Developing More Curious Minds Questioning and Inquiry Across the Curriculum Mary Schmidt, Gifted...

Developing More Curious Minds

Questioning and Inquiry Across the Curriculum

Mary Schmidt, Gifted Education ConsultantHeartland AEA270.0405 or 800.255.0405 ext. 14375mschmidt@aea11.k12.ia.us

Class Format

• Wiki• EtherPad• Diigo• Google doc

s

Introductions

• Visit Diigo and add your introduction to the Introductions discussion

• Name• School & teaching assignment• Why you’re here• One thing you’re curious about

KUD

Know

• Characteristics of a culture of curiosity• Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy• Questioning models• Ways to apply Web 2.0 tools in the

classroom

KUDUnderstand

• Curiosity is an asset to be valued and nourished.

• Students’ natural curiosity serves as a basis for enduring learning.

• Building a culture of inquisitiveness is essential to student success.

KUD

Do

• Identify your own curiosities• Employ Web 2.0 tools in the pursuit of

questions and answers• Embed characteristics of a culture of curiosity

in your classroom• Remodel lesson/unit to better engage

curiosity, risk-taking, and H.O.T.

The Goals of Education

What should 21st Century graduates know, understand, and be able to do?– Brainstorm individually– Discuss at your table– Share using EtherPad –What do you notice about this list?–What questions does this information

raise for you?

The Goals of Education

• I want students to– Be lifelong learners– Be passionate– Be ready to take risks– Be able to problem solve and think critically– Be able to look at things differently– Be able to work independently and with others– Be creative

The Goals of Education• I want students to

– Care and want to give back to the community

– Persevere– Have integrity and self-respect– Have moral courage– Be able to use the world around them– Speak well, write well, read well, and

work well with others– Enjoy their life and their work

Dennis Litkey, The Big Picture, p. 1

Goals of Education

1. To acquire knowledge (K)2. To understand knowledge (U)3. To use or apply knowledge (D)

--Perkins, 1992

Your Goals

• Partner• EtherPad– Discuss– Contribute

A Culture of Curiosity

• How would you define/describe culture, school culture, and culture of curiosity?

• What elements of a school’s culture are barriers to a culture of curiosity?

• What elements promote a culture of curiosity?

Deep Structures of Schooling…

• Teacher as teller• Student as absorber• Curriculum as coverage• Kids as dependent and incapable• Lessons loosely linked to curriculum• Pedagogy as a bag of tricks• Assessment • Control = management• Fair = treating all students alike• Grades as normative Tomlinson

Schools of Inquiry

“You know this Theory of Relativity business…I’ve got questions!”

James, age 16

Ways to communicate our

valuing of curiosity

What you do speaks so loudly I cannot hear

what you say.--Ralph Waldo Emerson

I wonder…

…if global warming is for real.…how we will ever know.…how electronic ink technology works.…what qualifies a person to work in the office of a U.S. Senator or Congressman.…what all of you wonder about

I Wonder…

Could Jurassic Park Happen?How big is the universe?How has farming changed?

Creativity

• What is creativity?• Who is creative?• How does one get that way?• In what ways do schools encourage

creativity?• What is the place of creativity in the

classroom? (In theory and in reality)

Cognitive Principle 1

• People are naturally curious, but we are not naturally good thinkers; unless the cognitive conditions are right, we will avoid thinking.

Implication:Teachers need to reconsider how they

encourage students to think.--Willingham, 2009

CASTLE

Successful Thinking

Depends on…

• Information from the environment• Facts in long-term memory• Procedures in long-term memory• The amount of space in working

memory--Willingham, p. 14

Inquiry…

• Begins in doubt, a situation that– is ambiguous– presents a dilemma– proposes alternatives

• Problems are states of doubt or uncertainty

--Dewey, 1933

Essential Features of Inquiry

Learners • are engaged by a question• give priority to evidence• formulate explanations based on evidence• evaluate explanations against current

understanding• communicate to justify explanations

--Iowa Department of Education presentation, 2008

Children grow into the Children grow into the intellectual life around intellectual life around

them.them.--Vygotsky

Asking Questions

Wh

y d

o w

e h

esi

tate

to a

sk q

uest

ion

s?

“Good” Questions

“So, Izzy, did you ask a good question today?”

Isidor Rabi’s mother

The single most important question I have ever asked is

also the shortest…WHY?

--Larry King

On a Sticky Note…

• Jot down two of the best questions you’ve asked your students. Focus on a particular lesson or unit.

• Set aside.

Bloom’s levels?

1. What makes a question “good”? EP2. Why is it important for teachers and

students to ask good questions? EP3. What are the consequences when they

don’t? EP4. What would you see and hear in a

classroom where higher-order questioning is occurring? EP

5. What would happen to student learning if teachers and students asked effective higher-order questions? EP

6. What questions do you have about effective questioning? EP

Revisit the Questions

• Based on the characteristics of a “good” question and Bloom’s Taxonomy, determine if you asked good, higher-order questions.

• Using these questions as a basis, create a better version of each.

• Share your work with a partner.

Three-Story Intellect

• Applying• Processing• Gathering

Wikip. 64 & 67

The Content of Our Questions

Learning to think is more important than thinking.

The Content of Our Questions

Questions based on key concepts (p.71)What are the major ideas worth thinking about in your subject area?

If you had only one week to teach a year-long course, what concepts, ideas, or ways of knowing would be essential to understanding your discipline?

Questions of a Discipline

How does the professional think through complex, strange phenomena in her subject? What are her ways of inquiring?

What are the essential questions in your own subject area, ones you want students to be able to ask so they can understand complex problematic situations?

“A good thinker is a person whose mind

watches itself.”--Albert Camus

Metacognition Questions

Reflection

• In what ways do classroom and school structures encourage “good” questions?

• In what ways do classroom and school structures impede “good” questions?

Questioning Text

Questioning Text

Questioning Text: The

WWW

An Intelligent Revolution

• Critical Thinking• Where’s the Data?• Questioning the Status Quo• Why Do You Have Such Crazy Ideas?• How Do You Know?

An Intelligent Revolution

Critical thinking is skillful, fully responsible thinking that facilitates [making] judgments, because it (1) relies upon criteria, (2) is self-correcting, and (3) is sensitive to context…

--Lipman, 1988

People learn best when what they learn is personally meaningful to them and

they can learn in their own way, have choices, and feel

in control.“Powerful Learning”

--Ron Brandt

Writing Our Curiosities

• Before Writing– The Cemetery Path– The Dinner Party

• Problem Solving• Field Notes– Preparing for Field Trips

• Reflection

Field Trips

Purpose:• To apply inquiry to experience• To experience a structure that will

facilitate more effective field trip outcomes in your setting

Field Trips• Choose a field trip– Science Center of Iowa– State Historical Building– State Capitol– Botanical Center– Blank Park Zoo– Art Center

• What questions do you have about the venue?• Find the Web site and gather information.

Field Trips

• Fill out the “Before Your Visit” section of Figure 10.1 (p. 172)

• Take the field trip – Leave Heartland at 10:00 a.m.– Return by 1:30– Fill out the “During Visit” section of Fig.

10.1

Field Trips

• Be sure to grab lunch while you’re out.• At 1:30 we’ll reconvene to discuss the

experience.• Be sure to bring your field notes to share.• How can you apply this process to make

field trips more meaningful for kids?

Field Trips

• What did you learn…– About the place you visited?– In response to the questions you

generated?– About applying this process to field trip

opportunities for your students?

• What additional questions did you discover?

Characteristics of Effective Instruction

• Form triads and discuss–What each of the characteristics

involves– How it relates to other characteristics– Connections to this class

The Kind of Schools We Need…

…would not hold as an ideal that all students get to the same destination at the same time.…would take seriously the idea that a child’s personal signature, his or her distinctive way of learning is something to be preserved and developed.

The Kind of Schools We Need…

…would help students gradually assume increased responsibility for framing their own goals and learning how to achieve them…to become architects of their own education.…would recognize that the most important forms of learning are those that students know how to use outside of school…the transfer of learning cannot be assumed; it needs to be taught.

The Kind of Schools We Need……would take seriously that with regarding to learning, the joy is in the journey.

--Eisner, 2002

This Bridge

This bridge will only take you halfway there

To those mysterious lands you long to see…

--Shel Silverstein

For October

• Apply your learning to create a culture of curiosity in your classroom.

• Work on the course requirements• Come ready to share your

experiences.• Live a more curiosity-inspired life.