Classroom Strategies for Inquiry-Based Learning

Inquiry-based learning aims to increase student engagement by helping learners develop hands-on, minds-on skills. This education and teacher training course explores the 5E instructional model and its uses in the classroom. You will have the opportunity to learn from videos of classroom teachers modeling a 5E lesson and access teacher commentary as they use inquiry-based strategies with their students. As a result, you will develop the skills and strategies needed to implement inquiry-based instruction in your own classroom.

An inquiry-based approach honors the complex work of learning. It prioritizes the knowledge and experience that students bring to the classroom and it promotes active problem solving, communication, and the shared construction of new ideas. Inquiry-based instruction is the foundation for the UTeach model. This education course serves as a useful introduction to this approach.

In this course, you will explore the 5E instructional model by watching videos of classroom teachers as they use this approach and gathering strategies from master teachers for implementing it. Participants will also have the chance to discuss their own ideas and consider applications to their own settings.
Week 1: Engagement
How do you engage students in learning? Participants will investigate the first of the 5Es, student engagement.
Week 2: Exploration
Why is it important for students to explore and test out their ideas? This module will describe the importance of the second of the 5Es, student exploration.
Week 3: Explanation
How can students explain complex concepts to each other? This module will provide insight into the role of student explanation, the third E in the 5E instructional model.
Week 4: Elaboration
Why do students need to push their thinking further? The focus of this module is elaboration, the 4th of the 5Es.
Week 5: Evaluation
How do students show us what they know and are able to do? This module focuses on different forms of evaluation that can be used to assess student ideas throughout the 5E lesson. Both traditional and non-traditional forms of assessment will be presented.