Inquiry and Guided Practice strategies

1. Inquiry Strategies

To engage the natural curiosity of learners, you can pose questions, problems, or hypotheses, or relate stories with problematic situations. Their curiosity to find an answer can encourage them to follow a process of inquiry. When time is limited, this can be a simple process taking only a few minutes, zeroing in on the key question, considering available information, and proposing solutions. When appropriate and with sufficient time, it can include more formal research: asking the right question; developing an hypothesis or problem space; gathering and analyzing information; and developing conclusions or solutions. 

The inquiry process should require students to identify and meaningfully use what you want them to learn. Inquiry learning requires students to do more than learn facts, concepts, and principles; it also helps them to develop critical thinking, judgment, and problem solving skills in applying what they learn. 

The following pages describe several forms of inquiry-based learning activities. 

2. Questions and Issues

One easy way to engage in inquiry-based learning is to present instruction around questions or issues rather than information. Encourage students to propose answers to the questions or support a position on the issue. Limit your own lecture or explanations to short, but critical points that expand how students address the questions.

Some examples related to meteorology include:

• Why do you think X phenomenon occurs more/less frequently in Y location?
• What are the key ingredients required for X processes to take place?
• How might you go about researching how or why X occurs so that it can be forecast?
  
• What observing systems would you need for monitoring and forecasting X well?
  
• What data would you use to forecast Z parameter? 
  
• Which conceptual model would explain this weather data we see on xx/xx/xxxx over Eastern Europe?
• How could you better disseminate forecast information to those living in least-developed, rural locations?

Use Forum for posing a questions or File to share a presentation that sets up a larger question.

Use Lightbox Gallery to share image or a slide and use the comment box below for posting Q & A.

Use an ungraded Quiz for both presenting questions and also information within Hints and Feedback. Complex questions can be presented using the Essay open question format. Use Forum to continue group conversation.

Record a video and embed it into a Page. Set up a Chat session to discuss it.

3. Problem-based learning

Design large-scale problems that provide a context for learning. Problem-based learning problems might require days or weeks of planning, researching, and developing a solution. Provide resources and strategies, but let learners create their own solutions.

Use Book for providing resources that can help problem solving.

Use Choice and Feedback for sharing strategies and interim solutions.

Use an Assignment that allows an upload of files and one-to-one feedback.

Final results can be report to other through a Forum.

Use Glossary to build a database of links and resources. Allow comments and rating make it a collaborative space, with peer review possibility.

4. Practice exercises

Teachers often use numerous small-scale problems to provide opportunities to practice knowledge and skills that are the building blocks of larger tasks. Using several exercises rather than 1 or 2 can represent a variety of situations with differing variables, and the repeated practice can help learners internalize their skills more deeply for rapid application. The exercises should emphasize a variety of situations or conditions, and they might be of increasing difficulty or complexity, with less guidance or hints to increase the learner's independence. 

Exercises are usually completed in a short time span and have objective, right or wrong, answers. Don't forget to provide some examples to demonstrate how to complete the exercises. 

Example: Present several quizzes based on sets of 10 satellite images. Each quiz item is an exercise that asks learners to examine one image and decide if it indicates the feature being discussed (atmospheric dust, low level clouds, severe convection, fire, etc.). Provide specific feedback to the learner after each quiz item and general feedback after each quiz set of 10 images.

Some of the best ways to offer exercises in Moodle are to use Quiz or Lesson. See the next page on using Lesson for building tutorials. 

5. Interactive Tutorials

Develop a systematic lesson that teaches one or more concepts, principles, or skills, or a complete procedure. A tutorial will contain practice exercises along with information, examples, and demonstrations that prepare learners for the practice. A tutorial may be developed to:

• help learners develop a deep understanding of concepts or principles through practice with increasingly complex examples

• guide a learner through the steps necessary to complete a task
  

• demonstrate how to perform a task under increasingly complex conditions. For example, learners might be asked to analyze several obvious products, followed by more ambiguous radar or satellite products. They might be asked to practice communication skills in increasingly difficult situations, to learn how topography impacts NWP forecasts in increasingly subtle ways, etc.

The Moodle Lesson activity is designed specifically for tutorial instruction, allowing you to alternate information with exercises. External tools can do the same with enhanced features, such as Adobe Storyline, which can be linked from within Moodle. 

6. Collaborative Decision Making and problem-solving

Problem-based learning can be enhanced when it is done collaboratively. Learners can collaborate in exploring complex problems that require analyzing information, drawing conclusions, generating solutions and making decisions. The addition of teamwork can be more rewording and lead to more creative results. Provide guidance, but do not give the process a rigid structure. Allow room for creative freedom and evolving team dynamics.

Example: Ask learners to develop a forecasting capacity for a real or fictitious developing country that does not yet have a weather service. Ask them to consider the technological infrastructure required, the staffing and organizational management necessary, and the connections to the user communities that will need to be engaged. Provide geographical and demographical parameters for consideration when developing the plans.

Use Forum, Wiki, Glossary or use an external tool like Google Doc by providing a URL.

Use Workshop to allow group feedback on the work of individuals.