A starting point
EBL represents a shift away from passive methods, which involve the transmission of knowledge to students, to more facilitative teaching methods through which students are expected to construct their own knowledge and understanding by engaging in supported processes of enquiry
What is Enquiry Based Learning?
• Enquiry Based Learning is a natural form of learning, borne out of our innate sense of curiosity and desire to understand
• It is generically applicable, and has grown from modelling learning in a number of subjects
Recognisable forms of EBL
• Design• Problem Based Learning• Case Based Learning• Field Trips• Dissertations, projects• Research
Active, student-centred, authentic, supported
• Learning driven by a process of enquiry or investigation• Involves complex, intriguing, authentic, stimuli
– Intentional– unintentional
• Student-centred• Requires action• Connects theory and practice• Supported process• Develops skills• Social • Enjoyable
Some ‘drivers’….
• Supports transition into and through Higher Education– Practice in a safe environment– Opportunities for reflection and review– Accommodates different learning styles– Socialises the learning and the learner
• Develops lifelong learning skills – information explosion
• Inter-professional and interdisciplinary learning• Promotes the links between teaching, learning and
research• Autonomy, employability, and professional body
requirements
Academic skills
• Research• Students determine and pursue THEIR OWN lines of enquiry
– Large scale enquiries- macro– Small scale enquiries- micro
• Information• They build on what they already know• They identify what information they need• They find, evaluate and use the information• They may communicate their learning to others
Intellectual skills
• Evaluation
• Synthesis
• Analysis
• Application
• Manipulation
• Knowledge
Ability to make a judgment of the worth of something
Ability to combine separate elements into a whole
Ability to break a problem into its constituent part and establish the relationships between each one
Ability to apply rephrased knowledge in a novel situation
That which can be recalled
Ability to rephrase knowledge
Bloom
Professional skills
• Team working and leadership• Inter-personal skills
– Negotiation– Decision making– Handling conflict– Sharing
• Communication skills– Presentation, explaining, questioning
• Managing projects and meetings• Practical application of theory
Professional skills
• Team working and leadership• Inter-personal skills
– Negotiation– Decision making– Handling conflict– Sharing
• Communication skills– Presentation, explaining, questioning
• Managing projects and meetings• Practical application of theory
Personal skills
• Taking and accepting responsibility– Ethics, empathy and tolerance
• Encourages exploration, curiosity• Creative problem-solving• Balancing creativity with resilience• Planning• Time-management and organisation
Motivation
• Authentic• Realistic challenge• Locus of control• Feedback and support• Shared learning
– success
• Socialises the learning
Constructivism and Vygotski
• Cognitive theory recognises the importance of the mind in making sense of the material with which it is presented.
• Nevertheless, it still presupposes that the role of the learner is primarily to assimilate whatever the teacher presents.
• Constructivism — particularly in its "social" forms — suggests that the learner is much more actively involved in a joint enterprise with the teacher of constructing new meanings.
Forms of constructivism
• cognitive constructivism is about how the individual learner understands things, in terms of developmental stages and learning styles, and
• social constructivism emphasises how meanings and understandings grow out of social encounters.
Vygotski
• Observed that when children were tested on tasks on their own, they rarely did as well as when they were working in collaboration with an adult.
• It was by no means always the case that the adult was teaching them how to perform the task, but that the process of engagement with the adult enabled them to refine their thinking or their performance to make it more effective.
• Hence, for him, the development of language and articulation of ideas was central to learning and development.
Zone of Maximal Development (ZMD)
Current state
ZMD
Beyond reach at present
Cannot do yet
Can do with help
Can do
Zone of Maximal Development (ZMD)
Current state
ZMD
Beyond reach at present
Cannot do yet
Can do with help
Can do
The ZPD is about "can do with help", not as a permanent state but as a stage towards being able to do something on your own. The key to "stretching" the learner is to know what is in that person's ZPD—what comes next, for them
Role of the students
• Accept responsibility for their learning• Establish group roles, if any• Analyze the stimulus • Identify learning goals• Determine a plan of activity and agree individual
tasks/responsibilities• Report individual findings and collate research• Complete the task (e.g. present findings)• Undertake assessment tasks• Give and receive feedback
Refine the problem
What do we know?
Information gap
Develop a plan
Share tasks
Discuss and consolidate
Undertake the investigations
Share the learning
Refine the problem
What do we know?
Information gap
Develop a plan
Share tasks
Discuss and consolidate
Undertake the investigations
Share the learning
Role of the tutor/facilitator
• Prepare the students – benefits and expectations, change of role, working in groups
• Devise the stimulus– Carefully crafted scenarios, triggers,
problems
• Prepare the resources, determine the assessment method(s) and any deadlines
Role of the tutor/facilitator
• Facilitate the group processes and the learning– Guide lines of enquiry – ask open-ended questions– Support for any difficulties with groups or individuals
• Explain clearly the assessment process and criteria
• Share the experience
• Give and receive feedback
Benefits to tutor
• Can inform your own research
• Livens up tutorials
• Encourages participation
• Widens teaching experience
• Enjoyment!
The scale of the investigation
In-class
Between classes (1 week)
2-3 weeks
6-12 weeks or longer
• Resources provided, small scale investigations, may or may not be linked
• Initial discussion, students find information from different sources. Need to share outside class. Report back week 2
• Middle week(s) for ‘catch up’, consolidate, review and plan
• Large scale investigation, significantly more autonomy, opportunity for in-depth investigation (deep learning)
Where to begin
• Select a topic or theme• Determine timescale for investigation
– Allow for induction, presentation and assessment– Pilot over 3 or 4 weeks in a module– Evaluate it
EBL scenarios….
• Must engage students and motivate them
• Relationship to the ‘real world’
• Encourage students to make decisions or judgements based on information and facts
• Move students beyond recall of information
• Should encourage collaboration and co-operation
• Open-ended, connected to existing knowledge
• Compatibility with learning objectives of the course
Possible routes to creating a ‘problem’….
• Design exercises
• Critical incidents
• Real case-histories or patient care-plans
• Present and past controversies
• Application of important concepts to everyday situations or personal situations
• Video-clips, novels, newspaper articles, research papers, cartoons
• Re-write a typical exam question as an open-ended, ‘real-world’ problems
• Work with colleagues to decide the approach
• Test the problems on students
Some examples
• Computer Science• Electrical engineering• Materials engineering• Aeronautical engineering• Chemical Engineering• Inter-disciplinary engineering (eco house)
http://www.engcetl.ac.uk/events/ivanmoore_jan08/
Computer Science – Support for first-year Enquiry-Based Learning
• Introduction to EBL and skills for effective group-work• Intensive staff consultation and development sessions • Small group sizes (6-8 students)• EBL facilitator is also personal tutor to group members• Students eased into EBL experience gradually through a
series of increasingly challenging activities• Regular feedback• Key lectures to inform and inspire
Phase 4: 11 weeks
Build applicationDemos and poster
Group reportIndividual reflection
First Year Computer Science
A whole-year, ‘phased’ approach
Phase 3: 6 weeks
World-wide what?Group application
Presentations and poster
Phase 2: 3 weeks
Ethics: killer robotGroup presentationSelect framework
Phase 1: 2 weeks Software patents2 teams in debate
Expectations, skills and group ground rules
Phase 0:2 hours
Materials Engineering
• First year class of 50– groups of 3
• Selected one topic in a 12-week module– 3 weeks
• Rationale– autonomy, teamwork, creative problem solving,
communication
• Disaster management– produce a multi media presentation to explain the
disaster• from a materials perspective
• One-day student conference
Electrical Engineering
• The STAMP Olympiad• Second year students (80) in groups of 20• Four 'Olympic events'
– sprint, high jump, javelin, basketball
• Each team to build a robot to compete in each event– sub-divided team into 4 sub-teams
• weekly team meeting with tutors as consultants– minutes, shared learning, plans, feedback
Student poster
• Background: a group of academic staff have decided to introduce EBL to next year’s first-year intake (freshmen). They have asked you to design a poster that explains to students what EBL is about. The poster will be displayed in the student facility during the first three weeks of term.
• Task: design an outline poster (draft)– Present your ideas to a panel of students (3 minutes max)
Developing intellectual skills – Bloom again
Evaluation
Synthesis
Analysis
Application
Manipulation
Knowledge
Developing intellectual skills – Bloom again
Evaluation
Synthesis
Analysis
Application
Manipulation
Knowledge
HypothesisCreativity
InstinctIntuition
BoringChallenging
The playground
Preparing students for the first year: Computer Science
• Getting to know the team• The course and expectations• How and why?• Communication, teamwork and skills• Meetings, and how to make them work• Setting ground rules
The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity....
Dorothy Parker
‘I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious’(Albert Einstein)
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