Transcript, Part One
Slide 1 (Title):
Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen and welcome to our second in our series of webinars. If you would, raise your hand if you can hear me by clicking the raise your hand button (lists names of attendees)
We had about 30 people signed up for the webinar, we have about 11 here but I suppose that's par for the course for us but we'll go ahead and begin because I know our time is precious and we definitely want to move forward and make sure that we're getting everything in that we want to get in. So really thanks for being here. This webinar of course is connected to inquiry, and its one that will provide a general overview of the inquiry based model. We are going to have some upcoming webinars that look more at questioning in an inquiry model and address issues facing social studies educators across the great state of NorthCarolina. You'll notice at the bottom of the screen we have a link to our wiki and I'm just going to take you to there now so you can see where this powerpoint will be once we're all done with this. This will be where you can find some of the resources that we will be using today. So if you go to the wiki site (gives address on screen), go there and I'll show you where it will be.
Webpage:
So we go here. and the resources that we are using will be right here, under social studies webinar series and we have a reading for today, which of course all of you did (laugh) and uh, the um Buck Institute video which we will be playing for you today and just give you a heads up, if the video does not seem to run properly over this lovely system we call streaming, then you can go ahead and just play it from your computers at your end through the youtube link that we've linked for you there on the screen. This is definitely a session where we want to encourage participation and comments. We have a couple of people who are monitoring the questions and so we definitely want you to ask questions and contribute and take part in the discussion. So let's go ahead and do some introductions.
Slide 2 (Contacts/Introductions):
I'm sure that all of you guys are all familiar with us. We have our section chief Fay Gore who is at another webinar right now. and then we have our consultants, who will say a happy hi. we have Ann Carlock
Ann: Good afternoon
Steve: Justyn Knox, who is currently doing her CNA training. You have me, SteveMasyada, and then we have the wonderful Michelle McLaughlin.
Michelle: Good afternoon.
Steve: and we have our great program assistant, Bernie Cole. And so these are the folks who are hear to serve you and social studies across the state.
Slide 3 (Objectives):
Now our objectives for this session. Discuss quality instruction in the social studies, something which should be familiar for you. Introduce the inquiry arc of the C3 Framework, which hopefully some of you guys are familiar with. Discuss the importance of and research base for inquiry in the social studies. And discuss implementation of inquiry based learning in the classroom. Give you sort of a little example of how it might look in the classroom.
Slide 4 (Quality Instruction in the Social Studies):
So let's go ahead and talk about what makes quality instruction in the social studies. Now this might look familiar to those who attended our RESA sessions this year because we talked about this at the start of those sessions. We know quality instruction is meaningful and authentic. It has to have purpose, it has to have meaning. It's really supposed to get into depth and focus on what matters in the democratic society that is America and where students are going in the future. So we want this to be meaningful and authentic. as we will talk about, Inquiry really does get to that meaningfullness and authenticity. You want it to be integrative. Subjects that comprise social studies are integrated into each unit or lesson and the strength of inquiry is that integrative nature. You want it to be active. You want kids to process and think about what they learning, and you can't get more active than actually exploring a question that is relevant to student life.
Slide 5 (Quality Instruction in the Social Studies):
Of course it's value based. It's also a significant element. You want a curriculum that expresses values and embodies our democratic form of government. Justice, equality, freedom...really reflecting in many ways the approach of John Dewey, way back at the turn of the LAST century, who argued that thi should be the focus of social studies in particular and education in general. You have teachers that are aware of their values and how those values influence their teaching. Inquiry ties to that, because the questions we explore are often tied to our own values and perceptions of those values. and you want the students to enage in experiences that develop fair-mindedness, simulations, critical thinking, decision making, and so on. Basically, again, tying back to what we are doing and making meaning. And finally, there is challenging.
Slide 6: Questions (pause for questions)
Any questions so far? Answer them in the comment or question space? I'll give you a second to process. Thank you all again for coming. So I’m assuming that there are no questions.
Slide 7 (What is Inquiry):
So, the question is, what is inquiry? Inquiry is really defined as sort of the seeking of truth, information, or knowledge. It's a complex process where students try to convey information into useful knowledge. Identifying real questions, finding resources pulling them together, answering the real question, interpreting the information, and presenting the findings. This is really tide to the C3 framework we will be talking up soon. Students are constantly refining, constantly exploring answers to the real world questions. Inquiry-based learning is grounded in the writings of John Dewey. Jeffrey Kaplan explains Dewey’s philosophy in this manner: Dewey believed that teaching and learning should occur in a classroom where true participatory democracy is practiced (2002). Learning, Dewey argued, prepares people so they can encounter life’s problems through their constant interplay with their immediate world. Education should not be looked on as a preparation for life, but an important part of life that children live. Kaplan notes that in education, phrases like “learning by doing,” “creating a caring community of learners” and “discovery learning” are based on Dewey’s teachings (2002). Inquiry-based learning has been a part of educational reform movements since the 1930sbut as we know and as we see today, education is a cycle and that cycle is coming right back around to that inquiry based model of the 1930s, the era when Social Studies was born.
Slide 8 (Advantages of Inquiry):
So, what are some advantages of inquiry. Why should we do inquiry? It really does have a number of advantages that we see here. It's highly student centered, highly relevant to students, focuses on making connections to the real world and really gives students freedom but its freedom within a specific guideline because thet still practice some basic skills, still exploring important content. It touches on students where they are and engages their learning styles. It;s interdisciplinary, It encourages collaboration among students, it works with any age group. Elementary school kids can do an inquiry project. Middle school, high school, and of course college students are more than capable of this. and of course very important too and if you think about it one of the most important elements, it really acknowledges students funds of knowledge. It requires students to use what they know already and put that to use. Now just keep in mind, and one of the reasons that we are focusing on inquiry in our webinars this year is that it really enhances instruction, it brings in that 3rd dimension that we have talked about so much, of thinking and learning that is an element of social studies in North Carolina. It can be integarted from the very beginning into a conceptual unit as a component of instruction. And we are going to talk more about that a little later.
Slide 9 (Goal of social studies):
So, we are going to go ahead and talk now about the goal of social studies and then Michelle is going to talk about connecting the inquiry model to a social studies concept based Framework. So what is the goal of social studies.Really, coming from a variety of sources.It's engaging students in investigating significant themes, people, values and choices as a central focus. (Cite's authors of book on screen). Really focused too as well on active citizenship and learning. Meyerson talks about this with Secules. Of course inquiry is sucha key part of social studies. Inquiry and action go together hand in hand. So the question that we have thrown out there,and we'd like you take a minute and respond in the question box or the comment box is how much inquiry will help us with our goals. So take a minute and thik of and how this applies to you. (LONG PAUSE) In this case silence is not golden. I wouldn’t mind and answer or two. (LONG PAUSE)
Ann: Kristin had a fantastic answer. Inquiry allows students to take control of their own learning and make the topic relevant to them. Kim said its more meaningful learning. Joyce said it allows for more in depth thinking, allowing students to apply their knowledge base, previous experiences, or courses. Jenny says social studies is concepts and ideas, people, dates, and places. By asking question we can get into the why these events happened. Awesome. (LOUD CLAP) I clap because those are some great responses and exactly what we were looking for and this is why I love working with you guys because you always come up with some really fantastic stuff. We donthave alot of us here but we have some good people here and we really appreciate the work that you're doing here AND responses like that. So our own work in North Carolina really does lend itself nicely to inquiry. And this connects to what North Carolina teachers are already doing in social studies. So let's talk about how eare making those connections. I'm going to turn it over now to Michelle to talk about connecting inquiry to the K-12 social studies concept based framework.