Inquiry-based learning (henceforth referred to as IBL) is a curious approach to science teaching, which uses questions as a key component, encourages the development of problem solving skills solving through interactive engagement and aims to ensure a deeper understanding of the concept to be taught through the use of the five Es. Inquiry-based learning is student-led and can be used in a variety of ways, according to Boggess (http://assessment.tamu.edu/seminars/110807_Boggess.pdf); examples include group work, discussion, writing, use of the web, activities inside and outside the classroom, involvement and diversity. Although inclusion is not explicit in the IBL strategy, the fact that IBL is based on questions presupposes that the class learns together, benefiting from the questions of others – in other words, that it conforms to the fundamental idea of group work . Through IBL strategies, my partner and I created a wiki that aimed to teach Phase 3 aspects about river ecosystems. This critique will discuss each of the above-mentioned examples and demonstrate how, when and why they were used in the IBL strategy. Teachers use IBL to encourage students to develop their own research skills and external connections with other students in the class, each using students' prior knowledge to enrich that of others. The benefits are highly applicable to the sciences, where individual students' prior knowledge often varies greatly and the interconnectedness of science with other subjects leaves ample opportunities for integration and inquiry. Science skills facilitated by IBL include “asking questions, planning, conducting and critiquing investigations, collecting, analyzing and interpreting evidence… halfway through the document… discussions were a highly effective tool throughout the wiki that makes students more interested and the learning environment more favorable and diversified. Furthermore, the greater freedom in the final evaluation task facilitated diversity within the experiment; however, it is certainly questionable that greater freedom could have been guaranteed to the students, resulting in greater diversity, while remaining within acceptable safety guidelines experimental. In conclusion, although many aspects of the wiki could be improved, especially as a teaching and learning sequence using inquiry-based learning it is adequate to teach phase 3 about river ecosystems. If I were given a similar task again, I would aim to increase the interactivity of ICT integration and provide more extension activities to meet the needs of each student, while encouraging diversity.
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