Teaching Strategies and ICT

How do I teach with Inquiry learning?

The teacher can be one resource the students need to gather their information for their inquiry, however there are also other resources readily available to students such as the internet. Students are often highly motivated to examine novel problems and to have the opportunity to formulate a possible solution (Killen 2006). There are many different strategies a teacher can use to promote inquiry learning such as KWL charts, Venn diagrams, polling and surveying, problem based learning tasks, role-play, picture books, poetry, film and media sources, questioning and WebQuests.

Through the use of ICT in classrooms allows students to connect with their local community but also global. Technology today has become a major part of the 21^st century and will continue to expand. The use of it in the classroom permits students to gain life skills to take with throughout their life while engaging in learning. It is a great way resource to use with inquiry-based learning activities. For ICT to be used effectively, teachers need to have effective planning behind it. ICT can be used as a fantastic tool to encourage students to be motivated and involved in their own learning, group learning, and whole class learning.

WebQuests are ideal vehicles for inquiry-oriented activities (Gibson 2004). WebQuests are activities, using Internet resources, which encourage students to use higher order thinking skills to solve a real messy problem. Students are provided with online resources and are asked to use this information constructively to solve the presented problem rather than just cutting and pasting material into an assignment or project. Computers and the internet are valuable teaching and learning tools in which teachers should be using. Learners need INFORMATION: questions to stimulate inquiry and exploration, access to facts – knowledge and wisdom, guidance on how to select, evaluate, apply, organise, synthesize and communicate ideas.

 AS HSIE explores the constant change of our surrounding environments it is important that as teachers we provide students with the opportunities to explore these changes through the changes themselves such as technology (Chambers, 2007). As students are exposed to technology throughout their day to day lives it is important when teaching HSIE which relates to the student themselves and their surrounding environment that technology is incorporated. Using a WebQuest in the classroom also ensures that students are using the internet appropriately.

Linked to the HSIE syllabus, teachers can use inquiry learning to further their students’ knowledge and understanding of the world they live in. On each page (151 to 210) of the HSIE Units of Work, there is a different strategy of inquiry learning explained in detail along with examples that teachers can use to help them implement inquiry learning into their classroom.

 KWL Charts are a great starting point for teachers who want to implement inquiry learning into their classroom. Below is a diagram of a KWL chart.

KWL charts are a great inquiry-based strategy to use as they can be used across all units of work and KLA’s. It allows students to think about what they already know (prior knowledge) which begins the stages of inquiry learning. KWL charts also allow the opportunity for help develop high order thinking as the students need to think about what they want to know more about the topic. And finally, it helps bring to a close the stages of inquiry by having the students to state what they have learn (conclusion).

Wordle is another inquiry-based strategy that can be used in the classroom. Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. This is a great way to either to introduce students to a new topic and find out what they know or to conclude and create a Wordle about what they have learnt. It can be used in are content area and done individually or in a group. Here is an example I have created about what I have learnt about inquiry learning.