Inquiry-Based Teaching in Life Sciences

What is IBL?

Self reflection tool 

Example of classroom impementation

The initial situation is presented to the class in the form of a challenge: supposedly isolated in a hostile environment, the students have no fuel left to find help. They have to feed themselves and have enough material left to burn as fuel. Their resources are reduced to one package of nuts and one package of wheat noodles. The challenge is how to get the most energy from these foods.

The main pedagogical methods to encourage investigation in the classroom

• prepare an open challenge
• manage time, space, ways of working
• encourage independance
• allow students to take ownership of the problem
• become aware of the students' state of thinking
• organize the ways in which the students communicate
• welcome ideas in neutral way
• structure the inquiry
• when interacting with small groups: ask open-ended questions, guide students thinking
• refocus students' thinking
• ask for clarification
• vary the organization of the sessions
• build students confidence
• value errors
• allow trial and error testing
• encourage quantification
• encourage note-taking
• allow time for communication of results
• prepare results sharing
• articulate investigation with more traditional teaching methods
• explain elements of the scientific approach

Very useful tips and advice on how to manage an IBSE project with your students

from Laura Matthys, agronomist engineer who is in charge of theScience Expo project of the Jeunesses Scientifiques organization in Belgium

                                      

Thinking includes a number of important elements that a facilitator can model and encourage to provide forward movement in a discussion. The facilitator is there to provide positive cognitive interventions that help move the discussion forward.

During the discussion, the facilitator needs to be aware of opportunities to focus attention on the key elements of thinking.

These include:

Questioning – asking good questions to provide a focus for the inquiry.

Reasoning – requesting reasons or evidence to support arguments and judgements.

Defining – clarifying concepts through making connections, distinctions and comparisons.

Speculating – generating ideas and alternative viewpoints through imaginative thinking.

Testing for truth – gathering information, evaluating evidence, examples and counterexamples.

Expanding ideas – sustaining and extending lines of thought and argument.

Summarising – abstracting key points or general rules from a number of ideas or instances.

Strategies to extend and develop student thinking include:

Thinking time – encourage pauses for thought or some moments of quiet meditation on a topic. Remember to provide at least 3 seconds thinking time after you have asked a question and 3 seconds thinking time after a child gives an answer.

Think—pair—share – allow individual thinking time for a question, invite discussion of the question with a partner, then open up for class discussion.

Ask follow-ups – ask students to extend or qualify what they said by asking questions that challenge their thinking, such as ’Why?’, ‘Do you agree or disagree?’, ’Can you say more?’, ’Can you give an example?’, ’Describe how you arrived at that answer’.

Withhold judgement – respond to student answers in a non-evaluative way, e.g. a positive but neutral response such as ‘Thank you’, ‘Ok’, ‘That’s interesting’, ‘A-ha’, ‘I see’.

Invite the whole group to respond – encourage a response from the whole group by saying things such as; ‘How many people agree/disagree with that point of view?’ (hands/thumbs up, down or to side). You can also ask questions such as ‘Having heard that, what questions might we ask?’

Ask for a summary – promote active listening by asking for a summary of what has been said, e.g. ‘Could you summarise Kim’s point?’, ‘Can you explain what Jane has just said?’, ‘Can you tell me the arguments so far?’

Play devil’s advocate – challenge students to give reasons for their views by presenting opposing points of view, or by asking students to be devil’s advocates, e.g., ‘Who can think of a different point of view / an argument against that?’

Invite a range of responses – model open-mindedness by inviting students to consider different viewpoints: ‘There is no single correct answer to this question. I want you to consider alternatives’.

Encourage student questioning – invite students to ask their own questions before/during and/or after discussion. ’Does anyone have a question about what has been said?’, etc.

(from Fisher R, ‘Teaching Thinking’, Cassell 1998)

There is a wide range of writing strategies that can be used in learning and teaching processes. These activities can generally be grouped into three groups according to the affective and cognitive engagement:

Poetic writing can be defined as the language of novels and poems. The aim of writing poetry is to separate yourself from action and to think reflectively about experiences and feelings.

Expressive writing both includes information and reflections about that information. Since expressive writing is usually done informally, without concern for the judgment of others, the writer may concentrate on making connections with prior knowledge, clarifying understanding, and otherwise “explaining the matter to oneself” (Britton et al., 1975, p. 28). Because expressive writing can be a very powerful tool for associating concepts with language, it has come to be known as writing to learn (Connally, 1989).

Transactional writing, which is mostly used by science writers, is characterized by the voice of the participant in action. Transactional forms of writing have often been called “writing to inform” or “writing to communicate” (Freisinger, 1980).

The experimenter report is a tool that helps teachers to document, reflect and share their IBSE activity. Teachers document their implementation of an IBSE lesson in an online space to which both students and teacher have access, and on which peer feedback can be provided by other teachers.