Inquiry Method Of Teaching

Teaching workshops fail to spur learner-centered teaching

Professional development workshops for college teachers, designed to encourage the use of active, "learner-centered" teaching methods, may be less effective than the participants believe, according to research reported in the July issue of BioScience .

Diane Ebert-May of Michigan State University and her colleagues studied the teaching of participants in two such established programs for faculty teaching introductory biology courses. Although after the workshops most of the faculty judged themselves to be providing the favored, learner-centered teaching, which encourages student engagement and exploration rather than lecture-style presentations, analysis of video recordings showed that most of the participants were still using traditional styles of teaching up to two years later. More experienced teachers were less likely to adopt the favored teaching styles than early-career teachers.

Ebert-May and her five coauthors examined data from two multi-day programs, one of which occurred over several years and one of which was repeated annually. Both programs led to participating faculty knowing more about inquiry-based teaching, as expected, and a large majority of them also reported later in questionnaires that they were actually using such practices. But 75 percent were not in fact doing so substantially, according to Ebert-May's study. The researchers state that the results call into question the value of the self-assessment method frequently used in education studies, and recommend that in future, researchers should rely on validated independent assessments of teaching performance. Although a lack of support from colleagues for adopting learner-centered teaching methods is often suggested as an explanation when they are not adopted, the participants in Ebert-May's study reported that having insufficient time was the main impediment to their revising their teaching.

Ebert-May and her coauthors conclude that changes are needed in professional development programs if they are to bring about real improvements in teaching practice. In particular, they favor providing participating faculty with more opportunities for direct practice of what they have learned. "Instant replays of teaching with expert commentary may become our most powerful tool to improve outcomes," they conclude.

Inquiry Based Learning and Language Teaching | Smart Start Child ...

Inquiry Based Learning and Language Teaching

Feride ONAN

An English Teacher

ferish_86@hotmail.com

Abstract

This study aims to describe what Inquiry Based Learning (IBL) is and the role of IBL in language teaching in the light of the recent developments so that teachers can realise the importance of IBL in language teaching and use it as a part of their teaching method effectively in their teaching situations. Characteristics of IBL, guided inductive inquiry and questioning techniques for inquiry teaching are also defined.

Key words: Inquiry Based Learning, Inductive Inquiry, Language teaching, Questioning, Autonomy.

1. Inquiry Based Learning

“Tell me and I forget,

Show me and I remember,

Involve me and I understand.”

1.0. Introduction: The Definition of Inquiry

“Inquiry in its most simplistic form is to ask others to make their thinking process visible and asking for help in seeing any gaps or limits in our thinking” (Smith, 1987). It is an old technique. Considering ancient Western culture, Socrates, Aristotle and Plato were all masters of the inquiry processes. That heritage has given us modes of teaching in which students are vitally involved in the learning and creating processes.

1.1. The Origins of Inquiry Based Learning

Inquiry has always been a part of education as a pedagogical method. Orlich et al. (1990) states that it predates Socrates and his way of leading students to self-knowledge through agressive questioning. J. Richard Suchman is accepted to be the originator of an inquiry teaching program that was widely used throughout the United States and he once said “inquiry is the way people learn when they are left alone.” That is, he developed inquiry training to teach students a process for investigating and explaning unusual phenomena. Based on a conception of scientific method, it attempts to teach students some of the skills and language of scholarly inquiry (Suchman, 1962). Meanwhile, John Dewey’s reform of the educational system led to the first inquiry-based learning methods in the United States. Dewey advocated child-centered learning based on real-world experiences. As a result, these efforts seriously attempted to turn the traditional approach into the learning through investigation with a spotlight on developing reasoning abilities.

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