From direct instruction to inquiry learning in the earth sciences: common challenges and opportunities across cultures in the Singapore context
Abstract
At all educational levels and across cultures, moving from direct instruction to inquiry learning is challenging for both students and instructors. Is knowledge fixed, to be dispensed by an instructor and received by the learner? Or, is knowledge provisional and dynamic, to be sought and constructed actively by a learner under the guidance of her instructor? In a class for beginning PhD students, we initially observed great cultural discomfort with criticizing others' work. We emphasize the importance of critical discourse in science and provide a small, seminar-style environment in which students can openly critique the work of their colleagues and superiors. We have seen progress toward an intellectual environment where open critique is part of mutual respect. At the secondary level, we provide training and support for teachers to make the transition from knowledge dispenser to learning guide. Inquiry learning opens up the classroom discourse, which can move beyond the teacher's own content knowledge. In our teacher workshops, we model the teacher not as all-knowing, but rather as investigator and learning guide. By taking the role of active learners, teachers deepen their own content knowledge and can anticipate the questions that students might ask; this reduces the challenges of implementing inquiry learning in their own classrooms. With sufficient guidance, institutional support, and chance to practice in a supportive environment, both secondary teachers and graduate students move toward inquiry learning.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2013
- Bibcode:
- 2013AGUFMED43A0762M
- Keywords:
-
- 0810 EDUCATION Post-secondary education;
- 0830 EDUCATION Teacher training;
- 0825 EDUCATION Teaching methods;
- 0805 EDUCATION Elementary and secondary education