Blog Post #2
After examining the readings for this week regarding the Inquiry Design Model, I am learning a lot more about the benefits of compelling questions and sparking students' curiosity during the instruction of social studies. Now that I have a firmer grip on what inquiry based learning truly is, I see how it produces and maintains critical thinking among students.
By designing a lesson around a compelling question, students are pushed to think much more about complex factors that weigh into a topic or event. For example, the compelling question, Can Words Lead to War, that was used in Swan's Anatomy of IDM, is a question that creates many pathways of thinking and avenues of consideration in attempting to answer it. These compelling questions are loaded questions. Students cannot just "b.s" an answer when they are asked these sorts of things. Additionally, the role of supporting questions is to preserve that initial curiosity, keeping the momentum going in a lesson.
I am still wondering if it is a damaging limitation to be so open-ended with the IDM. In saying this, I mean to question if it is possible to contain classroom management while leaving behind straight forward and scripted lessons. I believe that inquiry learning is ultimately incredible, but is it time efficient?
By designing a lesson around a compelling question, students are pushed to think much more about complex factors that weigh into a topic or event. For example, the compelling question, Can Words Lead to War, that was used in Swan's Anatomy of IDM, is a question that creates many pathways of thinking and avenues of consideration in attempting to answer it. These compelling questions are loaded questions. Students cannot just "b.s" an answer when they are asked these sorts of things. Additionally, the role of supporting questions is to preserve that initial curiosity, keeping the momentum going in a lesson.I am still wondering if it is a damaging limitation to be so open-ended with the IDM. In saying this, I mean to question if it is possible to contain classroom management while leaving behind straight forward and scripted lessons. I believe that inquiry learning is ultimately incredible, but is it time efficient?
Emily,
ReplyDeleteI didn't even think about the time efficiency of the IDM, what a great discussion to open. I am not sure what side I would be on, I would have to think about it. I think the issues I have had with Social Studies is that there was no complex though, it was read the book, answer the questions, remember the dates and where and what happened. Up until this point I thought Social Studies was black and white because that’s how I was taught. I too have learned much more about sparking the curiosity of students and that compelling questions are the key to opening those curiosity.
Thank you! It was on my mind a lot during our Zoom class, but I feel like I will feel more at ease about the time stuff as we move further on in the course. I also saw social studies as black and white, as well.
DeleteHey Emily,
ReplyDeleteI learned a lot from the IDM as well this week. I like how you pointed out how compelling questions get students curious about social studies, because I feel like curiosity in lessons often leads to improved engagement. That's a really good point you brought up about timing. That was actually something I thought about, because even though compelling questions and the IDM bring many positives, they take a long time. I feel like there needs to be "normal" foundational lessons that bring background knowledge to a subject. However, while teaching these lessons, it may be beneficial to incorporate at least some critical thinking in each lesson, even if it is only for a few minutes. I also think this is why only 1-3 IDM's are used in a unit. If the unit was made up of only IDM's, students would probably be missing a lot of content. Would you use the IDM in other subjects? If so, what subjects might you use the model in?
Hi Julia! Yes, it made much more sense to me when Gus talked about 1-3 IDMs being involved in a unit. I still feel like I want more information on the time subject, but I feel like I will probably understand more as the class progresses. That is a great question! I think I could see myself using the IDM to introduce a argumentative or persuasive writing assignment. I think having students respond to a compelling question after viewing the supporting questions and their evidence would be a cool way to see what students' opinions are.
DeleteHi Emily, I agree with you question, in a Socratic seminar it is unsure how long the discussion will take or if the answer will be found in time to move on to the next subject without being rushed. As much as social studies inquiry is important to have in the classroom I am not sure how you would move on and close the discussion without just giving the answer to move onto the next subjects. Compelling questions can lead to very thoughtful discussion and process thinking, I agree students cannot give a straight up or "b.s" type of answer.
ReplyDeleteHi Emily! Thanks for your response. Yes, I am still unsure of how time plays into social studies inquiry. I almost feel like social studies may need more designated time in the classroom in order for it to be truly successful. I'm not against more social studies time, but I am curious as to how this may differ between districts.
DeleteHi Emily,
ReplyDeleteResponding to your last paragraph, I can see how you might think IDM could be a damaging limitation with it being so open-ended. After researching the social studies inquiry articles and understanding how the common core standards work I can reassure you that it's not as open-ended as you may think. Although the compelling question is open-ended, the IDM also has supporting questions that guide the students in what they should research or what they should be looking for when they research and they support the compelling question. For example, our professor Gus gave us a question for our first blog, "How would you define (without Googling ideas) social studies inquiry?" I don't know about you, but I really didn't know exactly what social studies inquiry was. I just gave an educated guess of what it could be. Then this week Gus gave us some articles to read about social studies inquiry. I'm not the best at reading and one might say I probably have a reading disability. When I first read those articles I really didn't absorb all of the information very well, but when Gus gave us some questions I was able to go back over the articles with a purpose. A purpose I could focus my research on and those questions supported the question of what is social studies inquiry. As for being time efficient, I would say that IDM is very efficient when it comes to learning. If I had been asked the questions we had to answer this week in our assignments and blog first before I read, then I think I would have been able to take in the information better about IDM. What do you think is more time efficient? Feeding students with a bunch of information in a short amount of time where they won't retain as much or taking the time to have students satisfy there curiosity for learning and they retain a lot more because the student is fully engaged. Also, the common core standards are meant to merge subjects together which saves a lot more time than teaching them separate. One last question, do you think your time efficient question was influenced by the traditional ways you received learning?
Thanks for doing some research! Yes, I definitely believe that my question about time stems from the way I was taught growing up. I also do agree with your point about having less density for the sake of engagement and retaining information. I hope we can learn about how social studies inquiry could merge with other subjects, like maybe writing?... Good thoughts!
DeleteI think a lot of teachers today have trouble separating how they were taught at school with the new and improved ways of learning. It could be because they themselves have never experienced being taught in an inquiry base learning way. Or maybe they haven't fully adapted this way of teaching only part of it, so they haven't seen the results in their students. I was very fortunate to have the experience of being taught math this way here at EWU in my math education classes. Although, I did make connections in math through the traditional ways of learning, I found that experiencing math in a similar inquiry way helped me to explain my connections through reasoning.
DeleteEmily, you posed a great question about the time consumption IDM may take. I understand as teachers we are always plagued by dead lines and time constraints. Which is unfortunate, because kids do their best learning when they can dig deep into a subject! I do agree with your point that IDM may be time consuming, but I think the learning that will arise will be well worth it.
DeleteI would like to let you know this is my peer review for EDUC 303. Somehow there is this blog was posted instead of your reflective journal. Anyways, I love how you brought up how students are unable to fake their way through answering these questions. I think that is one of the reasons why this type of questions are great within a classroom. It teaches students to make sure they have evidence to back up their claims. Plus, it allows students to work towards something they enjoy. It is almost like tricking students into learning by using their natural curiosity. I say this because this is a question students are thinking before you tell them about it and then they want answers. It is also good to keep in mind that they have to be grade appropriate and relevant to the students.
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