Submitted by Kev Murray (not verified) on March 23, 2008 - 15:51.
Anthony, I have taught now for four years as a science educator. My experience is divided between urban and rural schools within the state of Colorado. Being a new teacher, inquiry based science instruction is an exciting approach for me to take when educating students. While I taught in Greeley, CO at a high school with a 50% hispanic/50 white populations I performed some action research.
Knowing that my school district was on watch by the state due to low standardized test scores I was careful at letting people into my "free for all" of a classroom but anxious to overcome the idea that inquiry based classrooms may lead yo lower standardized test scores.
During the first semester I taught 2 classes through student-initiated inquiry instruction and 2 classes (of the same subject) through a traditional style (lecture, demonstration and teacher-initiated experimentation). After teaching the same content in two very different ways there was not a significant difference in test scores of the 4 classes. Although no evidence in numerical data was found, convincing proof was discovered that the inquiry process increased students' ability to think creatively, solve problems, test solutions and respond to their findings.
An experiment in the power of inquiry
Submitted by Kev Murray (not verified) on March 23, 2008 - 15:51.
Anthony, I have taught now for four years as a science educator. My experience is divided between urban and rural schools within the state of Colorado. Being a new teacher, inquiry based science instruction is an exciting approach for me to take when educating students. While I taught in Greeley, CO at a high school with a 50% hispanic/50 white populations I performed some action research.
Knowing that my school district was on watch by the state due to low standardized test scores I was careful at letting people into my "free for all" of a classroom but anxious to overcome the idea that inquiry based classrooms may lead yo lower standardized test scores.
During the first semester I taught 2 classes through student-initiated inquiry instruction and 2 classes (of the same subject) through a traditional style (lecture, demonstration and teacher-initiated experimentation). After teaching the same content in two very different ways there was not a significant difference in test scores of the 4 classes. Although no evidence in numerical data was found, convincing proof was discovered that the inquiry process increased students' ability to think creatively, solve problems, test solutions and respond to their findings.