Guidelines and Goals of Observation- Ethnographic Eyes

"Ethnography helped us ask critical questions about supervision, classroom observations, lesson plans, reflections, interviews, data collection, and case studies" (Frank, 2)

In order to fully embrace inquiry learning, I plan to approach my classroom observations with an inquiry based model of ethnographic observations. I will become a learner in the classrooms, rather than simply an observer. My questions, observations, and inferences will help to grow and develop my own understanding of inquiry in the classroom and increase my own experience with the learning model.

What to look for?

• patterns and routines that impact the learning community
• student's role, and how it changes with the topic, lesson, and time
• teacher's role, how and when questions are asked to further student learning
• "suspend judgement" in order to take in authentic information from both student and teacher
• environmental factors that allow for inquiry to occur

Dewey's Suggestions... (177)

Serving as a rubric for my own observations and inferences

"It is organized as a social community; children are learning in the active setting of a miniature community"

"The social significance of subject matter is brought out in instruction"

"Children are involved in solving real problems, past and present. The subjects in the curriculum are integrated in the way that they work and are synthesized in the real world"

"Teachers confer frequently, informally and formally"

"Children are free to move around the room and seek help from others"

"The school takes advantage of cultural and educational institutions in the community to enrich the curriculum and children's lives"

"The children are happy"

Dewey's Laboratory School: Lessons for Today

"Always the spirit of service involved thinking, not just doing" (4)

In his analysis of his laboratory school, Dewey brings forward the importance of thinking in learning, rather than just learning by doing. This has shifted the language with which I associate inquiry learning. Prior to reading, the first think I think of with inquiry is 'doing'. Dewey makes it clear that this learning is actually most successfully described with the word 'thinking', connecting to making observations, inferences, and asking questions.

"Its purpose was not teaching but learning" (15)

Dewey's Ingredients and Conditions for Effective Inquiry (85-86)

Ingredients:

1. Lessons match students developmental level
2. Prep students to become citizens
3. Skills based on observation and inference

Conditions:

1. Student interest
2. Engaged thought
3. Increases new curiosity and questions
4. Time spent on effective development and connections

Big Ideas

• Students are learning and acting as effective, active, and involved citizens
• Cultivate skills to achieve this goal: problem solving, questioning, social/conversation (2-3)
• Big ideas > general knowledge of content
• Broad knowledge and citizen development connect strongly to the activation of culturally relevant teaching
• Students come to school without similar problem solving skills (3)
• Learning identifies commonalities in communities and groups of citizens
• Learning model impacts classroom community/dynamics and classroom management (122)
• Education which meets diverse needs, addressing each student's skills rather than mastery of specific content (129)
• Students think of themselves as learners, active and involved (161)
• Teachers learn theory before skill (165)
• Curriculum is infused with teaching and learning goals; pedagogy comes first (24, 31)
• Construction of lessons and activities
• Stimulus Response Theory- using student's interests as a tool (43)
• Construction of lesson plans allow students to approach and apply mathematics learning (70)
• problems are authentic and applied to student's lives
• Lessons and activities build on each other, not repeat (161)

Questions for Further Reading

How does inquiry address higher order thinking, beyond observation, inference, and questioning?

How does this model correlate with teaching organized bodies of knowledge?

How does our current curriculum and learning model in mathematics limit knowledge and experience?

How does math education become authentic and effectively applied?

What does learning in a circuit model look like?

Are these ingredients and condition currently applied in elementary math curriculum? Will I observe these conditions?

What is Inquiry?

Samantha Lee

Westfield State Elementary Education Student

Runner

Big Sister

Future Teacher

         When I become a classroom teacher, I want to encourage my students to be active in their learning. Learning by doing will encourage my students to retain important information and experiences. My classroom will be centered on student's experience, using effective questions to guide my students through discovery. 

Inquiry based activities give students an opportunity to take ownership of their learning, constructing knowledge through questioning and exploration. Lessons are student centered, holding each student to a high expectation of involvement and responsibility. An initial interest in an inquiry learning style developed early in my college education experience, sparking my desire to develop my own engaging teaching style. I believe that students should be immersed in their learning, asking questions and making discoveries in order to construct understanding. Based on my research, I hope to prove that inquiry is an effective method to reach these goals for student achievement. My work will uncover how teachers implement this style. As I research, I will search for techniques teachers use to ask expert questions and make decisions each moment about what questions will probe student’s thinking and abilities. A goal for my research is to determine what teacher skills are necessary to reach success within inquiry teaching. In addition, I will determine how student expectations and classroom communities impact the effectiveness of inquiry.

I hope that this research project will allow me the opportunity to discover effective methods and pedagogy that support inquiry based learning.

Photo Link: http://www.mrsplemonskindergarten.com/2014/09/positively-pinspiring-inquiry-and.html