How can we create contexts to support inquiry-based learning?
Chip Bruce
(chip@uiuc.edu)
(ready to use)
ASK
Subject Areas
Grade Levels
| Kinder, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, Vocational, Undergraduate, Continuing |
Unit Keywords
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inquiry learning, learning contexts, teaching, students, environments, schools |
Open Directory Category
Rationale of the Unit
| Consider how we can create environments that promote inquiry based learning in schools or other settings. |
Background and Resources
DeHart & Cook, Transforming middle schools
Drake, Planning integrated curriculum
Robert Semper, Science museums
Beyer, The nature of inquiry
Additional readings
Beane, J. (October, 1991). The middle school: The natural home of integrated curriculum. Educational Leadership .
Brandt, Ron (1993, April). On teaching for understanding: A conversation with Howard Gardner . Educational Leadership, 50 (7).
Brown, John Seely, & Duguid, Paul (1993, March). Stolen knowledge. Educational Technology , pp. 10-15.
Donnan, C. S. (1988). Following our forebears' footsteps: From expedition to understanding. In V. Rogers, A. D. Roberts, & T. P. Weinland, (Eds.), Teaching social studies: Portraits from the classroom (Bulletin No. 82) . Washington, DC: National Council for the Social Studies.
Lansdown, B., Blackwood, P. E., & Brandwein, P. F. (1971). Teaching elementary science through investigation and colloquium . New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.?Shows the learning that occurs when students are immersed in an environment with rich materials and ample opportunities for dialogue.
Pearce, C. S. (1999). Nurturing inquiry: Real science for the elementary classroom . Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Rosebery, A. S., Warren, B., & Conant, F. R. (1992). Appropriating scientific discourse: Findings from language minority classrooms. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 2 (1), 61-94.
Websites
- Teaching and Learning Resources in Central Illinois ?A list of museams, projects, schools, and other education related facilities that are creating contexts to support inquiry-based learning.
Museum Learning Collaborative -"Established to further theoretically driven research on learning in museums. Includes annotated literature database for museum professionals, museum studies students and others interested in informal learning."
Visualizing Earth -New technologies of remote-sensing, visualizations and geographic information systems have revolutionized how scientists investigate the Earth. Visualizing Earth presents the findings of a research project on understanding how students learn to work with and make meaning of images and visualizations. |
Assessment, Related Questions, and Story of the Unit
How do the characteristics of a learning environment shape the kinds of learning that can occur there? For example, most people would say that it is important to know whether the learner is required to be there. Others have talked about how learning can be framed by space or by time. Thus, a classroom might say "it's 10 o'clock, so we do math." A library might say "this is the science space, so you can explore science questions best here." There are also interesting hybrid cases: the librarian who works with teachers; the school group that goes to a museum; the person who comes to a library, but studies a topic systematically using an online tutorial.
What other such differences do you see? How do any of these constrain the nature of learning? To explore these questions, you could look at the Open Directory Museum category, or consider a list of sites for learning in the local Illinois area.
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