Double Entry Journal #14

Link to article

What are some challenges to inquiry approaches to learning?

One of the biggest challenges to the successful implementation of inquiry is the skills and knowledge of the teachers engaging in the inquiry form of teaching and learning. If teachers don't fully understand inquiry-based learning they may not be able to provide the proper scaffolding, assessment, and redirection techniques.

If students don't have prior experience with inquiry-based learning, they may have difficulty generating meaningful "driving questions". Students may even lack the background knowledge needed to make sense of the inquiry. Students may have difficulty developing logical arguments and evidence to support their claims. Students often find it hard to determine how to work together, manage their time and the complexity of their work, and sustain motivation in the face of setbacks or confusion.

One of the main challenges for teachers is learning to juggle a host a new responsibilities and implementation issues such as, allotting the time needed for extended inquiry to develop new classroom-management techniques.

What are the benefits of group work?

Several experimental studies have shown that groups outperform individuals on learning tasks and individuals who work in groups do better on later individual assessments as well.

Cooperative group work benefits students in social and behavioral areas as well, including improvements in student self-concept, social interaction, time on task, and positive feelings towared peers.

Strategy to support group work:

I found a document online that consists of strategies to improve student reaction to group work. It shows the different ways to group students, etc. I had to save the document to Google docs then upload it. So, please excuse the format of it because Google docs had to automatically modify it. I just really wanted to share it.