Inductive Inquiry
During an awesome opportunity for a free PD with Rachel French, the discussion of inductive inquiry in the concept-based classroom was discussed. It was such a pleasure to hear other educators and leaders in the field validate my own feelings of how a truly meaningful inquiry can take place within the classroom. Inductive inquiry is letting students make generalizatoins and collect data and information throughout the unit and then making conclusions. It’s a more authentic way to help students grasp an understanding and moves away from the old model of “I, the teacher, have all the knowledge that I will bestow upon you, the students”, and instead allows us all to go through a learning journey together in a collaborative fashion.
The teacher is the keeper of the knowledge when we present the conclusions upfront in a deductive inquiry model.
After observing and teaching in different IB PYP classrooms there was always this idea of presenting the central idea up front and unpacking it with your students. It was usually told to me by coordinators and even IB trainers as the best way to begin a unit. Mentors and co-workers (who I know felt similar to me- but hey this is what the IB says right…) would ask how unpacking the central idea had gone and it always rubbed me the wrong way. If we are going to be inquiring into an idea why am I telling my students the conclusion up front? Why am I the maker of the conclusion? I know I have ideas and concepts I need to expose the students to, and I know there are understandings and connections that I want to them to make as an educator and as a professional following a curriculum with standards. However, why would I rob my students, and myself for that matter, of where an inquiry could lead? Or why would I miss out on NEW ideas and thinking that may occur by giving them my conclusion first?
This is why a discussion on inductive inquiry was so refreshing to me. We can start with a general question of what we may be exploring and ask our students what they know or think about it already. This is a lovely place to start the journey with some visible thinking tools and allow students to show where they are in their understandings already. It’s a wonderful place to start with collecting what experiential knowledge is coming into the class, questions, and misconceptions we are starting out with. Then from this data that students share they can start leading what they want to explore more. As we work our way through different experiences we keep discussing what we have found as we move forward. What do we think now?
As we get towards the end of our unit we can formulate what was the central idea around all the learning we have done. What do the students think was the central idea? Don’t have your predetermined idea on standby to say- “Oh well done you got it right!” This isn’t a test to see if they could find your predetermined answer. This is a collaborative learning opportunity. Of course, we know where we wanted the exploration to go- and maybe we will find that it indeed did go as we thought, or perhaps it will go somewhere even better than we had intended. Perhaps the understanding was deeper than our grade-level expectations at the beginning. Or perhaps a new avenue was explored because of current events or interests unique to the students in our class that day.
When using an inductive strategy collaborative learning is authentic and new understandings can be a consequence for all.
A discussion was had in the PD session and many of us educators there had the misconception that sharing the central idea upfront was IB mandated. Nowhere is it required by the IB to share a central idea before starting a Unit of Inquiry. I am looking forward to next school year to use this strategy and see what central ideas we decide upon collaboratively after we have had some time to play around with the concepts and make our own generalizations.
