Inquiry based learning is a technique that helps students increase student engagement by helping learners develop hands-on, minds-on skills.
Inquiry based learning is a form of active learning that starts by posing questions, problems or scenarios rather than simply presenting established facts or portraying a smooth path to knowledge. This process is most often assisted by a facilitator- say a course instructor or a teacher.
Basically, ‘Inquiry’ is a way of teaching that allows students to build on their prior understanding and experiences. Students are given the primary responsibility for developing new skills and revising their beliefs about how the world works (or should work). It is also a kind of learning where emphasis is on learning by doing and mirror the work of scientist as they actively discover knowledge. In this kind of learning, students undertake the following activities-
1. Formulate questions or a set of questions
2. Model out a process for investigation to research on question/questions
3. Identify and collect relevant resources
4. Develop explanations based on evidence and scientific knowledge
5. Share investigation procedures and findings
6. Reflect upon the learning process and outcomes
For example, what we normally know is, “kids used to learn math by doing things like memorizing a multiplication table, and it worked,” But in the case of Inquiry based learning scenario, these kids are left with experimental discovery math and here hardly math is taught, rather everyone gets a participation ribbon and our kids are left to fend for themselves.”
Check out below a list of five best videos that talks on how teachers can plan out classroom strategies to kick start with Inquiry Based Learning.
1. How to Structure Inquiry Based Learning?
We begin the video listing with this video because just as it is with any task, the first step is to structure the work. Here too, in the case of strategizing for Inquiry based learning learn on some important factors to consider as you move on to structure Inquiry Based Learning.
2. How to get Into Inquiry-Based Learning? – Part 1
The first part of these videos talks on the preparatory steps to create an Inquiry-based activity for your classroom.
How to get into Inquiry Based Learning? – Part 2
In the second part, it is important to investigate a scaffolding approach to Inquiry-Based learning: Basic Concepts-Structured Inquiry-Guided Inquiry-Open Inquiry.
How to get into Inquiry Based Learning? – Part 3
In the third part of the video, steps are shown to identify which of your teacher skills you exercise as you lead Inquiry Based Lessons in your classroom: Be flexible, Guiding Open Ended Questions- Setting up proper expectations- Going Beyond “I Don’t know”- Designing Great Activities
How to get in Inquiry Based Learning? – Part 4
The final part of the video talks on exploring methods of assessing student’s inquiry skills: initiating and planning- performing and recording- analysing and interpreting- communicating.
3. Inquiry-Based Learning: From Teacher Guided To Student Driven
If you want to explore how schools are creating a culture for Inquiry based learning to nourish 21st Century Learners, this video mentioned below is a good watch to help you come up with ideas so that you can create if not the sae but similar culture in your classroom.
4. Video on Learning Science through Inquiry Based Approach
In this video, you will find students do not just gather information on important science facts but rather take the step of inquiry and exploration to build their knowledge on any scientific facts. The teacher is the facilitator who guides the students in the path of exploration and takes ownership of their own learning process.
5. Classroom Strategies on Inquiry Based Learning
In this video, you hear how teachers implement Inquiry Based Learning to pull the attention of the students towards knowledge exploration. All the teachers want their students to be involved in the process of gathering knowledge and the best way to do so is through Inquiry based learning. It triggers questions on the mind of the students and they therefore seek for more information to get valid answers to their queries.
Are you ready to create a 21st century learning space in your classroom?
