Learning by Inquiry: Life Sciences

This course is designed to provide pre-service elementary teachers with the necessary tools, knowledge and motivation to teach elementary students basic biological science concepts. In this course students will be expected to integrate major biological themes and understand how the topics covered in the course fulfill the National Science Education Standards (NSES) and the Michigan Curriculum Framework (MCF). 

Students will also become familiar with inquiry-based learning as described in the "Teaching For Understanding model" used in the University of Michigan-Dearborn's School of Education. 

What is Learning by Inquiry?

One of the primary goals of this class is to provide you with the experience of learning through the inquiry process rather than through traditional lecture and laboratory experiences.  Throughout this course you will construct your understanding of the process-oriented guided inquiry methodology of science teaching.

Teaching methodologies can be arranged on the basis of relative amounts of teacher and learner contribution to the learning situation. At one end of the spectrum is the expository method which is centered on the teacher as the controller of the class and the imparter of knowledge. At the other end is the free discovery method which is characterized by students exploring subjects of their own interest in ways most comfortable to them. The teacher is the facilitator.

Somewhere near the center of the spectrum is a broad band representing the guided inquiry method. In guided inquiry, a teacher facilitates student investigations of teacher-established topics in ways that are comfortable to a student and that also stimulates a student to ask and investigate additional questions suggested by the original explorations. Guided inquiry involves learning by doing.

                         Figure 1. The spectrum of teaching methods

As illustrated in Figure 1, these three teaching methods represent a continuum, from a hypothetical totally teacher-dominated expository on the left to a hypothetical totally student-dominated free discovery method on the right, with guided inquiry between them. Any given lesson can be located somewhere on this continuum, depending on the relative degree of expository and discovery activities in the lesson.

At first, this type of learning may seem uncomfortable and strange to you. Keep in mind that studies have been done to show that students retain knowledge better if they explore and learn the concepts in an inquiry method. Your instructors will suggest open-ended activities that you will pursue to find out what you are able to find out, inquire into what you don't understand and develop your own conclusions as you construct your own conceptualizations. The course will be hands-on and laboratory in focus and typically feature small groups of students working together. Students will work to construct meanings and discover concepts that are new to them. Your text book is to be used as a reference guide for valuable information.

Keep in mind that although a lot of the activities we will be doing may be aimed at the "elementary level", you will be responsible for explaining concepts at the "college level".

The inquiry method requires that you take responsibility for your own learning. The instructors are available as resources and guides, but not as the ultimate conveyors of knowledge that must be memorized. This may be unfamiliar and even uncomfortable to you at the beginning of the course, but hopefully you will see that this is a powerful instructional method and results in a deep learning that is useful and will be retained. Our ultimate goal is that you will use the inquiry method in your own classrooms.