Thursday 19 August 2010

Inquiry-based learning

Home educators are not in general great ideologues. They tend to get on with their lives and their children's education without worrying overmuch about which pedagogical technique they might theoretically be using. There is however one exception and that is of course autonomous education. This is an ideology or philosophy of education which many home educating parents, particularly in this country, have taken to with enthusiasm.

Autonomous education is really no more than a rather extreme version of inquiry-based learning, which is itself descended from the sixties notion of discovery learning. In all these schemes, the teacher assumes the role of facilitator and not an infallible font of knowledge and wisdom, which was all too frequently the image presented by the traditional pedagogue. Proponents of this philosophy scatter words like 'contructivist' and 'experiential' around when they are writing about their methods.

Now there is of course nothing at all wrong with a little of this sort of pedagogy. Many children have hobbies and interests that they have taken up spontaneously and with which their parents only help when specifically asked to do so. My own daughter was a keen bird watcher and she read up a great deal about birds and their habits, observed them, took notes and also photographed them. I would help when asked by taking her to nature reserves and zoos and buying her various books which she wanted. A perfect example of what I would call enquiry-based science and many home educators would describe as autonomous education. Hot diggety, it sounds as though the guy has had a Road to Damascus type experience! Does this mean that he has become one of us and will soon start posting about the wonders of autonomous education?. Well, no.

One of the great things about home education is that it is possible to segue smoothly from one pedagogical method to another depending upon circumstance, mood of the child, phase of the moon and so on. In the morning there might be intense, highly focused work on mathematics and then in the afternoon an aimless ramble through the countryside to observe whatever one comes across. Obviously, one wouldn't want to stick to the same intensive work all day, every day. However, effective very structured academic work is, one wouldn't want this to be the only sort of learning. Similarly, one wouldn't want the education to consist of nothing but aimless rambles in the countryside. This too would be unbalanced and not make for a good education. Some parents though, eschew entirely the kind of structured teaching which has been planned in advance by adults. They feel that discovery learning should be the primary or even the only technique used with the child. That is to say, the child should lead the education by asking questions and following interests and the parent should simply be on hand to assist in this process. What could be wrong with this?

One of the problems home educators face is that they are often a little out of touch with mainstream education. They sometimes have very negative feelings towards schools and teachers and this can become generalised and lead to a dislike of anything which smacks of orthodox education. This is unfortunate, because there are some pretty important debates going on right now about the value of inquiry-based learning. Since this is very similar to what home educators call autonomous education, these debates are worth following. The gist of the matter is that although enquiry-based learning is still popular in many schools, serious questions are being asked about its effectiveness. There is little empirical evidence for its working and most supporters rely merely upon theory and bare assertion. In short, they say that philosophically it's a great idea and that it must be better than sterile, conventional teaching. It certainly sounds better. We find this attitude not only among orthodox educationalists but also of course in the world of home education. Both teachers and parents can provide plenty of philosophy to support their chosen method, but hardly any solid evidence to show that it works

What it comes down to is this. There is a huge body of evidence to suggest that conventional teaching is pretty effective in getting ideas and knowledge across to children. There is little evidence to suggest that inquiry-based learning and problem-based approaches are similarly effective. The sensible dodge would be to make the ordinary teaching the basic method of education and then supplement it with those methods about whose effectiveness there is doubt. Instead, some parents abandon the tried and tested methods and adopt solely a technique which may be a very inefficient way of learning.

I have never been much of a one for philosophy or ideology myself. I am a fan of Karl Popper, for instance, but when he makes a claim I want to see the evidence. I feel the same way about Dewey, Froebel and anybody else who has what they claim to be a brilliant insight into the nature of learning and education. Any fool can propound a theory of education which sounds plausible. What we need to ask ourselves is how is education based upon this theory working out in the real world of real children and their learning? In the case of inquiry-based learning, the answer is, 'Not very well'. Despite forty years or so of the use of this method, there is very little evidence that it works at all. This contrasts sharply with the huge amount of research and evidence which demonstrates that conventional teaching is effective. For now, and until further evidence emerges, it is probably safer to use traditional methods for the great bulk of a child's education and then supplement it with small amounts of less orthodox learning methods.

17 comments:

  1. "Autonomous education is really no more than a rather extreme version of inquiry-based learning, which is itself descended from the sixties notion of discovery learning."

    How is inquiry-based learning a 'sixties notion'? I've already cited Woodhead's account of Lawrence's account of his infant teacher and the lump of clay. That takes us back to the 1890s.

    Secondly, could you provide us benighted advocates of inquiry-based learning with some pointers to the huge body of evidence about its ineffectiveness? Oh, and to the location of the 'important debates'?

    Third, what exactly is 'conventional teaching'?

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  2. You might care to start by reading 'Why Minimal Guidance During Instruction Does Not Work: An Analysis of the Failure of Constructivist, Discovery, Problem-Based, Experiential, and Inquiry-Based Teaching' which was written co written by Sweller and two others. I don't know how closely you follow developments in educational psychology these days, but I can point you to a few lively debates in that area.

    "How is inquiry-based learning a 'sixties notion'? I've already cited Woodhead's account of Lawrence's account of his infant teacher and the lump of clay. That takes us back to the 1890s."

    Yes, I was talking about the expression and its derivation. I am sure that parents in the stone age were also using similar methods. Never the less, the poularity of these ideas, not just for young children as in the case you cite, but even for high school science students, dates from the sixties.

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  3. Thank you for the reference.

    You said "Autonomous education is really no more than a rather extreme version of inquiry-based learning, which is itself descended from the sixties notion of discovery learning."

    giving the distinct impression that you were referring to the notion, not the terminology. Dewey expressed concern about what he saw as the extremes of child-led education in "The Child and the Curriculum" published in 1902, so I think the notion was alive and kicking well before the 1960s.

    And 'conventional teaching'?

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  4. You might find this intersting suzyg:


    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113763977423350560.html

    I referred to 'conventional teaching' simply in the broadest possible sense as the kind of teaching where there is an implicit assumption that the adult involved knows more about the subject than the child and is better placed than the child to know what would be a good idea to learn.

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  5. Interesting article, thanks.

    I think it's vitally important in debates of this sort, to define terms clearly.

    The 'child-centred learning' I experienced at primary school in the 1960s was very different to the 'child-centred' approach I was expected to implement during my teacher training in the 1970s. The latter approach was what I assume you mean by inquiry-based learning. And that got child-centred learning a bad name and got a curriculum-centred approach foisted on schools instead.

    There is wide variation in what parents mean by autonomous education too. I think we need to be clear what we're referring to, in case a viable educational approach is at risk of being dismissed because a handful of parents have taken it to ridiculous extremes.

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  6. From the link

    " The institute concluded that states are putting too much emphasis on inquiry-based learning. The approach is "fine to some degree," says the institute's president, Chester E. Finn Jr. "But like so many things in education, it gets carried to excess.""

    Having read the examples I'd combine that with an over optimistic attitude towards planning. Time is precious when you run on a timetable and you have an overstuffed curriculum.

    Chucking stuff at them and saying “let’s see what happens” is always going to be hard when you are on the clock and while they may well “click” thanks to 100% free hands on discovery, something further along the line is going to have to be hurried or left out cos there is no time left.

    The constraints of a large classroom are real. Different kinds of people, who have different needs when it comes to learning, unable to access your support on demand due to the number of student.

    I have 21 years experience of teaching both large groups, teeny groups (2\3 students) and individuals. It's just not possible to make statements about a single methodology that are applicable in all contexts, because the factors that will limit the efficacy of a method are not relevant in every setting.

    The discussion is interesting, but I don’t feel that it is particularly connected to HE since the methodologies do not suffer from the same limitations that they do in the classroom.

    “Discovery is dubious” is one conclusion, but so it “one teacher to twenty plus kids is not as good as one teacher to a couple of three kids when using a discovery approach”.

    I don’t think it is realistic to expect discussion pertaining to mainstream ed to extend the boundaries to include other contexts like one-to-one/teeny group learning, since the bulk of those working in the mainstream tend to have limited experience in teaching outside of large groups.

    For those that do extend the boundaries to include HE for example, I’m not sure all of them realize that the dynamic of “not large group” is very ,very different, not just in the more obvious ways either, which why they can erroneously assume that their findings in the classroom are automatically true for other settings, hell or high water.

    If I have repeated myself or rambled in an unclear manner, I apologize. I appear to grown a caffeine filter system over night and I’m still waiting for my (3rd) coffee to finally kick in. I’ve read it twice and I can’t make it better even though it looks …funny (not funny ha ha).

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  7. "even for high school science students"

    Did anyone here actually get to do much in the way of inquiry in their high school science lessons?

    I was at secondary school in the 1980s. The lessons were spectacularly dull. The teacher demonstrated an experiment at the front of the classroom. The teacher explained what the experiment was supposed to show. We all did the same experiment at our benches. We wrote it up for homework.

    All I can remember from two years of physics lessons is that the teacher used to smoke in the little prep room half way through the double lesson and that a boy called Andrew once fainted.

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  8. This is a straw man argument (again). Inquiry-based learning can form part of autonomous education but it is just one of many possibilities. Your daughter's study of birds would count as autonomous because she chose to study it. If she also chose to study for 8 IGCSEs and asked you to take charge and organise it, this would also count as autonomous education.

    Autonomous means self-directed. Autonomous education is just self-directed education. It is impossible to pre-define particular methods or techniques to be used because you cannot know which methods your child will choose. Autonomously educated children should be made aware of as wide a selection of methods and techniques as possible to enable them to choose what suits them best.

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  9. The anonymous post at 9:34 was mine. Not sure how it ended up as anonymous, probably just me being butter fingered!

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  10. Well you know I have just this week been staying with the most autonomous home educator I know, a good friend of mine who lives in Scotland.

    It was an utter delight to see the development of her teenage son (who I have not seen for 3 years) who has recently taught himself some rudiments of website construction, statistical analysis, wargaming, etc etc. Despite the fact that none of these things are within his parents experience let alone their interest.

    She is the living proof to me that autonomous education is real. She is a purist autonomous HEer, never having for example corrected her son's spelling (which is not bad) or having "taught" anything.

    Autonomous education is not an easy way out - it is as nerve wracking as any parenting and takes a good deal of trust and skilled facilitation but it does work.

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  11. "Autonomously educated children should be made aware of as wide a selection of methods and techniques as possible to enable them to choose what suits them best. "

    I agree heartily with the statement. But probably because I'm not an AHEing parent I can't off the top of my head see how I could do that without the use of adult led learning. Because unless my child comes to me and asks to be taught about the range of techniques and methodologies available to them I'd have to overtly or covertly teach them off my own bat without a direct request.

    I can see how children who spent several years at school might have been exposed to a wide range and have the previous knowledge in order to make a direct request, but for a child who has never been in mainstream ed, how could you ensure they were made aware that a range of possibilities exists without over riding the child-led principle at some point.

    I am not being a smart arse trying to trip anybody up. I'm genuinely interested in hearing ideas that wouldn't have occurred to me.

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  12. "I am not being a smart arse trying to trip anybody up. I'm genuinely interested in hearing ideas that wouldn't have occurred to me."

    I was wondering much the same thing myself. A child who had never been to school might not even be aware of the possibility of collaborative learning, for instance. I too would be curious to know how a child or young person is able to make an informed choice from a wide range of pedagogical techniques. How would he even know about these?

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  13. "how could you ensure they were made aware that a range of possibilities exists without over riding the child-led principle at some point."

    Well, we've done that by *offering* a range of different learning experiences. Our son goes to a forest school group where there is a lot of direct instruction in how to use tools, for example. He expressed an interest in learning Latin (he is very into all things magical and so has encountered some words in 'spells' and so on) and asked me to help him learn some. I got a course book and we worked through it together. When it comes to collaborative learning, he goes to a group where activities are offered to the children. They do lots of things together - devising plays and sketches, working on vinegar volcanoes and so on.

    I think he is developing a good awareness of the different ways to learn things. This summer he asked if we could find him an animation workshop to go to as he knows we don't have the equipment or the skills to be of much use with that. At other times he asks to just go somewhere (The NHM recently to see the Deep Sea exhibition) prompted by an interest (the jaw bone of an angler fish which he found on holiday.)

    Another important thing is that our children are very aware of the fact that the adults around them are learning too - from books, through discussion, through practising skills, at adults ed classes - whatever.

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  14. "I agree heartily with the statement. But probably because I'm not an AHEing parent I can't off the top of my head see how I could do that without the use of adult led learning."

    I've mainly done this by modelling learning behaviour myself (so they saw quite structured, course based learning as well as general interest/reading around a subject of interest), generally discussing how people learn and might find information when they wanted to know something I couldn't tell them straight away and getting out and about. We visited lots of museums and other places of interest as well as lots of home-ed meetings and trips when they were younger so they experienced museum talks, group learning situations, swimming classes, art classes, etc. We would look through the list of activities over the next few months and decide which we wanted to attend. When they became interested in something we researched it together so they found out how to find books on the subject, internet pages or places of interest that were relevant. Also, autonomous education doesn't prevent parents making suggestions , as long as you are happy to take no as an answer.

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  15. "She is the living proof to me that autonomous education is real. She is a purist autonomous HEer, never having for example corrected her son's spelling (which is not bad) or having "taught" anything."

    So would your friend see a parent teaching their child as not being an autonomous educator? What if the child asks to be taught something?

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  16. "Well, we've done that by *offering* a range of different learning experiences"


    "Also, autonomous education doesn't prevent parents making suggestions , as long as you are happy to take no as an answer. "

    _________________


    I do understand that on a significant span of the spectrum of AHE, suggestions, offers and deliberate modeling are considered not only acceptable, but also essential.

    I think what tripped me up was the concept of "made aware", because I see a learner of being truly aware once they have experienced it, rather than a an experience of explanation or a view from the outside.

    Possibly because I am so used to students who are incredibly leery about stepping out of their comfort zone, even when their comfort zone is evidently making things ten times harder and not giving them the results they want I have found that suggestions and explanations bounce off the barrier without making the slightest dent for many

    I suppose there might be a lot less reticence to contend with when offering the opportunity to try something different to somebody who has not been exposed to a constant message of "this the right way, the only way, do it this way, or fail" so a suggestion (direct or covert via modeling) is less likely to meet with a brick wall.

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  17. "I suppose there might be a lot less reticence to contend with when offering the opportunity to try something different to somebody who has not been exposed to a constant message of "this the right way, the only way, do it this way, or fail" so a suggestion (direct or covert via modeling) is less likely to meet with a brick wall."

    I've found that they learn how to learn in much the way they learn anything else, through, observation, discussion, experimentation and practice.

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