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INQUIRY BASED INTEGRATED CURRICULUM. Presented by Nadine Le Mescam [email protected]. Wanted: Global Citizens. The world needs young people who are culturally sophisticated and prepared to work in an international environment - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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INQUIRY BASED INQUIRY BASED INTEGRATED CURRICULUMINTEGRATED CURRICULUM
Presented by Nadine Le [email protected]
Nadine Le Mescam 2008
Wanted: Global CitizensWanted: Global CitizensThe world needs young people who are
culturally sophisticated and prepared to work in an international environment
To do this, schools need to restructure curriculum and pedagogy to place student engagement at the centre of learning
Learning should be based on key concepts and issues relevant to students lives
Education for a global era is education for lifelong cognitive and behavioral engagement with the world
(Suarez-Orozco and Sattin, 2007)
Nadine Le Mescam 2008
How? What we know....How? What we know....We should try and turn out people
who love learning so much and learn so well that they will be able to learn whatever needs to be learned (John Holt)
Learning should have horizontal relevance, mere vertical relevance isn’t enough (Lilian Katz, Alfie Kohn)
Students learn most avidly and have their best ideas when they get to choose which questions to explore (Alfie Kohn)
Nadine Le Mescam 2008
WHAT IS WHAT IS “ESSENTIAL”?“ESSENTIAL”?
Nadine Le Mescam 2008
What is essential for your What is essential for your learning community?learning community?Bendigo Education Plan Personalised LearningNegotiated CurriculumTransdisciplinary LearningInquiry Based
Nadine Le Mescam 2008
VELS PerspectivesVELS PerspectivesTo succeed in our ever-changing
world, studentsneed to develop the capacities to:
Manage themselves as individuals and in relation to others
Understand the world in which they live; and
Act effectively in that worldNadine Le Mescam 2008
Victorian Victorian Essential Essential Learning Learning StandardsStandardsManage self and relationships
Understand their world
Act effectively
Learning to Know
Learning to DoLearning to BeLearning to Live
Together
UNESCO Four Pillars of Learning
Nadine Le Mescam 2008
ACCORDING TO VELS....ACCORDING TO VELS....The standards for student achievement do not prescribe any particular curriculum. Nor do they constitute the totality of the program that students will receive. Rather, they indicate what is essential for students to know and be able to do at different levels. It is then up to schools and teachers to choose the curriculum that best helps students to meet these standards, while addressing broader student interests and needs .
Nadine Le Mescam 2008
AT THE HEART OF IT....AT THE HEART OF IT....The essence of the Victorian Essential Learning Standards is the integrated focus on knowledge, skills and behaviours in the three strands of Physical, Personal and Social Learning, Discipline-based Learning, and Interdisciplinary Learning that together develop deep understanding in learners which can be transferred to new and different contexts.
Nadine Le Mescam 2008
WHAT DO TEACHERS SAY?WHAT DO TEACHERS SAY?
When planning with the Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS), many teachers are discovering the value of inquiry to purposefully integrate domains from each of the strands.
Murdoch, 2006
Nadine Le Mescam 2008
INTEGRATED INTEGRATED CURRICULUMCURRICULUM
Nadine Le Mescam 2008
Integrated CurriculumIntegrated CurriculumStructured organisation of teaching and learning experiences
Significant content to develop understandings of the world
Authentic links occur across and within learning areas
Nadine Le Mescam 2008
A common stumbling A common stumbling block….block….
Nadine Le Mescam 2008
Our Working ModelOur Working Model“In essence, integrating the curriculum involves the integration of content and process. The content subjects are essentially concerned with ideas about how the world works. The process subjects offer a range of ways of allowing us to represent how we see and make meaning of our world (real or imagined).”
Pigdon and Woolley, 1992, p.7
Nadine Le Mescam 2008
The content The content subjects are subjects are essentially essentially concerned with concerned with ideas about how the ideas about how the world works.world works.
The process subjects The process subjects offer a range of ways offer a range of ways
of allowing us to of allowing us to represent how we see represent how we see and make meaning of and make meaning of
our world (real or our world (real or imagined)imagined)
Murdoch, 1998, p.3
Nadine Le Mescam 2008
PROCESS AREAS:Those areas which allow us to find out or sort our information about how the world worksThey helps use perceive the world, or express what we know and/or feel.
LEARNING SKILLS AREAS:Those areas which contain the skills of inquiryThese are the ways that we work as we inquireThese are ongoing throughout any inquiry, and are developed in context of the learning environment
Civics and CitizenshipThe Humanities (Economics, Geography, History)ScienceHealth and Physical Education (Health Knowledge and Promotion)
The ArtsEnglishCommunicationMathematicsHealth and Physical Education (Movement and Physical Activity)LOTEDesign, Creativity and TechnologyICT
Interpersonal DevelopmentPersonal LearningThinking
SIGNIFICANT CONTENT AREAS:Those areas which contain understandings about how the world worksHost Areas of Inquiries
Nadine Le Mescam 2008
Integrating the CurriculumIntegrating the CurriculumENGLISH
Civics and Citizenship
Interpersonal Learning
ICT
•Structured Structured organisation of organisation of teaching and teaching and learning experienceslearning experiences
•Significant contentSignificant content to develop to develop understandingsunderstandings of of the worldthe world
•AuthenticAuthentic links links occur across and occur across and within learning areaswithin learning areas
Nadine Le Mescam 2008
Relationship Between Content Relationship Between Content and Processand Process
CONTENTGive substance and meaning to
forms of perception and
expression
PROCESSIn turn, forms of
expression and perception
enable us to make sense of
life experience
Nadine Le Mescam 2008
Integrated curriculum is best Integrated curriculum is best delivered….delivered….Within an inquiry based approach:
“Learning is more powerful when content, process and skills are developed and extended in meaningful, integrated contexts where students construct their own learning”
Wilson & Wing Jan, 2003, p.11Nadine Le Mescam 2008
INQUIRY LEARNINGINQUIRY LEARNING
Nadine Le Mescam 2008
Understanding starts witha question, not any question,
but a real question.(Bettencort, 1991)
Nadine Le Mescam 2008
Discuss with your group: What does this mean to you?
A real question expresses the desire to understand. This desire is what moves the questioner to pursue the question until an answer has been made. Desiring to understand opens ourselves to experiencing what is new as new, and the already known under new aspects.
(Bettencort, 1991)Nadine Le Mescam 2008
Real questions come from Real questions come from studentsstudentsStudents are more likely to be
engaged when they focus on answering their own questions (Oehelkers & Ruple, 2007)
Inquiry questions can’t be framed ahead of time by teachers or curriculum experts....the questions and curriculum, are negotiated with the students. (Short & Burke, 1996)
Nadine Le Mescam 2008
INQUIRY BASED LEARNINGINQUIRY BASED LEARNINGLearning is not just about content, but
also process.An effective integrated curriculum
should consider connections, but also the way in which students learn.
Inquiry learning is a process of investigation
Questions are formed, and time is given to explore the answers
Allows students to unify, rather than separate, knowledge as they move from acquisition of facts to the development of broader concept and generalisations
Nadine Le Mescam 2008
Adapted from Wilson and Wing Jan, 2003, p.4
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FACTS,
CONCEPTS, AND GENERALISATIONS
Nadine Le Mescam 2008
The Inquiry ProcessThe Inquiry Process1. Arrange in the learning process2. What happens at each stage?
Nadine Le Mescam 2008
TUNING IN
FINDING OUT
SORTING OUT
DRAWING CONCLUSIO
NS
ACTION
GOING FURTHER
THE INQUIRY PROCESSNadine Le Mescam 2008
TWO LAYERS TO INQUIRY LEARNING
Inquiry Inquiry learning can learning can be used to as a be used to as a vehicle to plan vehicle to plan and drive and drive effective effective integrated integrated units of work.units of work.
Through learning Through learning to learn and to learn and reflection on the reflection on the learning process, learning process, students can students can become active become active members of the members of the learning learning community by community by undertaking their undertaking their own personal own personal inquiries either inquiries either within the topic, or within the topic, or in a topic of their in a topic of their own choice.own choice.
The result is powerful learning with active The result is powerful learning with active engagement through investigating, processing, engagement through investigating, processing, organising, synthesizing, refining and extending organising, synthesizing, refining and extending their knowledge within a topictheir knowledge within a topic
Nadine Le Mescam 2008
Although specific definitions of inquiry vary, key features centre on it being an active, student centered learning process whereby questions are formed and time is given to seek answers.
(Wilson & Wing Jan, 2003). Nadine Le Mescam 2008
Active learning is not just about doing things; it about students actively thinking. A task that sends students off to the internet to do a bit of ‘Googling’ and stitch the results together is not a task that is encouraging active thinking and questioning.
(Hutchings, 2008)
Nadine Le Mescam 2008
INQUIRY BASED INQUIRY BASED INTEGRATED INTEGRATED CURRICULUMCURRICULUM
Nadine Le Mescam 2008
FeaturesFeaturesThe sequence follows the inquiry
process.Begins with students prior
knowledge, perceptions and understandings
Activities are based around ,moving, extending, developing these
Students and teacher draw on a range of resources and work across domains and dimensions
Nadine Le Mescam 2008
It’s not step by step.....It’s not step by step.....Inquiry is not a "method" of doing science, history, or any other subject, in which the obligatory first stage in a fixed, linear sequence is that of students each formulating questions to investigate. Rather, it is an approach to the chosen themes and topics in which the posing of real questions is positively encouraged, whenever they occur and by whoever they are asked. Equally important as the hallmark of an inquiry approach is that all tentative answers are taken seriously and are investigated as rigorously as the circumstances permit.
(Wells, 2001)
Nadine Le Mescam 2008
UNDERSTANDING GOALS
(May link with Throughlines)
ONGOING ASSESSMENT
PERFORMANCES OF
UNDERSTANDING
GENERATIVE TOPICS
Adapted from: The Teaching for Understanding Framework(Blythe and Associates, 1998)
Significant Content relating to and extending
students’ life experiences and understandings about the worldBig Ideas or
important broad knowledge
students will develop during
the unit
Activities and experiences developed
using/following the inquiry approach
Essential in providing both cumulative and
summative data. For students, teachers and
learning community
Nadine Le Mescam 2008
Passionate and PurposefulPassionate and PurposefulInquiries need to go beyond ‘doing’ a topicThey need to be investigations with real purposeInvestigate questions that link to universal
concepts:
How does a healthy garden grow? Links to: change, interdependence, cycles.
Also skills of teamwork and value of responsibility
Murdoch, 2006
Nadine Le Mescam 2008
This has been This has been happening....what we are happening....what we are seeing...seeing...
Nadine Le Mescam 2008Murdoch, 2004
Planning for InquiryPlanning for InquirySignificant content: Framed
around provocative, essential questions rather than closed ‘topics’.
What is the difference?
Natural Disasters vs
How does the Earth work?
Nadine Le Mescam 2008
Generative TopicsGenerative TopicsCentral to one or more domainsInteresting to students (Varies
according to age, social and cultural contexts, personal interests, and intellectual experiences of students)
Interesting to the teacherAre accessibleOffer opportunities for multiple
connectionsHave an inexhaustible quality
Blythe and Associate, 1998
Nadine Le Mescam 2008
What do they look like?What do they look like?Questions:What does science mean to us?Why war?What are the challenges and choices we face
in our lives?
Statements: Look after Number 1: How can we care for our
bodies? Why do people harm their bodies?Making life easier: How has technology
changed our lives? Does it make life easier?The message in the medium: How do we
communicate? How do our messages vary according to medium?
Nadine Le Mescam 2008
Inquiry needs to be...Inquiry needs to be......built on key concepts grounded in events and issues relevant to students‘ lives. For example, assignments can encourage students to think about certain everyday activities—the food they consume or the clothing they purchase—in such a way that they begin to identify how their actions are embedded in a larger global context and have widespread implications. Assignments like this can help make the global local for students.
(Suarez-Orozco & Sattin, 2007)
Nadine Le Mescam 2008
What is different?What is different?Inquiry involves a shift in our thinking
as teachersInstead of using a theme as an excuse
to teach science, mathematics or reading, these become tools for exploring knowledge about how the world works and for researching students own questions
The major focus is the inquiry itself, not the content area distinctions
(Short and Burke, 1996)
Nadine Le Mescam 2008
The Primary Focus of The Primary Focus of InquiryInquiry
Nadine Le Mescam 2008
Your aim is to prepare students to undertake their inquiry, by providing key shared experiences and developing their skills within context. They are then able to formulate questions and seek understanding with yours and others help.
Imagine....Imagine....Trying to learn how to drive from a book
or from lectures from someone elseYou study diagrams such as the position
of the brake and acceleratorYou read about processes of releasing the
clutch as the accelerator is depressedYou memorize appropriate braking
distancesWould you pass the driving test?
(Blythe & Associates, 1998)
TYPES OF INQUIRYTYPES OF INQUIRYDiscuss the table: Can you think
of examples for each? What have you seen or experienced?
Look at the samples of planners: What types of inquiries are these?
Nadine Le Mescam 2008
How does Animation work?How does Animation work?WHAT TYPE OF INQUIRY
LEARNING IS THIS?
Essential question: Came from a conversation in the classroom
Understandings came from the students: What do you want to know/understand?
Nadine Le Mescam 2008
NEGOTIATING NEGOTIATING THE CURRICULUMTHE CURRICULUM
What are our thoughts?What are our thoughts?
What do we mean by ‘negotiated curriculum?’
Why is it worth pursuing?What can it look like in action?What needs to be in place for
negotiated curriculum to really ‘work’?
Definitions of negotiated curriculum Definitions of negotiated curriculum are many and varied…but generally are many and varied…but generally share common themesshare common themes
“Negotiating the curriculum means classrooms in which teachers invite and allow students to help construct the learning journey” Boomer 1992: 277
“Students develop their own curriculum, study methods and assessment - built around questions and issues that are important to them”
James Beane
Common elements include...Common elements include...Builds trust and shared decision
makingManaging self and self in relation to
othersValues the learner and their interestsLevel of negotiation is variedThere is a difference between
negotiating the curriculum, and choosing between pre-determined choices
Why?Why?If we own our learning - we learn more
effectivelyWhen we own our learning - we learn
how to learnTrue negotiation creates a stronger,
more committed community of learners
A true community of learners is so much easier to ‘manage’!
We can attend more effectively to individual needs and strengths
Reasonable limitsReasonable limits“Absolute freedom”: Every influential proponent
of negotiated curriculum acknowledges there are limits on what can be negotiated.
Age should not always restrict choice/voice: This prevents younger children from making choices well within their capacities.
It can set up a vicious circle if you wait: “It is experience with decisions that help children become capable of handling them” (Kohn, 1993).
Structures, modelling, scaffolding, MUST HAPPEN.The crucial difference between structures and
limits, and control and coercion has gone unrecognized.
Pseudochoice.....Pseudochoice.....Offering a choice that is ‘loaded’
(Finish or you will stay in at recess)
Let them think the are having a say in a decision that is already made
Choose from predetermined choices and tasks designed by the teacher
A Ladder of Citizen Participation: by Sherry R Arnstein
Designed to ‘educate’ or ‘cure’ by a greater power
Allow to ‘have nots’ to hear and have a voice, however the power holders still decide.
Increased degrees of decision making. Enables them to negotiate with power-holders, leading to them having managerial power at the top rung.
From Learner Voice Handbook: byFuturelab
Use the work samples in the pack:
Where do they sit on the ladder?
Positive effects includePositive effects includeGeneral well being: Sense of controlBehaviour and values: Responsibility,
not just authority and powerAcademic achievement: Motivation
and engagementTeachers: More interesting and
rewardingIntrinsic Value: Democratic learning
communities
What we find....What we find....
Students are rarely invited to becomeactive participants in their own
education.Schooling is typically doing things tochildren, not working with them.
Kohn, 1993
Why is this the case?Why is this the case?Grammar of Schooling: teacher
and student roles, curriculumSharing the powerKeeping trackHaving a go
“If people are given the given the skills and tools to use, and presented with a range of potentially powerful educative experiences, then given freedom, they will almost invariably choose one and get on with it. Once learners get in touch with their own sense of personal power, get out of their way and watch in awe”
Edwards 2004: encouraging achievement: 3
““The things we steal from children”The things we steal from children”(Edwards, 2000)(Edwards, 2000)
If I am always the one to think of where to go next, how will they ever know where to begin?
If I am the one who is always monitoring progress, how will they learn to continue their own work?
If all the marking and editing is done by me, how will they find ownership, direction and delight in what they do?
If I speak of individuals but present learning as if they are all the same, how will they get to know themselves as thinkers?
For if they:
Have never experienced being challenged in a safe environment Have had all of their creative thoughts explained away Are unaware what catches their interest and how then to have
confidence in their interest Have never followed anything they are passionate about to a
satisfying conclusion Have not clarified the way they sabotage their own learning Are afraid to seek help and do not know who to ask Have not experienced overcoming their own inertia Are paralyzed by the need to know everything before writing or
acting Have never got bogged down Have never failed Have always played it safe
HOW WILL THEY EVER KNOW WHO THEY ARE?
Some useful referencesSome useful references Beane, J. (1991). ‘The Middle School: The Natural Home of Integrated
Curriculum’, Educational Leadership, 49(2), 9-13. Beane, J. (1992). Integrated Curriculum in the Middle School, ERIC
Digest, 2-3, ED 351095. Boomer, G., Lester, N., Onore, C., & Cook, J. (eds.), (1992). Negotiating
the Curriculum: Educating for the 21st Century, USA: The Falmer Press. DEET. (2002). Middle Years Research and Development (MYRAD)
Project Executive Summary, A report to the Learning and Teaching Innovation Division DEET by the Centre of Applied Educational Research Faculty of Education The University of Melbourne, February-December 2001.
Murdoch, K. (1998). Classroom Connection: Strategies for Integrated Learning, Australia: Eleanor Curtain.
Murdoch,K. and Wilson, J.(2004) Learning Links: strategic teaching for the learner centred classroom. Curric Corp.
Coloroso, B. (2002) Kids are worth it! Quill NY Brooks, J. and Brooks,M. (1999) The case for constructivist classrooms.
ASCD VA Otero, G. et al: (2001) Relational learning : education for mind body,
spirit. Hawker Brownlow Edwards, J: the Things we steal from Children:
www.eddept.wa.edu/gifttal/EAGER/Dr%20 Edwards.html