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3 Ways to Boost Students’ Conceptual Thinking

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Coaching students to think in terms of concepts helps them understand how to apply their learning in the future.

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Successfully navigating adulthood involves mastering a range of self-management skills, from budgeting and time management to goal setting and emotional regulation. These are not abilities we're born with but instead are learned over time.

Despite their importance, these skills often fall by the wayside in traditional educational settings. Today's fast-paced, ever-evolving world demands more than rote learning; it requires individuals who can self-regulate and manage their lives efficiently and effectively.

This article provides five actionable strategies for teaching self-management skills, aimed at equipping children and young adults with the necessary tools to handle life's ups and downs.

Whether you're a parent, educator, or mentor, the approaches discussed below can help cultivate self-reliance, resilience, and perseverance in those under your guidance.

What is a Self-Management Plan?

Teaching students self-management skills has been demonstrated to have a positive impact on various aspects of their academic experience. It not only enhances their performance and productivity but also helps them stay focused on tasks and reduces instances of problem behavior.

Ideally, self-management strategies for students start before problem behaviors occur. However, they can replace disruptive behaviors with more desirable conduct.

A self-management plan is a set of tools that build and foster independence, self-reliance, and self-motivation. More than an education philosophy, self-management skills are crucial for students to learn.

Self-management plans use SEL character-building proficiencies to lead students toward self-discipline, self-motivation, and independent learning.
Self-management strategies involve:
Goal setting

Students and teachers should cooperate in setting small, reachable goals that the student can work toward. Goals can be anything from "working quietly for 15 minutes" to "turning in homework consistently." By allowing the student to participate in setting their goals, you empower them to take an active role in self-management strategies, as well as self-management interventions.

Behavior monitoring

Self-monitoring, or behavior monitoring, occurs when students observe and record their behaviors, redirecting themselves when necessary.

They practice their self-awareness skills and build a record of their difficulties and successes. Through self-monitoring, students become more aware of where they struggle and where they succeed.

As their self-awareness increases, they gain confidence in their ability to redirect themselves and participate in self-reinforcement activities.

Self-reinforcement

Self-reinforcement is the act of rewarding oneself after completing the desired behavior or meeting a goal. Rewarding positive behavior increases the likelihood your student will repeat that behavior. According to Psychology Today, 85% of people who don't learn self-reinforcement have trouble in other areas, like self-esteem.

Rewards can be a chance to get up and move after completing an assignment, extra computer time, or assigning classroom jobs. Tailor the rewards to the student and the behaviors you want to reinforce with the self-management plan.

Self-evaluation

While students may look forward to the rewards, reflection on the process teaches them the most.

What helped inspire them? What was the most challenging part of the process? Was the reward worth it? What can they do better the next time?

These questions and answers help teachers and students gain confidence in themselves and their skills. They can also identify areas where the teacher and student believe they can improve.

This self-evaluation process also teaches students the power of resilience and perseverance. They learn that failure can happen, but if they keep trying, they can succeed.

Build an Effective Teaching Plan with These 5 Strategies

By inviting your students to take an active part in their education, you empower them to self-manage. Teaching self-management skills to students may seem overwhelming.

Try using these self-management tools in your classroom.

1. Time Management Logs. These logs are a place for students to track and manage their time. The log can span the length of a single assignment, an entire day, or a week, whatever is appropriate. For younger students, the goal of their self-management plan may be to complete a worksheet without interrupting other students. For older students, they may set a goal to gather insight into their working habits and improve them.

2. Checklists and Rubrics. The act of checking boxes on a to-do list can be exciting for students. Each checkmark is a goal completed toward a larger objective. It's important that both student and teacher clearly understand the objective, and that you have manageable steps to get there.

3. Rating Scales. A rating scale allows students to rate how well they accomplished a specific goal. For example, a student sets a goal to complete an assignment within a stated period. The teacher could mark off ten-minute intervals or play a beep tape. When cued, the student records whether they succeeded in focusing on their assignment during that interval. They reward themselves with a star or smiley face if they succeed and leave their record blank if they don't. At the end of the class, students see how many stars or smiles they've earned, allowing them to rate their efforts.

4. Contracts or Agreements. While contracts are ideal for older students, they can be used for young learners as well. Agreements can be a list of rules or ideal behaviors and can be individually-based, team-based, or class-based. Students can then evaluate how well they kept the terms of the agreement at the end of it. Ensure that students get involved in setting the rules or behaviors so they feel more engaged in sticking to

5. Behavior Report Cards. These report cards should have a place for both students and teachers to grade their behavior. Younger students may earn grades on teaching sessions, while older students may be able to handle a grade for the entire day.

How Positive Action Can Help

Positive Action has created a research-based SEL curriculum that focuses on self-management as an underlying objective for all lessons. We also have units that focus on self-management.

To learn more about our programs, you can also reach out to us via chat, email, or call us at (800) 345-2974. You can also join us for a 15-minute webinar.

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Teaching Self-Management Skills: 5 Strategies to Create an Effective Plan

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Successfully navigating adulthood involves mastering a range of self-management skills, from budgeting and time management to goal setting and emotional regulation. These are not abilities we're born with but instead are learned over time.

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This post is part of a 6-part series highlighting how we, as IB teachers, can bring Approaches to Teaching to our classroom and challenge students to engage in Approaches to Learning. In the previous installments of our series, we introduced several ideas for the implementation of Approaches to Teaching in the contexts of inquiry, conceptual understanding, local-global perspectives, teamwork, and differentiation. At the same time, we suggested ways to fit Approaches to Learning in these instructional strategies by promoting students' research, thinking, communication and social skills. We conclude this series with the last but not least IB requirements for teaching and learning in the Diploma Programme (DP): assessment and self-management skills.

This final installment covers ow to cultivate students' self-management skills through teaching informed by assessment. Assessment is a very hot issue for both teachers and students and the disputes over this educational component are more than common. In fact, sometimes teachers are so overwhelmed by this that they feel like there is no other purpose in their teaching than to assess the students. How can your students benefit from assessment in a more learning-oriented way with the enhancement of their self-management skills? Here are 4 steps you can take:

Model positive self-management skills

We devote a lot of our time, during and beyond classroom hours, working on students' summative assessment: putting together quizzes and tests with diverse content and proper grading, creating rubrics for the granulation of internal assessment criteria and responding marks, organizing group activities for bonus marks and the list goes on. Going through all these arrangements makes us forget that our goal is not assessment for the sake of assessment, but for reinforcing students' learning and self-management skills.

A kind of summative assessment is required in all IB educational programs. "The aim of summative assessment is generally to report on students' level of learning at a particular time" (Dolin, Black, Harlen, & Tiberghien, 2018). All teachers are familiar with this educational component, and most of them have actually mastered it.

I would love to say that all this effort is about enhancing students' performance, but it mostly addresses one thing: grading - semesters, examinations and, most important of all, predictions. Hundreds of hours, inside and outside the classroom, are spent in order to ensure that the grades will be accurate and fair: we don't want to be unjust to our students, nor to expose ourselves and, by extension, our school.

But, this surely isn't our main role as a Diploma Programme (DP) teachers - the people that just distribute (fair) grades. In the IB mission, it is stated that the IB is "more than its educational programmes and certificates. At our heart we are motivated by a mission to create a better world through education" (IBO, 2005a). This mission molds the IB learner profile, which "describes a broad range of human capacities and responsibilities that go beyond academic success" (IBO, 2005b). Teaching in the IB, and in any curriculum, involves many more responsibilities towards our students beyond fair grading.

However, we can't escape the fact that students are fixed on final examinations - and for good reason. We have to turn this everlasting concern to genuine learning opportunities and advancement of their self-management skills that will be priceless during their tertiary education... and for a lifetime. Time-management, mindfulness, and self-motivation are prerequisites for successful studying, yet our students could use our support to mastering them.

Students usually complain about a lack of time, but it is actually control over their time that they are lacking. In fact, educational research suggests that the more the workload (but reasonable nonetheless), the better they cope with it (Kausar, 2010). When students have a considerable amount of duties, with specific guidelines and deadlines, they usually rise up to the challenge. On the other end, when they are confident that their work requires just a little of their time, they become overly comfortable. What makes the difference for them?

When they have many things to handle, they are forced to employ some serious organizational skills: planning in advance, breaking down assignments, and forming study timetables. And then, they stick to their own arrangements, using affective skills: focusing, overcoming distractions, and aspiring to meet their goals.

💡 If your students continue complaining about being short on time, together, work out which skill they need help with to manage their workload better.

The effort they make is weighted more heavily when it connects directly to a summative assessment task, like an official test. Although such tasks can be motivating for some of them, it can also work as a source of great anxiety. For them, assessment is a judgment rather than an opportunity for further learning or change of strategy. How can you turn this around?

Create an atmosphere where students don't think they have to get everything right the first time

There is another, more student-friendly, type of assessment that we can use: formative assessment. This is another card we hold, that we may neglect to address, given that it is more "optional." This form of assessment can be used as a tool, but it serves our instructional goals better when it is also perceived as a process. "This 'constructive' use of formative assessment hinges on the ability of the teacher (or another provider of feedback) to actually give recommendations that are relevant and effective for improvement" (Dolin et al., 2018).

There are many different ways to integrate formative assessment in your classroom, but let's be realistic: at the end of the day, we will end up with the grading deriving from the summative assessment. But, there's a way to seamlessly combine these two forms of assessment.

💡 Add a formative assessed "mock test" halfway to expand students' preparation period for an upcoming official test.

For specific content, book dates not for one, but for two tests within a period no longer than a week. Ask your students to put all their efforts into the preparation for the first test. It is up to you if you want to let them know from the beginning that this test will be assessed in a formative way, and that there will be a follow-up test for their summative assessment. I suggest not sharing your intentions the first time you apply this method, because it may seem overwhelming; next time, the request will come directly from your students.

Give students feedback on their approach to a task

The purpose of this strategy is to use the mock test as a tool to promote learning by giving feedback. The formative test identifies the distance between reality and goals, regarding students' knowledge and performance. Feedback is the means for reducing this distance so students can attain their standards (Grosas, Raju, Schuett, Chuck, & Millar, 2016).

If you have the time, make comments on the mock papers and spend one or two contact hours to discuss students' questions. This is a good investment of your in-class time, since it works as a differentiated session, meeting all students' needs for revision.

💡 Receiving feedback from you gives students a head start in their reading at home, and draws their attention to their particular learning needs.

If you have scheduled the mock test and the official test very close together, your students can gain from self-assessment. It is most effective to provide scripts with the correct answers, so they can give themselves some feedback through comparison. Self-assessment improves self-regulated learning, namely the students' skills to generate "thoughts, feelings, and actions that are planned and cyclically adapted to the attainment of personal goals" (Panadero, Jonsson, & Strijbos, 2016). So, even if you don't provide feedback yourself, they still can reap benefits from their mock test.

One way or another, feedback leads to self-reflection. It allows students to realize the missing knowledge components and calls for the application of new or advanced self-management skills to reach their performance goals. Your students improve their learning and skills with an immediate impact on their grades: two birds, one stone.

Help students to learn from failures

We take measures to enhance our students' learning progress and self-management skills, but we have to make peace with the fact that we are merely their facilitators. Whether they take the opportunities we provide and how they make use of them is up to them. Thus, giving them their grades is not about punishment or celebration; it is just a metric of their efforts for a task or a period of time. The best we can do is encourage them to celebrate their successes and learn from their failures.

Firstly, let's deal with those students that didn't meet their expectations. I've seen a range of low grade-related emotional displays: from rage to tears and from accusations towards everyone to self-pity. Initiate a calm conversation with each of them. Your goal is to walk in their shoes, help them realize what went wrong, and suggest a solution for achieving better results in the future. The problem may lie in poor self-management skills or a lack of thinking and communication skills.

💡 Under-performing students may seek amends from us, but what we should offer is a discussion on the advantages of self-awareness, responsibility toward their own learning and, most of all, resilience.

Resilience refers to "any behavioral, attributional, or emotional response to an academic or social challenge that is positive and beneficial for development (such as seeking new strategies, putting forth greater effort, or solving conflicts peacefully)" (Yeager & Dweck, 2012). A personality trait that gives a boost to resilience is the appreciation to change. Our students must embrace the thought that their intelligence and personality are not fixed for life. It is always up to them to turn things around - for better or worse.

Keeping this in mind, we don't neglect to praise each of those students that worked well and performed accordingly. We can pay tribute to them without putting the rest of the class down or making comparisons. Acknowledgment of their achievement empowers them to go on with their efforts and sets a good example for those who have room for development.

With this simple strategy of consequent formative-summative assessment, your students can grasp the opportunity for a spiral learning progression that leads to their best performance. After discussing grades, as a different follow-up activity, you can use edtech to connect your students with role models all over the world for valuable insights on dealing with success and failure. Through this special explorative topic, students can also discover how self-management skills relate to accomplishments in studies and career. Here's how to organize this unique reflection activity with 100mentors:

Teaching informed by assessment with a focus on the advancement of students' self-management skills is an optimal way to apply Approaches to Teaching and Learning during revision sessions and examination periods. Create a base of meaningful learning experiences and self-regulation practices for your students to reach their goals in the DP examinations and the rest of the challenging endeavors to come.

Sources
Dolin, J., Black, P., Harlen, W., & Tiberghien, A. (2018). Exploring Relations Between Formative and Summative Assessment. In J. Dolin & R. Evans (Eds.), Transforming Assessment, Contributions from Science Education Research 4 (pp. 53-80).

Grosas, A. B., Raju, S. R., Schuett, B. S., Chuck, J. A., & Millar, T. J. (2016). Determining if active learning through a formative assessment process translates to better performance in summative assessment. Studies in Higher Education, 41(9), 1595-1611.

IBO. (2005a). Mission. Retrieved October 20, 2019, from https://www.ibo.org/about-the-ib/mission/

IBO. (2005b). The IB learner profile. Retrieved October 20, 2019, from https://www.ibo.org/benefits/learner-profile/

Kausar, R. (2010). Perceived Stress, Academic Workloads and Use of Coping Strategies by University Students. In Journal of Behavioural Sciences (Vol. 20).

Panadero, E., Jonsson, A., & Strijbos, J.-W. (2016). Scaffolding Self-Regulated Learning Through Self-Assessment and Peer Assessment: Guidelines for Classroom Implementation. In D. Laveault & L. Allal (Eds.), Assessment for Learning: Meeting the Challenge of Implementation, The Enabling Power of Assessment 4 (pp. 311-326).

Yeager, D. S., & Dweck, C. S. (2012). Mindsets That Promote Resilience: When Students Believe That Personal Characteristics Can Be Developed. Educational Psychologist, 47(4), 302-314.

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How teaching informed by Assessment fosters student Self-Management Skills: Simplifying Approaches to Teaching & Learning Series (Part 6)

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This post is part of a 6-part series highlighting how we, as IB teachers, can bring Approaches to Teaching to our classroom and challenge students to engage in Approaches to Learning. In the previous installments of our series, we introduced several ideas for the implementation of Approaches to Teaching in the contexts of inquiry, conceptual understanding, local-global perspectives, teamwork, and differentiation.

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encourages students to see an issue/idea from multiple perspectives 

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encourages students to see an issue/idea from multiple perspectives 

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Use compass point thinking map

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In this routine, students are generally sharing their thinking at each step along the way before moving on to the next one. This allows the class to build on the group's thinking and often results in richer discussions.It can be very useful to document the thinking at each stage. If you are wanting to document thinking as your students engage with the routine
​
Compass Points then this template may be useful

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​The Compass Points routine helps students: examine an idea or proposition from different angles of perspectives identify areas where more information is needed evaluate and make judgements...

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Today's schools need to prepare a generation of learners for a world that is constantly changing. Knowledge is expanding exponentially in many fields. New and often disruptive technologies, such as artificial intelligence, CRISPR, and the metaverse, continue to shape our environment, presenting novel challenges and opportunities.

Accordingly, a modern education should involve more than simply having students acquire a fixed body of knowledge presented by teachers and texts. To prepare students for a dynamic, unpredictable future, educators must help them develop an essential life-long skill-the capacity to independently direct their own learning, in school and beyond. To do so, we recommend schools and districts take the following four actions:

1. Prioritize self-directed learning as a fundamental goal of schooling.

2. Identify the key skills associated with self-directed learning and map them out across grade levels.

3. Explicitly teach and reinforce these skills.

4. Provide students with regular opportunities to self-direct their learning.

1. Prioritize Self-Directed Learning

The skills required for self-directed learning are unlikely to develop on their own. Nor will these skills fully blossom from the actions of one or two teachers working alone. Helping learners achieve effective self-direction requires a comprehensive approach that systematically develops key skills across grades and disciplines.

Here's one example of such a coordinated approach: The Ramsey School District in New Jersey directed staff and community members to formulate a profile of a graduate that articulated desired competencies students should exhibit as a result of their preK-12 school experiences. Self-direction was one of these key competencies. To signal their importance, the district designed posters highlighting each of the competencies and displayed them prominently throughout schools. The poster in Figure 1 includes a description of four elements of self-direction and a set of associated essential questions meant to guide the development of this competency across grades and subject areas.

Of course, the creation of a poster is insufficient to ensure that all students develop the capacity for self-directed learning. Such an important competency must be cultivated deliberately. Let's examine how schools can do just that.

2. Identify Key Skills of Self-Directed Learning

The ability to direct one's learning involves a constellation of skills, including setting learning goals, developing a learning plan, making needed adjustments, and reflecting on the learning results. Effective self-directed learning also requires perseverance in the face of obstacles. These skills and habits of mind can, and should, be cultivated by design.

That design begins with schools and districts clearly identifying the key self-directed learning skills they aim to foster in their students. A great example of targeting and mapping self-directed learning skills is the Self-Direction ToolKit developed by the Building Essential Skill Today (BEST) research-practice partnership (BEST, 2020). The toolkit includes a set of rubrics that identify key independent learning skills arranged developmentally for grades K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12. In addition to highlighting specific skills, the rubrics describe proficiency levels to guide assessment by teachers and self-assessment by students. This kind of resource not only makes it easier for teachers to focus on self-directed learning generally, it enables schools to track student progress over time.

3. Teach Self-Directed Learning Skills Explicitly

Research recommends a direct instruction approach to the development of self-directed learning that calls for teachers to:

Map out key self-directed learning skills to teach explicitly.

Break down complex skills into their components.

Provide strategies and scaffolding tools to support learners as they acquire skills (Rosenshine, 2012).

It's best to model independent learning skills and allow students to practice them using a gradual release of responsibility approach.

Map out key skills to teach explicitly.

Once schools have identified the skills they want to target, they need to articulate what the development of each skill looks like by designing a set of rubrics across developmental levels. Well-developed rubrics provide clear and age-appropriate learning targets, support focused instruction, and guide assessment, including self-assessment by learners. In Figure 2, we see a rubric developed by BEST that focuses on goal setting and planning in grades K-2. This rubric clearly identifies the stages of mastery and describes each stage with clear, student-friendly language.

Break down complex skills into their components.

Each self-directed learning skill needs to be deconstructed into "teachable" parts. For example, goal setting and planning can be broken down into: setting specific and measurable goals, articulating the steps needed to attain the goal, identifying needed resources and tools, seeking feedback, and monitoring progress along the way.

Teachers can support students by setting objectives appropriate to their age and directly teaching the targeted skills. For example, younger students benefit from a guided goal-setting lesson with the teacher in a small-group setting, while middle school students can use a graphic organizer, like the one pictured in Figure 3. High school students can use more sophisticated aids, such as a SMART goal-setting tool and time-management forms to guide their independent work.

Once students gain confidence in setting meaningful goals and planning their actions, they should be encouraged to regularly monitor and reflect on their progress. Here are some sample prompts:

How much progress have I made toward my goal(s)?

Might I need to adjust a particular goal?

Which actions, strategies, tools, and feedback have been most helpful?

What obstacles or challenges have I encountered? How did I respond to them?

What will I do differently next time I work toward a goal?

Teachers need to model self-directed learning skills and support students as they practice them. Teachers may use a simple "I do, we do, groups do, you do" format (as outlined in Figure 4 on p. 61) to gradually release responsibility to learners (Kilbane & Milman, 2014; Tucker, 2022).

4. Provide Opportunities for Self-Direction

It is unlikely that students will become better at self-directing their learning if they have limited opportunities to practice. Sadly, the academic lives of many learners are completely directed by teachers. Always being told what to do and how to do it undercuts self-direction and can lead to students becoming increasingly passive and disengaged. Indeed, many secondary teachers have observed students who develop a "minimum compliance" mentality, evidenced by queries and complaints such as: "How many words do you want?" "I don't know what to do," or "How many points is this worth?"

To foster confident and capable self-directed learners, teachers should prioritize student agency in their classrooms by creating opportunities for students to make decisions about their learning. We recommend that teachers think about student agency in terms of content (what they learn), process (how they learn), and product (how they demonstrate their learning). See "The Elements of Student Agency" (on p. 63) for strategies to help students make agency happen.

Two Strategies for Student Agency

Teachers may initially feel overwhelmed by the prospect of giving students agency over content, process, and product, so it is important to think big but start small. It can be helpful for teachers to use the "Would You Rather ...?" strategy by presenting two options for students to choose from. For example, teachers may offer students the option to listen to a podcast or watch a video to learn about a topic or take traditional notes or draw sketch notes as they read.

Offering "Would You Rather ...?" choices requires minimal planning time, but can enhance student motivation, engagement, and academic performance (Anderson et al., 2019). This simple strategy helps students get comfortable making decisions about their learning and can be especially beneficial for learners who feel overwhelmed when deciding between multiple options.

To get started designing for self-directed learning, teachers can also use the GRASPS protocol. GRASPS is an acronym used to develop a performance task or project (McTighe, Doubet, & Carbaugh, 2020). The acronym stands for: a real-world goal; a meaningful role for the student; a target audience(s); an authentic (or simulated) situation that involves "real-world" application; culminating products and/or performances that provide evidence of learning; and success criteria for assessing student work.

The Role, Audience, and Product/Performance elements of GRASPS can be varied to provide structured opportunities for student choice. For example, students could choose between playing the "role" of historian, book critic, or opinion writer in a given task or project.

The Audience and Product/Performance variables often intersect to allow for differentiation and student choice. For example, 6th grade students learning expository writing could draft a picture book for primary grade children, a news article for middle school students, or a policy paper for adults. For a math, science, or economics project involving statistical analysis, students may have the option of developing an infographic or a slide show presentation.

But when students produce varying products and performances, won't a teacher need to have multiple rubrics to evaluate these various options? Our answer is a qualified "no." If the goal of GRASPS is the same, then the success criteria should be the same. Thus, a single rubric can and should focus on the key qualities embedded in the goal rather than on the surface features of a particular product or performance. For example, a performance task involving argumentation would include success criteria such as:

Regardless of whether students produced a position paper, presented an oral argument, or completed some other assignment, their work would be judged by the same success criteria.

Shifting Teacher and Student Roles

In classrooms that prioritize self-directed learning skills, students shift from passive observers to active agents making decisions about their learning. Teachers shift from being the expert at the front of the room orchestrating the lesson to spending more time facilitating and coaching, offering feedback, and providing support.

As students develop confidence in their ability to direct their own learning, they can assume more responsibility for tasks that have traditionally fallen on the teacher, such as planning, feedback, assessment, and communicating progress with families. This increased autonomy can motivate learners and free teachers to spend more time and energy supporting their students. Not only do these shifts develop more dynamic learning communities, they also provide students the skills to continue learning independently long after they leave school. In a world where knowledge and technology change at staggering speeds, today's students need to be nimble and able to thrive in a future that will look very different from their reality today.

Copyright © 2022 Jay McTighe & Catlin Tucker

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Developing Self-Directed Learners by Design

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By following four key actions, educators can prepare students for a lifetime of continuous and autonomous learning.

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2.1l Team Role Cards - Visual (3) Can be used in all subjects.pdf

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Microsoft Forms - Create a Quiz using Forms

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SplashLearn Blog - Educational Resources for Parents, Teachers & Kids

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Are you looking for a teaching strategy that will engage your students in the learning process? Do you want them to be able to ask questions and investigate real-world problems? If so, you should consider using inquiry-based learning in your classroom.

Inquiry-based learning is a teaching method that encourages students to ask questions and investigate real-world problems. This type of learning has many benefits and can be used in a variety of subject areas.

This blog post will discuss the benefits of inquiry-based learning and provide some strategies, tips, and models that you can use in your classroom. But first, let's take a closer look at what inquiry-based learning is.

Dive in,

What Is Inquiry-Based Learning?

Inquiry-based learning is a student-centered teaching method that encourages students to ask questions and investigate real-world problems. In this type of learning environment, students are actively engaged in the learning process and are given the opportunity to explore their natural curiosities.

This type of learning is often hands-on and allows students to connect what they are learning in the classroom and the real world. Inquiry-based learning has been shown to improve critical thinking skills, problem-solving skills, and creativity.

The 4 Types of Inquiry-Based Learning

There are four types of inquiry-based learning:

1. The Structured Inquiry Approach

The structured inquiry approach is a sequential process that helps students learn how to ask questions and investigate real-world problems. This type of inquiry-based learning is often used in science classes, where students are given a problem to investigate and are taught how to use the scientific process to find a solution.

2. The Open-Ended Inquiry Approach

The open-ended inquiry approach is a more free-form approach to inquiry-based learning. In this type of learning environment, students are given the freedom to explore their interests and ask questions about the topic they are studying. This type of inquiry-based learning is often used in humanities classes, where students are asked to explore a topic in-depth and debate different viewpoints.

3. The Problem-Based Inquiry Approach

A problem-based inquiry approach is a problem-solving approach to inquiry-based learning. In this type of approach, students are given a real-world problem to solve. This type of inquiry-based learning is often used in mathematics and engineering classes, where students are asked to apply what they have learned to solve a real-world problem.

4. The Guided Inquiry Approach

The guided inquiry approach is a teacher-led approach to inquiry-based learning. In this type of approach, the teacher guides the students through the inquiry process and helps them to ask questions and find solutions to real-world problems. This type of inquiry-based learning is often used in elementary and middle school classrooms.

Now that we have a better understanding of the different types of inquiry-based learning let's take a look at the benefits.

Benefits of Inquiry-Based Learning

With so many benefits, it is no wonder that inquiry-based learning has become a popular teaching method. Some of the benefits of inquiry-based learning include:

1. Encourages Critical Thinking

Inquiry-based learning encourages students to think critically about the information they are presented with. They are asked to question the information and develop their own solutions. This type of learning helps students develop problem-solving skills and critical thinking skills.

2. Improves Problem-Solving Skills

Inquiry-based learning helps students develop problem-solving skills. When they are given the opportunity to explore real-world problems, they are forced to think outside the box and come up with their own solutions. This is an important skill that will help them in their future careers.

3. Encourages Creativity

This concept of learning encourages creativity. When students are given the opportunity to explore a problem independently, they often come up with creative solutions. This is due to the fact that any particular way of thinking does not restrict them.

4. Improves Communication Skills

It also helps students improve their communication skills. When working on a problem, they often have to explain their thoughts and ideas to others. This helps them learn how to communicate effectively with others.

5. Connects Learning to the Real World

Inquiry-based learning helps connect learning to the real world. When students are allowed to explore problems that exist in the real world, they can see how what they are learning in the classroom is relevant. This also helps them develop a better understanding of the material.

6. Helps Students Understand Complex Topics

Inquiry-based learning can also help students understand complex topics. When they are allowed to explore these topics in a hands-on environment, they can learn about them more meaningfully.

7. Encourages Engaged Learning

Finally, this type of learning encourages engaged learning. When students are actively involved in the learning process, they are more likely to retain the information. This is due to the fact that they are invested in what they are doing.

Inquiry-Based Learning Examples

Now that we have looked at the benefits of inquiry-based learning let's take a look at some examples.

1. Science Experiments

One way to incorporate inquiry-based learning into your classroom is to allow students to conduct experiments. This will encourage them to ask questions and think critically about the results.

2. Field Trips

Another way to encourage inquiry-based learning is to take students on field trips. This will allow them to explore real-world problems and see how what they are learning in the classroom is relevant.

3. Classroom Debates

Classroom debates are another great way to encourage this type of learning. When students debate a topic, they are forced to think critically about both sides of the argument.

4. Projects

Projects are another great way to encourage inquiry-based learning. When students are given the opportunity to work on a project that is related to the topic they are studying, they will be more likely to learn and remember the information.

5. Group Work

When students work in groups, they are able to share their ideas and thoughts with others. This helps them to understand the material better.

Strategies and Tips for Implementing Inquiry-Based Learning

Now that we have looked at the benefits of inquiry-based learning and some examples let's look at some inquiry-based strategies and tips that you can use in your classroom.

1. Start with a Question

The best way to start an inquiry-based lesson is by asking a question. This will get students thinking about the topic and will encourage them to ask their own questions.

2. Allow for Exploration

Once you have asked a question, allow students to explore the topic on their own. This will help them to understand the material better.

3. Encourage Discussion

Encourage students to discuss their ideas with each other. This will help them to develop a better understanding of the material.

4. Provide Resources

Be sure to provide students with resources that they can use to explore the topic. This will help them develop a better understanding. Teachers can also give access to online learning platforms like SplashLearn, which further help in enhancing the knowledge of the concepts.

5. Summarize What Was Learned

At the end of the lesson, be sure to summarize what was learned. This will help students to remember the information.

You can use different models to encourage inquiry-based learning in your classroom. The important thing is that you allow students to be actively involved in the learning process. Let's have a look at a few models that you can use.

Four Models To Use In The Classroom

Now that we have looked at the benefits of inquiry-based learning and some strategies for implementing it in your classroom let's take a look at four models you can use.

1. The Question Model

The question model is one of the most basic models for inquiry-based learning. It involves asking students questions about the topic you are teaching. This will encourage them to think critically about the material.

2. The Problem-Based Learning Model

The problem-based learning model is another excellent option for inquiry-based learning. This model involves giving students a problem to solve. They will need to think critically about the problem and find a solution.

3. The Project-Based Learning Model

Project-based learning is a great way for students to explore a topic in depth. This model involves giving students a project to work on that is related to the topic you are teaching.

4. The Inquiry Cycle Model

With the inquiry cycle model, students are given the opportunity to ask questions, investigate a topic, and then share their findings. This model allows students to explore a topic in-depth and share their discoveries with others.

Let's Wrap!

Inquiry-based learning is a teaching method that encourages students to ask questions and explore their answers. This type of learning has many benefits, both for students and teachers. In this article, we've looked at some of the critical benefits of inquiry-based learning as well as strategies you can use to get started in your own classroom. We hope you're inspired to give it a try!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is the importance of inquiry-based learning?

What is the definition of inquiry-based learning?

What are the roles of students in inquiry-based learning?

How do you plan an inquiry-based lesson?

What are the five guiding questions of inquiry?

Do inquiry-based and project-based learning have to be the same thing?

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What Is Inquiry-Based Learning? Types, Benefits, Examples

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Are you looking for a teaching strategy that will engage your students in the learning process? Do you want them to be able to ask questions and investigate real-world problems? If so, you should consider using inquiry-based learning in your classroom.

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High impact teaching strategies in action: Differentiated teaching

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​​Professional learning Communities (PLC) Regional Manager Shane Lockhart explains that differentiated teaching can marry perfectly to the Framework for Improving Student Outcomes (FISO) improvement cycle and support continuous improvement in students​. Differentiation is a key high impact teaching strategy (HITS) used by teachers to craft lessons that provide the right amount of support and challenge for every student.