Personalized Inquiry: Help your students classify, generate, and answer questions based on their own interests or common materials

Simpson, P. (2010). Personalized Inquiry: Help your students classify, generate, and answer questions based on their own interests or common materials. Science and Children, 48(4), 36-40.


Summary/Analysis

This article on personalized inquiry provides a model for supporting students in the development of researchable questions based on their own interests.  It begins by asking students to create sketches of something familiar, like an ant.  Then by asking students to carefully observe real ants they discover the many features they did not notice/include in the sketches.  This leads to the establishment of criteria for careful observation.  After sharing and critiquing observations, students are asked to generate lists of questions about ants (~5 questions each).  Students share out their questions and create a class list of diverse questions.  

The questions can then be categorized by the class based on the type question and how it could be answered (experiment, literature-based research, observation, question not answered in science).  This process supports students in understanding the many ways that questions can be answered and the many strategies used to gather data.  Next, students create researchable questions for experiment.  

In the final activity, students work through a series of stations to support them in fine-tuning their ability to pose questions for research.  Each station contains a familiar item (packing peanuts, paper plate, gobstopper, etc) and a list of materials available in the classroom that can be used for experimentation (water, salt, light, ruler, scale, etc).  Students spend 20-30 min at each station generating lists of questions for research.

This article seems to be a practical way to use inquiry in the classroom and could be customized to any subject.  It is similar to the idea of critical exploration popularized by Eleanor Duckworth.  It’s also a student-centered way to develop the ideals of scientific thinking and experimental design.  It could be a great way to start the year and create an awareness of the possibilities that exist for scientific research.  The skills could later be applied to larger research projects.    

Relevant Quotes/Concepts

“Familiarity with the topic is key”

“It seems to work equally well with students of all abilities as long as the students are initially familiar with the object or phenomenon they are working with.”

This is similar to work Eleanor Duckworth did with graduate students.  She asked them to observe common phenomena such as the moon.  Through the observations, over time, new insights develop that deepen the understanding of the phenomenon. 

Introductory Paper on Critical Explorations in Teaching Art, Science, and Teacher Education

Cavicchi, E., Chiu, S., & McDonnell, F. (2009). Introductory Paper on Critical Explorations in Teaching Art, Science, and Teacher Education. New Educator, 5(3), 189-204.

Summary/Analysis:

This paper serves as an introduction to a series of three more papers that examine critical exploration in three separate classrooms (art, science and teacher education).  The art teacher explored Chinese brush painting with middle school girls, the undergraduate science class investigated mirrors and the teacher education students explored seeds, pendulums and the moon.  It is focused mainly on the theory behind critical exploration, the dynamics of a classroom where critical exploration is happening and the potential for student and teacher growth that can result.    

Critical exploration is a classroom practice introduced by Eleanor Duckworth based largely on research of Jean Piaget and Barbel Inhelder.  The work of psychologists Piaget and Barbel indicates that children construct their knowledge by relating actions to outcomes associated with the actions.  Through exploration/experimentation a child may reach a “stage” where, temporarily, the outcomes associated with their actions cohere with their expectations.  Then, however, unexpected outcomes may destabilize this coherence.  Piaget called this destabilization “disequilibrium.”  He saw this as a time of rich growth where children try new ways of acting or thinking and try to synthesize them with previous actions.  Critical exploration is the idea of using this process actively and consciously in the classroom.

Putting this idea to work in the classroom can be disconcerting to the teacher as he/she must
“...[break] with the role of providing answers to students or telling them what to do.”  Critical exploration is the idea of raising questions, unpacking ideas, tolerating spontaneity, wondering and discussing.  These types of activities often “[compound] the risk that teacher and students experience” in the classroom.  However, they can also lead to the type of “disequilibrium” that is the harbinger of meaningful growth.  

The paper claims that, in order for critical exploration to be effective in the classroom there must be an triangular relationship between learner, subject matter and teacher.  This idea of a triangular relationship was first expressed by David Hawkins.  For the learning to be most effective the relationship between the three should be equal and none shall be dominant.  For example, if the teacher takes a lead role, the contributions from the student and from the subject matter may suffer.  If the subject matter and teacher dominate (as in a lecture for instance) the student’s role is diminished.  

The subject matter itself is very important in this process.  The subject matter must have many facets and “problems veining through it” in order to provide room for critical exploration.  Duckworth refers to this as the “complexity” of the subject matter.  Students must be able to explore the subject matter endlessly to give rise to “new ways to act, observe and reflect...”  It must have dimension.  I imagine this as one of the more difficult jobs of the teacher.  Selecting the subject matter with the appropriate level of “complexity” is crucial in critical exploration.             

Relevant Quotes/Concepts:

“Classrooms have potential to be places for taking the risk of discovering how much is unknown within what we thought we knew.”  

“Duckworth associates the ‘essence’ of teaching with providing opportunities by which students may ‘have wonderful ideas’ that are expressions of their learning.”

“...learners’ confusion is often a prelude to their keener involvement and the making of connections or analyses that deal with significant puzzles in the subject and the learners’ grasp of it.”

“It appears ‘slow’ to teach by involving students in explorations by which they may, or may not, generate understandings that are consistent with those already formulated.  Such objections to exploratory learning privilege a certain type of efficiency and uniformity in information transfer while ignoring the processes by which anyone’s learning becomes sufficiently deep as to be usable in new, evolving situations.”

“That multiplicity of paths, which a complex subject matter can sustain but a simplified one cannot, is a means at the teacher’s disposal for accommodating diverse learners in noticing for themselves its multiple possibilities.”