Designing an Enquiry Learning Unit

1. Designing an Enquiry Learning Unit http://www.bestcluster.cc.com.au Enquiry / Integrated / Negotiated Units Belonging Engaging Succeeding Together

2. School Teacher Student Factors Affecting Student Achievement Marzano What works in schools (2003) • Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum • Challenging Goals and Effective Feedback • Parent and Community Involvement • Safe and Orderly Environment • Collegiality and Professionalism • Instructional Strategies • Classroom Management • Classroom Curriculum Design • Home Environment • Learning Intelligence/Background Knowledge • Motivation

3. PoLT 4. Students are challenged and supported to develop deep levels of thinking and application 4.5 uses strategies to develop investigating and problem-solving skills 6. Learning connects strongly with communities and practices outside the classroom 6.2 plans for students to interact with local and broader communities

4. ruMAD? ruMAD? enables students to lead change within their communities and to become active citizens. It is values-focused, student led and at the very core starts from student identified values and visions ruMAD?By identifying problems and challenges in their school and communities, students and teachers set out to "Make a Difference" in realistic and achievable ...www.rumad.org.au/ - 11k - Cached - Similar pages

6. Template 4 Inquiry Unit Throughline Concepts Essential Question Unit Questions Standards/VELS Level:

7. Vocabulary

8. Vocabulary Concepts: Refers to powerful ideas usually expressed in words and phrases derived from disciplinary, interdisciplinary and social knowledge that we want students to learn.

9. Vocabulary Essential Question Examples of Essential and Unit questions: A significant question which provides depth and rigour, multiple connections and different perspectives required to support students' development of powerful concepts.  An Essential Question is typically central to one or more of the disciplines, interesting to both teachers and students, accessible and supports inquiry-based approaches to learning. Wiggins and McTighe

10. Vocabulary Fertile Questions Examples of Fertile questions The Human Genome Project – a curse or a blessing? (biology) Why do we sleep? (biology) Human beings – a product of environment or genetics? (biology) Why is the sky blue? (physics) When was life better – in the Middle Ages or today? (history) Why did the farming class obey the gentry and the church, although these exploited and oppressed it? (history) How did it happen that the same generation that called the First World War “The war to end all wars” initiated the Second World War within two decades? (history) Is there progress in history? (history) What makes a “good story”? (literature) Who is “the other”? (sociology-anthropology) Why do people marry? (sociology-anthropology) What is love? (from a sociological point of view) What is love? (from a biological point of view) What is love? (from the point of view of certain literary works) Australia – west or east? (multi-disciplinary) (a) An open question: a question that in principle does not have one definite answer, but actually several answers different from and even contradictory to each other. (b) An undermining question: A question that undermines the basic assumptions and fixed beliefs of the learners; one that casts doubt on the “self-evident,” on “common sense;” uncovers basic conflicts lacking a simple solution, and requires thinking about the roots of things. (c) A rich question: A question that requires grappling with rich content indispensable to understanding man and the world; that is impossible to answer without careful and lengthy research; that tends to break up into sub-questions. (d) A connected question: A question relevant to the life of the learners, to the society in which they live, and to the discipline and subject within which it was asked. (e) A charged question: A question having an ethical dimension. Such questions have a strong emotional and ethical charge able to motivate learning and inquiry. (f) A practical question: A question that can be developed into a research question; a question about which information is available to students.

11. Vocabulary Understanding Vocabulary Understanding Performance “Activities that require students to use knowledge in new ways or situations. In such activities students reshape, expand on, extrapolate from, apply, and build on what they already know. Performances of understanding help students to build as well as demonstrate their understanding.” “It may help to have a picture in our minds of what we mean by understanding. I feel that I understand something if and when I can do some, at least, of the following: (1) state it in my own words; (2) give examples of it; (3) recognize it in various guises and circumstances; (4) see connections between it and other facts or ideas; (5) make use of it in various ways; (6) foresee some of its consequences; (7) state its opposite or converse. The list is only a beginning; but it may help us in the future to find out what our students really know as opposed to what they can give the appearance of knowing, their real learning as opposed to their apparent learning.”John Holt How Children Fail (1964) Quoted by Yoram Harpaz (2003)

12. Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)= "the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers" (Vygotsky, 1978, p. 86) Actual developmental level What a child can do alone Assistance of others Scaffolding “what children can do with the assistance of others might be in some sense even more indicative of their mental development than what they can do alone”.Vygotsky (1978)

13. Activity1 - Recognising enquiry based learning: What is enquiry learning? Consider the stories about the learning experiences in five classes. Which of them are examples of enquiry learning? Q1: Analyse the characteristics of the learning process taking place in each of the five classes. Q2: What big ideas or significant questions were being investigated? Q3: What thinking processes and enquiry skills were required in each of the classes?

14. Model of enquiry learning unit

15. 1. The challenge: What could be the topic of the enquiry? What kind of topic is worthy of investigation? What is the challenge? Topic: Generative Topic (Unit) “Those topics, issues and themes, concepts ideas, and so on that provide enough depth, significance, connections, and variety of perspective to support students’ development of powerful understanding. Typically they are interesting to students and teachers, central to one or more disciplines, and accessible to students.” The teaching for understanding guide Blythe What are the key concepts or big ideas? “We turn now to the questions of how experts’ knowledge is organized…Their knowledge is not simply a list of facts and formulas that are relevant to the domain; instead, their knowledge is organized around core concepts or ‘big ideas’ that guide their thinking about the domain.” Bransford, et. al., How People Learn, p 24 What is the significant or essential question? After becoming aware of a significant question, issue or problem, students may reach a state of puzzlement, curiosity and/or concern and feel challenged to enquire further. The next step is to clarify, define and redefine the particular question, issue or problem to investigate. Source: Adapted from Gough, N. (1992) Blueprints for Greening Schools, Gould League, Melbourne, p. 90.

16. Climate change – How can we live in a warmer world?

17. Taking control – How can we make the right choices about drugs?

18. 2. Enquiry Skills: What are the enquiry skills students have and need? Metacognition (PDF - 63Kb)http://www.education.vic.gov.au/studentlearning/assessment/preptoyear10/proflearning/samples3.htm

19. Specify the skills needed according to VELS domains and dimensions appropriate to the topic.

20. 3. Understanding Performance: What performance task must anchor the unit and focus the instructional work? What will the students do with the knowledge and skills once they have gained them? How will this be negotiated? Cf Pirozzo’s grid and Real Assessment Task. What real life action could they take? Describe what students will do to demonstrate understanding. How will understanding be assessed? Design a rubric for assessment “Activities that require students to use knowledge in new ways or situations. In such activities students reshape, expand on, extrapolate from, apply, and build on what they already know. Performances of understanding help students to build as well as demonstrate their understanding.”

21. Understanding Performances or Real Assessment Tasks 1.Undertake an energy and resources waste audit at your school and propose ways to waste less water and paper and save more energy. How much is spent on electricity water and gas? When are lights turned on and off? When are air conditioners in use and why? How much paper could we save? Take action to change the way resources and energy are used at school. 2.Investigate your local environment. How many trees in the school? What native birds animals are found in the school? What areas are grassed and garden? How much is concrete and asphalt? Is there shade in summer? How many air conditioners? Prepare a report on the quality of your school environment and give a rating. Suggest improvements to your school environment and draw up a list of priorities. 3. Run a parent forum for sharing what you have discovered about drugs. Set up stalls for them to visit where you will show them how to make choices and take responsibility for drugs. You could do a role play or make a poster for display. You might make a fact sheet or survey parents. You could make an advertising campaign video warning of the dangers of misusing drugs to show parents.

22. MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES & BLOOM’S TAXONOMY (This 42-grid matrix was devised by Ralph Pirozzo, 1997) UNIT OF STUDY:_______________________________ YEAR LEVEL:_________

23. 4. Scaffolding: How will the skills be scaffolded? How will the student be assisted to conduct the investigation?Show or list resources required including web siteshttp://www4.gu.edu.au/ext/unesco/theme_d/mod21/uncom21t02.htm

24. 5. Reflection and action. How well did the enquiry work? Evidence Attach photographs and / or student work where possible. What next?

25. Activity 2 – Expert Jigsaw / Similarities and differences Take one of the design stages 1-4 excluding 5 and read through the material in the handout notes. Explain one of the design stages to the other staff at your table • Discuss the similarities and differences between the way you construct an integrated or enquiry unit and this model • What would you add or take from this model? • Where are the entry points for negotiation?

26. Activity 3 Mind Map or Flow Chart In a group of 3 or 4 draw a mind map or flow chart of the enquiry learning process as you envision it with annotations and additions you consider to be needed.

27. Activity 4 Design an Enquiry Unit Include in the hand-out or on your mind map (above) one or more of the following: the generative topic or the challenge, concepts, enquiry skills, essential questions, an understanding performance and/or notes on scaffolding. http://www.bestcluster.cc.com.au