Reflective+Journal+Week+6+Inquiry-based+Learning

Inquiry-based learning produces independent thinking. I think this style of teaching and learning environment is critical to the 21st Century Student. We want to evolve our teaching to meet the needs of student's in this constantly changing society. Our students need to learn to think critically, ask questions and solve real world problems in which they are interested in. Once the students become active learners and involved in what they are doing, they develop skills needed to become inquiry based learners. I found the elementary poster on the front page of this article very inspiring. So often, we find students being asked to memorize, comprehend and answer multiple choice questions on high stake tests. I wonder how long they retain the information after the test? When I read the section on barriers that face inquiry-based learning and learning environments, a few stood out. The lack of quality resources is our districts first barrier. As mentioned in the article, we need to have access to technology to obtain knowledge "with little effort", as the students do also. Also, the lack of time for planning. It seems like our planning time is always taken by administrators and/or committee mtgs. We need to have uninterupted plan time to plan inquiry based lessons. Our district focusses way too much on test scores. WHAT THE KIDS KNOW INSTEAD OF HOW THEY COME TO KNOW IT (Disney Leaning Partnership workshop material). Amanda, You are so insightful. Great Job