Inquiry: A Framework for Learning Pam Berger Director, SWBOCES School Library System.

Inquiry: A Framework for LearningPam Berger

Director, SWBOCES School Library System

Critical Questions

What is inquiry? Why is inquiry essential to the new NYS

Social Studies Framework?

How was Lawrence Exeter, Jr., a product of

his social class?

• Connect to self, previous knowledge• Gain background and context• Observe, experience

• Develop questions• Make predictions, hypothesis

• Find & evaluate information to answer questions, test hypotheses

• Think about information to illuminate new questions

• Construct new understanding connected to previous knowledge

• Draw conclusions about questions and hypotheses

• Reflect on own learning• Ask new questions

• Apply understanding to new content. New situations

• Express new ideas to share learning with others

Stripling Inquiry Process

• Connect to self, previous knowledge• Gain background and context• Observe, experience

Stripling Inquiry Process

What skills are required at each phase of inquiry?

• Connect to self, previous knowledge• Gain background and context• Observe, experience

Stripling Inquiry Process

Make observations

Activate previous knowledge

Ask questionsPredict

EvaluateTake notes

Categorize

Find patterns

Differentiate

Draw conclusionsSynthesize

Design

Communicate

Deconstruct

Critique

Constructivism

Learners construct own meaning Learners build new understanding

on prior knowledge Learning is social and formed

through social interaction Most meaningful learning emerges

from authentic tasks

Characteristics of Inquiry Learning

• Intellectually active• Question-based• Personalized• Authentic• Open-ended• Divergent and convergent• Transformative

Barbara Stripling, “Inquiry in the Digital Age.” Inquiry and the Common Core, Libraries Unlimited, CO, 2014

Inquiry Learning

Intellectually active – Students are making conscious and deliberative decisions and engaging with ideas and text using a critical eye.

Question-based – Good questions lead to explorations of the unknown, where the answers cannot be copied from one source.

Personalized – Inquiry depends on an individual pursuing ideas that connect to his own interests or his own prior knowledge

Authentic – The result of an inquiry exploration should be the application of the learning to a new situation or a connection to the real world.

Barbara Stripling, “Inquiry in the Digital Age.” Inquiry and the Common Core, Libraries Unlimited, CO, 2014

Compelling Questions

1. Intellectually Meaty

Reflects an enduring issue, concern, or debate in the field.

Demands the use of multiple disciplinary lenses and perspectives.

2. Kid Friendly

Reflects a quality or condition that we know children care about.

Honors and respects children’s intellectual efforts.

Compelling…or not so compelling?

Where are we?

What were the causes of the Industrial Revolution?

Why is Albany the capital of New York?

Can Canada and the US be friends forever?

Who won the Cold War?

Who are our community helpers?

What’s the deal with hair?

Inquiry Learning

Intellectually active – Students are making conscious and deliberative decisions and engaging with ideas and text using a critical eye.

Question-based – Good questions lead to explorations of the unknown, where the answers cannot be copied from one source.

Personalized – Inquiry depends on an individual pursuing ideas that connect to his own interests or his own prior knowledge

Authentic – The result of an inquiry exploration should be the application of the learning to a new situation or a connection to the real world.

Barbara Stripling, “Inquiry in the Digital Age.” Inquiry and the Common Core, Libraries Unlimited, CO, 2014

Inquiry Learning

Open-ended – The answers or solutions are discovered and formed by the inquirer during his investigation. It is not a process of the inquirer’s looking for the one right answer that the teacher already knows.

Divergent and convergent – Inquiry investigations push against the accepted frames by asking why, what else, why not. They also bring together disparate points of view to lead to new ideas and understandings.

Transformative – During inquiry, mental models are brought to the surface, examined, compared to new evidence, and rejected or revised based on new understandings.

Barbara Stripling, “Inquiry in the Digital Age.” Inquiry and the Common Core, Libraries Unlimited, CO, 2014

“a set of interlocking and mutually reinforcing ideas that feature the four Dimensions of informed inquiry in social studies:

Developing questions and planning inquiries

Applying disciplinary concepts and tools

Evaluating sources and using evidence

Communicating conclusions and taking informed action”

Inquiry Arc

Instructional Shift #1:Focus on Conceptual Understanding

Transfer and Connections

Facts

Breadth of Topics Depth within Topics

From

Recall

Concepts and Content Knowledge

To 

• Connect to self, previous knowledge• Gain background and context• Observe, experience

• Develop questions• Make predictions, hypothesis

• Find & evaluate information to answer questions, test hypotheses

• Think about information to illuminate new questions

• Construct new understanding connected to previous knowledge

• Draw conclusions about questions and hypotheses

• Reflect on own learning• Ask new questions

• Apply understanding to new content. New situations

• Express new ideas to share learning with others

Stripling Inquiry Process

Questions?

What are the thinking skills required at each phase of inquiry?