INQUIRY LEARNINGIN PRIMARY SCHOOL

Hanno Saks

Open inquiry Directed inquiry

Textbook Demonstrations and “cook-book”

activities

Teacher

Student

high

low

low high

WHO IS CONTROLLING THE PROCESS OF LEARNING?

DIRECTED LEARNING BY DISCOVERING?Study process based on curriculum

Discover by doing by hand

Learning process based on understanding

There will form complete understanding of the world and developing scientific thinking

Students learn to express themselves by writing and also orally

Obtaining high level cognitive skills

Obtaining social skills

WHY INCQUIRY LEARNING?

New curriculum assumes that students are creative and innovativeHow students study the best?

Chidren are natively curious. They don’t

affraid to be mistaken How really things are?Did inquiry learning helps students to be more creative?

WHY INQUIRY LEARNING IS GOOD?Inquiry learning supports the principle of equality

Every student can participate in a process

Students are creative, innovative

Learning environment is mainly active, student-oriented

Learning process offers students satisfaction and experience of success

Students maintains the desire to study for a life

Joy School - /Koolirõõm/

CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION EXPERT KEN ROBINSON FROM GREATE BRITAIN

Education should direct us to the future which right now we can’t grasp

All children are extreamly gifted

Our education leaves students without creativity

PROBLEMS OF MANIFESTATION OF CREATIVITY IN ESTONIAN SCHOOLS

Our curriculums are build up mainly for logical-rational thinking, to remember information. Creative thinking expects integration of different information and based on that find unusual connections.Today’s learning process in Estonian shcool is still not enough supportive for creativity, not enough differential and because of that lot of gifted students looses their inner motivation to participate activly in a learning process.

PROBLEMS OF MANIFESTATION OF CREATIVITY IN ESTONIAN SCHOOLSCreative thinking is connected to divergent thinking. This means some diffusion of thoughts.How school today takes students with divergetial thinking? They are not widely recognized...Student with original thinking have oftenly not very excellent behavior. They are oftenly cumbersome.

CHAINESE PROVERB

I hear, and I forget,

I see, and I remember,

I do, and I understand!

Magnets and Motors

Technology of Paper

Measuring Time

Experiments with Plants

6

Floating and Sinking

Food chemistry

EcosystemsMicroworlds5

Electric Circuits

Motion and Design

Land and Water

Animal Studies

4

SoundChemical Tests

Rocks and Minerals

Plant Growths & Development

3

Balancing and Weighing

ChangesSoilsThe Life Cycles of Butterflies

2

Comparing and Measuring

Solids and Liquids

WeatherOrganisms1

SEQUENCE OF STC UNITS

HERBERT SIMON1978 NOBEL PRICE IN ECONOMICS

What is the meaning of “KNOWING”?

“REMEMBER AND REPEAT”

or

“FIND AND USE”?

BRUCE ALBERT'SPRESIDENT OF ACADEMY OF SCIENCE OF USA 1993-2005

“Science at school is

something that

YOU DO,not something that is

DONE FOR YOU”

JOHANNES KÄISTEACHER OF SCIENCE AND EDUCATIONALIST 1885 - 1950

Don’t do things for students that they could do themselves!Don’t tell students answers, if they are able to discover those themselves!

Senses

Weather

Comparing and measuring

Liquids

Colors

INQUIRY SCIENCE FOR PRE-SCHOOL

Solids and liquids Senses

Comparing and measuring

• Weather

• Changes

• Organisms

• Magnets ja motors• Life cycles of butterflies• Food chemistry

INQUIRY SCIENCE FOR PRIMARY SCHOOL

SEQUENCE OF DEVELOPMENT OF SCIENTIFIC REASONING SKILLSGrades

OBSERVING, MEASURING, IDENTIFYING PROPERTIES

SEEKING EVIDENCE RECOGNIZING PATTERNS AND CYCLES

IDENTIFYING CAUSE AND EFFECT, EXTENDING THE SENSES

DESIGNING & CONDUCTING CONTROLLED EXPERIMENTS

1 X

2 X X

3 X X

4 X X X

5 X X X

6 X X X X

STEPS OF LEARNING CYCLE

Focusing: Students and teacher will clarify and demonstrate what they already know about the topic. They mutually define their goals and working questions.

Exploring: students make predictions about the topic, then they investigate and explore the objects and phenomena of interest. They are documenting their work in notebooks.

Reflecting: Children will discuss the results of their observations and reconcile their ideas. They themselves express what they have learned from the theme or sub-theme.

Applying : The children discuss and apply their new ideas in new situations.

Phenomenon and our knowledge

What do we want to know?

Predictions – how things could be?

How to investigate:Practical sequence?

Facilities

Experiment

DocumentationDid predictions

fulfilled?

HOW TO INVESTICATE IN INQUIRY LEARNING?

ICT EQUIPMENT USED IN CLASSROOMBYOD – Bring Your Own Device

Smart classroom

Tests and feedback

A lot of Apps

ICT INFLUENCE TO THE INQUIRY PROCESS

Test-boxes vs. Apps

Define and find additional information needed

Based on additional information rethink a hypothesis

Try to find some different connections between information gathered

ICT EQUIPMENT IN EXPRESSION PROCESSDocumentation