Inquiry-Based Teaching and Learning across Disciplines: Comparative Theory and Practice in Schools

172 Pages·2017·4.28 MB·English

by  Gillian Kidman

INQUIRY-BASED
TEACHING AND
LEARNING ACROSS
DISCIPLINES
Comparative Theory
and Practice in Schools
Gillian Kidman
Niranjan Casinader
Inquiry-Based Teaching and Learning
across Disciplines
Gillian Kidman Niranjan Casinader
(cid:129)
Inquiry-Based
Teaching and Learning
across Disciplines
Comparative Theory and Practice in Schools
GillianKidman NiranjanCasinader
MonashUniversity MonashUniversity
Clayton, VIC,Australia Clayton, VIC,Australia
ISBN978-1-137-53462-0 ISBN978-1-137-53463-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-53463-7
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2017940367
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My learning and thinking has been greatly enhanced by my constant
desiretoquestion,investigateandexplore.Frommyearliestmemories,
I was encouraged to think and reflect; to question and reflect—to
inquire.Thisbookisdedicatedtothememoryofmyparents(Hubertus
and Claire Vos)—my earliest teachers. You were with me at the start
of this book—I dedicate the finished product to you.
Gillian Kidman
My love of inquiry, with its accompanying craving for
exploration and delving into the new and unknown,
came out of a childhood consumed by a thirst for
knowledge: adventure in open spaces, intertwined with
imaginationandfiredbyanobsessionwithcreatingnew
worlds out of Lego, wood and Meccano. The people who
encouraged and nurtured that mix with a steadfast
conviction that their children develop their own minds
were my parents, Ranji Casinader and Romany
Wright. To them, and all the teachers who fed my
hunger (Valé Clifford Gould, Michael Streatfield and
Chris Cooper), this book is dedicated.
Niranjan Casinader
F
OREWORD
Inquiry has become the standard for educational policy, curriculum, and
practice.Thishastakendecadesifnotacenturytohappen,yetthereoften
remains resistance to its adoption. However, a quick look at international
comparisons of educational accomplishment reveals that, with few excep-
tions, top-performing jurisdictions have implemented inquiry-based edu-
cation. Inquiry is not easy for policy makers, curriculum designers,
educational administrators, teachers, or learners. It requires intensive
knowledge of pedagogy and knowledge creation within and across disci-
plines, and development of children’s abilities, concepts, motivation, and
autonomy. Following an overview of the origins of inquiry-based instruc-
tion, this concise and fascinating book shines three laser-like beams on
important challenges regarding inquiry within education.
The first beam highlights curriculum, notably the general course of
study. Thisisa rarely treated approach. While laudingthe commitment to
inquiry-basedcurriculum,thevolumeidentifiesexamplesofalignmentand
misalignment in how inquiry is defined and reinterpreted according to
several contexts including culture, politics, and discipline or domain.
The second beam illuminates Australia’s relatively new national cur-
riculum within a federal context. This is highly relevant for Australian
educators, but readers in other countries should not be deterred by this
specificity. Similar quicksand exists everywhere. Although this book does
notdrilldowntospecificlessonsandpedagogy,itdoeshighlightuniversal
curricular issues that impact what happens in classrooms.
vii
viii FOREWORD
Third, the authors specifically focus on science, geography and history.
Again, there are implications for all subjects. Science is not a unified field;
biologists and astrophysicists ask different questions, seek different data as
evidence, yet together share an inquiry model in which questions precede
data, and that values confirmation, prediction, and refutation. Inquiry in
geography (especially social geography) and history begin with data and
favour explanations. Nevertheless, geographical and historical data are
different. The authors provide several related examples of alignment and
misalignment between the broad intentions and their expression in the
curriculum.
In its journey across inquiry in parts of the Australian curriculum, the
book raises numerous provocative ideas that educators, in general, should
ponder. Examples include:
(cid:129) Inquiryreinforcesanapproachtolearningthathasstrongcommunity
qualities and that challenges culturally-driven notions of educational
successasanindividualaccomplishment.Thisimpactswhatwemean,
for example, by evaluation and indicators of success.
(cid:129) Experience in discipline-based ways of knowing is foundational to
promoting student-generated inquiry questions. General inquiry
processes (e.g. asking questions, collecting evidence) are insufficient
for students to take over the role of question-asking from teachers
(thisfitsJeromeBruner’sproposalthatalearnermustplaytheroleof
a discipline expert, at an appropriate level, to best learn it).
(cid:129) Overemphasis on the process of inquiry—creating algorithms or
recipes—can pre-empt curiosity, thinking about what questions are
worth asking. Formulaic approachestoinquiry arecommonplace not
only within the disciplines, but also in how many teachers are edu-
cated to understand, do, and teach inquiry.
(cid:129) Field experiences, learning outside the physical classroom, are valu-
ableforexperiencing“theunusual”andfosteringcuriosity.However,
fieldwork is defined differently across subject domains, and opportu-
nities to use these experiences to look at phenomena as a scientist,
geographer, historian, musician, poet, philosopher, mining engineer,
mathematician, speaker of another language with different words for
things we perceive, or a Martian—are insufficiently frequently avail-
able to learners.
FOREWORD ix
The authors have been close scholarly observers of the development of
inquiryinAustralianschools.Wecanthinkofthisbookasacasestudywith
lessons to be shared well beyond its clearly articulated boundaries. It is a
useful addition to scholarship on inquiry and a practical guide to making
improvements and avoiding pitfalls in designing inquiry-driven curricula.
Bruce M. Shore
McGill University
Montreal, QC, Canada
Reference
Kidman, G., & Casinader, N. (expected in 2017). Inquiry-based teaching and
learning across disciplines: Comparative theory and practice in schools.
Basingstoke, England: PalgraveMacmillan.
Discipline-Specific inquiry literacy
− Scien(cid:2)fic inquiry literacy
− Geographical inquiry literacy
− Historical inquiry literacy
Domain-generalinquiry frameworks
− Classroom goals
− Degree of teacher Direc(cid:2)on
− Instruc(cid:2)onal approach
MEANING BEHIND THE ROPE
This is a stylisa(cid:2)on of Chap. 1 Fig 2. On the le(cid:3)-hand side, the red/purple/pink strands are the
classroom goals, degree of teacher direc(cid:2)on, and instruc(cid:2)onal approach. These become intertwined
in the knot of inquiry prac(cid:2)ces, resul(cid:2)ng in inquiry literacy true to the disciplines of the inquiry (in
our case, Science, Geography, and History).
P
REFACE
The intention of this book is to conduct a research-based study of how
educational inquiry is conceptualised in contemporary curriculum and its
implications for teacher implementation of inquiry-based learning. Within
theschooleducationsector,thenotionofinquiryorinquiry-basedlearning,
has been under attack on a number of fronts in several countries over a
numberofyears.ThishasparticularlybeenthecaseintheUKandAustralia,
where various interpretations of inquiry—based learning (IBL) have been
introduced into national curriculum frameworks, to varying degrees of
success,athemethatisexploredinmoredepthinChap.1.Forproponents
ofamoretraditionalapproachtoteachingandlearning,inquirylearningis
seentolackacademicrigourandisoftenassociatedwithnotionsofstudent
freedom that encourage them to study only those areas that they are
interested in. It is often decried as devaluing more teacher-founded peda-
gogy by negating direct instruction, one that results in not enough
‘knowledge’about the ‘kindsofknowledge’that studentsneed to know.
The prime cause of this criticism, however, is one that reflects the
inadequacy of educators’ knowledge as to what inquiry actually is in the
educational context. Between the two of us, we have a total of almost
70 years experience in teaching across the primary, secondary and tertiary
education sectors in Australia and in various international contexts. For
both of us, the inquiry approach has been the foundation of our educa-
tional work, but one driver for this book has been our independently
derived conclusions as to the expertise of teacher practitioners in inquiry.
Formanyeducators,inquiryisastudent-centredactivitythatisinitiatedby
xi