Author // Mary Rowland Friday, 17 May 2019
Using the inquiry process can help you transition from a teacher-centered to a student-centered classroom. Each stage of the process challenges students to build upon the cognitive skills necessary to problem-solve, apply their learning, and deepen their content knowledge.
Each stage of the inquiry process is equally important and necessary to foster an environment where students are engaged and leave with both the knowledge and the skills to learn and grow, regardless of the challenge or content.
At every stage, both teachers and students need to:
Reflection and evaluation are often used interchangeably. However, in the inquiry process reflection is defined as giving serious thought or consideration, while evaluation is a more systematic determination of worth or significant value. For example, a test might be used to evaluate prior knowledge, while a teacher might reflect on how best to introduce a topic based on the results of that test.
As Barbara Stripling shares in her article Inquiry: Inquiring Minds Want to Know, reflecting on both the process and the depth of content learned solidifies the learning process for the student. Stripling highlights reflection, which is often rushed and ignored, as one of the most powerful steps to increasing student growth.
Teaching reflection as a skill requires structured time built into lesson plans and activities. This time is meaningful and has a profound impact on student learning. In Making the Shift Maniotes and Kuhlthau point out that as students reflect on the strategies they used to overcome challenges during the inquiry process, they learn to apply these strategies next time they encounter similar challenges during the inquiry process.
Through reflection, students learn how to self-diagnose problems and "faulty strategies," another powerful benefit of the reflection as Marion and Eisenberg highlight in their article Beyond the Research Project: Inquiry Every Day in Every Way. The ability to diagnose and adapt previous strategies to new challenges is a powerful skill. Reflection allows students the time and space to develop and hone this skill.
INFOhio Resources on Reflecting
Reflecting in Practice
Although students might want to rush to the finish line on a project, encourage time for thoughtful reflection with these resources curated by INFOhio!
Are you satisfied with your project? How can you do better in the future? These might sound like simple questions, but are not so quickly answered. Teach your students how to reflect on the research process using lessons from Research 4 Success: Unit 6 Making the Grade.
Conclusion
As Stripling reminds us, "all research is messy and recursive." Self-reflection is challenging and can be uncomfortable, but by providing safe, supportive environments for students to reflect on their learning and their performance, we create space for personal and academic growth. By reflecting on our teaching practice, we learn to plan time in our lessons for our students to engage in reflection, perhaps the most vital part of the inquiry process. By doing so, we create a unique opportunity to grow alongside our students.
How do you support your students as they reflect upon their learning and performance? Follow us on social media and share, tweet, and post how #INFOhioWorks for you and your students
Mary Rowland is a Senior Instructional Specialist with INFOhio. A former high school English teacher with 14 years of teaching experience, Mary is an accomplished leader who facilitated professional development in her previous district on integrating web-based tools into the classroom, Google Apps for Education, and writing across the curriculum. During her career, Mary mentored student teachers and served on both the district and building leadership committees. She has earned a BA in English, an MS in Education: Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment, and is a Google Certified Educator Level 2. Mary is passionate about supporting INFOhio’s mission to help Ohio’s educators integrate the tools and resources to strengthen education for Ohio’s students.
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