Using Guided Inquiry in the High School Chemistry Classroom

1
Using Guided Inquiry in the High School Chemistry
Classroom

• Scott Seiple
• Shelley Baker
• University of Pennsylvania
• Penn Science Teacher Institute

2
The Need for a New Approach

• Traditional lecture not optimal for most learners
• Positive students attitudes are associated with
• a high level of involvement
• strong positive relationships with classmates
• use of variety of teaching strategies

3
The Need for a New Approach

• Lectures are often highly symbolic and neglect
  the particle and macroscopic nature of chemistry.

4
Why Guided Inquiry?

• Positive students attitudes.
• Opportunity to use all three levels of
  representation.
• Guided Inquiry supports both of these
  instructional considerations.

5
What is Guided Inquiry?

• Based on POGIL model developed at Franklin and
  Marshall College.
• Information/data provided by the instructor can
  be in many forms.
• Students work in small groups to solve questions
  that lead students to reach conclusions about the
  data.

6
What is Guided Inquiry?

• Students must connect information to background
  knowledge.
• Questions being asked become sequentially more
  difficult (modeling Blooms Taxonomy) - critical
  thinking.
• Knowledge
• Application
• Analysis/Synthesis

7
Benefits of Guided Inquiry ?

• Allows for easy and rapid formative assessment of
  student understanding.
• Simulates the scientific process.

8
Benefits of Guided Inquiry ?

• Addresses National Standards ? Deeper
  understanding of content, not just memorization
  of facts.
• Builds science literacy

9
Benefits of Guided Inquiry ?

• Has high task value.
• In a well-constructed guided inquiry exercise
  students will
• Gain an understanding of the importance of the
  concept
• Comprehend the utility of the concept
• Find the topic to be interesting.

10
Use in the classroom

• Guided inquiry exercises have become part of the
  instructional practice toolbox, but are not
  necessarily used everyday.
• Desired outcomes may not be evident at first.
• Use needs to be consistent.

11
Use in the classroom

• Requires active teacher involvement.
• Monitor groups.
• Provide additional guidance, but be careful not
  to give too much away.
• Ask additional questions to challenge student
  understanding.

12
Use in the classroom

• Review questions and answers as a whole group.
• The frequency and method for doing this depends
  upon the audience.
• Maintains student focus.
• Provides needed feedback and reassurance to
  students.

13
Outcomes
14
Conclusions

• This approach can get old for students and should
  not be over-used. Vary the tools.
• Some students may get hidden in the group.
• Some students just want to know the answers and
  not value the process.
• You still may not be sure of a students level of
  understanding before a summative assessment.

15
Conclusions

• Requires purposeful grouping.
• Initial preparation/development is time
  consuming.
• Authentically forces students to assume
  accountability for their own learning.
• If the goal is deeper understanding be sure you
  are accessing for deeper understanding.

16
Guided Inquiry

• Questions and Discussion.

17
References