Inquiry-based teaching and learning - Entry # 4

1) What/how are you learning about inquiry in this course (through your readings, our class activities, lesson planning and teaching)

The other day, I was reading an article on ESCHOOL NEWS which was more related to ‘technology in education’ but before I read through the article I was stunned for some moments just by seeing the title ‘if you can google it, why teach it’. I started to think about the role of a teacher in today’s classroom which has become more challenging in the world of Google and technology. I experienced the same tension while reading the article on ‘teacher change’ as Brea stated in her story of transformation: who I was, what did it mean to teach, what is my place in the social and cultural world in which I and the students live, how could they then become something otherwise?

This is how I started to recap my own teaching experience, what I have been learning about inquiry throughout my EMath course, and how can I bring a foundational change in my teaching practice from lecture-based to inquiry-based by following a process of self-understanding, self-construction of knowledge and experimenting with possibilities. Here is a short snapshot of my notes:

• Inquiry-based learning is more about triggering curiosity than just asking a student what he or she wants to know.
• Mathematics is a living discipline and the curiosity of the students plays a key role in guiding the flow of the lesson; teachers need to be more prepared than planned.
• Teaching mathematics is not only a job of teaching but to challenge students intellectually and engaging them with the mathematics. It is to let them make connections between math and real-world.
• In an inquiry-based lesson, answers would be uncertain; the work would constantly be unfinished but the openness of topics may lead students to think (they might not usually think in every situation). ‘Thinking’ might bring innovation which can lead towards improved understanding.
• The topics in math class won’t be set and flattened but as teachers encourage inquiry, the students develop their own skills as content-area experts.
• It transfers some responsibilities from teachers to students, and it’s good because releasing authority engages students. And a common belief is that learning improves when students are inquisitive, interested, or inspired.

Inquiry-based learning

2) How/if the ideas in the article challenge or affirm your beliefs about mathematics teaching & learning.

I agree with the ideas presented in the article and these are my reasons:

1. Math is a living discipline; love is a part of living discipline; thus, it affirms my belief that math is a subject of affection and love.
2. We should begin to give voice to, or recognize the voice of, students, thus empowering them. Empowerment would enable students to bring innovation, creativity, and diversity in learning math and solving problems.
3. As Joseph Joubert said “To teach is to learn twice” and this article affirms that Inquiry-based teaching is a process of continuous learning and growing experience.
4. Through inquiry-based learning, students contribute to the field of mathematics and they start to understand that they have a role in it. I think one’s role and contribution triggers or provide a basis for new inventions of the world.

How do I grade – Assessing student learning

There are tons of assessment strategies that can be used in the classroom for formative and summative assessment but I will talk more about “Rubrics”.

To be honest, I hadn’t heard about rubrics as an assessment strategy before taking the courses at the U of R. But I have a pretty good understanding of it now after researching and reading about it. The main purpose of rubrics is to assess performances. There are two main components of rubrics: criteria and descriptions of levels of performance. Rubrics is an important tool, because they clarify for students the qualities their work should have.

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Following are some of the advantages and disadvantages that appealed to me the most:

Advantages:

·        Improved students’ self-regulatory skills

·        A consistent assessment

·        Math is conceptual (explaining reasoning)

·        Partial credit for work (marks for procedure)

Disadvantages:

• Limit imagination and innovation
• Takes time to develop, test, evaluate, and update
• Unsuitable for some younger children as comprehending multiple strands can be challenging.

During group discussion in class, I also heard very good opinions about “Portfolio” and “Checklists” along with some other assessment tools.

  

The purpose of a portfolio is to showcase students’ progress over the course of a session. They are able to identify their strengths and weaknesses through self-evaluation. Some of the main goals of portfolios are to see "student thinking, student's growth over time, mathematical connections, student views of themselves as mathematicians, and the problem-solving process. ERIC

Checklists can be used for formative (ongoing) assessment to monitor students’ behavior and progress towards reaching stated goals. Checklist is a better tool to record teacher’s observation during routine classroom activities.

Value of performance-based assessment in relation to curriculum and instruction:

These performance-based assessments are the best way to assess students consistently and to align the intended learning outcomes with curriculum. Assessments are often designed in terms of students understanding the learning target and criteria for success. For this reason, they help teachers teach, to coordinate instruction and assessment, and to also help students learn. To select and design any assessment strategy, teachers have to focus on the criteria by which learning will be assessed. This focus on what they want students to learn rather than what they intend to teach helps improve instructions. I am really looking forward to using some of these assessment tools in my future classroom.