{"id":3091,"date":"2018-03-24T08:00:32","date_gmt":"2018-03-24T13:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/blog\/?p=3091"},"modified":"2018-03-18T08:54:07","modified_gmt":"2018-03-18T13:54:07","slug":"assessing-inquiry-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/assessing-inquiry-learning\/","title":{"rendered":"Point\/Counterpoint: Escaping the Inquiry Learning Debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Several days ago, I posted<\/a> some thoughts about the benefits of Direct Instruction. That post specifically contrasted the benefits of DI with the perils Inquiry Learning. Specifically,\u00a0Hattie<\/a> finds Inquiry Learning to be largely ineffective.\"assessing<\/a><\/p>\n

The Learning Scientists have also published some skeptical thoughts about Inquiry Learning. In their most recent\u00a0weekly digest<\/a>, to promote balance, they offer links to some pro-Inquiry-Learning counter-arguments. If you’re an IL skeptic, you might want to check them out.<\/p>\n

Assessing Inquiry Learning: What’s a Teacher to Do?<\/h2>\n

When we face conflicting evidence about any particular pedagogy, teachers can always focus instead on specific cognitive capacities.<\/p>\n

For example: working memory<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

If an Inquiry Learning lesson plan ramps working memory demands up too steeply, then students probably won’t learn very much.<\/p>\n

Of course: if a Direct Instruction lesson plan ramps up WM demands, then those students won’t learn very much either.<\/p>\n

The key variable — in this analysis — is not the specifics of the pedagogical approach. Instead, teachers can focus on the match between our teaching and the cognitive apparatus that allows learning.<\/p>\n

In other words: overwhelming working memory is ALWAYS bad — it doesn’t matter if your lesson plan is DI or IL.<\/p>\n

The same point can be made for other cognitive capacities.<\/p>\n

Lesson plans that disorient students — that is, ones that interfere with attention<\/strong> — will hamper learning. So too motivation<\/strong>. So too stress<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

When assessing Inquiry Learning, don’t ask yourself “does my lesson plan fit this pedagogical theory perfectly?” Ask yourself: “does my lesson plan realistically align with my students’ cognitive systems?<\/em>”<\/p>\n

The answer to that question will give you the wisest guidance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the absence of consistent research findings, assessing Inquiry Learning can be a challenge. Teachers should rely on basic cognitive variables — like working memory and attention — to reach conclusions about its usefulness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":3129,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[15,30],"class_list":["post-3091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lb-blog","tag-classroom-advice","tag-working-memory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3091"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3171,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3091\/revisions\/3171"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}