Owens-Where Do You Want To Go Today?

Interesting Article. "Inquiry Based" learning seems like a great tool to use. I think prior to reading this I may have thought that this is something I could have done and maybe thought of it more as teaching some sort of lesson/unit and allowing students to branch off of whatever subtopic interests them. I think I did this type of "research" all throughout my school career and can distinctly remember most of these experiences simply because I was very interested in what I was researching and it made the experiences that much more enjoyable and memorable.


When the article gave the definition of inquiry based learning the end of the definition said." . . they finally DO something with it (the information) " I think not only allowing the student to pick a subtopic and chose how they may want to present it to the class: in a poem, a PowerPoint, a paper, a collage, etc. also brings the child's interest in that much more. This type of learning allows the anxiety and frustration of many pre-chosen projects to be eliminated. "When children choose a topic of interest, they tend to remain engaged during the length of the study" (407).

I think that most of the times I thought that I was choosing my own topic to study it was usually after our class had studied or been introduced to a certain topic, so essentially we weren't really choosing our topic randomly but as a student I didn't realize this and felt empowered and excited as the opportunity. " . . if children have some prior knowledge related to the topic, their inquiries tend to turn out better than if they are starting from scratch"

I am excited to give my students opportunities for inquiry-based learning and create excitement that keeps them engaged. "Teachers can foster inquiries by sparking interest in topics that students may not have even considered on their own"

This article inspired me to give my students virtual experiences that spark cognitive thought and inspire and evoke curiosity. I really want to explore the various technological tools available to me as a teacher!