Chapter Five Reflection

1.    How can I get my students to ask questions about the research they are conducting?

To get students to ask questions about their research, I feel like they have to understand of what they are doing.  I spoke about this in the last post as well.  When a teacher develops Think Sheets this allows the students to have an idea about what information they should be questioning and thinking. I think, as a teacher, we have to set up the classroom environment so the students are comfortable with asking questions.  If you have provided a Think Sheet with questions to think about and have developed a connection with you students, the student will become engaged in learning more about what they are researching.  The students will form curiosity about this topic, and will ask more questions to seek information.

2.    How can I teach my students to solve problems?

You have to walk the students through the steps of the NTeQ Problem-Solving Process (p. 134-140):

1)    Define the Problem

·         Peak the student interest in the problem

·         The teacher verbalize the problem

·         Students show understanding by being able to come up with a common definition for the problem

2)    Identify what is known about the problem

·         Students create a list of what they know about the problem

·         Teacher can guide students to make a KWL table or provide a Planning Think Sheet.

3)    Identify what needs to know to solve the problem

·         Student predict what information they may need to solve the problem

·         Again continue to use KWL table

4)    Identify data that need to be collected to solve the problem

·         Action plan for what data is needed and how to collect it

·         What is needed to solve the problem?

5)    Determine how the data needs to manipulated to solve the problem

·         Students review the problem

·         Data analyze if focused on finding the answer to the problem

6)    Generate possible solution

·         Examine results of data analysis

·         Come up with several ways to solve the problem

·         Performance Think Sheet is helpful at this stage

7)    Determine how evaluate each solution

·         Use important criteria to evaluate possible soultions

8)    Select the best solution

9)    Present finding

·         Students decide what information to present, bsed off what information is critical to understanding the problem and solving the issue.

The teacher adapt the model has needed to fit the students.  I think that special education student could complete this process, but it would require additional time and support to complete.  The student would have to go through the process many times before remembering the steps to solve the problems presented.

3.    I’ve never used a inquiry-based approach, much less computers-so how is a teacher supposed to do both of these at one time?

Inquiry-based learning is centered on the teacher asking a question and student engage in series if problem solving activities to reach the solution.  The teacher is the facilitator and provides student with information to solve the problem (p. 12).  The teacher being able to integrate computer is a way for students to research the given material, to solve the answer.  The only difference I see is the fact the information is just found on the computer and may be presented on the computer compared to directly handing the students the information and them writing the answer with pencil and paper.  It would be hard work to change lesson over to inquiry learning approach, but change it to include computer might take a little more research on the teacher’s part.  I feel that the inquiry-based learning and including computers in the lesson fit well together.