Jane+Inquiry+Learning


 * Inquiry –** Inquiry learning is an educational process based on students natural curiosity. It is a form of active learning, where students develop a question of interest and work together, using higher level thinking. In inquiry learning, the teacher’s role is to help students develop the strategies it takes to solve the problem or answer the question, unlike other educational processes where the teacher is communicating the knowledge instead of having the students discover it on their own. By using inquiry learning, students will learn independent thinking, problem solving, multiple ways of doing research, better communication skills, and team work.

Jane- I feel that your definition of inquiry learning is thorough and encapsulates all components of this type of learning. I especially like that you emphasized that it is active learning and based on curiosity. However, do you believe that all students have a "natural" curiosity to every facet of learning that the teacher proposes in class? As for the rubric, it is concise and to the point but yet has everything a parent or student need for reference. Good Job! -JeanMarie Dimitratos
 * || **Not Evident **
 * 0 ** || **Partial **
 * 1 ** || **Exemplary **
 * 2 ** || **Score ** ||
 * Students used team work to solve their problems. || Although the students were divided into groups, most were working independently. || Some team work was used during certain parts of the process, but not throughout the entire activity. || Team Work was used throughout the activity. ||  ||
 * Students developed their own questions. || Each group had the same problem/question to solve/answer. Nothing was individualized. || Each team had their own questions, but they were all very similar and not creative. || Each group had their own, individualized questions. ||  ||
 * Multiple Forms of Research were required. || <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Students only used their text books, and anything that was available in the classroom. || <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Students did use resources from the internet, but only used 1 or 2. And very little diversity in the resources. || <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Each team used multiple resources including the internet, textbooks, articles, journals, etc. ||  ||
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Pythagoras','serif'; font-size: 10pt; text-align: center;">The task involved students developing their own strategies for problem solving. || <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">The group only used written text to solve their problem, and very little effort was used in finding a solution. || <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">The teams did come up with individualized strategies, but used the same one throughout the project. || <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Each team had to use a different strategy for each issue, and no strategy could be used more than once. ||  ||
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Pythagoras','serif'; font-size: 10pt; text-align: center;">Students solve problems using higher level thinking. || <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">The task only requires information gathering, which only requires lower level thinking. || <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Students are given a task that requires some higher level thinking, but still contains some tasks that require only lower level. || <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Task requires synthesis of information and application to a real-life situation. ||  ||

Terrific job with the definition and rubric Jane! I totally understood what you were saying in the definition and it was spot on. I second what JeanMarie said about you emphasizing the active learning part of it based on curiosity because that's pretty much what that heart of inquiry is. I'm starting to understand what was supposed to be done in the rubirc. If I were a student, I would completely understand what was expected of me in an assignment by reading this particular one. I liked that you covered the areas of high-level thinking, resources and teamwork. -Brian