Knowledge Seekers: A Culture Of Inquiry Among High School Teachers And Students

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Knowledge Seekers: A Culture of Inquiry Among High School Teachers And Students

By James Kilbane and Christine Clayton

December 2017

At its core, inquiry — whether conducted with students or teachers — is a process of making observations, asking questions, working with evidence, and interpreting data. Even though research (Newmann, Marks, & Gamoran, 1996; Scheuermann, Deshler, & Schumaker, 2010) shows well-documented benefits to understanding content, secondary teachers often hesitate to incorporate inquiry for learning. As professors of education with a deep interest in inquiry learning, we surmised that teachers needed experience using inquiry both as a pedagogical tool and as a learning tool for themselves. The question was where and how to structure that experience across content areas. We both had experience with collaborative inquiry, in which teachers, as part of a group, ask a question about their own work, design a study to answer

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Authors

James Kilbane and Christine Clayton

James Kilbane (j.f.kilbane@csuohio.edu) is clinical assistant professor of STEM education and middle childhood education program coordinator at Cleveland State University in Cleveland, Ohio. Christine Clayton (cclayton@pace.edu) is associate professor of adolescent education and director of the Inquiry Learning Collaborative at Pace University in Pleasantville, New York.

Sample Abridged Learning Plan

Title: Promoting critical thinking skills using real-world connections in mathematics.

Description: This project will be geared toward developing teaching practices that promote critical thinking and connections to the real world.

Who: Grade-level 9 algebra students.

Teacher inquiry: If we train students to connect material in the classroom to real-world situations, they will perform better on modeling linear and quadratic equations and on making overall mathematical connections.

Student inquiry: How can I connect and apply the topics I am learning in algebra to real-world situations?

How: First, students will decipher word problems in each unit that connect the material to real-world situations. Next, students will create their own word problems based on a given topic or equation. Finally, students will be presented with decisions they will need to make in the real world, and they will decide what approach to take to make an educated decision.

Data reviewed: In-class assignments, test scores, observations, pre- and post- student surveys, samples of student work at the beginning, middle, and end.

References

Bonnstetter, R.J. (1998). Inquiry: Learning from the past with an eye on the future. Electronic Journal of Science Education, 3(1).

Cochran-Smith, M. & Lytle, S. (2009). Inquiry as stance: Practitioner research for the next generation. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

McDonald, S. & Songer, N.B. (2008). Enacting classroom inquiry: Theorizing teachers’ conceptions of science teaching. Science Education, 92(6), 973-993.

Newmann, F.M., Marks, H.M., & Gamoran, A. (1996). Authentic pedagogy and student performance. American Journal of Education, 104(4), 280-312.

Scheuermann, A.M., Deshler, D.D., & Schumaker, J. (2010). The effects of the explicit inquiry routine on the performance of students with learning disabilities on one-variable equations. Learning Disability Quarterly, 32(2), 103-120.

Senge, P. (1990). The fifth discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization. New York, NY: Doubleday.

Senge, P., Cambron-McCabe, N., Lucas, T., Smith, B., Dutton, J., & Kleiner, A. (2000). Schools that learn: A fifth discipline fieldbook for educators, parents, and everyone who cares about education. New York, NY: Doubleday.