge and the methods by which that knowledge is produced. This book explains and illustrates how inquiry helps students learn science content, master how to do science, and understand the nature of science. This book explores the dimensions of teaching and learning science as inquiry for K-12 students across a range of science topics. Detailed examples help clarify when teachers should use the inquiry-based approach and how much structure, guidance, and coaching they should provide. The book dispels myths that may have discouraged educators from the inquiry-based approach and illuminates the subtle interplay between concepts, processes, and science as it is experienced in the classroom. Inquiry and the National Science Education Standards shows how to bring the standards to life, with features such as classroom vignettes exploring different kinds of inquiries for elementary, middle, and high school and Frequently Asked Questions for teachers, responding to common concerns such as obtaining teaching supplies. Turning to assessment, the committee discusses why assessment is important, looks at existing schemes and formats, and addresses how to involve students in assessing their own learning achievements. In addition, this book discusses administrative assistance, communication with parents, appropriate teacher evaluation, and other avenues to promoting and supporting this new teaching paradigm.




Inquiry Mindset


Book Description

Harness the Power of Curiosity to Foster Students' Love for Learning From their youngest years, our children are innately curious. Cultivate an inquiry mindset both as a teacher and in your students! Adopt an inquiry approach that results in the most authentic and inspiring learning you've ever experienced!







Concept-Based Inquiry in Action


Book Description

Create a thinking classroom that helps students move from the factual to the conceptual Concept-Based Inquiry is a framework for inquiry that promotes deep understanding. The key is using guiding questions to help students inquire into concepts and the relationships between them. Concept-Based Inquiry in Action provides teachers with the tools and resources necessary to organize and focus student learning around concepts and conceptual relationships that support the transfer of understanding. Step by step, the authors lead both new and experienced educators to implement teaching strategies that support the realization of inquiry-based learning for understanding in any K–12 classroom.




Teaching as Inquiry, with a Focus on Priority Learners


Book Description

This book shows how teaching as inquiry can be built into the everyday work of classrooms to make a difference for all students, particularly priority learners. Based on findings from the Secondary Student Achievement project, it is richly layered with whole-school, classroom and learner perspectives. The author highlights the successes that emerged as teachers re-examined their curriculum and teaching practices with the goal of raising the achievement of the priority learners they had identified. The introduction takes the reader back to the basics of what teaching as inquiry is and then the book steps through aspects of the inquiry process, from identifying students' needs to developing feedback loops to evaluate student progress and teacher learning. It's a focused and deep approach, with just four or five students the subject of inquiry at a time. The research took place in secondary schools but the issues and strategies and the interactions with students will have resonance for all practitioners. This is a professional learning approach with wide application across sectors, as well as internationally. Detailed and varied case studies and guiding questions engage readers and will get them started on their own teaching as inquiry journey. Professor Lindsey Conner is the Director of the Science and Technology Education Research Lab at the University of Canterbury. Previously, Lindsey has been a teacher educator at the Christchurch College of Education and University of Canterbury, and a secondary school biology teacher and Head of Department. She has also been a national examiner, a developer and examiner of national standards assessments, and an international consultant on developing science curricula and assessment practices and development projects on teacher education.




Teaching Inquiry-based Science


Book Description

This book written for middle and high school science teachers describes what inquiry-based science is and how you can teach it in your classroom. It includes: -Numerous examples of inquiry-based lessons and experiments.-Ideas of different methods to teach in an inquiry-based way.-Lists of possible titles for inquiry-based science lessons and experiments.-Interviews with leading science education specialists about inquiry-based science teaching.




Inquiry-Based Teaching and Learning across Disciplines


Book Description

This research-based book dissects and explores the meaning and nature of Inquiry in teaching and learning in schools, challenging existing concepts and practices. In particular, it explores and contests prevailing attitudes about the practice of inquiry-based learning across the Science, Geography and History disciplines, as well as focusing on the importance of the role of teacher in what is frequently criticised as being a student-controlled activity. Three frameworks, which are argued to be necessarily intertwined for discipline-specific literacy, guide this inquiry work: the classroom goals; the instructional approach; and the degree of teacher direction. The foundation of the analysis is the notion of educational inquiry as it is structured in the Australian Curriculum, along with the locating of the study in international trends in inquiry learning over time. It will be of great interest to researchers, higher degree students and practicing professionals working in Education and Sociology.




On Teacher Inquiry


Book Description

On Teacher Inquiry could be read as an answer to the question, “Teacher research: What’s in it for the students?” This book offers a framework, examples, and practical guidelines for teacher researchers on how to design and conduct individual and collaborative inquiries that build new knowledge and theories about teaching and learning. “What a jewel of a book!” —Ann Lieberman, Senior Scholar at Stanford University “On Teacher Inquiry is for those who cherish what the editors call ‘the habit of inquiry’ because they understand that teaching is always about learning, both theirs’ and their students’.” —Sonia Nieto, Professor Emerita, University of Massachusetts, Amherst “Bringing to life what it means to create a web of meaning for students and collaborative learning communities for teachers, the book portrays how teacher research fosters both reflective teaching and affirmative experiences for diverse students.” —Ann Lewin-Benham, author of Powerful Children “Teacher researchers have long endeavored to bring the heartbeats and breathing of living classrooms to the educational community. This volume continues in that great tradition.” —Bob Fecho, University of Georgia “Both as a resource for those new to teacher inquiry and for the more experienced, the book makes a very important contribution to this exceptional series.” —Susan L. Lytle, Founding Director, Philadelphia Writing Project, Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania




The Power of Questioning


Book Description

Teaching and learning cannot happen without questions. Inquiry is the offspring of curiosity and creativity. Questions are incredibly powerful tools that open the world up. In the age of Google, the way we teach needs to change and students need to be reconnected with their early childhood curiosity. Let’s put that control back into kids’ hands by teaching them to question better. The Power of Questioning will help you to make students partners in their own learning.