Inquiry Training

The following preliminary notes are intended as a preview guide for the video that was made by Dr. William M. Timpson and Dr. Barbara Nelson as part of the Advances in Instruction series, produced by The Office of Instructional Services, Fort Collins: Colorado State University, 1991. 4 of these videos were first viewed together at JSRCC in Dec., 1999.

Its content corresponds to Chapter 6 of Concepts and Choices for Teaching: Meeting the Challenges in Higher Education by William M. Timpson and Paul Brendel-Simso (Madison, WI: Magna, 1996): 101-104. This book was one of 3 read by faculty members of the JSRCC Professional Development and Renewal Committee and others for discussions in Fall, 1999.

Rather than being a knowledge fountain, let students wrestle with problems or puzzles and helping students to derive hypotheses and make discoveries.

Reynaldo Martinez gives students materials and a manual and asks students to figure out equipment on their own, providing safety is preserved. Let students make mistakes and research for themselves among plentiful resources.

For instance, offer a range of options and ask students which is the best one and why. Students work out logistics and criteria for selection together or solo and get critique of preferred solution from the teacher.

Demo: 12 raw eggs with paper and tape. One person acts as recorder to write the open-ended problem-solving process:

1. Defining the problem with alternatives

2. Develop hypotheses

3. Define and clarify hypotheses

4. Explore assumptions, implications, logical validity

5. Gather facts about hypotheses

6. Generalize a solution

Groups of 3-4: 1 gathers materials, 1 records

Eric Larsen uses 15 cups covered with masking tape to get students to deduce what’s in the paper cup. Barbara Nelson provided an essay question, a model answer, and 5 students answers—result is usually to demo full range of grading is possible and question wording is required to narrow subjectivity.

Nancy Wear notes that she likes to give hints to struggling groups. She realized that groups could work better if she gave more info up front.

Marty Klein talks about the "feeling of letting go" as students work in groups to answer critical reading questions in the text and her own. At first, students struggled with defining the problem but now they are asking questions to get details and assist defining the problem. Struggle is important for growth.

Timpson, after tossing eggs, summarizes the value of the discovery learning exercise. It’s fun but also involving.

Questions for Viewers

1. What does the teacher do in the demo?

2. What do you wish the teacher had done or not done during the demo.

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