What is Enquiry Based Learning?

Ivan MooreDirector, CPLA Sheffield Hallam University

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

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

Enquiry Based Learning as a continuous cyclical process

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)

Enquiry Based Learning

Ivan MooreDirector, CPLA Sheffield Hallam University