Article Review

Research Article Review

One thing research reveals about teaching, and learning science is that many teachers look for ways to improve their teaching strategies. They realize to be effective they must have a plan of action, and a positive teacher-student relationship in order have a successful effect on student achievement. Consequently, as a student preparing to start a career in education, I wanted to familiarize myself with various methods of teaching. Currently, I’ve been exposed to two types of teaching methods, direct instruction, and inquiry-based instruction. Throughout my classes in education, I have been repeatedly exposed to the direct instruction method of teaching. Unfortunately, when it comes to inquiry-based instruction, I have had minimal opportunity to delve into the intricacies of this methodology. I selected “An Inquiry Primer” by Alan Calburn because I thought this article would provide me with more detailed information on inquiry-based instruction. Alan Calburn’s “An Inquiry Primer” goes over the necessary information on how to use, and who to use inquiry-based instruction on. It also discusses how to incorporate inquiry-based instruction in the classroom in a way that makes it effective as a teaching method. At first, the article focuses on inquiry as a teaching technique and discusses the inquiry definition. According to The National Science Education Standards inquiry refers to the activities in which the students develop understanding and knowledge of science.

Alan Colburn’s article further goes into detail about inquiry-based instruction and then states several different approaches of inquiry-based teaching. The methods stated are structured inquiry, guided inquiry, open inquiry and learning cycle. A structured inquiry is when the teacher provides step-by-step instructions for the student so they can get the ending outcome, while open inquiry when the students are given more freedom in how they investigate their problems. The article then explains the ideal candidates for inquiry-based instruction. Inquiry-based learning is not just for “bright kids.” A student who struggles with abstract concepts may have more difficulty with inquiry-based instruction. However, to help those students, the science education research community recommends, “orienting activities toward concrete, observable concepts; centering activities around questions that students can answer directly via investigation” (p. 43). Calburn notes that attention must be paid to the balance of difficulty of content work versus intent which is too simple so that student can perform, “ cognitive challenging, but still doable” (p. 43). The article then goes over the teacher’s role in an inquiry-based classroom. Teachers must believe that students are mature enough to focus and attend the inquiry-based lesson. Next, Alan Calburn’s “An Inquiry Primer” goes over classroom preparation for inquiry-based management. This section explains that the class is eligible enough to start implementing inquiry-based lesson when students can figure out what data to record and how to record it by themselves.

It is my opinion that “An Inquiry Primer” provided excellent details on how to understand, use, and incorporate inquiry-based instruction in the classroom. The author explained the different types of inquiry-based instruction in a clear and concise manner which made it easy to read and comprehend. The author defined important terms and did an outstanding job organizing the information. The article’s structure allows the reader to understand the information presented fully. I believe that the only area in which “An Inquiry Primer” did not provide information on was the ways to modify and incorporate inquiry-based instruction for relevant segments of the special education population. I believe most students would benefit from the use of inquiry-based instruction. I plan on using inquiry-based instruction in my teaching practice because I believe it is an exciting, informative and independent way to teach students about science. I would use inquiry-based in my teaching practice as a follow up of direct instruction.

Reference

Colburn, A. (2000, March). An Inquiry Primer. Retrieved December 3, 2018, from http://www.cyberbee.com/inquiryprimer.pdf