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What Are We Driving At?

Inquiry Questions from PBL & CBL

Ian Hoke MAT, MEd

Secondary School Principal - AIS Mozambique

@ianhoke

Resources at: https://tinyurl.com/1td1vxot

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Agenda

Defining inquiry & PBL
Identify standards &/or learning outcomes
CBCI - Unit Web
Writing Generalizations
Formulate a Driving Question

Brainstorm assessment pathways
Single point rubric & mastery criteria
Next steps

Feedback

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What is inquiry?

An approach to teaching and learning that involves students in the investigation of questions, problems, and/or issues of significance.

Seeks to develop students’ essential competencies as learners and equip them with a set of transferable skills and dispositions.

An active, learner and learning centered approach, which aims to develop deep understanding (Murdoch, 2015)

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What is Project-Based Learning?

a teaching method in which students gain knowledge and skills by working for an extended period of time to investigate and respond to an authentic, engaging and complex question, problem, or challenge.

bie.org

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Why Project-Based Learning?

Capitalize on motivation theory

Autonomy, Mastery, Purpose (Pink 2011)

Deeper learning

Productive struggle (or “hard fun”)

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Why Project-Based Learning?

Personalize

Design to non-negotiables
Give over the rest
Gain expertise in how each student learns

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What is Concept Based Curriculum?

Lynn Erickson - seminal thinker

1995 to present on Concept-Based

Concept-based curriculum is designed for student-centered inquiry, facilitating “synergistic” thinking by connecting rich, relevant, rigorous content to important, key concepts within and between disciplines.

A driving consideration of concept-based curriculum & instruction is facilitating deeper learning and transfer, which may be viewed as the application of skills and content knowledge across contexts.

Lois Lanning - Structure of Process
Jennifer Wathall - Concept-Based Math

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Why Concept Based Curriculum & Instruction?

Expert knowledge is organized conceptually

Patricia Alexander (1997, 1998, 2003, 2004)

Articulated curriculum builds on existing knowledge

Rich content; real skills for transfer

Ormrod, 2014

Ian

Expert knowledge is organized conceptually

Patricia Alexander (1997, 1998, 2003, 2004)

Articulated curriculum builds on existing knowledge
Rich content; real skills for transfer

1. Role of concepts in learning - Content is important - real, rich, relevant b/t can’t think deeply about something without knowledge.

Cognitive neuroscience - concepts, prior knowledge, misconceptions

As ppl construct knowledge, they build schema, eventually constructing theories with explanatory &/or predictive power

Connect to research on domain-specific learning

Patricia Alexander (1997, 1998, 2003, 2004)

Acclimation - familiarization, "fragmented" knowledge of isolated, disconnected facts; misconceptions
Competence - More info & general principles connecting info (concepts); Connections clear up misconceptions, but other misconceptions become more stubborn - achieved through in depth study
Expertise - Knowledge is tightly integrated; proposing new knowledge through new ways of looking at things, conducting research, solving problems.

All of this assumes that knowledge is constructed - Dewey in 1910s, 1920s; Vygotsky in 1930s, Piaget in 1960s, 70s;

Motivation - real learning, authenticity, progress, - real learning & progress is addictive.

2. Articulated curriculum tracks content, concepts, and competencies to build & leverage background knowledge gained in in school - “Spiral”

Doesn’t hurt kids coming in new, but should result in ever more powerful learning for kids as they move through our school.

3. Not fluffy - CBCI demands real content, real competency learning

Struggle - it can be real. Failures can be real, but necessary; safe in our school environment

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Caveat!

Learning is messy

Inquiry is hard

Embrace a learner’s mindset (Pu)

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Let’s Begin (at the end)

Identify learning outcomes

PYP/MYP/IBDP?
Academic standards sets

Get specific & granular
What, exactly, would the ideal knowledge, understanding, & performance look like?
For transdisciplinary, go into various disciplines & pull from there

Communication, problem solving, core content, etc.

Consider time frame

3 weeks? 6?
Select a robust set of learning outcomes. For now, more is more.

blucolt [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons; Cropped

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What is a Concept?

Mental constructs drawn from a discipline or between disciplines, abstract to varying degrees, & not fixed in place and time.

That’s a fact.

Seriously, facts are fixed in place and time.

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Identify a Potential Conceptual Lens

What overarching conceptual lens might work for this unit?

Or, think of it this way:

Are there a few big, important concepts that might unite the content and skills within this unit?

Jot these down...

MYP & PYP Key Concepts are very similar, but this is more flexible & likely to be discipline-specific.

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Unit Web - A Brainstorming Move

Jot down single words or short phrases from standards onto Post Its
Dump onto chart paper or a Jamboard

Knowledge Disciplines - Science, Social Studies, Math
Process Disciplines - Arts, Languages, English, PE

Organize by grouping related terms & concepts
Label groups

"Brainstorm" by Andy Mangold is licensed under CC BY 2.0

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Choose a Conceptual Lens

Is there an overarching conceptual lens bubbling to the surface?

Math - Scale, Derivatives, Location, Relationships

Science - Structure, Motion, Transformation

Language Arts - Conflict, Structure, Intention

Arts - Audience, Scale, Color, Perspective

PE/PHE - Power, Space, Boundaries

Social Studies - Conflict, Resources, Power

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Generalize!

Aim for 5-7 understandings.

What essential understandings will drive this unit? Start from the conceptual lens

Connect terms & concepts within each labeled strand into a sentence with a strong verb that follows the stem:

Students understand that...

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Driving Question

The driving question in PBL is for the teacher and student.

Focuses the inquiry
Helps teachers choose important, meaningful content
Provokes student engagement with a real challenge.

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Driving Question

Which generalization or understanding statement seems the most essential?

Wordsmith into a compelling question.

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Driving Question

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Generate - Sort - Connect - Elaborate

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Generate

Begin in a generative mindset
Seek to list as many possible ways students might demonstrate learning of generalizations.

User:MatthiasKabel [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or CC BY 2.5 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5)], from Wikimedia Commons

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Sort

Organize your ideas from the center to the edge of the paper with most concrete or closely related ideas at the center and the most tangential or abstract at the edge.

Photo by See-ming Lee; cropped

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Connect

Draw connecting lines between ideas as you see connections

Does an idea link to more than one element of the Gold Standard target?
Can two or more ideas be linked into a challenging project for kids, covering more of the Gold Standard?

Seek to explain or describe the connection in a short phrase or sentence

Viephoto Studio [CC BY 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

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Elaborate

Elaborate on these ideas or your thoughts at this stage.

How might one or more of these opportunities to demonstrate learning become the backbone of a deep inquiry that asks students to solve or deal with real problems, issues, or challenges?
What might a coherent story be on that learning journey?

Wanderer above the Sea of Fog by Caspar David Friedrich

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Mastery Criteria

(Gonzalez, 2015)

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Mastery Criteria

As a first draft, on a blank single point rubric, label each strand of mastery criteria.

Then, describe what good looks like.

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Toward Gold Standard Project Based Learning...

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Next Steps

Consider an engaging entry event

Begin exploring the “problem space”

Engage with Professional Learning Community

Local
International

Twitter - #PBLChat

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Feedback

Session 2: https://bit.ly/2FPcxno

Learning Outcome 1	Learners will use concept-based curriculum design steps to write 3-7 “generalizations” for a unit of study from which to design inquiry.
Learning Outcome 2	Learners will craft one robust “Driving Question” as the basis of a project-based unit.
Learning Outcome 3	Learners will brainstorm project outcomes for PBL unit.
Learning Outcome 4	Learners will build familiarity with PBL & basic CB design processes for units of student-centered inquiry.

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Works Cited

Erickson, H. Lynn, and Lois A. Lanning. Transitioning to concept-based curriculum and instruction: How to bring content and process together. Corwin Press, 2013.

Larmer, John, and John R. Mergendoller. “PBL Blog.” The Importance of Project Based Teaching | Blog | Project Based Learning | BIE, The Buck Institute for Education, 21 Apr. 2015, www.bie.org/blog/gold_standard_pbl_essential_project_design_elements.

Murdoch, Kath. The power of inquiry. Seastar Education, 2015.