An inquiry based learning approach is being adopted by educators across learning areas in the curriculum. One such learning area embracing an inquiry based approach is the teaching of history. An inquiry based learning approach liberates history teachings, allowing for students to break away from their role of knowledge reciting parrots, instead becoming investigators of history. An inquiry approach is a powerful tool for early childhood educators introducing young children to the history learning area. Early childhood teachers are able to create inquiry based projects for early learners in which they will be engaged in investigations about their families, prior and current events.
Woolfolk and Margetts (2013, p. 327) define inquiry learning
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5) a child’s curiosity ‘plays the most effective provocation for learning’. It is an aim in the Western Australian curriculum for pre-primary for children to learn about their personal and family history (SCSA, 2014). Students should be aware that they are participants in their own history. The International Baccalaureate (2013, p. 4) suggest that learning by doing will enhance the child’s knowledge of self and others. Through inquiry a child will gain personal experience and will gain meaning. Acting as a historian in the exploration of their own history the child will gain the understanding that history develops over time through the exploration of others. This is the discipline of history. The Western Australian curriculum presents opportunities for students to explore the discipline of history through ‘continuity and change, cause and effect, perspectives, empathy and significance’ (SCSA, 2014). All of these opportunities will be presented to the class through the inquiry process. According to Woolfolk and Margetts (2013, p. 329) students will complete curriculum content and learn the process simultaneously. Inquiry is integrated into the history curriculum (SCSA, 2014). History will be taught to young children in Western Australia through a framework focussing around key inquiry questions. For pre-primary the key inquiry questions are to find out the child’s history and establish how they know this, to …show more content…
One raised in “Capacity Building Series K-12: Inquiry Based Learning” (2013, p. 3) is that teachers are unsure how to address curriculum expectations in an inquiry based project. This is due to the spontaneous nature of inquiry. Allowing students to co-author the inquiry process means the end result cannot be predicted. However, it is believed that by focusing on how students follow the main processes of the inquiry the overarching curriculum goals will be achieved (“Capacity Building Series K-12: Inquiry Based Learning”, 2013, p. 3). The focus of the inquiry should be on how students are developing skills and developing understanding of the learning area rather than content recital. Content recital does not require the application of critical thinking skills. Anderson Steeves (2005, p.71) believes that content and skill development should come together within a ‘thinking curriculum’. This is achieved with an inquiry approach. Inquiry can be limited by educator beliefs that student’s will be hindered during exams and not meet educational standards if they do not cover content and instead engage in inquiry (Voet & De Wever, 2015, p. 59). These educators should consider the concept of the thinking curriculum. Another criticism is that inquiry projects take a lot of classroom time to complete, are limited by available resources and that students are simply incapable
The first history lesson I received came not from a textbook, but from walking down the cobblestone streets of St. Augustine. The first place my mother and I toured was the Oldest Wooden School House in the country. I remember how the splintered wood brushed across my palm when I opened the door, which gave a drawn out high pitched screech. As light flooded into the small room, so many questions popped into my six year old brain with my curiosity mounting as I continued to explore around the cabin. Everything interested me, from the outdated world map near the entrance to the detached kitchen located behind the school to the simple quill pen.
The text is set up chronologically separated by individual chapters, the chapters are not grouped together to form one specific unit. At the beginning of each chapter it has the title, a timeline of events for that period and then a question. The purpose of the question is to get the students to think about it as they read the chapter, encouraging them to engage in active thinking as they read. Some of the questions ask for a decisive answer, such as was this event a failure or a success, hoping to receive conflicting answers at the end. Others simply question why were things they were and why would people feel this way. I feel these questions are effective in encouraging students to think outside of the way the information is being presented to them. There does not seem to be a correct answer for any of them, which then eliminates a certain bias. It forces the students to think in an historical perspective rather than thei...
Wineburg, Samuel S., and Daisy Martin. Reading like a historian: teaching literacy in middle and high school history classrooms. New York: Teachers College, Columbia University, 2013.
Zinn, H. (2007). Why Students Should Study History. In W. e. Au, Rethinking Our Classrooms, Volume 1 (pp. 179-181). Milwaukee: Rethinking Schools.
Hart, Diane, Bert Bower, and Jim Lobdell. History alive!:. Palo Alto, Calif.: Teachers' Curriculum Institute, 2002. Print.
Modern day students are taught to question the world that they live in. The education curriculum is no exception, including the subject of history, which is often challenged as a subject of irrelevance to the present. In the articles, “Why Study World History?” by Jerry Bentley and “Why Study History? (1998)” by Peter N. Stearns, the two authors discuss why history is studied and the benefits that come out of it. In relation to the two authors, history is studied in order to serve as a guideline for how societies and its citizens should enact.
...tion or student learning through the inquiry method which allows students to develop their own truths.
Reading, writing and arithmetic, these three subjects are the basic outline for American schools. In those subjects, where does history fit in? Some believe that teachers avoid history because of how corrupt America has been. James W. Loewen, author of Lies My Teacher Told Me, says, "Parents may feel undermined when children get tools of information not available to adults and use them in ways that seem to threaten adult-held values." (Loewen 296.) The adults had to learn the same false history children are being taught today. By teaching children the truth about history, are adults risking the authority they hold along with adult-held values?
As a child sits through history class in the first grade, he or she learns of
This practise of effective teaching and learning has relatively new in classrooms but has already made a great difference in the students’ abilities and interests both in and out of their studies. Constructivist teaching recognises and validates the student’s point of view rather then the necessity of a correct answer. The child is then able to reassess their knowledge and understandings, which in turn boosts self-esteem and confidence. It also encourages children to be involved in classroom activities by self-questioning, seeking answers, comparing situations and establishing links between different ideas. This is possible as constructive learning is transferable between different ideas. (Tutorial Notes, 28th July, 2004)
The Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) (DEEWR, 2009) identifies inquiry as central to effective early years learning. Teachers are able to provide opportunities for an inquiry-based approach to learning that can assist young children to explore their family through the history curriculum. Inquiry based learning is a comprehensive pedagogical approach to early years’ education. It is important for inquiry skills not to be taught in isolation, however they should be integrated into other subjects (Michalopoulou, 2014). Inquiry-based learning is deeply related to the EYLF, the history curriculum as well as creative and critical thinking. This essay will discuss inquiry based learning and how it can be positively incorporated into the history
Inquiry Learning is a way to make the student find their own answers for their questions (Lakes Matyas, Ph.D). Posing a question for the students is a way to get them started. Then, by guiding the students on their own different searches, they all come together in the end to share their findings to answer the question.
Posing questions on materials covered and the quality of materials selected can create the desired environment for students to thrive. I want to inspire my students to think outside the box and to ask questions. Society needs thinkers not robots. The classroom plays an important part in aiding the growth of an individual. It is my duty as a teacher to impart knowledge because ideas have a way of changing lives. Examining and discussing ideas with students allows them to move to a new level of understanding, so that ultimately, they may be transformed.
Inquiry is an interactive way of learning. Students are actively engaged in their studies. Inquiry involves student-centered activities focusing on questioning, exploring, and posing explanations. The goal of inquiry is to introduce a new way of learning where students can learn about the world around them through active engagement in real-life examples. Inquiry based learning can be incorporated into all academic subjects throughout the curriculum. Science could possibly be the most effective subject to incorporate inquiry.
In today's constantly changing world, our children and youth need to learn inquiry-based, problem solving skills to that they may become successful members of society and live productive lives.