OER in Education - User contributions [en]

A Zotero Self-Paced Study Guide

2014-11-03T19:59:11Z

Sara hennessy:

{{Rinfo
|type= Lesson Idea
|attribution={{Dr Bethan Morgan}} {{Dr Sara Hennessy}} {{Dr Zsolt Lavicza}}
|title=A Zotero Self-Paced Study Guide
|topic=ICT
|image=Zoteroworkbookv4.1.jpeg ‎
|subject=Zotero
|resourcenumber=TE0138
|age=Higher
|content=Zotero is free software which you can use on any platform:
* to record references manually and from online searches;
* to build up a library as you search online, store references on your computer AND synchronise them online with a free Zotero account;
* to tag and search references, store abstracts and notes on your readings;
* to automatically compile references in your course assignments, thesis or papers for publication.
Zotero is designed to work in conjunction with Word and OpenOffice.

|strategy=
|tagline=Using Zotero will save you hours of typing out references! Just work through these 24 short tasks and you'll be good to go.
|Learning Objectives= Become a Zotero whizz by working through these 5 sections:
*installing the software/basic features
*searching, sorting, reports and creating bibliographies
*Zotero and Word - citations and reference lists
*backing up and importing/exporting
*further features and cool functions

|additional resources=
|useful information= http://www.zotero.org
|related resources=
|format=Online workbook

|resources= The workbook is available in two formats:
* printable PDF format - 56 pages, [http://oer1.educ.cam.ac.uk/Zotero%20Self-Paced%20Workbook%202014%20to%202015%20v6.pdf Zotero_Self-Paced_Workbook v6.pdf]
* editable .doc format - 56 pages, [http://oer1.educ.cam.ac.uk/Zotero%20Self-Paced%20Workbook%202014%20to%202015%20v6.docx Zotero_Self-Paced_Workbook v6.docx]


There is also a practice paragraph to use for linking zotero to written work by entering citations of different kinds:

* [[File:ZOTERO PRACTICE TEXT FOR TASK 15.docx|thumbnail]]
* [[File:ZOTERO PRACTICE TEXT FOR TASK 15.odt|thumbnail]]

|final=yes
}}
[[Category:Teacher Education]] [[Category:ICT]]

[[File:zotero1.jpeg|border|340x340px| |Preview snapshot]] [[File:zotero2.jpeg|border|340x340px| |Preview snapshot ]]
[[File:zotero3.jpeg|border|340x340px| |Preview snapshot ]] [[File:zotero4.jpeg|border|340x340px| |Preview snapshot ]] [[File:zotero5.jpeg|border|340x340px| |Preview snapshot ]]

A Zotero Self-Paced Study Guide

2014-11-03T19:56:58Z

Sara hennessy:

{{Rinfo
|type= Lesson Idea
|attribution={{Dr Bethan Morgan}} {{Dr Sara Hennessy}} {{Dr Zsolt Lavicza}}
|title=A Zotero Self-Paced Study Guide
|topic=ICT
|image=Zoteroworkbookv4.1.jpeg ‎
|subject=Zotero
|resourcenumber=TE0138
|age=Higher
|content=Zotero is free software which you can use on any platform:
* to record references manually and from online searches;
* to build up a library as you search online, store references on your computer AND synchronise them online with a free Zotero account;
* to tag and search references, store abstracts and notes on your readings;
* to automatically compile references in your course assignments, thesis or papers for publication.
Zotero is designed to work in conjunction with Word and OpenOffice.

|strategy=
|tagline=Using Zotero will save you hours of typing out references! Just work through these 24 short tasks and you'll be good to go.
|Learning Objectives= Become a Zotero whizz by working through these 5 sections:
*installing the software/basic features
*searching, sorting, reports and creating bibliographies
*Zotero and Word - citations and reference lists
*backing up and importing/exporting
*further features and cool functions

|additional resources=
|useful information= http://www.zotero.org
|related resources=
|format=Online workbook

|resources= The workbook is available in two formats:
* printable PDF format - 56 pages, [http://oer1.educ.cam.ac.uk/Zotero%20Self-Paced%20Workbook%202014%20to%202015%20v6.pdf Zotero_Self-Paced_Workbook v6.pdf]
* editable .doc format - 56 pages, [http://oer1.educ.cam.ac.uk/Zotero%20Self-Paced%20Workbook%202014%20to%202015%20v6.docx Zotero_Self-Paced_Workbook v6.docx]


There is also a practice paragraph to use for linking zotero to written work by entering citations of different kinds:

* [[File:ZOTERO PRACTICE TEXT FOR TASK 15.docx|thumbnail]]
* {{File| ZOTERO PRACTICE TEXT FOR TASK 15.docx }}
* {{File | ZOTERO PRACTICE TEXT FOR TASK 15.odt }}

|final=yes
}}
[[Category:Teacher Education]] [[Category:ICT]]

[[File:zotero1.jpeg|border|340x340px| |Preview snapshot]] [[File:zotero2.jpeg|border|340x340px| |Preview snapshot ]]
[[File:zotero3.jpeg|border|340x340px| |Preview snapshot ]] [[File:zotero4.jpeg|border|340x340px| |Preview snapshot ]] [[File:zotero5.jpeg|border|340x340px| |Preview snapshot ]]

A Zotero Self-Paced Study Guide

2014-10-10T08:19:31Z

Sara hennessy:

{{Rinfo
|type= Lesson Idea
|attribution={{Dr Bethan Morgan}} {{Dr Sara Hennessy}} {{Dr Zsolt Lavicza}}
|title=A Zotero Self-Paced Study Guide
|topic=ICT
|image=Zoteroworkbookv4.1.jpeg ‎
|subject=Zotero
|resourcenumber=TE0138
|age=Higher
|content=Zotero is free software which you can use on any platform:
* to record references manually and from online searches;
* to build up a library as you search online, store references on your computer AND synchronise them online with a free Zotero account;
* to tag and search references, store abstracts and notes on your readings;
* to automatically compile references in your course assignments, thesis or papers for publication.
Zotero is designed to work in conjunction with Word and OpenOffice.

|strategy=
|tagline=Using Zotero will save you hours of typing out references! Just work through these 24 short tasks and you'll be good to go.
|Learning Objectives= Become a Zotero whizz by working through these 5 sections:
*installing the software/basic features
*searching, sorting, reports and creating bibliographies
*Zotero and Word - citations and reference lists
*backing up and importing/exporting
*further features and cool functions

|additional resources=
|useful information= http://www.zotero.org
|related resources=
|format=Online workbook

|resources= The workbook is available in two formats:
* printable PDF format - 56 pages {{file| Zotero_Self-Paced_Workbook_Final_v4.1.pdf}} (pdf/ebook to download)
* editable .doc format - 56 pages {{file|Zotero_Self-Paced_Workbook_Final_ v4.1.docx}}

There is also a practice paragraph to use for linking zotero to written work by entering citations of different kinds:
* {{File| ZOTERO PRACTICE TEXT FOR TASK 15.docx }}
* {{File | ZOTERO PRACTICE TEXT FOR TASK 15.odt }}

|final=yes
}}
[[Category:Teacher Education]] [[Category:ICT]]

[[File:zotero1.jpeg|border|340x340px| |Preview snapshot]] [[File:zotero2.jpeg|border|340x340px| |Preview snapshot ]]
[[File:zotero3.jpeg|border|340x340px| |Preview snapshot ]] [[File:zotero4.jpeg|border|340x340px| |Preview snapshot ]] [[File:zotero5.jpeg|border|340x340px| |Preview snapshot ]]

File:Zoteroworkbookv4.1.jpeg

2014-10-10T08:17:04Z

Sara hennessy: Sara hennessy uploaded a new version of "File:Zoteroworkbookv4.1.jpeg"

A Zotero Self-Paced Study Guide

2014-10-10T08:14:04Z

Sara hennessy:

{{Rinfo
|type= Lesson Idea
|attribution={{Dr Bethan Morgan}} {{Dr Sara Hennessy}} {{Dr Zsolt Lavicza}}
|title=A Zotero Self-Paced Study Guide
|topic=ICT
|image=Zotero_workbook_6_cover.jpg
|subject=Zotero
|resourcenumber=TE0138
|age=Higher
|content=Zotero is free software which you can use on any platform:
* to record references manually and from online searches;
* to build up a library as you search online, store references on your computer AND synchronise them online with a free Zotero account;
* to tag and search references, store abstracts and notes on your readings;
* to automatically compile references in your course assignments, thesis or papers for publication.
Zotero is designed to work in conjunction with Word and OpenOffice.

|strategy=
|tagline=Using Zotero will save you hours of typing out references! Just work through these 24 short tasks and you'll be good to go.
|Learning Objectives= Become a Zotero whizz by working through these 5 sections:
*installing the software/basic features
*searching, sorting, reports and creating bibliographies
*Zotero and Word - citations and reference lists
*backing up and importing/exporting
*further features and cool functions

|additional resources=
|useful information= http://www.zotero.org
|related resources=
|format=Online workbook

|resources= The workbook is available in two formats:
* printable PDF format - 56 pages {{file| Zotero_Self-Paced_Workbook_Final_v4.1.pdf}} (pdf/ebook to download)
* editable .doc format - 56 pages {{file|Zotero_Self-Paced_Workbook_Final_ v4.1.docx}}

There is also a practice paragraph to use for linking zotero to written work by entering citations of different kinds:
* {{File| ZOTERO PRACTICE TEXT FOR TASK 15.docx }}
* {{File | ZOTERO PRACTICE TEXT FOR TASK 15.odt }}

|final=yes
}}
[[Category:Teacher Education]] [[Category:ICT]]

[[File:zotero1.jpeg|border|340x340px| |Preview snapshot]] [[File:zotero2.jpeg|border|340x340px| |Preview snapshot ]]
[[File:zotero3.jpeg|border|340x340px| |Preview snapshot ]] [[File:zotero4.jpeg|border|340x340px| |Preview snapshot ]] [[File:zotero5.jpeg|border|340x340px| |Preview snapshot ]]

2014-05-23T09:15:27Z

Sara hennessy: /* Overview of the resource */

{{OER4S
|title=OER4Schools
|session=0}}__NOTOC__ __NUMBEREDHEADINGS__{{DISPLAYTITLE:The OER4Schools Professional Learning Resource}}
= Introduction=

[[Image:Eness IMG 0785 square.jpg|link=OER4Schools|266px]]
[[Image:CCElogo.jpg|link=CCE|150px|The Centre for Commonwealth Education|thumb]]
[[Image:CETlogo.png|link=http://www.commonwealtheducationtrust.org/|150px|The Commonwealth Education Trust|thumb]]
This is the professional learning resource of the OER4Schools project at the [[CCE|Centre for Commonwealth Education]]. For more information about this project, visit [http://www.educ.cam.ac.uk/centres/cce/initiatives/projects/oer4schools/ the OER4Schools project page]. To learn more about the aims and content of the resource, see [[OER4Schools/Overview|Overview]]. If you are planning to use this resource, then do contact us to see whether we can collaborate in some way.

The resource was collaboratively authored, primarily by [http://www.educ.cam.ac.uk/people/staff/hennessy/ Sara Hennessy], [http://www.bjohas.de Bjoern Hassler], Nitu Duggal, Wei Shin Leong, and Janet Blair of the University of Cambridge Faculty of Education, and Abel Makonga and Agness Tembo of Chalimbana Basic School (Chalimbana, Zambia). Other contributors to specific pages are acknowledged there. A number of aspects of the OER4Schools programme at Chalimbana Basic School have been supported by http://www.aptivate.org.

= A quick overview =

The video below gives an overview of what the resource has to offer and how it has been used and developed:

{{: Video/Africa Colloquium March 2014 }}

{{: Video/Introduction to Chalimbana Basic School.m4v }}

= Overview of the resource =

Through our research in Zambia we developed a practical professional development (PD) programme for school-based
teacher education, supporting teachers to embed interactive
methods of teaching and learning into classroom practice through
the exploitation of mobile technologies. It moves beyond technology and skills-focused initiatives
by highlighting the crucial role of teacher support in promoting innovation and experimentation
with teaching styles. Our overall goal is to focus on learning, meeting the challenge of moving
away from superficial repetition of facts towards deeper learning and understanding. We aim to
develop teachers’ capability to use tablets, netbooks, e-book readers, Open Educational
Resources (OER) and Open Source software effectively to support students’ learning in
mathematics and science through active participation, dialogue and collaborative enquiry. Our
participatory approach especially values the ‘voices’ of everybody involved. The research is
founded on principles of effective pedagogy in teacher education and classroom teaching in sub-
Saharan Africa. The professional learning programme is suitable for low-resourced primary
schools and colleges (combined with teaching practice), and freely available as an OER. The
resource consists of 25 two-hour sessions, organised in five units, covering interactive teaching
principles, group work, questioning, dialogue, Assessment for Learning, and enquiry-based
learning. Each session is clearly structured and includes unique, professionally filmed video
exemplars of interactive practices in Zambian and South African classrooms, accompanying texts
co-authored with teachers, and facilitator notes. It builds on an established, sustained teacher-led
process for sharing and trialling new practices and digital resources; peer observation; discussion
and reflection.

= Units in the professional learning resource =
[[OER4Schools/Overview|Overview of the resource]]:
{{: OER4Schools/Contents }}

See the [[OER4Schools/Detailed outline|detailed outline]] for more information.

The content is developed collaboratively between our facilitators Abel Makonga and Agness Tembo at Chalimbana Basic School and our team at the Centre for Commonwealth Education. We currently only have English language versions. However, you can use Google Translate to view
[http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=fr&u=http%3A%2F%2Forbit.educ.cam.ac.uk%2Fwiki%2FOER4Schools French], [http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=pt&u=http%3A%2F%2Forbit.educ.cam.ac.uk%2Fwiki%2FOER4Schools Portuguese], [http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=sw&u=http%3A%2F%2Forbit.educ.cam.ac.uk%2Fwiki%2FOER4Schools Swahili] and other language versions.

You can also join us on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/oer4schools/
{{OER4S_NextSession}}

OER4Schools/Starting the enquiry based learning process

2014-03-16T11:05:52Z

Sara hennessy: /* Posing real and productive questions - video watching */

{{OER4S
|title=Starting the enquiry-based learning process
|session=5.2
}}

''"You can't teach people everything they need to know. The best you can do is position them where they can find what they need to know when they need to know it." Seymour Papert, MIT''

{{OER4SchoolsWSInfo
|intention={{ OER4SchoolsWSInfo/intention intro}}
* posing real and productive questions to get the most from enquiry-based learning
* different ways to start off an enquiry-based learning lesson (e.g. brainstorm)
* preparing for an enquiry-based learning session through a series of lessons and a ‘project day’ or ‘field trip’ for maths or science classes
* 4 levels of enquiry involving different amounts of student independence:
** demonstrated enquiry
** structured enquiry
** problem-solving enquiry
** independent enquiry

|success criteria={{ OER4SchoolsWSInfo/criteria intro}}
* play a questioning game to practise using open and real questions
* continue to plan a a ‘project day’ or ‘field trip’ taking into account the four main parts of an enquiry based learning lesson:
** posing productive questions
** finding resources/doing an experiment
** interpreting information
** reporting findings
* do a PMI activity on the 4 levels of enquiry
* watch a sequence of videos focusing on the nature of the questions used by the teacher

|ict=In this session you will continue to apply the ICT skills you have learnt so far for EBL, and to think about how they help you implement EBL in the classroom.

}}

= {{name for review of follow up}} =

{{review of follow up}}

= Overview of Enquiry-Based Learning (EBL) =
{{activity|otr|: Reading about EBL.|10}} The essence of EBL is asking good investigative questions and that the students participate in the planning, researching and presentation of responding to these questions through projects and activities. It may be the case that the field trip activity you have thought about earlier can be a catalyst event for helping students to think about good enquiry questions!

Teachers can take many approaches to crafting an enquiry-based lesson, but Dr. Cornelia Brunner of the Center for Children and Technology ([http://cct.edc.org/ http://cct.edc.org/]) breaks it into four main parts: Posing Real Questions, Finding Relevant Resources, Interpreting Information and Reporting Findings.

[[Image:Unit5.2StartingtheEnquiryProcess.1.jpg]]

(http://www.youthlearn.org/learning/planning/lesson-planning/how-inquiry/how-inquiry)

{{activity|stgw|: discussion in small groups.|10}} Get into your previous group of 3-4 teachers again (as in last week’s ‘Planning an outdoor’ activity). Look through the questions in the diagram above in each of the four parts of the enquiry process. Think about how useful they are for the field trip you are planning to organise.

Discuss these questions:

# What questions will you select to use during the field trip? Did you use some of them already in your homework planning task?
# How will you structure the field trip such that students can go through the four main steps of enquiry learning?
# You will realise that for the students to complete the whole process of enquiry, '''it cannot easily happen within a single lesson! '''(Although you can do a mini-enquiry in one lesson.)''' '''How does this challenge your current thinking and practice of teaching?

{{Background| text=
The following further set of questions can be useful to help you plan the ‘project’ or ‘field-trip’ day:

* Will there be shared lesson objectives for all the students or would it differ considerably depending on what enquiry task is chosen?
* How will the enquiry tasks support enquiry, questioning, thinking and discussion?
* Will the tasks constitute a project or activity extending over and between lessons? If not, how can this be arranged?
* If so, will students do anything in between lessons? Will this involve research? Will parents/guardians or other family/community members be involved?

* Will the tasks be undertaken by
** individuals (perhaps cooperating by sharing equipment and helping each other with both technical issues and the task) - could enquire as a group but not strictly co-enquiry!
** groups (collaboratively planning and developing ideas, conducting the work, learning to compromise and giving feedback)
** or the whole class working together collaboratively?

* How will students record what they learned?
* If groups, will there be group presentations to the class?
* If groups, will different groups investigate different aspects of the topic and then share their knowledge with the class?
* What criteria will the class use to assess the outcomes of their enquiry? How will you ensure that any criticism is constructive and sensitive? How will the group be encouraged to take on board constructive feedback?
* How will students assess their own work?
}}

= Posing Real and Productive Questions =
In this section, we introduce the idea that it is important students know what a good enquiry question is and are willing to pose them. We suggest that it is very important for the teachers in the first stage of an enquiry-based lesson to help students to pose '''real questions and productive questions''' i.e. ''questions that are worth answering''. Ultimately, these will be questions that when answered will move the student's learning forward and deepen their understanding.

{{activity|wcb| on asking questions.|5}} Look at the following image and come up with as many enquiry type questions as you can relating to it. (Hint - think about the variables.) Record the questions on the blackboard/on a large piece of paper/on ether pad for use later:

[[image: Agnes 5.jpg|450px]]

{{activity|otr|: posing questions that are worth asking|5}}
'''Real questions''' are:
* questions that students are curious and very interested to answer or particularly interested to pose (rather than just pursuing what the teachers want them to answer).
* questions that generally do not lead to simple yes/no answers (or just one possible answer). Instead, they are open-ended in nature to stimulate discussion and invite further investigation.
* questions that must ultimately be answerable through enquiry. Questions like "What colour is God?" or "Can I become a national leader?" are valid questions, but they are partially belief-based and not normally subject to the scientific methods that are at the root of enquiry-based learning in the current context. Similarly, questions that are highly personal (that are based on opinion), typically do not lend themselves to an enquiry for science and maths topics. (It is possible in other subjects and require other techniques of enquiry).

Some possible real questions coming from students may be: Why is the colour of the sky blue?, Why is the colour of the sea different at different points of the day in different places?, How do I actually see colours around us? How many soccer balls can fit in our classroom? A sample design task they might engage with is “Design a new school on the same site as yours and for the same number of students as your school.”

'''Productive''' '''questions''' can be used by the teacher to help students think about a problem in a desired direction. These types of questions are open enough to give opportunities for students to consider new ways of thinking. They usually involve questions like:
* What differences and similarities do you see between these objects (or situations)?
* Why do you think these results are different from the other experiment?
* In your opinion, what would happen if...?
* How do you think you could go about...?
* How might you explain...?
* How can we be sure...?
* How many...?
* What is the temperature...?

The “In your opinion...?” and “What/why do you think...?” are very important here as they do not ask the student for the right answer, rather they ask what the student is thinking. In this way, teachers can progress and support the students’ enquiries. Teachers may use productive questions to help students delve more deeply into their chosen enquiry area with the hope that once students have become open to thinking this way they can begin to ask productive questions of their own.

If teachers decide to give students the option of searching for good enquiry questions, they must help them identify and refine their questions for exploration and help them realise when a question is not appropriate for a given enquiry project. The process of refining questions includes helping students identify what they know and don't know about the subject, identifying sub-questions that may be part of the larger question and, most importantly, formulating hypotheses about what the answer might be at an early stage.

'''Look back at the list of questions from the brainstorm on the candle with jar over it image and try to classify them using your knowledge of the following question types:'''
* real
* productive
* closed
* open
* surface
* deep

{{ednote|text=
You may like to help participants to recall their learning on questioning in [[OER4Schools/2.2_Questioning|Session 2.2]]. The following background text is from that session.
}}

{{background|text=

'''''Closed versus Open questions:'''''

* ''Closed questions are factual and focus on a correct response. Some examples are: Name the different parts of a plant? What are the five nutrients that must be present in a balanced diet? How many sides does a triangle have? What is the formula for calculating perimeter of a square? How many planets are there in the solar system? Name two sources of renewable energy.''
* ''Open questions have many answers. Some examples are: What could be the consequences of water contamination? How does a balanced diet help us? How could we use flowers of plants? Suggest ways to prevent spread of malaria in your community?''

'''''Surface versus Deep questions:'''''

* ''Surface questions elicit one idea or some ideas. For example, What is the difference between organic and inorganic fertilizers? What is the use of carbohydrates in a balanced diet? Which part of the sugar cane plant is used for eating? Which features of a cactus plant are useful for its survival in desert regions?''
* ''Deep questions elicit relations between ideas and extended ideas. For example, What would happen if only inorganic fertilizers are used for growing plants? What connections do you see between climate of a region and its vegetation? Why is the water in the nearby pond not safe for drinking?''

''‘What if’ and ‘Why’... questions can help you delve deeper into pupils’ thinking.''

'''It is likely that real and productive questions need to be “open” or “deep” as well!'''
}}

= A questioning game =

{{activity|Game| about real and productive questions.|10}} This game is about learning to ask open and real questions. The idea is that you go round your group, and practice questioning.

To start with, decide on a topic to pose questions about to your colleagues. One person starts with an open-ended question that can be either real or productive. The next person could either comment on the previous question (e.g. how can we answer that question? Is it possible to find answers to that question?) or respond with a related open-ended question. This goes on as long as there is no repeating of a previous question. For example, the topic might be on light:

* Teacher A: Why is it important to have light?
* Teacher B : What would happen if there is no light?
* Teacher C: Where/when do you think light is used in particular?
* Teacher D: Who or what do you think particularly need light?
* Teacher E: How does light help or not help people?
* Teacher A: How does light come about?
* Teacher B: What kind of process is involved in seeing light?
* Teacher C: What is the speed of light?
* Teacher D: I think the previous question does not lead to a productive discussion since it only has one correct answer, so how about changing it to: ‘How do we find out about the properties of light such as the speed?’

So now, choose topic, and start asking questions! After you have gone round the group once or twice (depending on the size of the group) you might want to do another round with another topic.

{{activity|otr| on bigger and smaller questions.|10}} You will realise that some of the questions are ‘bigger’ than the rest in terms of the possibilities that the question can be ‘broken down’ into ‘smaller’ ones. It is probably easier to respond to the ‘smaller’ sub-questions than the ‘bigger ones’. Therefore, responding to the smaller questions will give clues to answering the bigger questions. Bigger questions might frame a whole enquiry whereas smaller, sub-questions might collectively structure that enquiry.

Examples:
*Why is it important to have light? (‘bigger’ question)
*What would happen if there is no light? (‘smaller’ question)
*Where/when do you think light is used? (‘smaller’ question)
*Who or what do you think particularly need light? (‘smaller’ question)

It will be useful for the questions to be written out on the board so that everyone can see how the questions evolve (and to see the ‘size’ of each question) as each person poses a question.

{{ednote|text= Highlight to the teachers that such a process of posing, refining and sizing of questions is by itself a useful enquiry activity for students. We are inviting them to pose questions and think about what kind of investigation needs to take place to respond to the questions. It may be the case that some questions seem rather ‘straightforward’ so posing further probing questions like ‘how do you know’ or ‘why do you think so’ will be helpful to further deepen the thinking process of the students.}}

= Posing real and productive questions - video watching =

{{activity|otr| on posing real and productive questions|10}} Watch the following clip on Abel trying to get students to understand the relationship of area and perimeter. Pay attention to the questions he posed:
* What other questions could be asked to elicit the students' ideas on the concept of area?
* How might a 'think pair share' approach to the class discussion have affected students' learning?
* Consider the question, ‘How do/can we measure area?’. How might this question be developed into a useful enquiry activity for students?

{{: Video/Abel Clip 2.m4v }}

Continue to watch in the next clip, how Abel set up the class for students to explore the relationship of area and perimeter. What kind of probing questions did he use to help students in their learning?

{{:video/Abel Clip 4.m4v}}

The next clip shows how the students made use of Geogebra in their enquiry process. How do you think such an approach of learning would be helpful for the students? Do you think it helped them to become more engaged and confident? Why do you think so?

{{: video/Geogebra-group-interaction.m4v}}

What can you say about how confident the students seem in using this new technology?

= Four Levels of Enquiry =

{{activity|wcd| on the four levels of enquiry|5}} Read the following examples of teachers trying to start an enquiry-based learning lesson for a maths topic on angles of polygons. According to Douglas Llewellyn, the different approaches of enquiry-based teaching require teachers and students to play different roles in the enquiry-based learning process.

'''Teacher A: Demonstrated Enquiry'''

Teacher introduced new concepts of properties of polygons by showing the pupils different pictures of polygons and asking them to describe what they see (see table below). She explained or demonstrated the sum of angles for each polygon. Teacher asked students to explain the pattern across the shapes.

''Example of Question: What is the sum of the interior angles of a regular polygon with seven sides based on what I have shown you so far?''

Students attempted to answer questions which teacher assessed according to whether responses were correct or incorrect. Students took down notes for the topic. The lesson on this topic ended.

[[Image:Unit5.2StartingtheEnquiryProcess.2.jpg|600px]]

'''Teacher B: Structured Enquiry'''

Teacher B divided the class into groups and provided pictures of regular polygons for each group to investigate the property of their angles. The teacher provided step-by-step instruction and questions about how the students should be measuring and recording the angles of each polygon onto a table (see below):

{| style="border-spacing:0;"
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| '''Number of sides?'''
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| '''Sum of interior angles?'''
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| '''Shape? '''
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| '''What do you realise about the pattern?'''

|-
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|

|-
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|

|-
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|

|-
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|

|-
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|

|-
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|

|}

''Example of Question: Can you record the number of sides and sum of interior angles of each of the polygon? What kind of pattern can you see?''

Teacher assigned roles to each pupil and asked the spokesperson to report on the group’s findings at the end of their investigation – which can take up to one or two days.

'''Teacher C: Problem-Solving Enquiry '''

Teacher posed the following problem for the pupils to investigate in groups. She wanted the pupils to think of ways to find out the interior angles of this regular polygon (see picture below) and to search the internet to find out where in the world such a polygon can exist physically as a building structure or object.

''Example of Question: You have come across this rather interesting regular polygon and are interested to find out what would be the total interior angles of it. How can you go about finding this out and be sure that the answer is correct? Where do you think you can see this polygon in the real world?''

[[Image:Unit5.2StartingtheEnquiryProcess.3.jpg|300px]]

Teacher directed students to some resources that they could search online. Teacher asked students to present their findings at the end of their investigation – which may span across two or three days.

'''Teacher D: Independent Inquiry'''

Teacher asked each student to think of ways to find the general formula of the interior angle (S) of a regular n-sided polygon : ''S'' = (''n'' −2) × 180°/ ''n''

''Example of Question:'' ''You have come across several regular polygons. Can you work individually to find out a general formula to find the total interior angles of it up to 100 sides?''

Students worked on their own to derive a general formula. Teacher asked students to present their findings at the end of their investigation – which may span across two or three days.

= PMI activity on the Four Level of Enquiry =

{{Activity|stgw|: PMI activity on the four levels of enquiry.|15}} Before having a brief discussion on the differences of the levels of enquiry, it may be helpful to do a PMI (positives, minuses, interesting) activity where you work in groups of two or three and consider the PMIs of each approach. Remember, you can also use a PMI activity to consider the possible pros and cons of a random statement as in the ‘Plants can now walk in our World!’ statement in 5.1.

Do a PMI activity and come up with something '''P'''ositive about and a '''M'''inus point about as well as something '''I'''nteresting about, in this case, the enquiry levels/approaches used by Teachers A, B, C and D and/or consider the following questions for discussion:

# What do you think are the main differences between the levels of enquiry?
# Where do you see yourself (Teacher A-D?) in terms of conducting an enquiry-based learning activity in your class if you were to teach them today? Why do you say that?
# Do you think there is a possibility that you will consider using a different approach to start an enquiry-based lesson in your class if you are given some time to plan? What and how will you go about trying?

{{ednote|text=
As the facilitator, look closely at what is being suggested as P, M, and Is. Critically discuss whether something suggested is really a minus, or whether it could be a Positive, or perhaps just interesting. You might say: "You have put down that students will be challenged as a minus. Is challenging your students a minus? How do we challenge students appropriately?" Also see where suggestions are similar across the four approaches. You might say: "You suggested that this was a Positive for all four teachers - where do you think this is the biggest Positive?"

Here is one way of organising the PMI activity so that all groups consider all 4 levels of enquiry - as represented by Teachers A to D:

* Place a piece of A4 paper with the title: ‘'''Teacher A: Demonstrated Enquiry'''’ on a desk (desk A) in one corner of the room.
* Then place a second piece of paper with the title: ‘'''Teacher B: Structured Enquiry'''‘ on a desk (desk B) in another corner of the room.
* A third piece of paper with the title: ‘'''Teacher C: Problem-Solving Enquiry''' ‘ should be placed on another desk (desk C) in a different corner.
* In the final corner should be placed a piece of of paper with the title: ‘'''Teacher D: Independent Inquiry'''‘ on it (desk D).
* Each group starts on a different desk. They will read through the enquiry approach for that Teacher, have a short discussion about the PMI’s of the Teacher/enquiry approach and write them down before moving on to the next desk in the A,B,C,D sequence (so A moves to B, B moves to C etc.).

After the first move, there will already be something positive ('''P'''), something negative ('''M''') and an interesting point ('''I''') written on the paper now in front of each group. If there are only three groups, the group starting at desk C and moving on to desk D will be greeted with another blank piece of paper Each group will read through the enquiry approach for that Teacher but they will have to think more deeply about ''their'' PMIs, moving beyond the obvious (so, they should not repeat what has been written but should extend their thinking, perhaps using those ideas). The third group to arrive at that desk will hopefully be able to use the other groups ideas to delve even deeper. By perpetuating this cycle all groups will get to discuss each of the Teachers with an increasing level of challenge to their thinking.

At the end of the activity, the four pieces of paper could be displayed so that everyone can see what has been written. Another discussion may arise out of this process, but that’s enquiry for you!

Another way to do this activity is to move the pieces of A4 paper from group to group. This works well if there are the same number of groups as pieces of paper -
Groups each choose from Teachers A, B, C or D, feedback one PMI related to their choice, and then pass their chosen teacher (piece of paper) on for the next group to consider. The next group must come up with a different PMI for that same Teacher. By the end of the activity each of A, B, C and D should have 4 PMI comments. The feedback comments could be written on the board by the facilitator for ongoing discussion or written on the piece of A4 paper and passed on.}}

There is no single correct way to teach or to conduct an enquiry. Effective teachers are resourceful and have a whole repertoire of teaching strategies which they draw on as appropriate, according to the topic, task, level of student confidence and knowledge. The diagram below shows how levels of teacher support and student independence might vary.

[[Image:Unit5.2StartingtheEnquiryProcess.4.jpg]]

{{ednote|text= The differences between the approaches of the four teachers can be understood based on '''differing levels of teacher support or scaffolding (maximum for teacher A) '''for the students and '''students’ independence in their learning (maximum for teacher D)'''. While we hope that we can help our students to take up more responsibility and ownership through enquiry-based learning, we trust that the teachers can make appropriate decisions on which level of support or scaffolding is best suited for their students at any point. One thing that can be common across the approaches is that a teacher should always strive to be a co-learner with the students and not assume that he/she already has all the answers. Be prepared for surprises and that the students’ questions and findings might be very illuminating indeed!}}

= Making use of Enquiry Ideas =

[[Image:Patricia 1.jpg|300px]] [[Image:Judith 3.jpg|300px]] [[Image:Agnes 3.jpg|300px]]

{{activity|stgw| on making use of enquiry ideas|10}} Below are five enquiry ideas (A-E) that could be turned into an enquiry in your class. Please note that these are just ''enquiry ideas'' which means that you need to go through substantial thinking and planning for the ideas to be introduced in a lesson to engage students in their own enquiry. It may be that you do not find some of the ideas useful at all, in which case you are welcome to come up with your own enquiry ideas to discuss as a group.

Divide yourself into groups of three or four teachers. You should read through all the enquiry ideas and eventually pick one or two ideas for the group activity that you will be working on together in this session and in the next two weeks. As you are reading through these ideas, think about the following:

#Are the ideas interesting and engaging for my students?
#Are the ideas relevant to the curriculum? What subject will it be most relevant to introduce them to?
#What can be an appropriate lesson objective(s) if you do make use of the enquiry ideas?
#What kind of resources will you need and are they easily accessible to you and your students?
#How will you introduce the ideas in the first lesson (recall what are some of the ways to present your questions that you have learnt in the previous session) and how many lessons do you think you will need to complete the enquiry process?

'''Idea A: Investigating paper airplane design'''

[[image: airplane.png|250px]]

There are many different designs of paper aeroplanes. Some of them have a very plain design but can fly a longer distance whereas others can have rather interesting designs but do not fly as well. What are the factors that affect how far a paper airplane can fly?

You may like to refer to the following web references for more information:

* Examples of airplane designs imitating flying and gliding animals:
** http://srel.uga.edu/kidsdoscience/sci-method-planes/airplane-designs.pdf
* Examples of airplanes with instructions and videos on how to fold them:
** http://www.funpaperairplanes.com/Plane%20Downloads.html
** http://www.origami-resource-center.com/paper-airplane-instructions.html
* Examples of the actual lessons on investigating the flights of paper airplanes using scientific method as an extended project:
** http://camillasenior.homestead.com/paper_airplanes.pdf
** http://srel.uga.edu/kidsdoscience/kidsdoscience-airplanes.htm

''Tip: Students could use what they have learned from their enquiry to design their own enhanced airplane.''

'''Idea B: Investigating the process of hand washing'''

[[image: left arm.png|200px]]
[[image: bowl of water.png|200px]] [[image: soap.png|80px]]

We have been told that washing of our hands is an important part of maintaining hygiene and preventing the spread of germs and viruses. How do you know that you have spent adequate time washing your hands each time?

* Example of lesson plan on investigating hand washing
** http://www.bam.gov/teachers/activities/epi_4_hand_wash.pdf
* Example of youtube video on emphasising importance of washing hands
** http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mY8Kx2iW2ls
** http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmMGwO4N0Vc
* Video of a Zambian teacher doing this enquiry with her students
{{: Video/Judith.m4v }}

'''Idea C: Investigating the vegetables and trees within our community'''

What are some of the vegetables and trees that are grown in our community? Why are they being grown here? (e.g. consider tomatoes, rape, onion, cabbage, nimu tree, holy fiso, malaina, mango)

Some possible areas of investigation: location of vegetable/trees (e.g. type of soil and availability of water source like a stream), medicinal properties (e.g. is it used as a traditional medicine?), nutritional properties, economic consideration (e.g. source of fuel/income), ecological and environmental concerns, personal and spiritual values. You might like to select one or two areas of investigation for a start.

* Example of youtube video on tree planting in Zambia
** http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5gCho1S5oc
** http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iL5e40UL20I
** http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGdN8F_igVo
* Example of website on ‘treevolution’ in Zambia
** http://www.greenpop.org/projects/trees-for-zambia/
* Video of a Zambian teacher doing an enquiry on water retention in different soil types with her students
{{: Video/Priscillah_Water_Soil_A04.m4v }}

'''Idea D: Planning for a trip to the game reserves and Victoria Falls'''

[[image: Victoria_Falls.png|600px]]

Imagine you have two overseas visitors who have just arrived in Lusaka and would like to visit a game reserve near Lusaka, plus the Victoria Falls and one other interesting site by car. The two visitors only have one day to visit these three places by car. Can you inform the visitors about the distance to these places from Lusaka city centre? Can you also suggest an itinerary that will take into consideration the shortest distance of travel to and between the three places, starting and ending at Lusaka city centre? Please state the distance of travelling to each place and the approximate time required to travel.

Example of website on visiting Zambia:
* http://www.zambiatourism.com/welcome.htm

Make sure that you do consider the practical arrangements for this trip! In the itinerary: decide on the length of your imaginary journey and work out the travelling time, but also think about the practical arrangements: how much luggage (water, food, equipment) will you need to take and how will you be able to carry this? Are there any elderly people or young children in your party, who might need special provision, such as extra food, or more frequent stops?

'''Idea E: Investigating my body and how it works'''

Children are naturally curious about how their bodies work so this is a rich area to draw on for enquiry ideas. A simple and straight forward enquiry into pulse rate and how it varies with exercise requires minimal equipment, just a stopwatch (or a clock with a second hand) and some accurate counting. Students can come up with different types of exercise such as running on the spot/sprinting/going up and down stairs and see how these affect their pulse rate. They could also look at whether or not their pulse rate is different when they are lying down.

Here are some short videos of Zambian teachers working on an enquiry topic centred around how our bodies work:

* lung capacity and how it varies with height/sex/pulse rate/chest circumference
{{: Video/Aggie lung capacity.m4v }}
* BMI and being healthy
{{: Video/Judith_body_A04.m4v }}

= Discussion of Enquiry Ideas =
{{ednote|text=This activity is optional if small groups need more time to discuss.}}

{{activity|wcd| on enquiry ideas|10}} Nominate one or two representatives from each group to share the enquiry ideas they have discussed in the previous activity. In particular, highlight the reasons for selecting the enquiry ideas that the group has chosen and share ideas on how the teacher should present the enquiry ideas and questions in the first lesson. Share any possible challenges that the teacher may face. The rest of the participants should provide constructive questions or comments to help the group to sharpen their ideas further.

= ICT practice: Making use of ICT in enquiry-based learning =
{{:OER4Schools/ICT/include}}

= {{Name for connecting with overarching goals}} =

{{Activity for connecting with overarching goals}}

= Follow-up activities =

{{activity|Agreeing follow up activities|5}}

Part A: Small group planning task.

Work with the same small group of colleagues to develop the resources (e.g. worksheets and materials) for one or two enquiry ideas that you have discussed just now that will be necessary to carry on the enquiring process by your students. Bring these resources next week (including the materials like the paper for the paper aeroplane) so that you can start the data collection and interpreting process as a group. Remember that you have time to work on at most two enquiry ideas so please choose the idea(s) that you really want to work on! If you think that you have OTHER ideas that you prefer to work on, that is fine but do ensure that you have thought through the questions we have suggested to you earlier. You may find this document useful as it contains some further enquiry ideas that have been developed by students alongside examples of their work: [[file:Developing Higher Order Scientific Enquiry Skills.pdf]]

Part B: Developing Internet search skills

Internet search skills are very important as the internet is typically the first stop to obtaining information on specific news and topics of interest. You may like to direct your students to specific web sites in the early stage of an EBL lesson.

We suggest that you spend some time viewing the following YouTube clips on internet search skills. This can also be done as a group session using a projector, if preferred.

{{: video/How to scan and skim sources on the Internet.mp4 }}

{{: video/Learn how to search the Internet effectively.mp4 }}

{{: video/Learn how to use Google expert search.mp4 }}

{{: video/How to use Google Earth in the classroom.mp4 }}

After you have looked at the video clips above, please try to search for a video clip on the internet on '''Enquiry-based learning & OER use at the Aisha Project School, Zambia.''' Can you summarise what the teacher in the clip has said about enquiry-based learning through the use of ICT?

{{ednote|text=
When you discuss the homework with the participants, let them know that they can ask you for help in navigating to this site if they have difficulty finding the clip. The clip can be found at
http://vimeo.com/12669204 (and is available offline as Enquiry-based learning at Aisha Project School.mp4).

The clip shows Andreia Santos (http://aisantos.wordpress.com) interviewing Brighton Lubasi about the use of open educational resources at the Aisha Project School in Lusaka, Zambia. Brighton explained how they drew on an enquiry-based pedagogy for learning with OER. The interview was carried out during Andreia's visit to Zambia to attend and present at the E-learning Africa Conference in May 2010.
}}

Part C: Notes for planning 'project or field day'

We hope today's session will help you to develop your ideas for an enquiry-based ‘project day’ or ‘field trip’. Be prepared to share any updates of your ideas in the next session (5.3). In the previous session (5.1) , we introduced these questions to help you plan for your own EBL 'field trip' or 'project day' so be sure to refer to them:

* What is a suitable topic?
* What is a suitable lesson objective/success criteria?
* Where would be a suitable venue for the event?
* What kind of questions could you pose during the enquiry? Is there a main enquiry question and sub-questions? Can you phrase some sample questions that ask learners what they know/think about some aspects of your chosen topic? Are you giving opportunity for the students to pose their own questions? What might they like to know/find out?
* What specific resources (e.g. worksheets, objects, internet links) have you come up with for the event?
* How can the students make use of ICT to facilitate their enquiry process?
* Consider also what are some administrative requirements you need to attend to organise such an event (e.g. Do you need permission from an authority/parents? Do you need to invite a specialist speaker to talk about the topic?

The table below summarises the different kind of questions that we have discussed so far.

{| style="border-spacing:0;"
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| '''‘Open-ended’ Questions'''
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| '''‘Deep’ Questions'''
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| '''‘Real’ Questions'''
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| '''‘Productive’ Questions'''

|-
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| Questions have many answers.

''Examples:''

''What could be the consequences of water contamination? How does a balanced diet help us? How could we use flowers of plants? Suggest ways to prevent spread of malaria in your community?''
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| Questions elicit relations between ideas and extended ideas.

''Examples:''

''What would happen if only inorganic fertilizers are used for growing plants? What connections do you see between climate of a region and its vegetation? Why is the water in the nearby pond not safe for drinking?''
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| Questions that students are curious and very interested to answer or particularly interested to pose (rather than just pursuing what the teachers want them to answer).

''Examples should come from the students themselves!''
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| Questions help students to delve more deeply into an enquiry area. May be posed by the teacher initially to support and progress students’ enquiries.

''Examples:''

''Probing questions starting with “in your opinion”, “what would happen”, why do you think”, “how can you be sure” etc''

|}

{{setting of follow up}}

= References =

* Pollard, A., Anderson, J.,Maddock, M.,Swaffield, S., Warin, J., Warwick, P., 2002. ''Reflective teaching: Effective and evidence‐informed professional practice'', London: Continuum.
* Llewellyn, D. 2011. ''Differentiated Science Inquiry'', Thousand Oaks CA: Corwin.

= Acknowledgements =

We thank YouthLearn Initiative at Education Development Center (http://www.youthlearn.org/learning/planning/lesson-planning/how-inquiry/how-inquiry inquiry) and Futurelab (http://www.enquiringminds.org.uk/terms_of_use/) for kindly allowing us to use the material from their website.

{{activity summary}}

{{OER4S_NextSession}}

OER4Schools/Starting the enquiry based learning process

2014-03-16T11:04:59Z

Sara hennessy: /* Posing real and productive questions - video watching */

OER4Schools/Starting the enquiry based learning process

2014-03-16T11:03:07Z

Sara hennessy: /* Posing real and productive questions - video watching */

{{OER4S
|title=Starting the enquiry-based learning process
|session=5.2
}}

''"You can't teach people everything they need to know. The best you can do is position them where they can find what they need to know when they need to know it." Seymour Papert, MIT''

{{OER4SchoolsWSInfo
|intention={{ OER4SchoolsWSInfo/intention intro}}
* posing real and productive questions to get the most from enquiry-based learning
* different ways to start off an enquiry-based learning lesson (e.g. brainstorm)
* preparing for an enquiry-based learning session through a series of lessons and a ‘project day’ or ‘field trip’ for maths or science classes
* 4 levels of enquiry involving different amounts of student independence:
** demonstrated enquiry
** structured enquiry
** problem-solving enquiry
** independent enquiry

|success criteria={{ OER4SchoolsWSInfo/criteria intro}}
* play a questioning game to practise using open and real questions
* continue to plan a a ‘project day’ or ‘field trip’ taking into account the four main parts of an enquiry based learning lesson:
** posing productive questions
** finding resources/doing an experiment
** interpreting information
** reporting findings
* do a PMI activity on the 4 levels of enquiry
* watch a sequence of videos focusing on the nature of the questions used by the teacher

|ict=In this session you will continue to apply the ICT skills you have learnt so far for EBL, and to think about how they help you implement EBL in the classroom.

}}

= {{name for review of follow up}} =

{{review of follow up}}

= Overview of Enquiry-Based Learning (EBL) =
{{activity|otr|: Reading about EBL.|10}} The essence of EBL is asking good investigative questions and that the students participate in the planning, researching and presentation of responding to these questions through projects and activities. It may be the case that the field trip activity you have thought about earlier can be a catalyst event for helping students to think about good enquiry questions!

Teachers can take many approaches to crafting an enquiry-based lesson, but Dr. Cornelia Brunner of the Center for Children and Technology ([http://cct.edc.org/ http://cct.edc.org/]) breaks it into four main parts: Posing Real Questions, Finding Relevant Resources, Interpreting Information and Reporting Findings.

[[Image:Unit5.2StartingtheEnquiryProcess.1.jpg]]

(http://www.youthlearn.org/learning/planning/lesson-planning/how-inquiry/how-inquiry)

{{activity|stgw|: discussion in small groups.|10}} Get into your previous group of 3-4 teachers again (as in last week’s ‘Planning an outdoor’ activity). Look through the questions in the diagram above in each of the four parts of the enquiry process. Think about how useful they are for the field trip you are planning to organise.

Discuss these questions:

# What questions will you select to use during the field trip? Did you use some of them already in your homework planning task?
# How will you structure the field trip such that students can go through the four main steps of enquiry learning?
# You will realise that for the students to complete the whole process of enquiry, '''it cannot easily happen within a single lesson! '''(Although you can do a mini-enquiry in one lesson.)''' '''How does this challenge your current thinking and practice of teaching?

{{Background| text=
The following further set of questions can be useful to help you plan the ‘project’ or ‘field-trip’ day:

* Will there be shared lesson objectives for all the students or would it differ considerably depending on what enquiry task is chosen?
* How will the enquiry tasks support enquiry, questioning, thinking and discussion?
* Will the tasks constitute a project or activity extending over and between lessons? If not, how can this be arranged?
* If so, will students do anything in between lessons? Will this involve research? Will parents/guardians or other family/community members be involved?

* Will the tasks be undertaken by
** individuals (perhaps cooperating by sharing equipment and helping each other with both technical issues and the task) - could enquire as a group but not strictly co-enquiry!
** groups (collaboratively planning and developing ideas, conducting the work, learning to compromise and giving feedback)
** or the whole class working together collaboratively?

* How will students record what they learned?
* If groups, will there be group presentations to the class?
* If groups, will different groups investigate different aspects of the topic and then share their knowledge with the class?
* What criteria will the class use to assess the outcomes of their enquiry? How will you ensure that any criticism is constructive and sensitive? How will the group be encouraged to take on board constructive feedback?
* How will students assess their own work?
}}

= Posing Real and Productive Questions =
In this section, we introduce the idea that it is important students know what a good enquiry question is and are willing to pose them. We suggest that it is very important for the teachers in the first stage of an enquiry-based lesson to help students to pose '''real questions and productive questions''' i.e. ''questions that are worth answering''. Ultimately, these will be questions that when answered will move the student's learning forward and deepen their understanding.

{{activity|wcb| on asking questions.|5}} Look at the following image and come up with as many enquiry type questions as you can relating to it. (Hint - think about the variables.) Record the questions on the blackboard/on a large piece of paper/on ether pad for use later:

[[image: Agnes 5.jpg|450px]]

{{activity|otr|: posing questions that are worth asking|5}}
'''Real questions''' are:
* questions that students are curious and very interested to answer or particularly interested to pose (rather than just pursuing what the teachers want them to answer).
* questions that generally do not lead to simple yes/no answers (or just one possible answer). Instead, they are open-ended in nature to stimulate discussion and invite further investigation.
* questions that must ultimately be answerable through enquiry. Questions like "What colour is God?" or "Can I become a national leader?" are valid questions, but they are partially belief-based and not normally subject to the scientific methods that are at the root of enquiry-based learning in the current context. Similarly, questions that are highly personal (that are based on opinion), typically do not lend themselves to an enquiry for science and maths topics. (It is possible in other subjects and require other techniques of enquiry).

Some possible real questions coming from students may be: Why is the colour of the sky blue?, Why is the colour of the sea different at different points of the day in different places?, How do I actually see colours around us? How many soccer balls can fit in our classroom? A sample design task they might engage with is “Design a new school on the same site as yours and for the same number of students as your school.”

'''Productive''' '''questions''' can be used by the teacher to help students think about a problem in a desired direction. These types of questions are open enough to give opportunities for students to consider new ways of thinking. They usually involve questions like:
* What differences and similarities do you see between these objects (or situations)?
* Why do you think these results are different from the other experiment?
* In your opinion, what would happen if...?
* How do you think you could go about...?
* How might you explain...?
* How can we be sure...?
* How many...?
* What is the temperature...?

The “In your opinion...?” and “What/why do you think...?” are very important here as they do not ask the student for the right answer, rather they ask what the student is thinking. In this way, teachers can progress and support the students’ enquiries. Teachers may use productive questions to help students delve more deeply into their chosen enquiry area with the hope that once students have become open to thinking this way they can begin to ask productive questions of their own.

If teachers decide to give students the option of searching for good enquiry questions, they must help them identify and refine their questions for exploration and help them realise when a question is not appropriate for a given enquiry project. The process of refining questions includes helping students identify what they know and don't know about the subject, identifying sub-questions that may be part of the larger question and, most importantly, formulating hypotheses about what the answer might be at an early stage.

'''Look back at the list of questions from the brainstorm on the candle with jar over it image and try to classify them using your knowledge of the following question types:'''
* real
* productive
* closed
* open
* surface
* deep

{{ednote|text=
You may like to help participants to recall their learning on questioning in [[OER4Schools/2.2_Questioning|Session 2.2]]. The following background text is from that session.
}}

{{background|text=

'''''Closed versus Open questions:'''''

* ''Closed questions are factual and focus on a correct response. Some examples are: Name the different parts of a plant? What are the five nutrients that must be present in a balanced diet? How many sides does a triangle have? What is the formula for calculating perimeter of a square? How many planets are there in the solar system? Name two sources of renewable energy.''
* ''Open questions have many answers. Some examples are: What could be the consequences of water contamination? How does a balanced diet help us? How could we use flowers of plants? Suggest ways to prevent spread of malaria in your community?''

'''''Surface versus Deep questions:'''''

* ''Surface questions elicit one idea or some ideas. For example, What is the difference between organic and inorganic fertilizers? What is the use of carbohydrates in a balanced diet? Which part of the sugar cane plant is used for eating? Which features of a cactus plant are useful for its survival in desert regions?''
* ''Deep questions elicit relations between ideas and extended ideas. For example, What would happen if only inorganic fertilizers are used for growing plants? What connections do you see between climate of a region and its vegetation? Why is the water in the nearby pond not safe for drinking?''

''‘What if’ and ‘Why’... questions can help you delve deeper into pupils’ thinking.''

'''It is likely that real and productive questions need to be “open” or “deep” as well!'''
}}

= A questioning game =

{{activity|Game| about real and productive questions.|10}} This game is about learning to ask open and real questions. The idea is that you go round your group, and practice questioning.

To start with, decide on a topic to pose questions about to your colleagues. One person starts with an open-ended question that can be either real or productive. The next person could either comment on the previous question (e.g. how can we answer that question? Is it possible to find answers to that question?) or respond with a related open-ended question. This goes on as long as there is no repeating of a previous question. For example, the topic might be on light:

* Teacher A: Why is it important to have light?
* Teacher B : What would happen if there is no light?
* Teacher C: Where/when do you think light is used in particular?
* Teacher D: Who or what do you think particularly need light?
* Teacher E: How does light help or not help people?
* Teacher A: How does light come about?
* Teacher B: What kind of process is involved in seeing light?
* Teacher C: What is the speed of light?
* Teacher D: I think the previous question does not lead to a productive discussion since it only has one correct answer, so how about changing it to: ‘How do we find out about the properties of light such as the speed?’

So now, choose topic, and start asking questions! After you have gone round the group once or twice (depending on the size of the group) you might want to do another round with another topic.

{{activity|otr| on bigger and smaller questions.|10}} You will realise that some of the questions are ‘bigger’ than the rest in terms of the possibilities that the question can be ‘broken down’ into ‘smaller’ ones. It is probably easier to respond to the ‘smaller’ sub-questions than the ‘bigger ones’. Therefore, responding to the smaller questions will give clues to answering the bigger questions. Bigger questions might frame a whole enquiry whereas smaller, sub-questions might collectively structure that enquiry.

Examples:
*Why is it important to have light? (‘bigger’ question)
*What would happen if there is no light? (‘smaller’ question)
*Where/when do you think light is used? (‘smaller’ question)
*Who or what do you think particularly need light? (‘smaller’ question)

It will be useful for the questions to be written out on the board so that everyone can see how the questions evolve (and to see the ‘size’ of each question) as each person poses a question.

{{ednote|text= Highlight to the teachers that such a process of posing, refining and sizing of questions is by itself a useful enquiry activity for students. We are inviting them to pose questions and think about what kind of investigation needs to take place to respond to the questions. It may be the case that some questions seem rather ‘straightforward’ so posing further probing questions like ‘how do you know’ or ‘why do you think so’ will be helpful to further deepen the thinking process of the students.}}

= Posing real and productive questions - video watching =

{{activity|otr| on posing real and productive questions|10}} Watch the following clip on Abel trying to get students to understand the relationship of area and perimeter. Pay attention to the questions he posed:
What other questions could be asked to elicit the students' ideas on the concept of area?
How might a 'think pair share' approach to the class discussion have affected students' learning?
Consider the question, ‘How do/can we measure area?’. How might this question be developed into a useful enquiry activity for students?

{{: Video/Abel Clip 2.m4v }}

Continue to watch in the next clip, how Abel set up the class for students to explore the relationship of area and perimeter. What kind of probing questions did he use to help students in their learning?

{{:video/Abel Clip 4.m4v}}

The next clip shows how the students made use of Geogebra in their enquiry process. How do you think such an approach of learning would be helpful for the students? Do you think it helped them to become more engaged and confident? Why do you think so?

{{: video/Geogebra-group-interaction.m4v}}

What can you say about how confident the students seem in using this new technology?

= Four Levels of Enquiry =

{{activity|wcd| on the four levels of enquiry|5}} Read the following examples of teachers trying to start an enquiry-based learning lesson for a maths topic on angles of polygons. According to Douglas Llewellyn, the different approaches of enquiry-based teaching require teachers and students to play different roles in the enquiry-based learning process.

'''Teacher A: Demonstrated Enquiry'''

Teacher introduced new concepts of properties of polygons by showing the pupils different pictures of polygons and asking them to describe what they see (see table below). She explained or demonstrated the sum of angles for each polygon. Teacher asked students to explain the pattern across the shapes.

''Example of Question: What is the sum of the interior angles of a regular polygon with seven sides based on what I have shown you so far?''

Students attempted to answer questions which teacher assessed according to whether responses were correct or incorrect. Students took down notes for the topic. The lesson on this topic ended.

[[Image:Unit5.2StartingtheEnquiryProcess.2.jpg|600px]]

'''Teacher B: Structured Enquiry'''

Teacher B divided the class into groups and provided pictures of regular polygons for each group to investigate the property of their angles. The teacher provided step-by-step instruction and questions about how the students should be measuring and recording the angles of each polygon onto a table (see below):

{| style="border-spacing:0;"
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| '''Number of sides?'''
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| '''Sum of interior angles?'''
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| '''Shape? '''
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| '''What do you realise about the pattern?'''

|-
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|

|-
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|

|-
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|

|-
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|

|-
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|

|-
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|

|}

''Example of Question: Can you record the number of sides and sum of interior angles of each of the polygon? What kind of pattern can you see?''

Teacher assigned roles to each pupil and asked the spokesperson to report on the group’s findings at the end of their investigation – which can take up to one or two days.

'''Teacher C: Problem-Solving Enquiry '''

Teacher posed the following problem for the pupils to investigate in groups. She wanted the pupils to think of ways to find out the interior angles of this regular polygon (see picture below) and to search the internet to find out where in the world such a polygon can exist physically as a building structure or object.

''Example of Question: You have come across this rather interesting regular polygon and are interested to find out what would be the total interior angles of it. How can you go about finding this out and be sure that the answer is correct? Where do you think you can see this polygon in the real world?''

[[Image:Unit5.2StartingtheEnquiryProcess.3.jpg|300px]]

Teacher directed students to some resources that they could search online. Teacher asked students to present their findings at the end of their investigation – which may span across two or three days.

'''Teacher D: Independent Inquiry'''

Teacher asked each student to think of ways to find the general formula of the interior angle (S) of a regular n-sided polygon : ''S'' = (''n'' −2) × 180°/ ''n''

''Example of Question:'' ''You have come across several regular polygons. Can you work individually to find out a general formula to find the total interior angles of it up to 100 sides?''

Students worked on their own to derive a general formula. Teacher asked students to present their findings at the end of their investigation – which may span across two or three days.

= PMI activity on the Four Level of Enquiry =

{{Activity|stgw|: PMI activity on the four levels of enquiry.|15}} Before having a brief discussion on the differences of the levels of enquiry, it may be helpful to do a PMI (positives, minuses, interesting) activity where you work in groups of two or three and consider the PMIs of each approach. Remember, you can also use a PMI activity to consider the possible pros and cons of a random statement as in the ‘Plants can now walk in our World!’ statement in 5.1.

Do a PMI activity and come up with something '''P'''ositive about and a '''M'''inus point about as well as something '''I'''nteresting about, in this case, the enquiry levels/approaches used by Teachers A, B, C and D and/or consider the following questions for discussion:

# What do you think are the main differences between the levels of enquiry?
# Where do you see yourself (Teacher A-D?) in terms of conducting an enquiry-based learning activity in your class if you were to teach them today? Why do you say that?
# Do you think there is a possibility that you will consider using a different approach to start an enquiry-based lesson in your class if you are given some time to plan? What and how will you go about trying?

{{ednote|text=
As the facilitator, look closely at what is being suggested as P, M, and Is. Critically discuss whether something suggested is really a minus, or whether it could be a Positive, or perhaps just interesting. You might say: "You have put down that students will be challenged as a minus. Is challenging your students a minus? How do we challenge students appropriately?" Also see where suggestions are similar across the four approaches. You might say: "You suggested that this was a Positive for all four teachers - where do you think this is the biggest Positive?"

Here is one way of organising the PMI activity so that all groups consider all 4 levels of enquiry - as represented by Teachers A to D:

* Place a piece of A4 paper with the title: ‘'''Teacher A: Demonstrated Enquiry'''’ on a desk (desk A) in one corner of the room.
* Then place a second piece of paper with the title: ‘'''Teacher B: Structured Enquiry'''‘ on a desk (desk B) in another corner of the room.
* A third piece of paper with the title: ‘'''Teacher C: Problem-Solving Enquiry''' ‘ should be placed on another desk (desk C) in a different corner.
* In the final corner should be placed a piece of of paper with the title: ‘'''Teacher D: Independent Inquiry'''‘ on it (desk D).
* Each group starts on a different desk. They will read through the enquiry approach for that Teacher, have a short discussion about the PMI’s of the Teacher/enquiry approach and write them down before moving on to the next desk in the A,B,C,D sequence (so A moves to B, B moves to C etc.).

After the first move, there will already be something positive ('''P'''), something negative ('''M''') and an interesting point ('''I''') written on the paper now in front of each group. If there are only three groups, the group starting at desk C and moving on to desk D will be greeted with another blank piece of paper Each group will read through the enquiry approach for that Teacher but they will have to think more deeply about ''their'' PMIs, moving beyond the obvious (so, they should not repeat what has been written but should extend their thinking, perhaps using those ideas). The third group to arrive at that desk will hopefully be able to use the other groups ideas to delve even deeper. By perpetuating this cycle all groups will get to discuss each of the Teachers with an increasing level of challenge to their thinking.

At the end of the activity, the four pieces of paper could be displayed so that everyone can see what has been written. Another discussion may arise out of this process, but that’s enquiry for you!

Another way to do this activity is to move the pieces of A4 paper from group to group. This works well if there are the same number of groups as pieces of paper -
Groups each choose from Teachers A, B, C or D, feedback one PMI related to their choice, and then pass their chosen teacher (piece of paper) on for the next group to consider. The next group must come up with a different PMI for that same Teacher. By the end of the activity each of A, B, C and D should have 4 PMI comments. The feedback comments could be written on the board by the facilitator for ongoing discussion or written on the piece of A4 paper and passed on.}}

There is no single correct way to teach or to conduct an enquiry. Effective teachers are resourceful and have a whole repertoire of teaching strategies which they draw on as appropriate, according to the topic, task, level of student confidence and knowledge. The diagram below shows how levels of teacher support and student independence might vary.

[[Image:Unit5.2StartingtheEnquiryProcess.4.jpg]]

{{ednote|text= The differences between the approaches of the four teachers can be understood based on '''differing levels of teacher support or scaffolding (maximum for teacher A) '''for the students and '''students’ independence in their learning (maximum for teacher D)'''. While we hope that we can help our students to take up more responsibility and ownership through enquiry-based learning, we trust that the teachers can make appropriate decisions on which level of support or scaffolding is best suited for their students at any point. One thing that can be common across the approaches is that a teacher should always strive to be a co-learner with the students and not assume that he/she already has all the answers. Be prepared for surprises and that the students’ questions and findings might be very illuminating indeed!}}

= Making use of Enquiry Ideas =

[[Image:Patricia 1.jpg|300px]] [[Image:Judith 3.jpg|300px]] [[Image:Agnes 3.jpg|300px]]

{{activity|stgw| on making use of enquiry ideas|10}} Below are five enquiry ideas (A-E) that could be turned into an enquiry in your class. Please note that these are just ''enquiry ideas'' which means that you need to go through substantial thinking and planning for the ideas to be introduced in a lesson to engage students in their own enquiry. It may be that you do not find some of the ideas useful at all, in which case you are welcome to come up with your own enquiry ideas to discuss as a group.

Divide yourself into groups of three or four teachers. You should read through all the enquiry ideas and eventually pick one or two ideas for the group activity that you will be working on together in this session and in the next two weeks. As you are reading through these ideas, think about the following:

#Are the ideas interesting and engaging for my students?
#Are the ideas relevant to the curriculum? What subject will it be most relevant to introduce them to?
#What can be an appropriate lesson objective(s) if you do make use of the enquiry ideas?
#What kind of resources will you need and are they easily accessible to you and your students?
#How will you introduce the ideas in the first lesson (recall what are some of the ways to present your questions that you have learnt in the previous session) and how many lessons do you think you will need to complete the enquiry process?

'''Idea A: Investigating paper airplane design'''

[[image: airplane.png|250px]]

There are many different designs of paper aeroplanes. Some of them have a very plain design but can fly a longer distance whereas others can have rather interesting designs but do not fly as well. What are the factors that affect how far a paper airplane can fly?

You may like to refer to the following web references for more information:

* Examples of airplane designs imitating flying and gliding animals:
** http://srel.uga.edu/kidsdoscience/sci-method-planes/airplane-designs.pdf
* Examples of airplanes with instructions and videos on how to fold them:
** http://www.funpaperairplanes.com/Plane%20Downloads.html
** http://www.origami-resource-center.com/paper-airplane-instructions.html
* Examples of the actual lessons on investigating the flights of paper airplanes using scientific method as an extended project:
** http://camillasenior.homestead.com/paper_airplanes.pdf
** http://srel.uga.edu/kidsdoscience/kidsdoscience-airplanes.htm

''Tip: Students could use what they have learned from their enquiry to design their own enhanced airplane.''

'''Idea B: Investigating the process of hand washing'''

[[image: left arm.png|200px]]
[[image: bowl of water.png|200px]] [[image: soap.png|80px]]

We have been told that washing of our hands is an important part of maintaining hygiene and preventing the spread of germs and viruses. How do you know that you have spent adequate time washing your hands each time?

* Example of lesson plan on investigating hand washing
** http://www.bam.gov/teachers/activities/epi_4_hand_wash.pdf
* Example of youtube video on emphasising importance of washing hands
** http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mY8Kx2iW2ls
** http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmMGwO4N0Vc
* Video of a Zambian teacher doing this enquiry with her students
{{: Video/Judith.m4v }}

'''Idea C: Investigating the vegetables and trees within our community'''

What are some of the vegetables and trees that are grown in our community? Why are they being grown here? (e.g. consider tomatoes, rape, onion, cabbage, nimu tree, holy fiso, malaina, mango)

Some possible areas of investigation: location of vegetable/trees (e.g. type of soil and availability of water source like a stream), medicinal properties (e.g. is it used as a traditional medicine?), nutritional properties, economic consideration (e.g. source of fuel/income), ecological and environmental concerns, personal and spiritual values. You might like to select one or two areas of investigation for a start.

* Example of youtube video on tree planting in Zambia
** http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5gCho1S5oc
** http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iL5e40UL20I
** http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGdN8F_igVo
* Example of website on ‘treevolution’ in Zambia
** http://www.greenpop.org/projects/trees-for-zambia/
* Video of a Zambian teacher doing an enquiry on water retention in different soil types with her students
{{: Video/Priscillah_Water_Soil_A04.m4v }}

'''Idea D: Planning for a trip to the game reserves and Victoria Falls'''

[[image: Victoria_Falls.png|600px]]

Imagine you have two overseas visitors who have just arrived in Lusaka and would like to visit a game reserve near Lusaka, plus the Victoria Falls and one other interesting site by car. The two visitors only have one day to visit these three places by car. Can you inform the visitors about the distance to these places from Lusaka city centre? Can you also suggest an itinerary that will take into consideration the shortest distance of travel to and between the three places, starting and ending at Lusaka city centre? Please state the distance of travelling to each place and the approximate time required to travel.

Example of website on visiting Zambia:
* http://www.zambiatourism.com/welcome.htm

Make sure that you do consider the practical arrangements for this trip! In the itinerary: decide on the length of your imaginary journey and work out the travelling time, but also think about the practical arrangements: how much luggage (water, food, equipment) will you need to take and how will you be able to carry this? Are there any elderly people or young children in your party, who might need special provision, such as extra food, or more frequent stops?

'''Idea E: Investigating my body and how it works'''

Children are naturally curious about how their bodies work so this is a rich area to draw on for enquiry ideas. A simple and straight forward enquiry into pulse rate and how it varies with exercise requires minimal equipment, just a stopwatch (or a clock with a second hand) and some accurate counting. Students can come up with different types of exercise such as running on the spot/sprinting/going up and down stairs and see how these affect their pulse rate. They could also look at whether or not their pulse rate is different when they are lying down.

Here are some short videos of Zambian teachers working on an enquiry topic centred around how our bodies work:

* lung capacity and how it varies with height/sex/pulse rate/chest circumference
{{: Video/Aggie lung capacity.m4v }}
* BMI and being healthy
{{: Video/Judith_body_A04.m4v }}

= Discussion of Enquiry Ideas =
{{ednote|text=This activity is optional if small groups need more time to discuss.}}

{{activity|wcd| on enquiry ideas|10}} Nominate one or two representatives from each group to share the enquiry ideas they have discussed in the previous activity. In particular, highlight the reasons for selecting the enquiry ideas that the group has chosen and share ideas on how the teacher should present the enquiry ideas and questions in the first lesson. Share any possible challenges that the teacher may face. The rest of the participants should provide constructive questions or comments to help the group to sharpen their ideas further.

= ICT practice: Making use of ICT in enquiry-based learning =
{{:OER4Schools/ICT/include}}

= {{Name for connecting with overarching goals}} =

{{Activity for connecting with overarching goals}}

= Follow-up activities =

{{activity|Agreeing follow up activities|5}}

Part A: Small group planning task.

Work with the same small group of colleagues to develop the resources (e.g. worksheets and materials) for one or two enquiry ideas that you have discussed just now that will be necessary to carry on the enquiring process by your students. Bring these resources next week (including the materials like the paper for the paper aeroplane) so that you can start the data collection and interpreting process as a group. Remember that you have time to work on at most two enquiry ideas so please choose the idea(s) that you really want to work on! If you think that you have OTHER ideas that you prefer to work on, that is fine but do ensure that you have thought through the questions we have suggested to you earlier. You may find this document useful as it contains some further enquiry ideas that have been developed by students alongside examples of their work: [[file:Developing Higher Order Scientific Enquiry Skills.pdf]]

Part B: Developing Internet search skills

Internet search skills are very important as the internet is typically the first stop to obtaining information on specific news and topics of interest. You may like to direct your students to specific web sites in the early stage of an EBL lesson.

We suggest that you spend some time viewing the following YouTube clips on internet search skills. This can also be done as a group session using a projector, if preferred.

{{: video/How to scan and skim sources on the Internet.mp4 }}

{{: video/Learn how to search the Internet effectively.mp4 }}

{{: video/Learn how to use Google expert search.mp4 }}

{{: video/How to use Google Earth in the classroom.mp4 }}

After you have looked at the video clips above, please try to search for a video clip on the internet on '''Enquiry-based learning & OER use at the Aisha Project School, Zambia.''' Can you summarise what the teacher in the clip has said about enquiry-based learning through the use of ICT?

{{ednote|text=
When you discuss the homework with the participants, let them know that they can ask you for help in navigating to this site if they have difficulty finding the clip. The clip can be found at
http://vimeo.com/12669204 (and is available offline as Enquiry-based learning at Aisha Project School.mp4).

The clip shows Andreia Santos (http://aisantos.wordpress.com) interviewing Brighton Lubasi about the use of open educational resources at the Aisha Project School in Lusaka, Zambia. Brighton explained how they drew on an enquiry-based pedagogy for learning with OER. The interview was carried out during Andreia's visit to Zambia to attend and present at the E-learning Africa Conference in May 2010.
}}

Part C: Notes for planning 'project or field day'

We hope today's session will help you to develop your ideas for an enquiry-based ‘project day’ or ‘field trip’. Be prepared to share any updates of your ideas in the next session (5.3). In the previous session (5.1) , we introduced these questions to help you plan for your own EBL 'field trip' or 'project day' so be sure to refer to them:

* What is a suitable topic?
* What is a suitable lesson objective/success criteria?
* Where would be a suitable venue for the event?
* What kind of questions could you pose during the enquiry? Is there a main enquiry question and sub-questions? Can you phrase some sample questions that ask learners what they know/think about some aspects of your chosen topic? Are you giving opportunity for the students to pose their own questions? What might they like to know/find out?
* What specific resources (e.g. worksheets, objects, internet links) have you come up with for the event?
* How can the students make use of ICT to facilitate their enquiry process?
* Consider also what are some administrative requirements you need to attend to organise such an event (e.g. Do you need permission from an authority/parents? Do you need to invite a specialist speaker to talk about the topic?

The table below summarises the different kind of questions that we have discussed so far.

{| style="border-spacing:0;"
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| '''‘Open-ended’ Questions'''
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| '''‘Deep’ Questions'''
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| '''‘Real’ Questions'''
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| '''‘Productive’ Questions'''

|-
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| Questions have many answers.

''Examples:''

''What could be the consequences of water contamination? How does a balanced diet help us? How could we use flowers of plants? Suggest ways to prevent spread of malaria in your community?''
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| Questions elicit relations between ideas and extended ideas.

''Examples:''

''What would happen if only inorganic fertilizers are used for growing plants? What connections do you see between climate of a region and its vegetation? Why is the water in the nearby pond not safe for drinking?''
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| Questions that students are curious and very interested to answer or particularly interested to pose (rather than just pursuing what the teachers want them to answer).

''Examples should come from the students themselves!''
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| Questions help students to delve more deeply into an enquiry area. May be posed by the teacher initially to support and progress students’ enquiries.

''Examples:''

''Probing questions starting with “in your opinion”, “what would happen”, why do you think”, “how can you be sure” etc''

|}

{{setting of follow up}}

= References =

* Pollard, A., Anderson, J.,Maddock, M.,Swaffield, S., Warin, J., Warwick, P., 2002. ''Reflective teaching: Effective and evidence‐informed professional practice'', London: Continuum.
* Llewellyn, D. 2011. ''Differentiated Science Inquiry'', Thousand Oaks CA: Corwin.

= Acknowledgements =

We thank YouthLearn Initiative at Education Development Center (http://www.youthlearn.org/learning/planning/lesson-planning/how-inquiry/how-inquiry inquiry) and Futurelab (http://www.enquiringminds.org.uk/terms_of_use/) for kindly allowing us to use the material from their website.

{{activity summary}}

{{OER4S_NextSession}}

OER4Schools/Starting the enquiry based learning process

2014-03-16T11:01:32Z

Sara hennessy: /* Posing real and productive questions - video watching */

{{OER4S
|title=Starting the enquiry-based learning process
|session=5.2
}}

''"You can't teach people everything they need to know. The best you can do is position them where they can find what they need to know when they need to know it." Seymour Papert, MIT''

{{OER4SchoolsWSInfo
|intention={{ OER4SchoolsWSInfo/intention intro}}
* posing real and productive questions to get the most from enquiry-based learning
* different ways to start off an enquiry-based learning lesson (e.g. brainstorm)
* preparing for an enquiry-based learning session through a series of lessons and a ‘project day’ or ‘field trip’ for maths or science classes
* 4 levels of enquiry involving different amounts of student independence:
** demonstrated enquiry
** structured enquiry
** problem-solving enquiry
** independent enquiry

|success criteria={{ OER4SchoolsWSInfo/criteria intro}}
* play a questioning game to practise using open and real questions
* continue to plan a a ‘project day’ or ‘field trip’ taking into account the four main parts of an enquiry based learning lesson:
** posing productive questions
** finding resources/doing an experiment
** interpreting information
** reporting findings
* do a PMI activity on the 4 levels of enquiry
* watch a sequence of videos focusing on the nature of the questions used by the teacher

|ict=In this session you will continue to apply the ICT skills you have learnt so far for EBL, and to think about how they help you implement EBL in the classroom.

}}

= {{name for review of follow up}} =

{{review of follow up}}

= Overview of Enquiry-Based Learning (EBL) =
{{activity|otr|: Reading about EBL.|10}} The essence of EBL is asking good investigative questions and that the students participate in the planning, researching and presentation of responding to these questions through projects and activities. It may be the case that the field trip activity you have thought about earlier can be a catalyst event for helping students to think about good enquiry questions!

Teachers can take many approaches to crafting an enquiry-based lesson, but Dr. Cornelia Brunner of the Center for Children and Technology ([http://cct.edc.org/ http://cct.edc.org/]) breaks it into four main parts: Posing Real Questions, Finding Relevant Resources, Interpreting Information and Reporting Findings.

[[Image:Unit5.2StartingtheEnquiryProcess.1.jpg]]

(http://www.youthlearn.org/learning/planning/lesson-planning/how-inquiry/how-inquiry)

{{activity|stgw|: discussion in small groups.|10}} Get into your previous group of 3-4 teachers again (as in last week’s ‘Planning an outdoor’ activity). Look through the questions in the diagram above in each of the four parts of the enquiry process. Think about how useful they are for the field trip you are planning to organise.

Discuss these questions:

# What questions will you select to use during the field trip? Did you use some of them already in your homework planning task?
# How will you structure the field trip such that students can go through the four main steps of enquiry learning?
# You will realise that for the students to complete the whole process of enquiry, '''it cannot easily happen within a single lesson! '''(Although you can do a mini-enquiry in one lesson.)''' '''How does this challenge your current thinking and practice of teaching?

{{Background| text=
The following further set of questions can be useful to help you plan the ‘project’ or ‘field-trip’ day:

* Will there be shared lesson objectives for all the students or would it differ considerably depending on what enquiry task is chosen?
* How will the enquiry tasks support enquiry, questioning, thinking and discussion?
* Will the tasks constitute a project or activity extending over and between lessons? If not, how can this be arranged?
* If so, will students do anything in between lessons? Will this involve research? Will parents/guardians or other family/community members be involved?

* Will the tasks be undertaken by
** individuals (perhaps cooperating by sharing equipment and helping each other with both technical issues and the task) - could enquire as a group but not strictly co-enquiry!
** groups (collaboratively planning and developing ideas, conducting the work, learning to compromise and giving feedback)
** or the whole class working together collaboratively?

* How will students record what they learned?
* If groups, will there be group presentations to the class?
* If groups, will different groups investigate different aspects of the topic and then share their knowledge with the class?
* What criteria will the class use to assess the outcomes of their enquiry? How will you ensure that any criticism is constructive and sensitive? How will the group be encouraged to take on board constructive feedback?
* How will students assess their own work?
}}

= Posing Real and Productive Questions =
In this section, we introduce the idea that it is important students know what a good enquiry question is and are willing to pose them. We suggest that it is very important for the teachers in the first stage of an enquiry-based lesson to help students to pose '''real questions and productive questions''' i.e. ''questions that are worth answering''. Ultimately, these will be questions that when answered will move the student's learning forward and deepen their understanding.

{{activity|wcb| on asking questions.|5}} Look at the following image and come up with as many enquiry type questions as you can relating to it. (Hint - think about the variables.) Record the questions on the blackboard/on a large piece of paper/on ether pad for use later:

[[image: Agnes 5.jpg|450px]]

{{activity|otr|: posing questions that are worth asking|5}}
'''Real questions''' are:
* questions that students are curious and very interested to answer or particularly interested to pose (rather than just pursuing what the teachers want them to answer).
* questions that generally do not lead to simple yes/no answers (or just one possible answer). Instead, they are open-ended in nature to stimulate discussion and invite further investigation.
* questions that must ultimately be answerable through enquiry. Questions like "What colour is God?" or "Can I become a national leader?" are valid questions, but they are partially belief-based and not normally subject to the scientific methods that are at the root of enquiry-based learning in the current context. Similarly, questions that are highly personal (that are based on opinion), typically do not lend themselves to an enquiry for science and maths topics. (It is possible in other subjects and require other techniques of enquiry).

Some possible real questions coming from students may be: Why is the colour of the sky blue?, Why is the colour of the sea different at different points of the day in different places?, How do I actually see colours around us? How many soccer balls can fit in our classroom? A sample design task they might engage with is “Design a new school on the same site as yours and for the same number of students as your school.”

'''Productive''' '''questions''' can be used by the teacher to help students think about a problem in a desired direction. These types of questions are open enough to give opportunities for students to consider new ways of thinking. They usually involve questions like:
* What differences and similarities do you see between these objects (or situations)?
* Why do you think these results are different from the other experiment?
* In your opinion, what would happen if...?
* How do you think you could go about...?
* How might you explain...?
* How can we be sure...?
* How many...?
* What is the temperature...?

The “In your opinion...?” and “What/why do you think...?” are very important here as they do not ask the student for the right answer, rather they ask what the student is thinking. In this way, teachers can progress and support the students’ enquiries. Teachers may use productive questions to help students delve more deeply into their chosen enquiry area with the hope that once students have become open to thinking this way they can begin to ask productive questions of their own.

If teachers decide to give students the option of searching for good enquiry questions, they must help them identify and refine their questions for exploration and help them realise when a question is not appropriate for a given enquiry project. The process of refining questions includes helping students identify what they know and don't know about the subject, identifying sub-questions that may be part of the larger question and, most importantly, formulating hypotheses about what the answer might be at an early stage.

'''Look back at the list of questions from the brainstorm on the candle with jar over it image and try to classify them using your knowledge of the following question types:'''
* real
* productive
* closed
* open
* surface
* deep

{{ednote|text=
You may like to help participants to recall their learning on questioning in [[OER4Schools/2.2_Questioning|Session 2.2]]. The following background text is from that session.
}}

{{background|text=

'''''Closed versus Open questions:'''''

* ''Closed questions are factual and focus on a correct response. Some examples are: Name the different parts of a plant? What are the five nutrients that must be present in a balanced diet? How many sides does a triangle have? What is the formula for calculating perimeter of a square? How many planets are there in the solar system? Name two sources of renewable energy.''
* ''Open questions have many answers. Some examples are: What could be the consequences of water contamination? How does a balanced diet help us? How could we use flowers of plants? Suggest ways to prevent spread of malaria in your community?''

'''''Surface versus Deep questions:'''''

* ''Surface questions elicit one idea or some ideas. For example, What is the difference between organic and inorganic fertilizers? What is the use of carbohydrates in a balanced diet? Which part of the sugar cane plant is used for eating? Which features of a cactus plant are useful for its survival in desert regions?''
* ''Deep questions elicit relations between ideas and extended ideas. For example, What would happen if only inorganic fertilizers are used for growing plants? What connections do you see between climate of a region and its vegetation? Why is the water in the nearby pond not safe for drinking?''

''‘What if’ and ‘Why’... questions can help you delve deeper into pupils’ thinking.''

'''It is likely that real and productive questions need to be “open” or “deep” as well!'''
}}

= A questioning game =

{{activity|Game| about real and productive questions.|10}} This game is about learning to ask open and real questions. The idea is that you go round your group, and practice questioning.

To start with, decide on a topic to pose questions about to your colleagues. One person starts with an open-ended question that can be either real or productive. The next person could either comment on the previous question (e.g. how can we answer that question? Is it possible to find answers to that question?) or respond with a related open-ended question. This goes on as long as there is no repeating of a previous question. For example, the topic might be on light:

* Teacher A: Why is it important to have light?
* Teacher B : What would happen if there is no light?
* Teacher C: Where/when do you think light is used in particular?
* Teacher D: Who or what do you think particularly need light?
* Teacher E: How does light help or not help people?
* Teacher A: How does light come about?
* Teacher B: What kind of process is involved in seeing light?
* Teacher C: What is the speed of light?
* Teacher D: I think the previous question does not lead to a productive discussion since it only has one correct answer, so how about changing it to: ‘How do we find out about the properties of light such as the speed?’

So now, choose topic, and start asking questions! After you have gone round the group once or twice (depending on the size of the group) you might want to do another round with another topic.

{{activity|otr| on bigger and smaller questions.|10}} You will realise that some of the questions are ‘bigger’ than the rest in terms of the possibilities that the question can be ‘broken down’ into ‘smaller’ ones. It is probably easier to respond to the ‘smaller’ sub-questions than the ‘bigger ones’. Therefore, responding to the smaller questions will give clues to answering the bigger questions. Bigger questions might frame a whole enquiry whereas smaller, sub-questions might collectively structure that enquiry.

Examples:
*Why is it important to have light? (‘bigger’ question)
*What would happen if there is no light? (‘smaller’ question)
*Where/when do you think light is used? (‘smaller’ question)
*Who or what do you think particularly need light? (‘smaller’ question)

It will be useful for the questions to be written out on the board so that everyone can see how the questions evolve (and to see the ‘size’ of each question) as each person poses a question.

{{ednote|text= Highlight to the teachers that such a process of posing, refining and sizing of questions is by itself a useful enquiry activity for students. We are inviting them to pose questions and think about what kind of investigation needs to take place to respond to the questions. It may be the case that some questions seem rather ‘straightforward’ so posing further probing questions like ‘how do you know’ or ‘why do you think so’ will be helpful to further deepen the thinking process of the students.}}

= Posing real and productive questions - video watching =

{{activity|otr| on posing real and productive questions|10}} Watch the following clip on Abel trying to get students to understand the relationship of area and perimeter. Pay attention to the questions he posed. What other questions could be asked to elicit the students' ideas on the concept of area? How might a 'think pair share' approach to the class discussion have affected student’s learning? Consider the question, ‘How do/can we measure area?’. How might this question be developed into a useful enquiry activity for students?

{{: Video/Abel Clip 2.m4v }}

Continue to watch in the next clip, how Abel set up the class for students to explore the relationship of area and perimeter. What kind of probing questions did he use to help students in their learning?

{{:video/Abel Clip 4.m4v}}

The next clip shows how the students made use of Geogebra in their enquiry process. How do you think such an approach of learning would be helpful for the students? Do you think it helped them to become more engaged and confident? Why do you think so?

{{: video/Geogebra-group-interaction.m4v}}

What can you say about how confident the students seem in using this new technology?

= Four Levels of Enquiry =

{{activity|wcd| on the four levels of enquiry|5}} Read the following examples of teachers trying to start an enquiry-based learning lesson for a maths topic on angles of polygons. According to Douglas Llewellyn, the different approaches of enquiry-based teaching require teachers and students to play different roles in the enquiry-based learning process.

'''Teacher A: Demonstrated Enquiry'''

Teacher introduced new concepts of properties of polygons by showing the pupils different pictures of polygons and asking them to describe what they see (see table below). She explained or demonstrated the sum of angles for each polygon. Teacher asked students to explain the pattern across the shapes.

''Example of Question: What is the sum of the interior angles of a regular polygon with seven sides based on what I have shown you so far?''

Students attempted to answer questions which teacher assessed according to whether responses were correct or incorrect. Students took down notes for the topic. The lesson on this topic ended.

[[Image:Unit5.2StartingtheEnquiryProcess.2.jpg|600px]]

'''Teacher B: Structured Enquiry'''

Teacher B divided the class into groups and provided pictures of regular polygons for each group to investigate the property of their angles. The teacher provided step-by-step instruction and questions about how the students should be measuring and recording the angles of each polygon onto a table (see below):

{| style="border-spacing:0;"
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| '''Number of sides?'''
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| '''Sum of interior angles?'''
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| '''Shape? '''
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| '''What do you realise about the pattern?'''

|-
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|

|-
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|

|-
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|

|-
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|

|-
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|

|-
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"|

|}

''Example of Question: Can you record the number of sides and sum of interior angles of each of the polygon? What kind of pattern can you see?''

Teacher assigned roles to each pupil and asked the spokesperson to report on the group’s findings at the end of their investigation – which can take up to one or two days.

'''Teacher C: Problem-Solving Enquiry '''

Teacher posed the following problem for the pupils to investigate in groups. She wanted the pupils to think of ways to find out the interior angles of this regular polygon (see picture below) and to search the internet to find out where in the world such a polygon can exist physically as a building structure or object.

''Example of Question: You have come across this rather interesting regular polygon and are interested to find out what would be the total interior angles of it. How can you go about finding this out and be sure that the answer is correct? Where do you think you can see this polygon in the real world?''

[[Image:Unit5.2StartingtheEnquiryProcess.3.jpg|300px]]

Teacher directed students to some resources that they could search online. Teacher asked students to present their findings at the end of their investigation – which may span across two or three days.

'''Teacher D: Independent Inquiry'''

Teacher asked each student to think of ways to find the general formula of the interior angle (S) of a regular n-sided polygon : ''S'' = (''n'' −2) × 180°/ ''n''

''Example of Question:'' ''You have come across several regular polygons. Can you work individually to find out a general formula to find the total interior angles of it up to 100 sides?''

Students worked on their own to derive a general formula. Teacher asked students to present their findings at the end of their investigation – which may span across two or three days.

= PMI activity on the Four Level of Enquiry =

{{Activity|stgw|: PMI activity on the four levels of enquiry.|15}} Before having a brief discussion on the differences of the levels of enquiry, it may be helpful to do a PMI (positives, minuses, interesting) activity where you work in groups of two or three and consider the PMIs of each approach. Remember, you can also use a PMI activity to consider the possible pros and cons of a random statement as in the ‘Plants can now walk in our World!’ statement in 5.1.

Do a PMI activity and come up with something '''P'''ositive about and a '''M'''inus point about as well as something '''I'''nteresting about, in this case, the enquiry levels/approaches used by Teachers A, B, C and D and/or consider the following questions for discussion:

# What do you think are the main differences between the levels of enquiry?
# Where do you see yourself (Teacher A-D?) in terms of conducting an enquiry-based learning activity in your class if you were to teach them today? Why do you say that?
# Do you think there is a possibility that you will consider using a different approach to start an enquiry-based lesson in your class if you are given some time to plan? What and how will you go about trying?

{{ednote|text=
As the facilitator, look closely at what is being suggested as P, M, and Is. Critically discuss whether something suggested is really a minus, or whether it could be a Positive, or perhaps just interesting. You might say: "You have put down that students will be challenged as a minus. Is challenging your students a minus? How do we challenge students appropriately?" Also see where suggestions are similar across the four approaches. You might say: "You suggested that this was a Positive for all four teachers - where do you think this is the biggest Positive?"

Here is one way of organising the PMI activity so that all groups consider all 4 levels of enquiry - as represented by Teachers A to D:

* Place a piece of A4 paper with the title: ‘'''Teacher A: Demonstrated Enquiry'''’ on a desk (desk A) in one corner of the room.
* Then place a second piece of paper with the title: ‘'''Teacher B: Structured Enquiry'''‘ on a desk (desk B) in another corner of the room.
* A third piece of paper with the title: ‘'''Teacher C: Problem-Solving Enquiry''' ‘ should be placed on another desk (desk C) in a different corner.
* In the final corner should be placed a piece of of paper with the title: ‘'''Teacher D: Independent Inquiry'''‘ on it (desk D).
* Each group starts on a different desk. They will read through the enquiry approach for that Teacher, have a short discussion about the PMI’s of the Teacher/enquiry approach and write them down before moving on to the next desk in the A,B,C,D sequence (so A moves to B, B moves to C etc.).

After the first move, there will already be something positive ('''P'''), something negative ('''M''') and an interesting point ('''I''') written on the paper now in front of each group. If there are only three groups, the group starting at desk C and moving on to desk D will be greeted with another blank piece of paper Each group will read through the enquiry approach for that Teacher but they will have to think more deeply about ''their'' PMIs, moving beyond the obvious (so, they should not repeat what has been written but should extend their thinking, perhaps using those ideas). The third group to arrive at that desk will hopefully be able to use the other groups ideas to delve even deeper. By perpetuating this cycle all groups will get to discuss each of the Teachers with an increasing level of challenge to their thinking.

At the end of the activity, the four pieces of paper could be displayed so that everyone can see what has been written. Another discussion may arise out of this process, but that’s enquiry for you!

Another way to do this activity is to move the pieces of A4 paper from group to group. This works well if there are the same number of groups as pieces of paper -
Groups each choose from Teachers A, B, C or D, feedback one PMI related to their choice, and then pass their chosen teacher (piece of paper) on for the next group to consider. The next group must come up with a different PMI for that same Teacher. By the end of the activity each of A, B, C and D should have 4 PMI comments. The feedback comments could be written on the board by the facilitator for ongoing discussion or written on the piece of A4 paper and passed on.}}

There is no single correct way to teach or to conduct an enquiry. Effective teachers are resourceful and have a whole repertoire of teaching strategies which they draw on as appropriate, according to the topic, task, level of student confidence and knowledge. The diagram below shows how levels of teacher support and student independence might vary.

[[Image:Unit5.2StartingtheEnquiryProcess.4.jpg]]

{{ednote|text= The differences between the approaches of the four teachers can be understood based on '''differing levels of teacher support or scaffolding (maximum for teacher A) '''for the students and '''students’ independence in their learning (maximum for teacher D)'''. While we hope that we can help our students to take up more responsibility and ownership through enquiry-based learning, we trust that the teachers can make appropriate decisions on which level of support or scaffolding is best suited for their students at any point. One thing that can be common across the approaches is that a teacher should always strive to be a co-learner with the students and not assume that he/she already has all the answers. Be prepared for surprises and that the students’ questions and findings might be very illuminating indeed!}}

= Making use of Enquiry Ideas =

[[Image:Patricia 1.jpg|300px]] [[Image:Judith 3.jpg|300px]] [[Image:Agnes 3.jpg|300px]]

{{activity|stgw| on making use of enquiry ideas|10}} Below are five enquiry ideas (A-E) that could be turned into an enquiry in your class. Please note that these are just ''enquiry ideas'' which means that you need to go through substantial thinking and planning for the ideas to be introduced in a lesson to engage students in their own enquiry. It may be that you do not find some of the ideas useful at all, in which case you are welcome to come up with your own enquiry ideas to discuss as a group.

Divide yourself into groups of three or four teachers. You should read through all the enquiry ideas and eventually pick one or two ideas for the group activity that you will be working on together in this session and in the next two weeks. As you are reading through these ideas, think about the following:

#Are the ideas interesting and engaging for my students?
#Are the ideas relevant to the curriculum? What subject will it be most relevant to introduce them to?
#What can be an appropriate lesson objective(s) if you do make use of the enquiry ideas?
#What kind of resources will you need and are they easily accessible to you and your students?
#How will you introduce the ideas in the first lesson (recall what are some of the ways to present your questions that you have learnt in the previous session) and how many lessons do you think you will need to complete the enquiry process?

'''Idea A: Investigating paper airplane design'''

[[image: airplane.png|250px]]

There are many different designs of paper aeroplanes. Some of them have a very plain design but can fly a longer distance whereas others can have rather interesting designs but do not fly as well. What are the factors that affect how far a paper airplane can fly?

You may like to refer to the following web references for more information:

* Examples of airplane designs imitating flying and gliding animals:
** http://srel.uga.edu/kidsdoscience/sci-method-planes/airplane-designs.pdf
* Examples of airplanes with instructions and videos on how to fold them:
** http://www.funpaperairplanes.com/Plane%20Downloads.html
** http://www.origami-resource-center.com/paper-airplane-instructions.html
* Examples of the actual lessons on investigating the flights of paper airplanes using scientific method as an extended project:
** http://camillasenior.homestead.com/paper_airplanes.pdf
** http://srel.uga.edu/kidsdoscience/kidsdoscience-airplanes.htm

''Tip: Students could use what they have learned from their enquiry to design their own enhanced airplane.''

'''Idea B: Investigating the process of hand washing'''

[[image: left arm.png|200px]]
[[image: bowl of water.png|200px]] [[image: soap.png|80px]]

We have been told that washing of our hands is an important part of maintaining hygiene and preventing the spread of germs and viruses. How do you know that you have spent adequate time washing your hands each time?

* Example of lesson plan on investigating hand washing
** http://www.bam.gov/teachers/activities/epi_4_hand_wash.pdf
* Example of youtube video on emphasising importance of washing hands
** http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mY8Kx2iW2ls
** http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmMGwO4N0Vc
* Video of a Zambian teacher doing this enquiry with her students
{{: Video/Judith.m4v }}

'''Idea C: Investigating the vegetables and trees within our community'''

What are some of the vegetables and trees that are grown in our community? Why are they being grown here? (e.g. consider tomatoes, rape, onion, cabbage, nimu tree, holy fiso, malaina, mango)

Some possible areas of investigation: location of vegetable/trees (e.g. type of soil and availability of water source like a stream), medicinal properties (e.g. is it used as a traditional medicine?), nutritional properties, economic consideration (e.g. source of fuel/income), ecological and environmental concerns, personal and spiritual values. You might like to select one or two areas of investigation for a start.

* Example of youtube video on tree planting in Zambia
** http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5gCho1S5oc
** http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iL5e40UL20I
** http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGdN8F_igVo
* Example of website on ‘treevolution’ in Zambia
** http://www.greenpop.org/projects/trees-for-zambia/
* Video of a Zambian teacher doing an enquiry on water retention in different soil types with her students
{{: Video/Priscillah_Water_Soil_A04.m4v }}

'''Idea D: Planning for a trip to the game reserves and Victoria Falls'''

[[image: Victoria_Falls.png|600px]]

Imagine you have two overseas visitors who have just arrived in Lusaka and would like to visit a game reserve near Lusaka, plus the Victoria Falls and one other interesting site by car. The two visitors only have one day to visit these three places by car. Can you inform the visitors about the distance to these places from Lusaka city centre? Can you also suggest an itinerary that will take into consideration the shortest distance of travel to and between the three places, starting and ending at Lusaka city centre? Please state the distance of travelling to each place and the approximate time required to travel.

Example of website on visiting Zambia:
* http://www.zambiatourism.com/welcome.htm

Make sure that you do consider the practical arrangements for this trip! In the itinerary: decide on the length of your imaginary journey and work out the travelling time, but also think about the practical arrangements: how much luggage (water, food, equipment) will you need to take and how will you be able to carry this? Are there any elderly people or young children in your party, who might need special provision, such as extra food, or more frequent stops?

'''Idea E: Investigating my body and how it works'''

Children are naturally curious about how their bodies work so this is a rich area to draw on for enquiry ideas. A simple and straight forward enquiry into pulse rate and how it varies with exercise requires minimal equipment, just a stopwatch (or a clock with a second hand) and some accurate counting. Students can come up with different types of exercise such as running on the spot/sprinting/going up and down stairs and see how these affect their pulse rate. They could also look at whether or not their pulse rate is different when they are lying down.

Here are some short videos of Zambian teachers working on an enquiry topic centred around how our bodies work:

* lung capacity and how it varies with height/sex/pulse rate/chest circumference
{{: Video/Aggie lung capacity.m4v }}
* BMI and being healthy
{{: Video/Judith_body_A04.m4v }}

= Discussion of Enquiry Ideas =
{{ednote|text=This activity is optional if small groups need more time to discuss.}}

{{activity|wcd| on enquiry ideas|10}} Nominate one or two representatives from each group to share the enquiry ideas they have discussed in the previous activity. In particular, highlight the reasons for selecting the enquiry ideas that the group has chosen and share ideas on how the teacher should present the enquiry ideas and questions in the first lesson. Share any possible challenges that the teacher may face. The rest of the participants should provide constructive questions or comments to help the group to sharpen their ideas further.

= ICT practice: Making use of ICT in enquiry-based learning =
{{:OER4Schools/ICT/include}}

= {{Name for connecting with overarching goals}} =

{{Activity for connecting with overarching goals}}

= Follow-up activities =

{{activity|Agreeing follow up activities|5}}

Part A: Small group planning task.

Work with the same small group of colleagues to develop the resources (e.g. worksheets and materials) for one or two enquiry ideas that you have discussed just now that will be necessary to carry on the enquiring process by your students. Bring these resources next week (including the materials like the paper for the paper aeroplane) so that you can start the data collection and interpreting process as a group. Remember that you have time to work on at most two enquiry ideas so please choose the idea(s) that you really want to work on! If you think that you have OTHER ideas that you prefer to work on, that is fine but do ensure that you have thought through the questions we have suggested to you earlier. You may find this document useful as it contains some further enquiry ideas that have been developed by students alongside examples of their work: [[file:Developing Higher Order Scientific Enquiry Skills.pdf]]

Part B: Developing Internet search skills

Internet search skills are very important as the internet is typically the first stop to obtaining information on specific news and topics of interest. You may like to direct your students to specific web sites in the early stage of an EBL lesson.

We suggest that you spend some time viewing the following YouTube clips on internet search skills. This can also be done as a group session using a projector, if preferred.

{{: video/How to scan and skim sources on the Internet.mp4 }}

{{: video/Learn how to search the Internet effectively.mp4 }}

{{: video/Learn how to use Google expert search.mp4 }}

{{: video/How to use Google Earth in the classroom.mp4 }}

After you have looked at the video clips above, please try to search for a video clip on the internet on '''Enquiry-based learning & OER use at the Aisha Project School, Zambia.''' Can you summarise what the teacher in the clip has said about enquiry-based learning through the use of ICT?

{{ednote|text=
When you discuss the homework with the participants, let them know that they can ask you for help in navigating to this site if they have difficulty finding the clip. The clip can be found at
http://vimeo.com/12669204 (and is available offline as Enquiry-based learning at Aisha Project School.mp4).

The clip shows Andreia Santos (http://aisantos.wordpress.com) interviewing Brighton Lubasi about the use of open educational resources at the Aisha Project School in Lusaka, Zambia. Brighton explained how they drew on an enquiry-based pedagogy for learning with OER. The interview was carried out during Andreia's visit to Zambia to attend and present at the E-learning Africa Conference in May 2010.
}}

Part C: Notes for planning 'project or field day'

We hope today's session will help you to develop your ideas for an enquiry-based ‘project day’ or ‘field trip’. Be prepared to share any updates of your ideas in the next session (5.3). In the previous session (5.1) , we introduced these questions to help you plan for your own EBL 'field trip' or 'project day' so be sure to refer to them:

* What is a suitable topic?
* What is a suitable lesson objective/success criteria?
* Where would be a suitable venue for the event?
* What kind of questions could you pose during the enquiry? Is there a main enquiry question and sub-questions? Can you phrase some sample questions that ask learners what they know/think about some aspects of your chosen topic? Are you giving opportunity for the students to pose their own questions? What might they like to know/find out?
* What specific resources (e.g. worksheets, objects, internet links) have you come up with for the event?
* How can the students make use of ICT to facilitate their enquiry process?
* Consider also what are some administrative requirements you need to attend to organise such an event (e.g. Do you need permission from an authority/parents? Do you need to invite a specialist speaker to talk about the topic?

The table below summarises the different kind of questions that we have discussed so far.

{| style="border-spacing:0;"
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| '''‘Open-ended’ Questions'''
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| '''‘Deep’ Questions'''
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| '''‘Real’ Questions'''
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| '''‘Productive’ Questions'''

|-
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| Questions have many answers.

''Examples:''

''What could be the consequences of water contamination? How does a balanced diet help us? How could we use flowers of plants? Suggest ways to prevent spread of malaria in your community?''
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| Questions elicit relations between ideas and extended ideas.

''Examples:''

''What would happen if only inorganic fertilizers are used for growing plants? What connections do you see between climate of a region and its vegetation? Why is the water in the nearby pond not safe for drinking?''
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| Questions that students are curious and very interested to answer or particularly interested to pose (rather than just pursuing what the teachers want them to answer).

''Examples should come from the students themselves!''
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| Questions help students to delve more deeply into an enquiry area. May be posed by the teacher initially to support and progress students’ enquiries.

''Examples:''

''Probing questions starting with “in your opinion”, “what would happen”, why do you think”, “how can you be sure” etc''

|}

{{setting of follow up}}

= References =

* Pollard, A., Anderson, J.,Maddock, M.,Swaffield, S., Warin, J., Warwick, P., 2002. ''Reflective teaching: Effective and evidence‐informed professional practice'', London: Continuum.
* Llewellyn, D. 2011. ''Differentiated Science Inquiry'', Thousand Oaks CA: Corwin.

= Acknowledgements =

We thank YouthLearn Initiative at Education Development Center (http://www.youthlearn.org/learning/planning/lesson-planning/how-inquiry/how-inquiry inquiry) and Futurelab (http://www.enquiringminds.org.uk/terms_of_use/) for kindly allowing us to use the material from their website.

{{activity summary}}

{{OER4S_NextSession}}

File:Zotero Self-Paced Workbook Final v4.1.docx

2013-11-08T07:22:41Z

Sara hennessy: Sara hennessy moved page File:Zotero Self-Paced Workbook Final v4.1.docx to File:Zotero Self-Paced Workbook v5a.docx

#REDIRECT [[File:Zotero Self-Paced Workbook v5a.docx]]

File:Zotero Self-Paced Workbook v5a.docx

2013-11-08T07:22:41Z

Sara hennessy: Sara hennessy moved page File:Zotero Self-Paced Workbook Final v4.1.docx to File:Zotero Self-Paced Workbook v5a.docx

Changed to correct filename.

File:Zotero Self-Paced Workbook v5a.docx

2013-11-08T07:18:17Z

Sara hennessy: Sara hennessy uploaded a new version of "File:Zotero Self-Paced Workbook Final v4.1.docx"

Changed to correct filename.

A Zotero Self-Paced Study Guide

2013-11-06T14:16:00Z

Sara hennessy:

{{Rinfo
|type= Lesson Idea
|attribution={{Dr Bethan Morgan}} {{Dr Sara Hennessy}} {{Dr Zsolt Lavicza}}
|title=A Zotero Self-Paced Study Guide
|topic=ICT
|image=zoteroworkbookv4.1.jpeg
|subject=Zotero
|resourcenumber=TE0138
|age=Higher
|content=Zotero is free software which you can use on any platform:
* to record references manually and from online searches;
* to build up a library as you search online, store references on your computer AND synchronise them online with a free Zotero account;
* to tag and search references, store abstracts and notes on your readings;
* to automatically compile references in your course assignments, thesis or papers for publication.
Zotero is designed to work in conjunction with Word and OpenOffice.

|strategy=
|tagline=Using Zotero will save you hours of typing out references! Just work through these 24 short tasks and you'll be good to go.
|Learning Objectives= Become a Zotero whizz by working through these 5 sections:
*installing the software/basic features
*searching, sorting, reports and creating bibliographies
*Zotero and Word - citations and reference lists
*backing up and importing/exporting
*further features and cool functions

|additional resources=
|useful information= http://www.zotero.org
|related resources=
|format=Online workbook

|resources= The workbook is available in two formats:
* printable PDF format - 56 pages {{file| Zotero_Self-Paced_Workbook_Final_v4.1.pdf}} (pdf/ebook to download)
* editable .doc format - 56 pages {{file|Zotero_Self-Paced_Workbook_Final_ v4.1.docx}}

There is also a practice paragraph to use for linking zotero to written work by entering citations of different kinds:
* {{File| ZOTERO PRACTICE TEXT FOR TASK 15.docx }}
* {{File | ZOTERO PRACTICE TEXT FOR TASK 15.odt }}

|final=yes
}}
[[Category:Teacher Education]] [[Category:ICT]]

[[File:zotero1.jpeg|border|340x340px| |Preview snapshot]] [[File:zotero2.jpeg|border|340x340px| |Preview snapshot ]]
[[File:zotero3.jpeg|border|340x340px| |Preview snapshot ]] [[File:zotero4.jpeg|border|340x340px| |Preview snapshot ]] [[File:zotero5.jpeg|border|340x340px| |Preview snapshot ]]

2013-08-28T16:08:31Z

Sara hennessy:

{{OER4S
|title=Introduction to enquiry-based learning
|session=5.1
}}

''"''''You can't teach people everything they need to know. The best you can do is position them where they can find what they need to know when they need to know it."'''''

'''Seymour Papert, MIT'''

{{OER4SchoolsWSInfo
|intention={{ OER4SchoolsWSInfo/intention intro}}
* De Bono's PMI (positive/minus/interesting) technique to encourage analytical thinking
* the aims and process of enquiry-based learning
* preparing for enquiry-based learning through a series of lessons and a ‘project day’ or ‘field trip’ for mathematics or science classes

|success criteria={{ OER4SchoolsWSInfo/criteria intro}}
* apply DeBono's PMI technique to the fictitious scenario of plants being able to walk
* watch videos of different teachers introducing enquiry-based lessons and discuss
* in groups, decide on a suitable topic area for extended project work and plan an outline (to include learning objectives)

|ict={{ OER4SchoolsWSInfo/ICT intro}}
* Classroom use of Geogebra, spreadsheets, concept mapping,slideshows,EtherPad
{{ OER4SchoolsWSInfo/ICT intro students}}
* you will ...

|resources=
Resources needed for this session:
* large white piece of paper
* different colours of markers or coloured pens
* computer/laptop/netbook and internet.
}}

= {{name for review of follow up|offset=2}} =

{{review of follow up|offset=2}}

{{ednote|text=
By now the facilitator should appreciate the importance of pacing each session well by making good use of time-management techniques. This unit, like many of the others, will involve participants in many discussion, hands-on and planning activities. You may need to intervene and move things on if participants are spending too much time on an activity (in relation to the time you have available). Or you may decide that they can benefit from continuing an activity longer than anticipated, if you judge that most/all participants are still gaining new knowledge/experience from that activity. Please take note of our recommendations about whether each activity is crucial or optional. This should help you to decide on whether to spend more or less time on it.
}}

= A Taste of Enquiry-Based Learning =

In this unit we will explore a way of teaching and learning that encourages students to take the initiative to pose questions and explore their curiosity about the world around them, through a process of enquiry.

[[image: Martha 1.jpg|400px]]

{{activity|wcd|: Positives, Minuses, Interesting.|5}} In this {{activitytag|Positives, Minuses, Interesting (PMI)}} activity there are no correct answers. Doing a PMI activity involves considering the positive, negative and interesting points related to a specific scenario. It was originally developed by Edward de Bono, father of the “thinking skills” movement. It encourages learners to look at both sides of a situation and also to be creative when considering the interesting possibilities.

Consider the following imaginary scenario: '''Plants can now walk in our world!'''

(It is important to realise that plants do not need to move because they make their own food by photosynthesis – animals have to move in order to forage for food.)

What would be some positives, minuses or interesting points you can think of, if this scenario was actually true?

{{ednote|text=
Possible responses:
* P (positives): the plant could move to where there is more light or water
* M (minusses): the plant would waste energy by moving
* I (interesting): we have to be sensitive and aware of plants walking on the roads and in our houses - there is a huge potential for creativity here as students explore the outrageous possibility of having plants walking around and the consequences that this may bring

For further examples, navigate to:
http://www.azteachscience.co.uk/resources/continuing-professional-development/bright-ideas-in-primary-science.aspx
}}

{{activity|wcd| on enquiry-based learning|10}} You may have heard of “enquiry-based learning” (EBL) being practised in other subjects (e.g. geography) or in higher grades through farming or industry projects. For instance, you may have heard of teachers bringing their students outside the classroom to learn about commercial and subsistence farming. The quotes below show two Zambian teacher's thoughts about enquiry-based learning; read the text, then offer your own understanding of EBL as a group.

'''Abel:''' ''To me, Enquiry-based learning is a flexible, student-centred method of teaching and learning. It engages learners with a complex problem or scenario that is open-ended to allow a variety of responses or solutions. Its success depends on the guidelines teachers give about how students can be involved in self-directed enquiry. This way of teaching caters to different abilities of students and encourages them to learn on their own, even beyond schooling. This is what life-long learning should be. It may also help students to develop leadership skills as they manage complex projects with their friends.''

'''Agness:''' ''Enquiry-based learning reminds me of projects focusing on industry or farming, where a teacher can take the learners out of the classroom to experience and analyse the actual farming process, what vegetables are grown within the area or how cotton is processed into a fabric and then designed into a dress. Such a form of learning is stimulating for the students and encourages them to be actively involved in asking questions and seeking out new ideas or evidence.''

= What is Enquiry-Based Learning? =
{{activity|otr| VIdeo and discussion|20}} Watch the following six clips showing three different teachers trying to introduce some form of enquiry in the classroom. Think about these questions as you are watching and discuss them when you have finished watching all of the clips:

# Did the three different teachers introduce the lesson in a way that is similar or different from a usual maths or science lesson in your classroom? How?
# Do you think that such a way of ‘setting up’ the lesson can engage the students productively over time? Why? Do you think your own students will enjoy this kind of lesson?
# What questions did the teachers pose to arouse the curiosity and interest of the students?
# What kinds of classroom organisation or resource are needed to support this way of teaching?
# What new skills do you think your students might need to enable them to work in this way?

Try to focus on these specific questions above rather than on the teaching style of the teacher (e.g. the classroom management/mannerism)!

'''Teacher 1/Clip 1:''' An activity on 3D shapes.

{{: Video/Noxolo_3Dshapes_1.2-10.m4v }}

'''Teacher 2/Clips 2 - 5:''' The Power of 2: What would you choose?

{{: Video/Pindi_exponentials_2.1-1.m4v }}

{{: Video/Pindi_exponentials_2.3-18.m4v }}

{{: Video/Pindi_exponentials_2.4-23.m4v }}

{{: Video/Pindi_exponentials_2.4-21.m4v }}

These four clips show Pindi introducing a problem involving exponentials and then taking the students to the school hall to draw the graph. Why do you think they went to the school hall?

'''Teacher 3/Clip 6: How can we learn mathematics through using used plastic bottles for building a house?'''

{{: Video/The_impact_of_inquiry_based_learning_on_students_and_teacher.mp4 }}

'''Additional video clips of ways to introduce EBL lessons'''

The previous video-watching activity could be run as a group activity rather than a whole class one, with groups watching different videos and reporting back their thoughts on them along with an outline of their contents. These additional clips could then be used to augment the previous clips. The clips may also be useful during private reflection after the session to give additional insights into how to start off an enquiry, with participants bearing in mind the questions.

'''Teacher 4/Clips 7 and 8'''

These clips show a Zambian teacher introducing the topic of air with a view to doing various enquiry-based learning activiites with the students. In the clips she is arousing their curiosity by asking: 'Why do trees shake?'

{{: Video/Agness_Air_A2.m4v }} (with first few seconds cut as per 'Video clips October 2012' document on Googledocs)

{{: Video/Agness_Air_A3.m4v }}

Later on, she does the following demonstration:

{{: Video/Agness_Air_A8.m4v }}

There are a number of different enquiry questions that could be asked using the 'jar over a lit candle' demonstration as a starting point. Have a think about what some of these might be.

{{ednote|text=
Facilitator may like to highlight that there is a spectrum of practices of enquiry-based learning: from one that is very teacher-directed (teacher chooses the questions and organises the activities) to one that is more student-directed (teachers provides only a stimulus picture and students decide what more they would like to find out. If there is time, ask participants to discuss what would be the most appropriate form of enquiry-based learning for their classrooms currently. Most likely it will be the former rather than the latter - which is fine to start with!
}}

{{activity|wcd| - continuation of previous discussion|10}} Continue the whole group discussion, augmenting the definition of enquiry-based learning to make it your own.

= Benefits of Enquiry-Based Learning =
{{activity|otr| on benefits of EBL|10}} Read the following summary texts on the benefits of EBL and think about whether you are convinced by the claims of the authors? Make notes or annotations on the page if you have a paper copy and want to do so.

{{background|text=
'''Enquiry-based learning helps ''students'' to be:'''
* inquisitive and curious about things that they experience in their everyday lives
* able to pose problems, ask questions, and recognise issues that they would like to explore
* able to develop an understanding that knowledge changes over time as people challenge, shape and contribute to it
* responsible for deciding what they learn and how they learn it
* confident that they too can challenge, shape and contribute to knowledge
* aware that there are always multiple perspectives for looking at, analysing and understanding things
* able to propose solutions to problems and questions, and to know how to pursue these solutions.

'''Enquiry-based teaching supports ''teachers'' to be:'''
* open to students’ ideas about the processes and directions of their learning
* keen to learn about how ideas and knowledge are produced in subjects other than their own
* able to research topics and make connections between ideas
* interested in students’ lives and cultures
* able to challenge students to critique, expand and build upon the knowledge they have from their own experiences and ideas.

(Taken from: http://www.enquiringminds.org.uk/)

'''Impact on learning.''' Enquiry-based teaching and learning have been shown to '''increase motivation and interest '''of learners and teachers, and can '''significantly''' '''increase achievement on standardised tests'''. The increased focus required of the learners to discuss and be involved in practical work means that there will be less emphasis on writing down factual information only. On the whole, students will be involved in more higher order thinking and this increases the level of challenge of learning for all the learners.

(Taken from “Bright Ideas in Primary Science” evaluation in 16 schools: http://www.brookes.ac.uk/schools/education/rescon/azsttp.html
}}

{{activity|wcd| on issues and concerns on EBL|10}} The benefits of enquiry have been outlined but what are the '''issues or concerns''' that might arise? How can these be addressed?

{{ednote|text=
The facilitator should make use of the opportunity to discuss with the participants what are some challenges in making use of EBL. It may be the case that some participants would choose to focus on the negatives - lack of suitable venues, managing students, lack of time, unwilling to plan for lessons that will span across days. It will be helpful to discuss their concerns while at the same time to direct their attentions to the possibilities and strengths of EBL.
}}

= Planning an outdoor activity =

[[file: fieldtrip3.jpeg|300px]] [[file: fieldtrip2.jpeg|300px]] [[file: fieldtrip1.jpeg|200px]]

{{activity|stgw|10}} Each group of 3-4 participants should have access to the following material:
* large white piece of paper
* different colours of markers or coloured pens

Imagine that you are very interested in bringing your students outside the classroom to learn certain maths or science concepts using an authentic ‘real-life’ approach. Up to now, the ideas have just been ‘lingering’ in your mind. You are curious to know of the possibilities and what other participants think about it! Let’s call this learning experience a “field trip” or “project day”.

Nominate a leader in your group who will read out the instructions and facilitate the group work by writing down the ideas on the sheet of white paper.

== Identify Possible Objectives ==

Take a coloured marker/pen and write "Objectives of Field Trip" in the center of the paper. Now circle it, as shown in the illustration below. Brainstorm on '''one or two maths and science topics''' that you would like to focus on and write within the circle. Write down as well '''what are the possible lesson objectives''' of the field trip – to help all of you to focus on generating more ideas later.

[[Image:Unit5.1IntroductiontoEnquiryBasedLearning.1.png]]

== Identify Possible Sites of Learning ==
Use a different colour marker/pen and draw a bigger circle around the previous circle. Write down “Where to go?” at the top of the circle. Brainstorm and write down within the bigger circle, '''where are the possible sites '''you could bring your students to learn about the maths/science concepts outside the classroom. You may need to consider the practical issues of whether the site is safe for the students and whether it is easy to bring a class of students to that particular venue. (You can choose the school grounds if you want or it may in fact take place just within your classroom!) Also, consider whether the sites will be able to help students learn the objectives of your lessons.

[[Image:Unit5.1IntroductiontoEnquiryBasedLearning.2.png]]

== Advancing Ideas of Possible Activities ==

Draw a rectangle around the previous shapes (outside the outer circle) using a different coloured marker/pen. As shown in the illustration, brainstorm and write down within the rectangle, '''what can we do at the various sites? '''Again, consider the safety and convenience issues, and whether the activities can actually serve to help students achieve the learning objectives (or whether the classroom will be actually be much better!)

[[Image:Unit5.1IntroductiontoEnquiryBasedLearning.3.png]]

== Mapping and Presentation of Possible Ideas ==

Try to follow the different paths of ideas by connecting the ideas in different logical ways:

On our field trip which I intend to help the students to learn ___________ (topic and objective of field trip?), we could bring the students to ___________ (where to go?) where we can ______________ (do what?).

In your group try to come up with as many different ideas as possible and decide on '''what are the ideas '''that you feel would be most workable/not so workable. State your reasons for saying so. Identify some resources that you will need to prepare for the field trip.

Present your outcomes to the rest of the participants. It will be helpful to be '''as specific as possible '''so for instance, “a lesson on a science topic on plants in the school field outside the classroom for students to explore the plants there” will be much too vague!

{{ednote|text=

The facilitator should highlight to the participants that they themselves have gone through a structured enquiry-based activity in a group setting, to help them find out about the possible ways to organise a field trip for their students.

Compare the activities that were developed. Are those actually enquiry-based activities or do they have the potential to become them? Are the questions sufficiently open-ended and rich? Which of the other features of enquiry that we have identified do they have? If none, why? If so, ask them to consider why they think this is an enquiry-based learning activity?

How possible would it be for their students to make use of EBL? Do they think that such a method of learning will be well-received by the students and their parents? }}

= ICT practice: Making use of ICT in Enquiry-Based Learning =

{{activity|dtgw| with ICT on various topics.|20}}
{{ednote|text=
You may want to limit the time spent on these tasks spent within the workshop. You could interrupt, say after 20 minutes, to discuss the homework. However, if there is time after the workshops, participants could always return to these activities. It is essential to allow time to introduce the homework before the session ends.
}}

To use ICT in an investigative way requires that both teachers and learners are sufficiently familiar with the technology and software, or the teacher spends the whole time troubleshooting problems of using the technology and software instead of addressing the more important enquiry skills and learning objectives. Developing this familiarity through progressively more complex use of ICT needs careful thought. For a starter, addressing the whole class to demonstrate features/procedures of using ICT can be most efficient rather than speaking to groups in turn.

In this session, we suggest that you familiarise yourself with the use of the spreadsheet function in OpenOffice and/or with GeoGebra. It is likely that you may need to complete the activity as homework.

{{activity|Individual Task}} '''Activity 1: Open Office'''.

{{oinc|OER4Schools/Spreadsheet exercises}}

{{activity|Individual Task}} '''Activity 2: GeoGebra'''.

{{oinc|OER4Schools/Geogebra exercises}}

(In the Zambian context, these may be suitable for Grade 5 upwards.)

= {{Name for connecting with overarching goals}} =

{{Activity for connecting with overarching goals}}

= Follow-up activities =
{{activity|Agreeing follow up activities|5}}

'''PORTFOLIO.''' Continue collecting evidence for your OER4Schools portfolio by keeping track of your planning and implementation of an enquiry project, and reflecting on what you are learning as you go through the unit. Collect paper/electronic documents to show the whole process, beginning in this workshop session and throughout Unit 5. Please include copies (e.g. photographs/photocopies) of student work throughout the stages they go through (not just finished outcomes). Your reflections can be oral using the dictaphone, you don't need to write them out, but please remember to include challenges you faced as well as benefits of new approaches you trialled.

As we are nearing the end of the year’s programme, we would also like to return to the ''''most significant change'''' technique and ask you to use your portfolio to create a story illustrating the biggest change you feel you have made in your thinking and practice over the year.

'''Part 1:''' Start planning for an enquiry-based ‘project day’ or ‘field trip’ for your own classroom and share your ideas in the next session. The questions (similar to the small group activity just now) below should be a useful starting point for your planning. Remember that the project or field trip should allow the students to explore an enquiry idea in some depth (and not just answer some closed and surface questions).

# What is a suitable topic for the grade(s) of your students?
# What are suitable lesson objectives/success criteria?
# Where would be a suitable venue for the event?
# What kind of overall enquiry question or task could you pose? Can you phrase some further sample questions that ask learners what they know/think about some aspects of your chosen topic? What might they then like to know/find out? (Remember what ‘open-ended’ and ‘deep’ questions are (see Session 2.1 and table below).

'''Guiding questions to help you plan an enquiry task'''

{| style="border-spacing:0;"
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| '''‘Open-ended’ Questions'''
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| '''‘Deep’ Questions'''
|-
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| Questions have many answers.

''Examples: ''

''What could be the consequences of water contamination? How does a balanced diet help us? How could we use flowers of plants? Suggest ways to prevent spread of malaria in your community?''
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| Questions elicit relations between ideas and extended ideas.

''Examples:''

''What would happen if only inorganic fertilizers are used for growing plants? What connections do you see between climate of a region and its vegetation? Why is the water in the nearby pond not safe for drinking?''

|}

These questions will according to Dr Benjamin Bloom be ‘higher-level’ thinking questions. The levels (“taxonomy”) of questions that Bloom has developed form a framework used by many teachers across the world to develop questions that help students progress from concrete to abstract thinking. You may remember it was introduced in the VVOB handout “Questioning the questions” as part of the homework for Session 4.1. The taxonomy classifies learning into six progressive levels of complexity and abstraction:

# Knowledge – students should: describe; identify; recall.
# Comprehension – students should: translate; review; report; restate.
# Application – students should: interpret; predict; show how; solve; try in a new context.
# Analysis – students should: explain; infer; analyse; question; test; criticise.
# Evaluation – students should: assess; compare and contrast; appraise; argue; select.
# Creation – students should: design; create; arrange; organise; construct.

On this scale, knowledge is the lowest-order thinking skill and creation is the highest. Enquiry-based learning aims to help students learn to analyse, evaluate and create. As your planning progresses, consider how you think your enquiry project might be extended to do this?

# Can you make use of the OpenOffice spreadsheet to create a database on the possible resources that you require for such an event?
# Consider also what are some administrative requirements you need to attend to to organise such an event (e.g. Do you need permission from an authority/parents? Do you need to invite a specialist speaker to talk about the topic?)

'''Part 2:''' Complete the ICT tutorials. Consider and be ready to share in the next session how the OpenOffice spreadsheet and/or GeoGebra can be a useful tool for enquiry-based lessons?

{{setting of follow up}}

= Acknowledgements =

We thank YouthLearn Initiative at Education Development Center (http://www.youthlearn.org/learning/planning/lesson-planning/how-inquiry/how-inquiry inquiry) and Futurelab (http://www.enquiringminds.org.uk/terms_of_use/) for kindly allowing us to use the material from their website. We also thank Professor Katja Maaß for permission to use the Primas video on the impact of inquiry-based learning on students and teachers.

{{activity summary}}

{{OER4S_NextSession}}

OER4Schools/Introduction to enquiry based learning

2013-08-28T16:07:38Z

Sara hennessy:

{{OER4S
|title={{Introduction to enquiry-based learning}}
|session=5.1
}}

''"''''You can't teach people everything they need to know. The best you can do is position them where they can find what they need to know when they need to know it."'''''

'''Seymour Papert, MIT'''

{{OER4SchoolsWSInfo
|intention={{ OER4SchoolsWSInfo/intention intro}}
* De Bono's PMI (positive/minus/interesting) technique to encourage analytical thinking
* the aims and process of enquiry-based learning
* preparing for enquiry-based learning through a series of lessons and a ‘project day’ or ‘field trip’ for mathematics or science classes

|success criteria={{ OER4SchoolsWSInfo/criteria intro}}
* apply DeBono's PMI technique to the fictitious scenario of plants being able to walk
* watch videos of different teachers introducing enquiry-based lessons and discuss
* in groups, decide on a suitable topic area for extended project work and plan an outline (to include learning objectives)

|ict={{ OER4SchoolsWSInfo/ICT intro}}
* Classroom use of Geogebra, spreadsheets, concept mapping,slideshows,EtherPad
{{ OER4SchoolsWSInfo/ICT intro students}}
* you will ...

|resources=
Resources needed for this session:
* large white piece of paper
* different colours of markers or coloured pens
* computer/laptop/netbook and internet.
}}

= {{name for review of follow up|offset=2}} =

{{review of follow up|offset=2}}

{{ednote|text=
By now the facilitator should appreciate the importance of pacing each session well by making good use of time-management techniques. This unit, like many of the others, will involve participants in many discussion, hands-on and planning activities. You may need to intervene and move things on if participants are spending too much time on an activity (in relation to the time you have available). Or you may decide that they can benefit from continuing an activity longer than anticipated, if you judge that most/all participants are still gaining new knowledge/experience from that activity. Please take note of our recommendations about whether each activity is crucial or optional. This should help you to decide on whether to spend more or less time on it.
}}

= A Taste of Enquiry-Based Learning =

In this unit we will explore a way of teaching and learning that encourages students to take the initiative to pose questions and explore their curiosity about the world around them, through a process of enquiry.

[[image: Martha 1.jpg|400px]]

{{activity|wcd|: Positives, Minuses, Interesting.|5}} In this {{activitytag|Positives, Minuses, Interesting (PMI)}} activity there are no correct answers. Doing a PMI activity involves considering the positive, negative and interesting points related to a specific scenario. It was originally developed by Edward de Bono, father of the “thinking skills” movement. It encourages learners to look at both sides of a situation and also to be creative when considering the interesting possibilities.

Consider the following imaginary scenario: '''Plants can now walk in our world!'''

(It is important to realise that plants do not need to move because they make their own food by photosynthesis – animals have to move in order to forage for food.)

What would be some positives, minuses or interesting points you can think of, if this scenario was actually true?

{{ednote|text=
Possible responses:
* P (positives): the plant could move to where there is more light or water
* M (minusses): the plant would waste energy by moving
* I (interesting): we have to be sensitive and aware of plants walking on the roads and in our houses - there is a huge potential for creativity here as students explore the outrageous possibility of having plants walking around and the consequences that this may bring

For further examples, navigate to:
http://www.azteachscience.co.uk/resources/continuing-professional-development/bright-ideas-in-primary-science.aspx
}}

{{activity|wcd| on enquiry-based learning|10}} You may have heard of “enquiry-based learning” (EBL) being practised in other subjects (e.g. geography) or in higher grades through farming or industry projects. For instance, you may have heard of teachers bringing their students outside the classroom to learn about commercial and subsistence farming. The quotes below show two Zambian teacher's thoughts about enquiry-based learning; read the text, then offer your own understanding of EBL as a group.

'''Abel:''' ''To me, Enquiry-based learning is a flexible, student-centred method of teaching and learning. It engages learners with a complex problem or scenario that is open-ended to allow a variety of responses or solutions. Its success depends on the guidelines teachers give about how students can be involved in self-directed enquiry. This way of teaching caters to different abilities of students and encourages them to learn on their own, even beyond schooling. This is what life-long learning should be. It may also help students to develop leadership skills as they manage complex projects with their friends.''

'''Agness:''' ''Enquiry-based learning reminds me of projects focusing on industry or farming, where a teacher can take the learners out of the classroom to experience and analyse the actual farming process, what vegetables are grown within the area or how cotton is processed into a fabric and then designed into a dress. Such a form of learning is stimulating for the students and encourages them to be actively involved in asking questions and seeking out new ideas or evidence.''

= What is Enquiry-Based Learning? =
{{activity|otr| VIdeo and discussion|20}} Watch the following six clips showing three different teachers trying to introduce some form of enquiry in the classroom. Think about these questions as you are watching and discuss them when you have finished watching all of the clips:

# Did the three different teachers introduce the lesson in a way that is similar or different from a usual maths or science lesson in your classroom? How?
# Do you think that such a way of ‘setting up’ the lesson can engage the students productively over time? Why? Do you think your own students will enjoy this kind of lesson?
# What questions did the teachers pose to arouse the curiosity and interest of the students?
# What kinds of classroom organisation or resource are needed to support this way of teaching?
# What new skills do you think your students might need to enable them to work in this way?

Try to focus on these specific questions above rather than on the teaching style of the teacher (e.g. the classroom management/mannerism)!

'''Teacher 1/Clip 1:''' An activity on 3D shapes.

{{: Video/Noxolo_3Dshapes_1.2-10.m4v }}

'''Teacher 2/Clips 2 - 5:''' The Power of 2: What would you choose?

{{: Video/Pindi_exponentials_2.1-1.m4v }}

{{: Video/Pindi_exponentials_2.3-18.m4v }}

{{: Video/Pindi_exponentials_2.4-23.m4v }}

{{: Video/Pindi_exponentials_2.4-21.m4v }}

These four clips show Pindi introducing a problem involving exponentials and then taking the students to the school hall to draw the graph. Why do you think they went to the school hall?

'''Teacher 3/Clip 6: How can we learn mathematics through using used plastic bottles for building a house?'''

{{: Video/The_impact_of_inquiry_based_learning_on_students_and_teacher.mp4 }}

'''Additional video clips of ways to introduce EBL lessons'''

The previous video-watching activity could be run as a group activity rather than a whole class one, with groups watching different videos and reporting back their thoughts on them along with an outline of their contents. These additional clips could then be used to augment the previous clips. The clips may also be useful during private reflection after the session to give additional insights into how to start off an enquiry, with participants bearing in mind the questions.

'''Teacher 4/Clips 7 and 8'''

These clips show a Zambian teacher introducing the topic of air with a view to doing various enquiry-based learning activiites with the students. In the clips she is arousing their curiosity by asking: 'Why do trees shake?'

{{: Video/Agness_Air_A2.m4v }} (with first few seconds cut as per 'Video clips October 2012' document on Googledocs)

{{: Video/Agness_Air_A3.m4v }}

Later on, she does the following demonstration:

{{: Video/Agness_Air_A8.m4v }}

There are a number of different enquiry questions that could be asked using the 'jar over a lit candle' demonstration as a starting point. Have a think about what some of these might be.

{{ednote|text=
Facilitator may like to highlight that there is a spectrum of practices of enquiry-based learning: from one that is very teacher-directed (teacher chooses the questions and organises the activities) to one that is more student-directed (teachers provides only a stimulus picture and students decide what more they would like to find out. If there is time, ask participants to discuss what would be the most appropriate form of enquiry-based learning for their classrooms currently. Most likely it will be the former rather than the latter - which is fine to start with!
}}

{{activity|wcd| - continuation of previous discussion|10}} Continue the whole group discussion, augmenting the definition of enquiry-based learning to make it your own.

= Benefits of Enquiry-Based Learning =
{{activity|otr| on benefits of EBL|10}} Read the following summary texts on the benefits of EBL and think about whether you are convinced by the claims of the authors? Make notes or annotations on the page if you have a paper copy and want to do so.

{{background|text=
'''Enquiry-based learning helps ''students'' to be:'''
* inquisitive and curious about things that they experience in their everyday lives
* able to pose problems, ask questions, and recognise issues that they would like to explore
* able to develop an understanding that knowledge changes over time as people challenge, shape and contribute to it
* responsible for deciding what they learn and how they learn it
* confident that they too can challenge, shape and contribute to knowledge
* aware that there are always multiple perspectives for looking at, analysing and understanding things
* able to propose solutions to problems and questions, and to know how to pursue these solutions.

'''Enquiry-based teaching supports ''teachers'' to be:'''
* open to students’ ideas about the processes and directions of their learning
* keen to learn about how ideas and knowledge are produced in subjects other than their own
* able to research topics and make connections between ideas
* interested in students’ lives and cultures
* able to challenge students to critique, expand and build upon the knowledge they have from their own experiences and ideas.

(Taken from: http://www.enquiringminds.org.uk/)

'''Impact on learning.''' Enquiry-based teaching and learning have been shown to '''increase motivation and interest '''of learners and teachers, and can '''significantly''' '''increase achievement on standardised tests'''. The increased focus required of the learners to discuss and be involved in practical work means that there will be less emphasis on writing down factual information only. On the whole, students will be involved in more higher order thinking and this increases the level of challenge of learning for all the learners.

(Taken from “Bright Ideas in Primary Science” evaluation in 16 schools: http://www.brookes.ac.uk/schools/education/rescon/azsttp.html
}}

{{activity|wcd| on issues and concerns on EBL|10}} The benefits of enquiry have been outlined but what are the '''issues or concerns''' that might arise? How can these be addressed?

{{ednote|text=
The facilitator should make use of the opportunity to discuss with the participants what are some challenges in making use of EBL. It may be the case that some participants would choose to focus on the negatives - lack of suitable venues, managing students, lack of time, unwilling to plan for lessons that will span across days. It will be helpful to discuss their concerns while at the same time to direct their attentions to the possibilities and strengths of EBL.
}}

= Planning an outdoor activity =

[[file: fieldtrip3.jpeg|300px]] [[file: fieldtrip2.jpeg|300px]] [[file: fieldtrip1.jpeg|200px]]

{{activity|stgw|10}} Each group of 3-4 participants should have access to the following material:
* large white piece of paper
* different colours of markers or coloured pens

Imagine that you are very interested in bringing your students outside the classroom to learn certain maths or science concepts using an authentic ‘real-life’ approach. Up to now, the ideas have just been ‘lingering’ in your mind. You are curious to know of the possibilities and what other participants think about it! Let’s call this learning experience a “field trip” or “project day”.

Nominate a leader in your group who will read out the instructions and facilitate the group work by writing down the ideas on the sheet of white paper.

== Identify Possible Objectives ==

Take a coloured marker/pen and write "Objectives of Field Trip" in the center of the paper. Now circle it, as shown in the illustration below. Brainstorm on '''one or two maths and science topics''' that you would like to focus on and write within the circle. Write down as well '''what are the possible lesson objectives''' of the field trip – to help all of you to focus on generating more ideas later.

[[Image:Unit5.1IntroductiontoEnquiryBasedLearning.1.png]]

== Identify Possible Sites of Learning ==
Use a different colour marker/pen and draw a bigger circle around the previous circle. Write down “Where to go?” at the top of the circle. Brainstorm and write down within the bigger circle, '''where are the possible sites '''you could bring your students to learn about the maths/science concepts outside the classroom. You may need to consider the practical issues of whether the site is safe for the students and whether it is easy to bring a class of students to that particular venue. (You can choose the school grounds if you want or it may in fact take place just within your classroom!) Also, consider whether the sites will be able to help students learn the objectives of your lessons.

[[Image:Unit5.1IntroductiontoEnquiryBasedLearning.2.png]]

== Advancing Ideas of Possible Activities ==

Draw a rectangle around the previous shapes (outside the outer circle) using a different coloured marker/pen. As shown in the illustration, brainstorm and write down within the rectangle, '''what can we do at the various sites? '''Again, consider the safety and convenience issues, and whether the activities can actually serve to help students achieve the learning objectives (or whether the classroom will be actually be much better!)

[[Image:Unit5.1IntroductiontoEnquiryBasedLearning.3.png]]

== Mapping and Presentation of Possible Ideas ==

Try to follow the different paths of ideas by connecting the ideas in different logical ways:

On our field trip which I intend to help the students to learn ___________ (topic and objective of field trip?), we could bring the students to ___________ (where to go?) where we can ______________ (do what?).

In your group try to come up with as many different ideas as possible and decide on '''what are the ideas '''that you feel would be most workable/not so workable. State your reasons for saying so. Identify some resources that you will need to prepare for the field trip.

Present your outcomes to the rest of the participants. It will be helpful to be '''as specific as possible '''so for instance, “a lesson on a science topic on plants in the school field outside the classroom for students to explore the plants there” will be much too vague!

{{ednote|text=

The facilitator should highlight to the participants that they themselves have gone through a structured enquiry-based activity in a group setting, to help them find out about the possible ways to organise a field trip for their students.

Compare the activities that were developed. Are those actually enquiry-based activities or do they have the potential to become them? Are the questions sufficiently open-ended and rich? Which of the other features of enquiry that we have identified do they have? If none, why? If so, ask them to consider why they think this is an enquiry-based learning activity?

How possible would it be for their students to make use of EBL? Do they think that such a method of learning will be well-received by the students and their parents? }}

= ICT practice: Making use of ICT in Enquiry-Based Learning =

{{activity|dtgw| with ICT on various topics.|20}}
{{ednote|text=
You may want to limit the time spent on these tasks spent within the workshop. You could interrupt, say after 20 minutes, to discuss the homework. However, if there is time after the workshops, participants could always return to these activities. It is essential to allow time to introduce the homework before the session ends.
}}

To use ICT in an investigative way requires that both teachers and learners are sufficiently familiar with the technology and software, or the teacher spends the whole time troubleshooting problems of using the technology and software instead of addressing the more important enquiry skills and learning objectives. Developing this familiarity through progressively more complex use of ICT needs careful thought. For a starter, addressing the whole class to demonstrate features/procedures of using ICT can be most efficient rather than speaking to groups in turn.

In this session, we suggest that you familiarise yourself with the use of the spreadsheet function in OpenOffice and/or with GeoGebra. It is likely that you may need to complete the activity as homework.

{{activity|Individual Task}} '''Activity 1: Open Office'''.

{{oinc|OER4Schools/Spreadsheet exercises}}

{{activity|Individual Task}} '''Activity 2: GeoGebra'''.

{{oinc|OER4Schools/Geogebra exercises}}

(In the Zambian context, these may be suitable for Grade 5 upwards.)

= {{Name for connecting with overarching goals}} =

{{Activity for connecting with overarching goals}}

= Follow-up activities =
{{activity|Agreeing follow up activities|5}}

'''PORTFOLIO.''' Continue collecting evidence for your OER4Schools portfolio by keeping track of your planning and implementation of an enquiry project, and reflecting on what you are learning as you go through the unit. Collect paper/electronic documents to show the whole process, beginning in this workshop session and throughout Unit 5. Please include copies (e.g. photographs/photocopies) of student work throughout the stages they go through (not just finished outcomes). Your reflections can be oral using the dictaphone, you don't need to write them out, but please remember to include challenges you faced as well as benefits of new approaches you trialled.

As we are nearing the end of the year’s programme, we would also like to return to the ''''most significant change'''' technique and ask you to use your portfolio to create a story illustrating the biggest change you feel you have made in your thinking and practice over the year.

'''Part 1:''' Start planning for an enquiry-based ‘project day’ or ‘field trip’ for your own classroom and share your ideas in the next session. The questions (similar to the small group activity just now) below should be a useful starting point for your planning. Remember that the project or field trip should allow the students to explore an enquiry idea in some depth (and not just answer some closed and surface questions).

# What is a suitable topic for the grade(s) of your students?
# What are suitable lesson objectives/success criteria?
# Where would be a suitable venue for the event?
# What kind of overall enquiry question or task could you pose? Can you phrase some further sample questions that ask learners what they know/think about some aspects of your chosen topic? What might they then like to know/find out? (Remember what ‘open-ended’ and ‘deep’ questions are (see Session 2.1 and table below).

'''Guiding questions to help you plan an enquiry task'''

{| style="border-spacing:0;"
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| '''‘Open-ended’ Questions'''
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| '''‘Deep’ Questions'''
|-
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| Questions have many answers.

''Examples: ''

''What could be the consequences of water contamination? How does a balanced diet help us? How could we use flowers of plants? Suggest ways to prevent spread of malaria in your community?''
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| Questions elicit relations between ideas and extended ideas.

''Examples:''

''What would happen if only inorganic fertilizers are used for growing plants? What connections do you see between climate of a region and its vegetation? Why is the water in the nearby pond not safe for drinking?''

|}

These questions will according to Dr Benjamin Bloom be ‘higher-level’ thinking questions. The levels (“taxonomy”) of questions that Bloom has developed form a framework used by many teachers across the world to develop questions that help students progress from concrete to abstract thinking. You may remember it was introduced in the VVOB handout “Questioning the questions” as part of the homework for Session 4.1. The taxonomy classifies learning into six progressive levels of complexity and abstraction:

# Knowledge – students should: describe; identify; recall.
# Comprehension – students should: translate; review; report; restate.
# Application – students should: interpret; predict; show how; solve; try in a new context.
# Analysis – students should: explain; infer; analyse; question; test; criticise.
# Evaluation – students should: assess; compare and contrast; appraise; argue; select.
# Creation – students should: design; create; arrange; organise; construct.

On this scale, knowledge is the lowest-order thinking skill and creation is the highest. Enquiry-based learning aims to help students learn to analyse, evaluate and create. As your planning progresses, consider how you think your enquiry project might be extended to do this?

# Can you make use of the OpenOffice spreadsheet to create a database on the possible resources that you require for such an event?
# Consider also what are some administrative requirements you need to attend to to organise such an event (e.g. Do you need permission from an authority/parents? Do you need to invite a specialist speaker to talk about the topic?)

'''Part 2:''' Complete the ICT tutorials. Consider and be ready to share in the next session how the OpenOffice spreadsheet and/or GeoGebra can be a useful tool for enquiry-based lessons?

{{setting of follow up}}

= Acknowledgements =

We thank YouthLearn Initiative at Education Development Center (http://www.youthlearn.org/learning/planning/lesson-planning/how-inquiry/how-inquiry inquiry) and Futurelab (http://www.enquiringminds.org.uk/terms_of_use/) for kindly allowing us to use the material from their website. We also thank Professor Katja Maaß for permission to use the Primas video on the impact of inquiry-based learning on students and teachers.

{{activity summary}}

{{OER4S_NextSession}}

OER4Schools/Programme review and action research

2013-08-28T15:59:49Z

Sara hennessy: /* Reflective educators */

{{OER4S
|title=Programme review and action research
|session=6.1
}}
{{OER4SchoolsWSInfo
|intention={{ OER4SchoolsWSInfo/intention intro}}

* becoming reflective educators
* teacher leadership
* lesson study
* action research

and do some preparation for

* final portfolios
* most significant change stories

|success criteria={{ OER4SchoolsWSInfo/criteria intro}}

* review the units of study in the OER4Schools programme with a partner, highlighting challenges and successes
* get items for final portfolio ready for submission
* do some think/pair/share activities to determine how reflective an educator you are

|ict={{ OER4SchoolsWSInfo/ICT intro}}
{{ OER4SchoolsWSInfo/ICT intro students}}
* you will ...
}}

= {{name for review of follow up|offset=2}} =

{{review of follow up|offset=2}}

= Reviewing across units =

<gallery>
Image:oer4s Students with tablet.jpg|Unit 1 - Introduction to interactive teaching and the use of ICT
Image:oer4s using mini whiteboards.jpg|Unit 2 - Whole class dialogue and effective questioning
Image:oer4s groupwork presentations.jpg|Unit 3 - Group work
File:Mini blackboards.jpg|Unit 4 - Assessment for learning and lesson pacing
image:students_gathering _soil_samples.jpg|Unit 5 - Enquiry-based learning and project work
</gallery>

{{activity|otr|: Individual reflection and pair sharing|20 }}

'''Congratulations''' for coming this far in your learning journey which has brought you to discover and develop interactive teaching. We have challenged you to think about how your teaching can be pedagogically interactive so that you will think of ways and means of engaging your students (rather than them being passive consumers of content). In doing so, you have been asked to try out new ideas - some might have worked better than others and some others may have indeed seemed rather strange at first! We hope that by doing so you have discovered new ways of approachiing and responding to student learning.

We would like you to look quickly through the list of units you have explored in the past months. After that, spend about five minutes responding to these two questions:

* Can you think of a particular unit(s) or session(s) that you have found MOST challenging for yourself? Consider why it has been most challenging for you.
* Which unit(s) do you feel you have benefited from the most (i.e. which unit really opened your mind to the possibilities!) and which unit would you like to learn more about and why?

It would be very helpful if you can jot down quickly your thoughts on a paper. Spend about five minutes taking turn to share your responses with another participant. Listen and write down what your colleague has said and ask questions to clarify if you are not sure what he/she is saying. In the last ten minutes, each participant could quickly share what their partner has told them to the bigger group.

{{: OER4Schools/toc }}

{{ednote|text=
This is very important reflection time for all participants. They should keep a record of their own responses that can be filed in their portfolio.It is also important to keep a record of all the participants’ responses so that we can use this information to help improve the course content and delivery of this workshop. All the written notes of what has been shared with the group should be collected by the facilitator. }}

= Preparing final portfolios =

{{activity|Individual work| on items for final portfolios.|15}}

{{ednote|text= The facilitator should just check that participants understand what to do and assess what progress they have already made. Do not spend time on assembling the portfolios themselves - the teacher should have done (and be doing this) outside the workshop.
}}

To obtain the full OER4Schools programme certificate, we would like you to present three more examples of new practices for your final portfolios. These should concentrate on Units 5 and 6. You don't need to write a lot about the techniques themselves:

* Present as much student work, lesson plans/materials as you can, so we can see clearly what went on in the lessons and ''how you applied the techniques'' (mention which ones you used and why/how).
* Submit your ''reflections on your learning from this classroom application,'' either by typing them (bullet points are quite sufficient, it need not be an essay!) and/or by doing an audio reflection where you think really hard about how your practice and thinking have changed over the course of the year, referring to examples wherever possible. If your paperwork doesn’t make it completely clear what you and the students did, then elaborate on this too. Note that if you type something you don’t need to speak it too – audio and written reflections should be complementary.
* See whether you can apply e.g. a Leadership for Learning lens or perhaps the thinking hats to your reflections, to help you structure them.
* The final part of the portfolio is a most significant change story (see below) recorded as an audio reflection, including any related paperwork, electronic or other materials.

Do not hesitate to dwell too on the ''challenges and pitfalls'' you experienced and ''how you overcame them.'' It's very unlikely that every new technique would work brilliantly the first time you tried it; there will always be adjustments to make, so please describe that process too and be self-critical. For example, were your talking points and questions open-ended enough or did some of them have “right answers”? If some learners did not participate fully or respond as you had hoped they would, what could you do next time to try and address this? If you think something needs adapting for certain learners, suggest this.

These should be ''individual reflections;'' although you’ve worked closely with colleagues and have jointly planned some activities, you have trialled them in your own classroom and it is your individual responses that we are interested in here please.

{{speechbubbleleft|text=
The traffic lights activity worked very well because it made me as a teacher to know whether my teaching was understood or not by seeing the most colour of cards which were displayed. If most of them displayed green then I concluded that teaching and learning took place. If most of displayed red cards, again I could tell that proper learning hasn’t taken place. I thought of using other approach methods to achieve the objectives of learning and teaching i.e. I could emphasis more during conclusion and give home work or give remedial work sometimes as peer assessment.
What I learnt from the usage of traffic lights is that during teaching and learning pupils concentrate. This is so because there is no pupil who feels happy displaying Red Card all the time. During interactive teaching and learning, pupils in groups work very hard through collaboration in order to get correct answers and display green cards.
This activity applies to all subjects whether using ICT or non-ICT.
The only challenges usually is that those who don’t understand concepts fast then to feel shy to show red card. However, they are encouraged. In all it is a very good activity to use when learning and teaching.

}}

{{speechbubbleright|text=
SH's feedback to this goes here!
}}

{{speechbubbleright|text=
Priscillah, you explained very articulately in your own words what the benefits were of the different approaches you used. It was really helpful to see the actual prompt that you used for cumulative talk and the students’ responses listed. Could you do the same for talking points and enquiry? In the final portfolio we’d like to see more evidence of '''how you applied the approaches in your classroom'''. Please include some lesson or activity plans as your portfolio didn’t include that this time, and was quite short, so you’ll need to present more evidence next time please.
}}

=Identifying most significant change=

{{: Video/Priscillah speaking about brainstorming.m4a }}

{{activity|stgw| in pairs|10}}
Have a discussion with a partner about what you each feel is the “most significant change” you have made in your own practice through involvement in the OER4schools programme (all 6 units). Tell your partner a '''story about how this change came about,''' detailing what was the stimulus for it, why you decided to make a change, what you and your learners did, and what kinds of change you observed. What is the '''evidence for the change''' that you could present if, for example, you were talking to the principal of another school and wanted to convince them that the programme led to some changes in your practice?

This activity is a kind of rehearsal; as part of the process of creating your final portfolio, we would like you to make an ''audio reflection that tells the story of such a significant change (it can be the same one).''

{{ednote|text= Facilitator should circulate and ensure that participants have understood what the story should contain and that they need to describe and present evidence for the change.
}}

= Reflective educators =

Many great teachers and philosophers like Socrates and Heidegger have emphasised the importance for students and teachers to reflect. Reflections in the educational context, involve thinking about our past, present and future teaching and learning experiences. Unfortunately, most of us are not thoughtful enough to differentiate these three stages or the relationships between our thoughts and actions. Consider this quote:

{{speechbubble|text=
You who do not think deeply about the future do not appreciate the results and outcomes of your current actions. You who do not reflect critically on the past are not readying yourself for improvement. You who do not think of what you are doing in the present cannot see what to do next. (Adapted from Schmuck, 2006)

}}
Heidegger has pointed out that our minds are prone to wandering between past, present and future. The most challenging type of reflection is thinking about your current actions and about your thinking, shifting between ‘thinking about doing’ and ‘doing the thinking’.

{{activity|tpr| on what you are doing now|10 }} Have a go at thinking about what are you doing now. Are you really thinking of the the present or are you thinking of what you need to do next after this workshop or what has happened prior to coming here? What is the implication for your students? Are they usually ‘present’ in your class? How do you know or not know if they are? Spend a few moments thinking about these questions before sharing your ideas with another participant.

{{ednote|text= Walk around the groups of pairs and try and get a sense of how many of the participants are thinking of the present. More than half the group? Less than half the group? Is it similar or different to a typical classroom situation? Could you have correctly predicted the participants responses by their non-verbal reactions? Reflecting well on students’ learning in the present requires to be sensitive and insightful about the nonverbal reactions of the students. Going back to the LfL principle of ‘focusing on learning’, it will be just as important to study the nonverbal reactions of the students during your class (e.g. facial expression, ‘awake-ness’, looking around) as it is to listen to their verbal reaction.
}}

A reflective educator seeks to be aware of his/her identity as a teacher and most importantly, what he/she believes strongly and is acting on. A reflective educator asks questions like:

# What am I doing now? Why am I doing that?
# What do I believe in about teaching and learning?
# Am I practising what I believe in? Why and why not?
# Am I a role model for my students to imitate (e.g. being a life-long learner)?

In the course of this programme, we have encouraged you to be self-reflective by asking many questions. We do understand that some of these questions take time to respond or it may be years before a ‘belief’ on teaching and learning can develop.

{{activity|tpr| on self-awareness as a teacher|10 }} You can develop a keener self-awareness by answering the questions above. Some of them may require a lengthy contemplation and we encourage you to write in your own personal journal – or record using a dictaphone – your thoughts later.

For the moment, share with your partner your thoughts about the following:

# Why did you choose to be a teacher [your past]?
# What is it about teaching that you really enjoy now [your present]?
# What classroom practice would you like to improve on in the next few months for yourself (your future)?

We would like each participant to be prepared to share what '''their partner''' has answered for the third question above.

Although reflections on the past, present and future are very important skills for a reflective educator, these may not be adequate to solve problems or meet certain challenges in the classrooms. Each of us has a limited capacity to change a practice or to find new practices that will work for ourselves. Your reflections can be significantly enhanced by systematic collection and analysis of data from your students, and working together with the rest of your colleagues. By using a suitable '''research method''', you can move beyond just focusing on yourself, to engage your students and colleagues in deliberation on how to improve their teaching and learning experiences in the classroom. '''Action research''' and '''lesson study''' are two methods that can help you to develop professionally: to improve elements of your practice or to address wider issues beyond an individual’s classroom. You were briefly introduced to lesson study in session 1.5 when you analysed the following video through a Leadership for Learning lens. You will learn about action research in this session.

{{background|text=
You can watch the lesson study video again now if you have time, thinking about the following:

The video clip shows the highlights of a lesson study (also known as research study) going on in an American primary school classroom. Lesson study is another form of ongoing professional development activity whereby teachers come together to decide on an area of teaching or learning that they would like to understand and improve on, in order to help students learn better. The teachers observe learners in a class being taught by one of their colleagues and collect specific, detailed data for discussion with the lesson study group later. In this video clip, the teachers want to find out whether the students are able to recall and retell the sequence of a story read to them by their teacher.

* What techniques did the teachers used to capture details about the lesson as it progressed? Can you think of any other ways you could capture details of the ''study lesson''?
* Are you likely to feel comfortable/uncomfortable talking to other teachers about the progress that students make in their lesson in this context?
* Can you think of any particularly 'sticky' bits of the curriculum that could benefit from the lesson study treatment? Perhaps the students at your school have always struggled with working out averages or percentages in mathematics or a specific concept such as combustion in science? Or maybe you would like the focus of your lesson study to be embedding some of the interactive teaching techniques that you have been learning about on this course?

{{: Video/Lesson Study - Research Lesson and Debrief.mp4 }}

As you begin to identify, through reflection, the areas of your practise that would benefit from the fine-tuning that lesson study brings, start to formulate your ideas in collaboration with your colleagues. You might find it helpful to think of lesson study in this way - 'it’s about piecing together multiple observations to give something greater than can be achieved by any one individual, no matter how reflective they are.'

}}

{{ednote|text= Allow for a brief discussion during the session and '''record individual responses to the final question''' as these may form the basis of (an) enquiry/enquires to be conducted at a later date in the form of action research/lesson study. Further details on the methodologies of action research and lesson study are provided for individual reading after the workshop. Encourage participants to think about what is important to them, something that they would like to make a positive change to. Ideas may be wide ranging from overarching concerns such as 'how to increase parental involvement', 'investigating the attitudes to/of girls studying mathematics’, 'how to use more ICT effectively in my classroom', to ideas linked to specific curriculum practices e.g. 'how to teach fractions better', etc. Broader themes such as ‘students as active learners’ or ‘students as individuals’ can also provide the basis for your research.
}}

= Reflective educators in times of change =

In their book Change in Schools (1987), Hall and Hord wrote about the concerns of teachers who face the challenge of trying out new practices in their classroom. They found that when asked to change their practices, they are concerned first about themselves (‘Can I carry out the new practice?’), later they become concerned with others (‘Will my students react well? What will their parents say?) and finally they become concerned with the results (‘Will the new practice really lead to better teaching and learning experiences?’).

{| style="border-spacing:0;"
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| '''Focus on Self'''
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| '''Focus on Others'''
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| '''Focus on Results'''

|-
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| Can I change my practice?
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| What do the others think of my new practice?
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| What can my students do now as a consequence of my new practice?

|-
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| Do I feel comfortable with the new practice?
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| What are others’ nonverbal and verbal reactions to my new practice?
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| What lasting effects have I had on my students?

|-
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| Is this what my career will be about? (by constantly adapting, changing and learning new practices)
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| Are they generally positive or negative towards my new practice?
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| What long-lasting contributions can my students make to improve the community, country and the world?

|-
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| Is this congruent with my beliefs and goals of teaching?
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| How does it mesh with beliefs, practices and expectations in my school and community?*
| style="border:0.035cm solid #000000;padding:0.176cm;"| What long-lasting contribtions can I make to improve the community, country and the world?*

|}

*NB: ''These questions have been added by OER4schools resource writers and not included in the original article.''

{{activity|tpr| on the questions|10 }} Find another partner for this activity. Think about these questions that Hall and Hord have proposed. Do you agree they are relevant to you and if so, at what stage do you think you are now? What would be the implications for your other colleagues in the school? What are you teaching beliefs and goals now that you could be a different teacher (or the same!) from before you have gone through this OER4Schools programme? Share your thoughts with your partner.

{{ednote|text= We have already started the participants thinking about these questions through the LfL framework encountered in sessions 1.5 and 2.5. The questions serve to reveal some of the gaps or dissonances between what the teachers believe in and what is actually happening in the school or classroom. Such dissonances should prompt teachers to want to try out or change their practices through a systematic process of inquiry. It is important that teachers have a go at clarifying their beliefs and goals of teaching and learning first before moving on to doing any kind of AR.
}}

= Many forms of teacher leadership =

You have learnt about the various aspects of leadership through the Leadership for Learning lens metaphor. As a reflective teacher, you may not be leading in the form of teaching and learning within the classroom, but taking on different leadership roles in the school.

<blockquote>
“Teacher leadership is the process whereby a teacher can clarify their values, develop a personal vision of improved practice and then act strategically to set in motion a process where colleagues are drawn into activities such as self-evaluation and innovation. This is truly about [developing] a culture of shared responsibility for reform and the outcomes for all students.” (Frost 2012, p.211)
</blockquote>

In the US, a set of ‘model standards’ for teacher leaders has actually been produced and it states that “they need recognised responsibilities, authority, time to collaborate and support from school administrators to assume leadership roles.” (Teacher Leadership Exploratory Consortium 2011, p.12)

{{activity|wcd| on being a leader|10 }}
Are you a leader or a follower? Perhaps you are a leader in one context and a follower in another? Do you/could you inspire others? Consider the following teacher leader roles. Can you identify these teacher leaders in your school?

* head teacher
* subject coordinator
* workshop facilitator
* classroom teacher
* curriculum specialist
* learning facilitator
* mentor
* counsellor

You may be surprised to see yourself, the 'classroom teacher' in the list. There are many roles that classroom teachers can assume to support school and student success. The international teacher leadership project, a case of international action research, explored the idea of teacher leadership and educational reform with the following as a central concept:

‘..the idea that teachers, regardless of their level of power and organisational position, can engage in the leadership of enquiry-based development activity aimed at influencing their colleagues and embedding improved practices in their schools.’

Could you see yourself in a particular teacher leadership role? You may realise you have different strength of ‘leadership’ which may not reside in one role. This is the role(s) that we would like you to consider as you embark on your action research at the end of these workshops.

{{ednote|text= Initiate a brief discussion after allowing participants a few moments to read the first two quotes. Allow participants some time to formulate their responses. The subject of teacher leadership is huge and we are really only offering a glimpse here. Nonetheless, it can be a useful exercise just to think about the possibilities. If time allows, ask the participants what they perceive the barriers to becoming a teacher leader to be and make a note of these for further consideration.
}}

= Very brief introduction to action research (AR) =

Listen to a Zambian teacher talking about a mathematics research project that she was involved with:

{{: Video/Priscillah speaking about her research.mp3 }}

<div style="clear: both;"></div>

{{activity|wcd| on action research|10 }}

As an extension of the individual reflection activity, we are now proposing a valuable research method that can help a group of teachers come together to reflect and suggest possible improvement of their practice. This research method is call '''Action Research''' (AR). Take about 5 minutes to read the text below and discuss briefly as a group the questions below:

* ''''What is AR?'''' It is part of practice of a group of reflective teachers to think about their practices and seek improvement. It is a '''cycle''' of investigation, application / implementation, systematic reflection, evaluation (see diagram). An iterative process of data collection and analysis is integral to this kind of research, rather than linear. It is a ''critical'' process of reflection on past and present actions. It gathers evidence to support claims for future actions.

* ''''What is the goal of AR?'''' It is aimed at changing as well as understanding practice in real educational settings. It often involves a trial-and-improvement approach to practical problem-solving by the teacher themselves.

* ''''Who does AR?'''' It involves those directly affected by the research (teachers in this case) as collaborators or leading investigators in researching their own practice. Interpretation is from their perspective. A professional researcher may be a collaborator or advisor/consultant.

* ''''Why do AR?'''' Many problems and solutions in classroom teaching are complex in nature and there is no 'quick fix'. AR researchers suugest that the reflection and solutions coming from the teachers themselves are very valuable. Doing AR well in a school creates a research culture whereby teachers actively reflect and intervene on a problem, its causes and suggest possible solutions.

* ''''What are the steps of AR?'''' There are different types of action research. Here we are introducing a '''participatory AR model''' that is suitable for improving practice in a collaborative way within a group of teachers. This begins with the group of teachers reflecting and discussing on the past, present and future possibilities of a particular teaching practice. The steps and illustrative example for each step outlined in the following background text:

{{Background|text=

'''Participatory action research - steps and examples'''

1. The group of teachers lists hopes and concerns for a ‘newer’ practice (based on certain beliefs and goals of teaching and learning). This may address a problem that teachers have observed of an ‘older’ practice. It is important to note that the identification of any ‘problem’ must take reference from teachers’ initial reflection and investigation (rather than being told by an external party).

* E.g. ''A group of teachers came together to discuss on their observations that their grade three students cannot master the multiplication skills, despite their best attempts at explaining to them the concept. They reflected on their teaching method which was essentially writing down the multiplication table on the board. No other teaching resources or materials were used.''

2. After a literature review and/or reflecting on possible revisions of practice, teachers propose and try out the new practice and observe the preliminary effects on the students.

* E.g. ''Teachers searched on the internet for articles on why students have problems learning multiplications and found out that students at year three needs to play with concrete materials in learning multiplication before they can think about the symbolic meaning of symbolic representations like the ‘multiplication table’. They brought small plastic containers and paper clips. They decided that they will get students to explain a multiplication operation, such as 3 x 4 through placing paper clips into the containers. They would like the students to think of the x in a multiplication problem as meaning "groups of." So 3 x 4 is "3 groups of 4." ''

3. Teachers investigate and identify a suitable data collection method to track students’ learning.

* E.g. ''Teachers produced suitable worksheet and design task for students to try out the materials and explain the multiplication operations. They observed the interactions of the students and how they played with the material. At the end of the lesson, they asked students to complete a small quiz on multiplication. ''

4. The teachers analyse what the data mean.

* E.g. ''Teachers discussed on what they had observed in the students’ interactions. They compared the results of the quiz with the students’ initial results (prior to the lesson). ''

5. Reflect and identify ways of improving practice.

* E.g. ''Teachers observed that only some of the students were able to correctly explain the concept of multiplication using the materials. They observed that these students were more successful in attempting the quiz. The rest of the students seemed to be lost and were simply following what their peers were telling them to do and write. This second group of students did not make any improvement from their earlier results. ''

6. Fine-tune the practice or try a different new practice.

* E.g. ''Teachers decided that some students need to spend more time with the concrete objects on their own. They decided in the next few lessons they would split the class into those students who needed more help from them and those who could carry on with written mutliplcation work on their own. They designed more hands-on activities for the slower-learner group.''

The sequence is cyclical as in after the final step, it should be able to return back to Step 1 (see diagram). It is important that throughout the research process teachers are actively involved in making decisions of investigation and evaluation.

[[Image: 6.3 diagram 1.png]]

''[Diagram is reproduced from an online resource at http://www.llas.ac.uk/projects/2837 by kind permission of John Canning of LLAS Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies.]''

This form of research involves a democratic process so that all teachers are actively examining a current action in order to change and improve it – through a structured and collaborative form of reflection. It takes into account the teachers’ beliefs, aspirations, reality of school and wider societal expectation. It is action which is researched, changed and re-researched by the teachers themselves. Thus it aims to be help teachers to be actively involved in reflection, and to be able to determine the purposes and outcomes of their own inquiry. The research process could include the students as well as other stakeholders in the community (e.g. parents, volunteers). (Wadsworth, 1998)

}}

{{activity|wcd| on teaching and learning practices|10}}
Think about a new teaching and learning practice that you have learnt in these past months. How will participatory AR support your ongoing learning and updating of this new practice?
OR
Think about a problem you would like to address together or a new form of interactive practice you would like to develop. How will AR support you?

What kind of support will you need to carry out AR? What methods will you use to collect evidence? What are your main concerns about using AR?

{{ednote|text= There are actually many different models of AR and it is impossible to go through the details in 10 minutes. Try to encourage the participants to think about the possibilities and the constraints of AR and also to think about what else they might like to know or find out about action research. Draw their attention to the additional resources in section 11 for further guidance.}}

=Final ACTIVITY: Preparing a presentation =

{{activity|stgw| on preparing a presentation|15 }} As a final task in this unit (and the programme!), we would like you to work in a group of 3-4 participants to plan for a '''5 minutes''' presentation on the highlights of your learning journey in the OER4Schools programme. You will be delivering this presentation on another day (to be determined at a later date). You will use the remaining time to plan for this presentation. You should ensure that everyone gets to share their views and to plan for a presentation that will really represent the group’s shared vision of the professional learning that has taken place and the follow-ups next year.

These are some possible ideas to help you plan for this presentation:

# You can draw ideas from the reflection tasks that you have done in this session and from your portfolios.
# You might chose to highlight and describe a particular unit that the group feels best captures the spirit of the entire OER4Schools programme.
# You can describe a few contrasting activities you have learnt and tried out in your classrooms, in terms of how you have found some success in trying out in the classrooms or not quite meeting your expectations (e.g. the use of ICT in the classrooms).
# It might be that you choose to speak mainly about your students’ reactions when you tried out activities in your classrooms.
# You might choose to do the presentation through a single LfL lens eg. through the ‘focus on learning’ lens

Whatever you choose to include in your group presentation, bear the following points in mind:

* it should not describe theory only, but instead give '''concrete lesson examples of theory applied to practice.'''
* play to your strengths of your various group members and deliver a presentation that will provide a flavour of what the OER4Schools programme has been like for the next cohort of teachers or to any other observers
* the presentation should be no more than '''5 minutes long''' - so you need to choose wisely what you like to include!
* it should be a short sequence that is presented by a number of speakers (no more than 3), each speaking for no more than 1-2 minutes (time it in advance to ensure you do not overrun!)
* it is a whole group presentation so all members of the group should be involved in its preparation, even if they are not speaking on the day
* be prepared to answer questions from audience at the end of the presentation

{{ednote|text=
The facilitator should be prepared to provide a short introduction to the presentation, speaking briefly about what his/her role has been throughout the course and perhaps to field questions at the end of the presentation.
}}

=Final Homework: Preparing a presentation =

The final homework involves you working as a group to prepare for the final presentation. We expect that you should be meeting at least once or twice before the presentation to discuss the final details of ‘who says what’ and/or ‘who does what’. We also encourage you to make use of relevant materials to accompany your presentations (e.g. charts, students’ works, pictures etc). Think of the possibilities of making use of creative means (e.g. artwork, songs/music, dance presentation, role-play or a skit) to put across your ideas. '''But remember you only have 5 minutes!'''

{{setting of follow up}}

= Additional resources =

This online video provides a useful overview of the lesson study process, highlighting its cyclical nature:

http://youtu.be/g48DAG4hJd4

This extensive pdf document on lesson study is excellent for providing a deeper insight into the process and has some useful case studies and example lesson plans:

http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/papers/lessonstudy.pdf

= References =

* Frost, D. (2012). From professional development to system change: teacher leadership and innovation. Teacher leadership and professional development: perspectives, connections and prospects, 38(2), 205-227. doi: 10.1080/19415257.2012.657861
* Hall, G.E. and Hord, S.B.,(1987). Change in Schools: Facilitating the Process. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press
* Maddock,M.,Peacock,A., Hart,S., and Drummond,M.-J.,(2012). Creating Learning Without Limits, Maidenhead: Open University Press.
* Schmuck, R.A., (2006). Practical Action Research for Change.California: Corwin Press
* Wadsworth, Y. (1998). What is Participatory Action Research? Action Research International, Paper 2.
* ‘The International Teacher Leadership project’ a case of international action research, a paper presented at CARN 2009, the 33rd conference of the Collaborative Action Research Network Athens, Greece 30th October - 1st November 2009

{{activity summary}}

{{OER4S_NextSession}}