Teaching for Meaningful Learning: A Review of Basic Research on Inquiry-Based and Cooperative Learning – Assignment 1 EDCI 568 Week 1

The article Teaching for Meaningful Learning: A Review of Basic Research on Inquiry-Based and Cooperative Learning, by Dr. Barron and Dr. Darling-Hammond quickly captured my attention as I connected it to BC’s new curriculum changes. Many of the curriculum changes involve moving away from the traditional Provincial Exam as a source of final assessment, in most subject areas. This change, in assessment practices, has enabled both teachers and learners to look at a variety of different learning opportunities and assessment options, beyond a traditional exam, thereby enabling the learner to showcase their knowledge and understanding in a variety of different ways.

For years I taught Social Studies 11 course; and although I loved the content of the course, I felt the weight of the provincial final exam bearing down on me, and my students, from the moment the semester began! This was a massive course to get through for both learners and teachers alike. Again, being a lover of history, I really enjoyed the content; and therefore, we ploughed through it. To get through all the content students were busy memorizing terms, answering questions, completing multiple tests, quizzes and mini-essay writing assignments all in preparation for the final exam. However while teaching this course, I struggled to find common ground between my teaching pedagogy in terms of how much information students had to “get through” to complete the Provincial Exam successfully, versus providing students with the opportunity to engage in deeper exploration and inquiry into areas of the course that were of significant interest and or meaning to themselves. Constantly, I asked myself – Do I teach for exam success? Do I teach for student understanding and growth in the subject area? What am I really providing for my learners? I struggled with these questions both personally and professionally.   Barron and Darling-Hammond’s article points out that “traditional academic approaches…won’t develop students who are critical thinkers or students who can write and speak effectively,” (Barron and Darling Hammond, 2008); and sadly, this is exactly what I found myself doing as I pushed toward facilitating students’ success with their exams, which ultimately meant less time for student exploration and or collaboration on researching areas of interest. Furthermore, this method took the joy out of learning new content for my students, and for me in teaching the course itself.

When the Provincial Exam was removed I felt both nervous and excited! Nervous because now what? I was also excited for the same reason – now what? There still was a large course to get teach and assessment was still part of the learning process, but it would be different; it could now be more learner centered. A more show me what you know and understand style of assessment. Fortunately, I had the opportunity to design and implement a formal assessment the first year following the removal of the Provincial Exam that was inquiry based. Students had the opportunity to become engaged in researching an area of the course that they were intrigued about and present their findings. Two quotes from Barron and Darling-Hammond’s article, that resonated with me as I reflected back on the new inquiry assessment project, was that “students learn more deeply and perform better on complex tasks if they have the opportunity to engage in more authentic learning projects and activities that require them to employ subject knowledge,” (Barron and Darling-Hammond, 2008) and that this style of learning “involves completing complex tasks that typically result in a realistic product, event or presentation to an audience,” (Barron and Darling-Hammond, 2008); and all of which I think learners are proud of upon completion, even if they had times of frustration.

As exciting as this new assessment process was, it was at times long, arduous, and frustrating. Personally, I am of the belief that it is essential for learners to have a strong foundation or background knowledge and understanding in course content as it enables them to build upon their known knowledge, gain a deeper learning and understanding; furthermore, they can challenge themselves. I realize, not every student has the opportunity or support to have a strong background in some or all subject areas, and/or may struggle cognitively, thereby making mastering certain concepts more challenging for them which leads to teacher adaptations or modifications. To complete this final assessment project, and address as many needs as possible, a great deal of student collaboration was held initially in terms of questioning, types of resources to use and very specific criteria was made accessible to all in terms of what had to be met or completed. It also took a great deal of planning on my part, including student tracking and small group meetings. Ultimately, however, I do believe that the learning challenges that learners faced and worked through were worth it, and the outcomes were exciting. My experience with my learners in completing this final assessment inquiry project, leads me to support Barron and Darling-Hammond’s statement that, “inquiry-based and cooperative learning…help students develop the knowledge and skills necessary to be successful in a rapidly changing world” (Barron and Darling-Hammond, 2008). Inquiry projects, unlike an exam, enable students to build upon and apply their knowledge, facilitate the development of rigor, encourage problem solving, promote patience, develop peer cooperation and communication skills, all of which can be applied to other subject areas, further developed and used throughout life.

Written by Deirdre Houghton

EDCI-568

Dr. Valerie Irvine