Inquiry-Based Learning

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 472.

Student-Centered Approach

In this approach, the teacher is still the authority figure, but the student plays an active role in what is learned. The idea is that the teacher will advise and guide the students down a learning path. Assessment involves informal and formal methods – tests, group projects, portfolios, and class participation. The teacher continues to assess a student's learning even throughout the lesson. The students are learning the information the teacher is giving, and the teacher is learning how best to approach his students. There are two subcategories in this approach – inquiry-based learning and cooperative learning.

This teaching style focuses on letting the student explore and actively participate in learning. Rather than being a dictator, the teacher is more of a guide, giving the students advice and supporting their efforts. Students are expected to participate and play an active role in their own learning. There are three models under this subcategory.

• Facilitator

A teacher using this model will work under an open classroom model. The idea will be to place a stronger emphasis on the teacher-student relationship by joining the student in the learning process. The students' progress will be loosely guided, and the teacher will work on encouraging the students to be more independent, more exploratory, and involve more hands-on learning. Using this model, teachers can include less formal teaching strategies like encouraging students to be entrepreneurs.

• Personal Model

This type of model is similar to the personal model from the direct instruction subcategory. However, these kinds of personal models are learning with the students so that they can learn to explore and experiment with new ideas. In this way, students can learn that making mistakes are part of the learning process as they watch their teacher make mistakes as well. They will, hopefully, also see that people can learn from their mistakes.

• Delegator

A delegator has the most hands-off approach of all of the modeled teaching methods. The idea is to encourage autonomy in the student's learning process. The teacher explains what is expected, gives them the resources needed, and spends the rest of the time acting as a resource of sorts. They will answer questions and check on progress when needed. The students are actively involved in their own learning process with no real guidance from the teacher.