IBI - the WHAT and the HOW

Inquiry Based Instruction - Curiosity meets the Scientific Method. 

In this teaching method, students work on a problem to formulate questions, investigate their questions, observe and repeat until they can connect the information, make a conclusion and finally share their findings. What I find most impressive about this process is how fluid it can be. When we went on our field trip this morning to Greenwood, I would not have even known that I was observing IBI if I was not there specifically for that.

The five steps of IBI are:
          1. Question
          2. Investigate
          3. Use evidence to describe, explain, and predict.
          4. Connecting evidence to knowledge
          5. Sharing findings.

The IBI method allows for students to have autonomy in their learning and gives teachers flexibility.  It allows students to work together and learn from each other - showing and utilizing their strengths.While this method of teaching is commonly used in a scientific or laboratory setting, it can be used in many settings and classroom environments with a little creativity and a lot of plannning.

Although I would like to see some more examples of this type of instruction to become more knowledgeable about it,  I feel as though triggering curiosity may be the most important, and difficult part. If students are not interested or curious it will make it much harder for them to formulate questions and research them to find answers/solutions. Furthermore, the more invested they are in the topic, the higher up Bloom's Taxonomy they will go - propelling them into the evaluating and creating stages.

I also believe that this type of learning would take a lot of time and planning for teachers that have never done it before. It would also be very important to make sure that you do not leave your students hanging. For example, while I think that helping students to work towards answers with questioning them and their thought process to lead them down the right path is important, I do not believe that this should ever be a "cop-out" for teachers to tell their students that they need to "figure it out". I feel like this could be a hole that educators could fall down into easily. I would like to remain mindful of this and make sure I am well prepared to help my students through the process with helpful questioning techniques to lead them down a path. The path may lead them back to the beginning, but will also help them to rule out solutions and ultimately help them find the right answer.