Information Processing

Project-Based Learning

Projects are...

• Multi-Day Activities
• Team Activities
• Higher order thinking activities
• Opportunities to explore topics in depth

Projects Engender

• Problem Solving Skills
• Student Engagement
• Organization
• Teamwork
• Research Skills
• Conclusion/Inference Skills

Examples of Projects

• Research some animal or a species and analyze how it fits into the larger ecosystem.
• Study the implications of high college tuition on students, describe any other problems with the current organization of school structures.

Inquiry Learning

Inquiry Learning

• Engagement
• Exploration
• Explanation
• Elaboration
• Evaluation

Students

• Are participants rather than recipients
• Investigate
• Observe
• Question and Critique

Teachers

• Support learning by multiple means
• Model behavior
• Facilitate learning and teach general strategies

Examples of Inquiry Learning

• Pose a situation to students and ask them to define and relate variables to one another.
• Ask students to make a plan to solve a problem, possibly giving them options from which to choose.

Socratic Dialogue

Socratic Dialogue Involves

• A conversation in which each student is called to participate
• Active listening by all students
• Focus on a single topic
• Respectful discourse which acknowledges others even when disagreeing

Teacher Will

• Pose a question or discussion topic
• Select a student to respond
• Call on subsequent students to possibly summarize the information presented previously and then state their own view
• Keep students from going on tangents
• Stay out of the conversation
• Possibly change or alter the prompt after some time has passed

Examples Topics for Socratic Dialogue

• Discuss the significance of a character in a novel
• Debate what adding a specific chemical might do to a mixture
• Discuss where true motivation comes from