What do you see as the biggest challenges to conducting advanced (levels 3 and 4) inquiry and student centered planning and carrying out of investigations? What ideas do you have for addressing those challenges?
If students are working together in groups and if all of the work is being done in the classroom, the biggest challenges would be: 1) Making sure that students are grouped both academically and behaviorally so they can work together, and 2) setting and enforcing incremental deadlines for the steps in the procedure so the investigation gets completed.
As the teacher, it would be my job to know who to group with whom AND to keep the investigation moving along on schedule.
thanks for the comment. a thought i had was how would inquiry type learning change throughout the school year as educators learned about their students and students grew
The challenges of doing advanced inquiry with students are numerous. First, most students I receive in the beginning of a school year are not truly prepared for all out inquiry - research question and that's it. However, by the end of the school year most of my students can take a question (or in some cases come up with their own question) and plan and conduct an inquiry investigation. The trick is to work the students up to that level by structured inquiry lessons. Giving students the some pieces of the process and they fill in the rest (like equipment list, procedure when given question, equipment list and data table, etc.) Safety must also be of the utmost concern especially when students will be working with chemicals. To assure safe and meaningful advanced inquiry lessons, I work closely with my students and require a completed plan BEFORE any lab is done. I make suggestions where necessary.
With a hoped for greater focus on inquiry, do you think students will be coming to you with a better handle on inquiry? Also, I look forward to looking into the field context for inquiry. - though at a somewhat faster pace - bart.