What “problems” do you encounter with your students that could stimulate a share inquiry as an active quest?
My students complain when they recieve a project that they don’t like, because I tell them exactly what to do and what they need to have on their project. Then when I give them a very broad project where they have to come up with their own picture. They complain because they have to think independently and creatively. This year I’m try to balance my directions with inquiry teaching. I’ve been interducing technology. Students have been exited and want to help each other.
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November 28, 2011 at 12:33 am
Mary Elizabeth Meier
Dewey wrote, “Problems are the stimulus to thinking… [G]rowth depends upon the presence of difficulty to be overcome by the exercise of intelligence…. The problem grows out of the conditions of the experience being had in the present, and that it is within the capacity of students; and secondly, that it is such that it arouses in the learner an active quest for information and for production of new ideas” (Dewey 1938/1997, p. 79)”
I am curious about which kinds of “problems” are those related to inquiry as learning and which are practical problems that have more to do structures of schooling that are outside the immediate control of teacher and student. For example, do you think that there are “problems” that students encounter that can lead to problem solving as a learning opportunity? What are students excited about when they are helping each other? Perhaps there is a problem of inquiry to be observed in a moment when students are excited and helping.