Inquiry-based Learning (IBL) Resource

DTS is a real-life primary literacy programme with the goal of investigating the design and use of text sets to inform and support the development of effective strategies to enhance students' literacy development. Students navigate and explore various texts, both multimodal, i.e. print and digital-based texts, and multi-genre, e.g. fictional and non-fictional texts, around a common theme and concept, to answer a focus question. Answering the focus question aligns DTS with IBL. Generating curiosity and channelling student engagement are the main principles of inquiry.

This step-by-step guide endeavours to walk teachers through the process of integrating IBL as an instructional approach to plan and implement DTS units of work. IBL has similar traits to both project-based learning and the development of computational thinking skills. See adapted diagram below.

In today’s ever-evolving digital world, a plethora of information is available to anyone, anywhere, anytime at the click of a button. Therefore, 21^st-century students need to be adept in the ability to find and evaluate information. They need critical literacy skills to be able to ask questions, be active critical thinkers and use problem-solving skills efficiently and effectively to solve authentic problems in creative ways. Students collaborate with their peers to construct and communicate their knowledge. They share their knowledge as a digital citizen, which requires them to be creators of knowledge not merely consumers of it, by creating their own multimodal and multi-genre texts.

Inquiry-based learning aims to increase students' engagement in learning and problem solving by giving them agency and choice. The students remain engaged in active learning thereby developing their hands-on and minds-on skills. Students are engaged in activities, both physical and mental, whereby they are able to use higher-order-thinking and problem-solving skills to evaluate their new learning thereby formulating their own conclusions. The use of text sets allows a deeper understanding of a topic and its associated concepts.

The DTS programme offers a meaningful opportunity to plan and deliver on some of the major updates in the 2017 English Language Education Key Learning Area Curriculum Guide (ELE KLA CG).

IBL is a student-centered constructivist approach where students create their own knowledge by being led through a process of discovery and creation.

The IBL approach differs from traditional approaches because it reverses the order of learning. Instead of presenting information or the answer up-front, teachers start with a range of scenarios, questions and problems for students to navigate. Students explore and investigate a real-life problem or scenario in order to reach learning objectives that can be varied from teacher-centred to student-driven.

IBL progresses students towards becoming life-long independent learners by giving them choice and a voice in their learning.

Direct instruction as the sole primary mode of delivery deprives students of active learning. Providing voice to students allows them to share what they believe in. Encouraging voice fosters a change in the learning environment as students move towards agency of voice by taking more control and responsibility for their own learning, i.e. how they learn and what they learn.

"Young people want to be heard. They have ideas and perspective on their lives and the world around them, and when their voice is incorporated in learning, good things happen."

              McCarthy 

As students progress towards increased responsibility around voice, they can also build ownership for their learning by moving towards agency of choice. When the students choose the content from a list of texts or activities provided by the teacher, the teacher is ultimately the one responsible for the learning and not the students. However, the suggestions regarding student choice and voice below shifts the responsibility for learning from the teacher back to students.

Providing students with agency of choice and voice not only creates more engagement in learning, but empowers them to become self-directed learners.

One of the ways is to give students a choice board. Choice boards are graphic organisers that are composed of various numbers of squares. Each square is an activity which helps students learn or practise a primary skill, while allowing them a choice. Students can be instructed to choose one or more of these activities to complete. They can progress from one activity to another, either in an organised or random order, choosing their own learning path.

Choice boards are not limited to face-to-face classroom use only. They can be used in virtual classrooms too. Below is an example of each.

Example 1: Choice board used in an existing DTS Friends (KS1) unit

Example 2: A visual representation of a virtual choice board for how students want to work.

There are several approaches to IBL that may be viewed as a continuum ranging from structured to free. Free inquiry is also often referred to as open inquiry. The objective of each type of inquiry is to gradually remove scaffolds while students progress towards taking complete ownership for their own learning.

For the purpose of this resource, we will focus on the structured inquiry approach since it incorporates a similar approach to the way DTS units are planned.   

The structured model of inquiry is ideal for DTS since it allows students time to investigate teacher-formulated guiding questions and the entire class engages in the same inquiry. Similar to DTS, structured inquiry uses the backward design process which can be an effective planning approach to create units that allow for 21^st century skills development, and student metacognition and student engagement.

The unit overview helps teachers to establish the integral parts of a DTS unit.

RAC

Through the development of the RAC, all possible multimodal and multi-genre resources are analysed and labelled as either core or supported texts. The teacher also decides on the teaching strategies for reading that are appropriate for specific texts. For some texts the teacher also determines the level of difficulty.

Once the unit overview and the RAC have been developed, the teacher moves on to the development of the lesson plans. The ‘Plan the lessons’ stage of the CLAP model provides the opportunity to go deeper using IBL.

During the planning process, guiding questions are usually scaffolded from literal to inferential, encouraging the gradual move from foundational to multimodal and ultimately towards developing critical literacy skills.

Critical literacy skills involve understanding the messages in texts which are contestable by nature. Authors and text designers position readers and viewers according to their intended purposes. The readers and viewers consciously or subconsciously respond to the text.

Which instructional model best suits the learning and teaching of DTS - IBL units?

To facilitate inquiry, the learning cycle of the 5E model can be used. In contrast to the traditional teaching approach of direct instruction, the 5E instructional model involves active student participation where students are given choice and a voice throughout the learning process enabling them to take ownership of their learning.

For more information on the theoretical foundations of the 5E instructional model, please refer the link below.

https://lesley.edu/article/empowering-students-the-5e-model-explained

The 5E learning and teaching instructional model includes the following five phases:

1. Engage
2. Explore
3. Explain
4. Elaborate
5. Evaluate

What happens in the engage phase?

Engagement is the first phase of inquiry where teachers activate and elicit students' prior knowledge and establish their current understanding of the topic.  The aim is to pique students’ curiosity and sustain their ‘need to know’ as a motivation that will drive students’ learning throughout the unit. 

“Brain research from Carnegie Mellon psychologists confirms that it’s easier to learn something new when we can attach it to something we already know.”

What is the significance of text sets in this phase?

Introduction to a multimodal and multi-genre text set around a theme stimulates students' prior knowledge and generates interest in the topic as they provide an opportunity for students to be exposed to a wide range of text types while developing new concepts.

What are the roles of the teacher and the students?

How to plan for the engage phase?

During the planning of the engage phase, teachers should consider:

What happens in the explore phase?

The exploration phase is a loosely guided time of exploration and finding information. The lessons are focused but open-ended: students are allowed to make mistakes while discovering new ideas. The key is for them to engage in a common activity which allows them to explore the theme and develop the concept, by actively participating in hands-on tasks and activities through which they experience a concept change. This phase also provides information that will be a springboard for rich discussion in the explanation phase.

What is the significance of text sets in this phase?

The role of text sets in the explore phase is to allow students to see ideas and vocabulary being introduced and used multiple times in diverse ways. This helps in reinforcing the meaning thereby building stronger connections with the theme and the concept.

What are the roles of the teacher and the students?

How to plan for the explore phase? 

During the planning of the explore phase, teachers should consider:

What happens in the explain phase?

In the explanation phase, students connect their prior knowledge to the new knowledge acquired during the engage and explore phases. They begin to summarise, synthesise and share their learning in their own words to showcase their understanding and learning achieved. The teacher also provides further explanations for any misunderstandings and clarifies misconceptions.

What is the significance of text sets in this phase?

Text sets provide students with the opportunity to read widely across various texts. The students follow up with a collaborative discussion about their new findings by using vocabulary and/or structures from the texts read and viewed.

What are the roles of the teacher and the students?

How to plan for the explain phase? 

During the planning of the explain phase, teachers should consider:

What happens in the elaborate phase?

The elaboration phase focuses on students applying what they have learned by completing their final task. Students expand their knowledge by applying their understanding to a new but similar situation which helps develop a more critical and deeper understanding of concepts.  The concepts become anchored in students’ minds as their understanding is deepened and the concepts are generalised.

This is the phase where the evidence of learning can be differentiated giving students the agency of choice and the freedom to express themselves creatively.

Revisiting some of the explored activities provides more scaffolding which ensures deep and meaningful understanding.

What is the significance of text sets in this phase?

In this phase, students think critically about their findings.  Text set materials are revisited to gather more information to confirm or revise their conclusions.

What are the roles of the teacher and the students?

How to plan for the elaborate phase?

During the planning of the elaborate phase, the teacher should consider:

What happens in the evaluate phase?

Formative assessment is an ongoing process in each phase as the teacher checks for students’ understanding and re-adjusts the teaching accordingly.  At this point, the change in students’ knowledge, skills, values and attitudes should be evident and measurable. Therefore, a summative evaluation of learning can be planned for the final phase. The summative assessment could be in the form of teacher, peer or self-evaluation. However, self-evaluation is the most important as it provides an opportunity for students to reflect on their learning over a period of time and gain a better understanding of their individual learning styles and progress. The students will demonstrate the knowledge and skills they have gained as well as the changes in their understanding of the theme and concept. Therefore, a checklist should be shared with the students at the beginning of the unit to ensure they understand the objectives of the unit and the expectations of final task.

What is the significance of text sets in this phase?

In this phase, students collaboratively have created a new text set. Therefore, students are transformed from being mere text users to being text creators. They publish and share their text with their peers which can be revisited at a later stage during independent activities.

What are the roles of the teacher and the students?

How to plan for the evaluation phase?

During the planning of the evaluation phase, the teacher should consider:

Over the next few pages is a list of possible online tools that may be used during the five phases of a DTS-IBL unit. Included is also an explanation of possible activities for each phase. Please note that some of the terminology used are taken directly from the individual online tools, e.g. streamline (sequencing) which might not be familiar. 

Resource 1 - KWHL Chart

Resource 2 - Examples of Text Types for Key Stage 1 and 2

Resource 3 - Parking Lot

Resource 4 - 5 'Wh’ Questions

4 Ways To Use Kahoot in the Classroom. Retrieved from Keslerscience: https://www.keslerscience.com/4-ways-to-use-kahoot-in-the-classroom/

5E Learning Cycle Lesson Plan. Retrieved from http://www.appstate.edu/~goodmanjm/rcoe/elemscience/lessonplanning/5Elearningcyclelessonplan.htm

Bray, B., & McClaskey, K. Continuum of Choice: More than a Menu of Options. Retrieved from Make Learning Personal: http://kathleenmcclaskey.com/choice/

Barton, T. (2019, August 12). Building An Inquiry Based Learning Continuum: Checklist Included. Retrieved from Serve Learn: https://servelearn.co/blog/building-an-inquiry-based-learning-continuum-checklist-included/

Broomfield, D. (2019, October 14). How to Create a 5 E Lesson Plan. Retrieved from WeHaveKids:  R., Taylor, J. A., Gardner, A., Scotter, P. V., Powell, J. C., Westbrook, A., & Landes, N. (2006). The BSCS 5E Instructional Model: Origina and Effectiveness. Colorado Springs.

Distance learning guide: Four ways to increase engagement and participation. (2020, September 22). Retrieved from Nearpod: https://nearpod.com/blog/distance-learning-guide-four-ways-to-increase-engagement-and-participation/

Education Bureau, H. (2004). English Language Education Curriculum Guide (Primary 1 - Secondary 6).

Elliott, J. Why I love the 5e model of inquiry-based science instruction. Retrieved from What I Have Learned : https://www.whatihavelearnedteaching.com/love-5e-model-inquiry-based-science-instruction/

Ferlazzo, L., & Sypnieski, K. H. (2018, March 29). Activating Prior Knowledge With English Language Learners. Retrieved November 2020, from Edutopia: https://www.edutopia.org/article/activating-prior-knowledge-english-language-learners

Freedman, L. (2011, March 16). Learning Centered Classrooms: Where Inquiry and Text Sets are Essential for Literacy and Learning. Retrieved from Worlds of Words: https://wowlit.org/blog/2011/05/16/learning-centered-classrooms-where-inquiry-and-text-sets-are-essential-for-literacy-and-learning/

Gerstein, J. (2015, August 9). Today’s Education Should Be About Giving Learners Voice and Choice.Retrieved from User Generated Education: https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2015/08/09/todays-education-should-be-about-giving-learners-voice-and-choice/

Lewis, R. (2017, June 15). Wordwall. Retrieved from https://thedigitalteacher.com/reviews/wordwall

Park, E. (2020, September 22). How to create Google Meet breakout rooms for differentiated learning. Retrieved from Ditch That TextBook: https://ditchthattextbook.com/google-meet-breakout-rooms/

MacKenzie, T. (2018). Sketchnotes. Retrieved from TrevorMackenzie: https://www.trevormackenzie.com/exclusive-sketchnotes

Marschall , C., & French, R. Concept-Based Inquiry in Action. London: SAGE Publications Ltd.

McCarthy, J. Activating Student Voice Empowers Learning. p.65

NET Section. (2016). DTS Teacher Handbook. Education Bureau, HKSARG.

NET Section. (2015). Space Town. Education Bureau, HKSARG

NET Section. (2011). SuRe. Education Bureau, HKSARG                       

Tucker, C. (2020, March 8). Tips for Designing an Online Learning Experience Using the 5Es Instructional Model. Retrieved January 2021, from https://catlintucker.com/2020/03/designing-an-online-lesson/

Vidakovich, J. Training Consultant and Author, Trainer’s in Motion

• Inquiry-based Learning (IBL) Booklet
• Resource 1 KWHL Chart
• Resource 2 Text Types
• Resource 3 Parking Lot
• Resource 4 5 Wh questions