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Inquiry Based Learning and Language Teaching

Inquiry Based Learning and Language Teaching

Feride ONAN

An English Teacher

ferish_86@hotmail.com

Abstract

This study aims to describe what Inquiry Based Learning (IBL) is and the role of IBL in language teaching in the light of the recent developments so that teachers can realise the importance of IBL in language teaching and use it as a part of their teaching method effectively in their teaching situations. Characteristics of IBL, guided inductive inquiry and questioning techniques for inquiry teaching are also defined.

Key words: Inquiry Based Learning, Inductive Inquiry, Language teaching, Questioning, Autonomy.

1. Inquiry Based Learning

"Tell me and I forget,

Show me and I remember,

Involve me and I understand."

1.0. Introduction: The Definition of Inquiry

“Inquiry in its most simplistic form is to ask others to make their thinking process visible and asking for help in seeing any gaps or limits in our thinking” (Smith, 1987). It is an old technique. Considering ancient Western culture, Socrates, Aristotle and Plato were all masters of the inquiry processes. That heritage has given us modes of teaching in which students are vitally involved in the learning and creating processes.

1.1. The Origins of Inquiry Based Learning

Inquiry has always been a part of education as a pedagogical method. Orlich et al. (1990) states that it predates Socrates and his way of leading students to self-knowledge through agressive questioning. J. Richard Suchman is accepted to be the originator of an inquiry teaching program that was widely used throughout the United States and he once said "inquiry is the way people learn when they are left alone.” That is, he developed inquiry training to teach students a process for investigating and explaning unusual phenomena. Based on a conception of scientific method, it attempts to teach students some of the skills and language of scholarly inquiry (Suchman, 1962). Meanwhile, John Dewey’s reform of the educational system led to the first inquiry-based learning methods in the United States. Dewey advocated child-centered learning based on real-world experiences. As a result, these efforts seriously attempted to turn the traditional approach into the learning through investigation with a spotlight on developing reasoning abilities.

1.2. A Brief Explanation of Inquiry Based Learning

Inquiry Based Learning is a student-centered approach to learning that encourages students to create personal knowledge by questioning. It leads the students to ask questions and make discoveries. That is, inquiry teaches us how to learn independently. According to the type of learning of Dewey, as mentioned by Tompkins (Dewey cited in Tompkins, 2001 : 32), " What children know and what they want to learn are not just constraints on what can be taught, they are the very foundation for learning". Tompkins (2001) goes on saying that the following four primary interests of the child are still appropriate starting points:

1) the child’s instinctive desire to find things out

2) in conversation: the propensity children have to communicate

3) in construction: their delight in making things

4) in their gifts of artistic expression.

People may think that these are the natural resources but, as Dewey (1942, p. 46) recognized “Schooling is not just about the individual. It is the coming together of the child’s interests with those of the society ".

Inquiry Based Learning can be used with children of all ages, but lower level students may have some difficulties in this style of learning. For very young learners, the content of the problem should be simplified in order for this approach to be more useful so that they can handle the inquiry process itself (Suchman, 1962). It is more advicable to use this approach with the higher level students since older students are better able to handle the inquiry process. Moreover, Orlich et al. (1990) point out that this approach is widely used in teaching science, because inquiry experiences can provide valuable opportunities for students to improve their understanding of both science content and scientific practices although inquiry learning can be applied to all disciplines. Also, it shouldn’t be forgotten that further support for the use of IBL comes from the strong theoretical underpinnings of the approach including constructivism, problem based learning, project based learning and the like.

The process of inquiring (see Table 1) begins with the teacher selecting a problem or a puzzling situation to the learner. Once a problem has been selected, the teacher conducts research on the problem. Then, s/he explains the process to the class and present the problem. The students gather data by questioning and they develop a theory. If the class accepts the theory as a solution, it is verified. After this step, the students explain the theory and state the rules associated with it. Afterwards, the students are expected to analyze the process to see how they can form more effective questioning techniques. Finally, the teacher tests to determine whether the students have understood the theory and whether they are able to generalize the rules to other situations or not.

Table 1 : The Process of Inquiry

Select a Problem and Conduct Research

Introduce the Process and Present the Problem

Gather Data

Develop a Theory and Verify

Explain the Theory and State the Rules

Analyze the Process

Evaluate

1.3. Characteristics of Inquiry Based Learning

Inquiry Based Learning is completely different from the traditional approaches in which not students but the teacher is in the center of the learning. It certainly requires a greater time than traditional teaching methods.

As mentioned by Preskill and Torres (1999), the following are the characteristics of Inquiry Based Learning:

• IBL focuses students’ inquiry on questions that are challenging, debatable and difficult to solve.
• It teaches students specific procedures, strategies, or processes essential to the attempts at answering the focus questions.
• It structures lessons to include opportunities for students to access information that is crucial to the inquiry.
• It structures the lessons so that students have opportunities to work with peers.
• It sequences a series of activities and lessons so that they work together involving students toward a general goal.
• It builds into lessons the opportunities for performance.
• It involves students in the process of deriving standards for performance.
• It relies on authentic assessment of learning.

1.4. Inductive Inquiry

Inductive Inquiry is a process that allows the students to observe specifics and then infer generalizations about the entire group of particulars. Orlich et al.(1990, p. 281) make a similar explanation of it in the following way: " Inductive Inquiry is a method that teachers use when they present sets of data or situations and then ask the students to infer a conclusion, generalization, or a pattern of relationships". Inductive Inquiry may be approached in at least two different ways: guided and unguided. Lee S. Shulman and Pinchas Tamir (1973) provided a classic, easy-to-use matrix illustrating that if the teacher wishes to provide the basic elements of the lesson –that is, the specifics– but wants the students to make the generalizations, then the teacher is conducting a guided inductive lesson. If the teacher decides to allow the students to provide the cases and to make the generalizations, the process may be labeled unguided inductive inquiry.

1.4.1. Guided Inductive Inquiry

Guided Inductive Inquiry is a type of Inquiry Based Learning. When this inquiry type is used, students work independently to determine the methods that can be applied to successfully investigate a problem posed by the teacher. That is, deductive teaching gradually turns into the teaching less structured and more open to alternative solutions. In this inquiry type, the teacher provides the basic elements of the lesson – with the help of pictures or by writing them on cards – and then wants the students to make the generalizations. For students to be able to make generalizations, the teacher should ask simple questions such as ‘Where have we seen before?’ since these kinds of questions require them to do the generalizing rather than the teacher’s simply presenting the generalization.

1.5. Questioning Strategies for Inquiry Teaching

“We really want children to be explorers and investigators and we want them to try to dictate for themselves what the problem they should be exploring is and what ways they are going to go about exploring that problem.”

“Dr. Thomas M. Dana, Pennysylvania State University”

According to Mary Alice Gunter, Thomas H. Estes & Jan Schwab (2003), as children grow, they inevitably get the idea that becoming a grown-up means leaving the world of questioning for the world of knowing. Gunter et al. also think that schools institutionalize the departure from questions to answers since success becomes measured by putting the right answer into the blank or circling the correct response, knowing positively what is true and what is false. In short, almost all questions at school have one right answer, but unfortunately the questions having no answer do not often arise. “The basic formula for good teaching is to present facts to students and then encourage them to think and ask questions of the data” (Walter Bateman, 1990). What is important is to ask the right question. For this reason, a teacher should know how to use the most important tools s/he has - that is, questions – strategically.

According to Christensen (1991), some types of questions limit learning whereas other questions encourage learning (see Table 2). Probing questions offering a forced choice may be less effective than probing questions remaining open. For ex., asking ‘ Is that because of A or B ?’ is usually less effective than ‘ What led you to that conclusion ?’.

Table 2: Questions That Limit and Support Learning

Questions that limit learning Questions that support learning

You agree, don’t you? Do you have a different idea?

Is that because of X or Y? What led you to that conclusion?

So you think X? (active listening ) What evidence from the case leads you to that statement?

Don’t you agree with John Doe? What is your concern?

I think you are totally wrong about that I think it is X because of Y and Z evidence.

Do you have a different interpretation?

Questions can be used for various purposes. One of the most important purposes is to engage students in inquiry. This also involves creating interest, generating curiosity, assessing prior knowledge and raising questions to initiate inquiry. Responding strategically to student ideas is another important point in using questions. The way the teacher responds to student ideas during the inquiry process affects the students. By using three main ways, teachers can respond strategically to student ideas: accepting student responses, extending student responses, probing student responses (see Table 3).

Table 3: Questioning Strategies for Inquiry Teaching

1. Using Questions to Engage Students in Inquiry

a) Creating Motivation and Interest

b) Questioning to Assess Prior Knowledge

c) Questioning to Initiate Inquiry

2. Responding Strategically to Student Ideas

a) Accepting Student Responses

b) Extending Student Responses

c) Probing Student Responses

1. 6. Sample Activities for Inquiry Teaching

Building on a highly complicated background, the pedagogical implications of IBL could be seen as an underlying principle of the lesson plan of a teacher. It provides students the opportunity to construct the understanding necessary to supply deeper learning. Some examples for science education and a useful activity that will help you are presented in this section.

Table 4: Examples for Science Education

Ex. 1)

Course : physics

Aim : To make learners formulate their own ideas.

Action : Discussing if it is a good idea to continue to develop and build new nuclear power plants?

Ex. 2)

Course : earth science

Aim : To enable them to find things out on their own, and to generate hypothesis

Action : Letting learners interpreting a set of dinosaur footprints, and generate several alternative hypotheses to explain the pattern of the prints.

Ex. 3)

Course : biology

Aim : To elicit them to analyze data

Action : Taking students on a field trip to collect leaves from different trees. Students are asked to create a classification system using the leaves.

Ex. 4)

Course : chemistry

Aim : To make them gain the ability for problem solving, making inferences, generating hypothesis, drawing conclusions

Action : Giving students an unknown substance, and asking them to use scientific tests to determine the composition of the material.

In each of the above situations, the teacher creates a situation in the classroom in which students are asked to formulate their own ideas, state their opinion on a significant issue, or to find things out on their own, as it happens in the life itself. It differentiates from traditional teaching model in that the teacher engages students to learn science information or skills. In each of the above scenarios, the student is encouraged to ask questions, analyze specimens or data, draw conclusions, make inferences, or generate hypotheses. In a nutshell, the student is viewed as an inquirer, a seeker of information, and a problem solver, which is the heart of the inquiry model of teaching.

Sample Activity:

In a language teaching class depending on IBL, an instructor composes a problem statement in order for the students to think about it, do research and solve that problem. The students’ task is to discover why Shaltoonians’ physical appearance does not change while they become different people every day in terms of all the other things. As the students conduct their inquiry, the instructor answer the students’ questions by following a fact sheet that gives the teacher further information about the problem. More detailed information about the activity is presented below step by step.

Table 5: Information about the Activity

Level: Intermediate upwards Duration: 40 minutes

Skill(s) and language Targeted: Research, Speaking

Aim: To urge students to do research, To teach them to learn on their own

Students Need to Know: Intermediate level language competencies

Source: Feride Onan,2007

Techniques: Asking questions, encouraging the students for reasoning and questioning on a problem and/or an ethical situation, and lead them to do so through an identified procedure.

Before the activity: In order to prepare the students to the activity, the teacher should ask them whether they have read the Kurt Vonnegut’s book and if there is someone who has read it, she asks her ideas about the book. If no one has read it, then the teacher should mention what it is about shortly.

Table 6: Procedure of the Activity

Step 1

An English teacher selects a discrepant event on Chapter 6 of Kurt Vonnegut’s “Venus on the Half Shell” and she formulates the following problem situation:

1. “Simon, a space traveler from Earth, visited the planet Shaltoon. He was disconcerted to find that the Shaltoonians had different voices and personalities every day. Apparently, they were different people every day, except for their physical appearance, which remained unchanged .”

Step 2

The teacher reads the short excerpt above from the book to present the problem to the students. The students are asked to explain the principle behind the unusual phenomenon.

Step 3

The students gather data about what may cause the Shaltoonians to be different people every day and they ask questions to their teacher. One important point here is that the questions which students ask should be the ones that the teacher can respond with only ‘Yes’ or ‘No’.

Step 5

The students explain their theory.

Step 6

1. They also explain the reasons for their developing such a theory.

Step 7

The teacher tests to determine if the students have understood the theory.

At the end of the lesson, learners review the process and get to a conclusion. Namely, the problem has been solved and all the students have been active in this course of action. This activity shows IBL enables the students to be at the interior side of their learning through inquisition. Also, studies carried out in this field indicate that learners achieve autonomy with the help of inquiry and their learning become more permanent.

2. Conclusion: The Evaluation of Inquiry Based Learning

IBL provides the students with a learning environment in which they are at the center of their learning. In this respect, it plays a very important role in language teaching. In IBL, it is easy to find such an environment because, in this type of learning, people ask some questions stemming from their curiosity and they search for answers to these questions through inquiry. That is, they learn on their own. In fact, it is the only thing that makes learning permanent.

Although it plays a very important role in language teaching, it is not used so much because there are few people who know it. To increase the use of IBL, there are many things to do. Firstly, teachers should be aware of the importance of IBL and use it in their lessons so that their learning can be more permanent. Secondly, they should always encourage the students to inquire and motivate them to do it. Then, students should be given research works or any other opportunities that will lead them to inquire. Finally, teachers should always guide the students.

However, some criticisms stand against IBL. Some teachers expressed concern that there was a neglect of traditional skills; and there was a fairly widespread public concern that the students should actually be exposed to diverse perspectives and be involved in inquiry that examined the basics tenets of our culture (Dow, 1975; Conlan, 1975). This shows IBL has not been adapted by some teachers yet. Kliebard (1986) proposes that, as with Bruner's MACOS curriculum, teachers and the community felt uncomfortable with the lack of a well-defined content that students will "have" when they leave school, and thus the inquiry approach became increasingly constrained by detailed content specifications.

It is clear that the inquiry approach, when properly implemented, can result in students involving lessons actively. For that reason, language teaching and teacher training programs must include inquiry based activities and take IBL into consideration in order to show teachers how to use inquiry successfully.

2.1. Why should Inquiry Based Learning be used in language teaching?

After all the theoretical information, it would be better to explain the reasons for using this approach in order for you to be convinced that it is really necessary to benefit from this teaching style in language teaching. The reasons are given below with their explanations in order for them to be more understandable.

1) IBL incorporates principles of good learning and teaching.

It is student-directed, fosters intrinsic motivation, and promotes active learning and deep learning. It draws on students' existing knowledge, encourages reflection on the teaching/learning process and develops collegial learning skills. Since the process involves timely feedback, it can support teacher trainees’ self-assessment and peer-assessment. That is, these students are developing knowledge within a context, and also developing skills in deploying their new knowledge. In this way, teacher trainees are developing transferable skills that are valuable to their life after formal education.

2) IBL mirrors professional social work practice.

It is clear that group work not only assists teacher trainees to develop good interpersonal skills but also prepares them for the co-operative teamwork essential to social work and interdisciplinary work settings. Namely, the approach is readily recognised by practice teachers that teach and assess students on practice placements as promoting the links between practice and theory. This shows us how much IBL is important in language teaching.

3) IBL is consistent with the University's Learning and Teaching Strategy.

It is useful to be able to relate teaching to case scenarios. It enables to apply theory to practice. What is more, this emphasises vocational relevance, employability and life-long learning; the promotion of active learning and the encouragement of reflection on learning and teaching.

Key Implications of IBL for Teachers

• Bringing life into the classroom

1. Thinking about and discussing life-like situations

2. Placing an interest as a teaser campaign does

• Autonomy

1. Self-access projects

2. Letting students work on the activities on their own

• Questioning

1. Socratic-Questioning
2. Increasing curiosity

• Process-based evaluation

1. Portfolios
2. Holistic grading

REFERENCES

• Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L., & Cocking, R. R. (Eds.). (1999). How People Learn : Brain,Mind ,Experience ,and School. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

• Carlin, A. A., Bass, J. E., & Contant, T. L. (2005). Methods for Teaching Science as Inquiry. New Jersey: Pearson – Merril Prentice Hall.

• Gunter, M. A., Estes, T. H., & Schwab, J. (2003). Instruction : A Models Approach. USA: Pearson Education.

• Joyce, B.& Weil, M. (1992). Models of Teaching. New York: Oxford Press.

• Orlich, D. C., Harder, R. J., Callahan, R. C., Kauchak, D. P., Pendergrass, R. A., Keogh, A.J., & Gibson, H. (1990). Teaching Strategies : A Guide to Better Instruction. Lexington: D. C. Heath and Company.

• Peelle, H. E. (2006). Appreciative inquiry and creative problem solving in cross functional teams. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science. 4, 42-447.

• Tompkins, T. C. (2001). Using Advocacy and Inquiry to Improve the Thinking Process of Future Managers. Journal of Applied Behavioral and Science. 5, 25-553.

• Yager, R. E., Abd-Hamid, N. H., & Akçay, H. (2005). The effects of varied inquiry experiences on teacher and student questions and actions in STS classrooms. Bulletin of Science Technology Society. 5, 25-426.

About the Author

Hi, i am an English Teacher in Düzce in Turkey. I have written this paper when i was a teacher trainee in Gazi University. I hope you will enjoy it.
FERİDE ONAN