Inquiry-Based Learning
Bertram (Chip) Bruce
Library & Information Science
U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
What shape is the earth?
Overcoming difficulty
- Piaget: disequilibrium
- Vygotsky: zone of proximal development
- Dewey: felt difficulty
Learning is grounded in the personal, social, material, historical situation =>
Scratch theory
Questions Stephen asked
- Why do cars speed up passing a stop sign?
- Why do things far away seem blue?
- Why do my eyes water when I stare?
- How does your body make tears?
- Is salt in tears the same as the salt on food?
- What's that pipe from the silo to the barn?
Street plaques in Paris
Paris street signs
- Ask: reading to navigate
- Investigate: street names dictionary, web
- Create:
- notice clusters / locality further connections: Lamarck, Buffon, Aristide Briand
- Discuss: history of the signs
- Reflect: write about, act
Learning is lived experience
We always live at the time we live and not at some other time, and only by extracting at each present time the full meaning of each present experience are we prepared for doing the same thing in the future. —Dewey, Experience & Education, 1938
Integrated learning
Relate the school to life, and all studies are of necessity correlated. —Dewey, School and Society
Learning through inquiry
- Questions: arising out of experience
- Materials: diverse, authentic, challenging; two-way
- Activities: engaging. hands-on, creating, collaborating, living new roles
- Dialogue: listening; articulating meaning
- Reflection: from concepts to action
Teacher as inquirer
- Inquiry about the world
- Partner in inquiry
- Modeling
- Guiding
- Inquiry about teaching and learning
The logic of inquiry
[Inquiry is] the controlled or directed transformation of an indeterminate situation into one that is so determinate in its constituent distinctions and relations as to convert the elements of the original situation into a unified whole. —Dewey, Logic: The Theory of Inquiry, 1938
Learning to teach - 1
As a guide for the experimentation we so freely encourage, the table opposite will be helpful. We must caution, however, that it is rife with half-truths--despite our best efforts at disclosure. We are dealing here with living things whose colors, habits, and general constitutions will vary with locale and with the skill of the individual gardener.
Learning to teach - 2
This unpredictability, which strikes terror into the heart of the beginner, is in fact one of the glories of gardening. Things change, certainly from year to year and sometimes from morning to evening. There are mysteries, surprises, and always, lessons to be learned. After almost 40 years hard at it, we are only beginning. —Amos Pettingill, The Garden Book, 1986
Community Informatics Initiative
- works with people to develop ICT's to achieve their goals
- fosters collaborations across campus, local, national and international communities
- innovative community networks, community technology centers, software, and library services
How to participate
- Community Informatics Initiative: http://ilabs.inquiry.uiuc.edu/ilab/cii
- Meetings
- CII: Tue, 11:00 am, Central US, at Prairienet
- CI Corps: Fri, 1:00 pm, Central US, at Prairienet
- Inquiry research: Wed, 4:00 pm, Central US, at Prairienet
- Try iLabs: http://ilabs.inquiry.uiuc.edu/
- Further information: chip@uiuc.edu
Credits
Thanks to the many people involved with the Community Informatics Initiative
This slide show was created and presented using a standards-based template (i.e., no Powerpoint) developed by Eric Meyer.