Inquiry+and+Research

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=﻿3 Minute-Pause:= []) This is not a new concept in education and in the United States. For decades, education has been going through this cycle of how to teach and what's important as society and the world changes. In order to teach some of the men and women who revolutionized our world, they were not people who memorized facts, they were people who knew how to learn and explore information and seek knowledge. It is especially important today, to step away from stressing memorizing information and being restricted to what we are teaching because information is at the finger tips of our students. Almost all of the students we work with can google information they do not know on their telephones and know where to find information. We need to teach them how to use those skills in seek knowledge in order to teach them how to learn and prepare them for university and the jobs that don't yet exist. This is not a new approach, it is just an approach that is being revisited. 3. **How is IBL different than the approach the Montessori schools take?** IBL is student centered. It is applying the scientific method to seeking knowledge. Frame a question or problem, create a hypothesis, find a way to research it, test it, observe it, and create a final outcome for set problem continuing to go back to each step and changing it as you gain more knowledge. IBL reminds me of different instance in my childhood that i can remember. In 5th grade, we had independent study projects. Students in my class would throw out anything they wanted to know more about whether it was Boyz II Men, Ice Cream, the local Candy stores, frogs, etc...We would sign up for the different topics and as a small group decide on what we wanted to know about set topic, how we were going to find the information, and how we were going to share that information with the class. I remember looking forward to indep proj time each week in class and meeting with my group often outside of school. In addition, I remember in 10th grade where we picked book groups or clubs to read a book of our choice. It was up to our group to read the book and present in some way to our class. I remember my group running back and forth to Michael's getting supplies after reading Angela's Ashes to create a box just like the main character. We studied this book in depth and created a project to demonstrate our understanding. These examples are ways my teachers implemented IBL and show that when students are involved, we not only remember what we learned, but the strategies we used to seek the information. 1. How do we work IBL in our system where we do have a scope and sequence and set expectations? 2. Where is the balance in IBL and teaching necessary information students need to learn?
 * 1.** IBL is an approach to teaching in a more constructivist way. Its foundation to have student seek knowledge and information through exploration and questioning. It involves the physical, emotional, and the cognitive. As the world becomes smaller and information is readibly available, this approach stresses the "How to Learn" versus memorizing and learning particular information. It also works on collaboration among the students and stresses the importance and high interest material to seek.
 * 2. An old adage states: "Tell me and I forget, show me and I remember, involve me and I understand."**
 * Questions and Comments:**

I do like IBL, but I worry if students with special needs will excel at this approach or feel lost. I think it is important to teach them how to learn as that is a priority in my classroom. If they learn the how, then I believe everything else will come into place. Memorizing information is difficult for most of my students and the exploration will allow these students to gain and seek information along with their peers that is both meaningful and interesting.