Teachers, quick question??

Question

How does inquiry-based learning differ from the traditional model, with the teacher as the source of all instruction?

Answer 1

Inquiry-based learning (constructivism) is based on the students discovering the knowledge on their own.  The teacher is merely a guide.  The student is responsible for finding the information from sources that the teacher provides.  Generally the student is expected to become an "expert" on one particular aspect of it & then trades information with other "experts" to complete the whole picture.  

This differs from the traditional model of the teacher as the one who give the information to the students.  

Example - I teach African-American history.  Formerly, I had a powerpoint with 5 famous African-Americans.  I would present the powerpoint to my students & read the information from it to them.  I then assigned a project - Make a Jackie Robinson baseball card or pretend you are MLK & write a letter from the Birmingham jail.  Despite interesting assignments (I think, at least) this was teacher-based. I presented the knowledge & determined the assignment.  

Now, however, I teach differently.  I am an inquiry-based teacher & I provide my students with books, internet resources & in some cases real experts on the subject.  I divide my class into groups & have them take one of the 5 people.  They are responsible for creating a detailed powerpoint about that person which they will present to the class.  They also need to design 3 possible assessments for their classmates to do.  Then they present to the class & teach them about their person.  

The biggest difference is the real-world application.  Students take ownership over the project & can see how it applies to real life.

Answer 2

In traditional, the teacher gives the information and the students just remember it.

In inquiry, the teacher sets up the question and the students try to figure out the answer by looking at the clues and trial and error.  I use inquiry learning a lot because  the students will remember the information if they figure it out themselves.  It works great in science.