Models For Teaching: Inductive Approaches

By: Kimberly Crowell &Ana Bailey

“It is only an inductive lesson if the students engage in inductive thinking” (Joyce, Showers, &Weil, 1996)

Natural Resources:Trees (yes) Houses (no) Granite

(yes)Bathtub (no) Sun (yes) Fans (no)Oil (yes) Tent (no) Gasoline (no)

Now, find a commonality amongst the positive examples and negative examples. Then, make a definition.

T-shirt Mississippi RiverCoal SoilCement Wind

Inductive Teaching: Informal & Formal

• Proceeds from specific to general– Draw general conclusions based on particular

examples.– Example: Detectives

• Most learning that occurs in daily life is inductive– Example: Children learn concepts such as happy,

tired, dog, or ice cream through experiences

• Lessons teach the content AND a higher level thinking strategy useful in everyday life!

Informal Inductive Teaching

• Not necessarily unplanned– Fish tank– Rabbit– Collection of plants– Weather stations– Collection of books displayed on a table– Portion of school yard “adopted” for careful

observations throughout the year– Field Trips– Technology

Formal Inductive Teaching

• Focuses primarily on the students’ interaction with information.

• Direct lessons: Teacher presents an idea or skill and then cites specific examples of how it may be applied.

• Inductive lessons: Students are given examples and they figure out the concept or generalization that ties it all together.

• Page 213 Bruner’s Structure

Concept Formation• Use:

– Develop Concepts• Key Attributes/ Student Activities:

1. List data2. Categorize data3. Label concepts

• When planning, two considerations:1. Plan a question or problem that will allow students to

generate a list of data rich enough to include the concept you wish to develop

2. Recognize when students need additional questions to assist them in focusing the categories

Concept Attainment

• Use:– Develop concepts

• Key Attributes/ Student Activities:1.Examine examples and nonexamples of concept2.Identify new exemplars as examples or

nonexamples3.Generate rules/criteria for concepts4.Develop or receive concept labels

Inquiry Lessons

• Require students to inquire, examine information, make hypotheses, gather data, and draw conclusions

• Get students actively involved in discovering a generalization that explain a puzzling event or set of data.

• Capitalize on students’ natural curiosity and desire to find solutions to puzzling or problematic situations

Suchman’s Inquiry

• Use:– Form generalizations

• Key Attributes/ Student Activities:1.View a puzzling event 2.Ask “yes” and “no” questions to explain the event

and/or identify important variables3.Test hypotheses by asking questions or

manipulating variables4.Draw conclusions

Other Inquiry

• Use:– Form generalizations

• Key Attributes/ Student Activities1.Examine data set2.Make hypotheses regarding data3.Test hypotheses on additional data4.Draw conclusions

**Fascinating inquiry projects can be conducted when classrooms share data from different parts of the country or the world.**

ACTIVITY!!!

Authentic Research

• Definition-inductive lessons in which students collect and analyze data to draw new conclusions.

• These activities appeal to the way the brain naturally learns by engaging students with meaningful, complex experiences

• Data is not presented by the teacher• The results are not identified in advance

Caution!

• When using authentic research you must always make sure the questions are appropriate, there are no predetermined answers, and data is always available.

Types of Research

• Descriptive Research• Historical Research• Experimental Research

Descriptive Research

• Asks the question, How are things now?• Main purpose is to portray a current situation as

accurately as possible• Includes observations, surveys, and interviews• Can be conducted in a short period of time• Easiest type of research for young children• Examples: school reporting average reading test

scores for a grade, conducting election polls, observe the types of insects found on school grounds

Historical Research

• Asks the question, How did things use to be?• Main purpose is to reconstruct the past as accurately

and objectively as possible• Appropriate for elementary age students.• Examples: interview a former mayor about his or her

term, a book about a pioneer woman based on her diaries

Continued…

• The main difference between historical research and typical library research is the reliance of the historical research on primary resources • paintings, museum displays, old magazines

**CAUTION: the younger the students, the closer to home we must stay

Experimental Research• Asks the question, What would happen if…?

• Designed to investigate cause-and-effect relationships by exposing experimental groups to some type of treatment

• Manipulates variables– Researcher investigates the effectiveness of a drug

• Students make hypotheses, gather data, and draw conclusions

• Examples: medical studies, studies comparing the effectiveness of teaching techniques

ACTIVITY!!!

Problem Based Learning

• Definition- learning structured around a complex problem

• students learn content and process as necessary to solve problem rather than being given the problem after the skills are learned– Started in medical schools

• In a classroom, starts with a problem, which is selected by the teacher

Success of Problem Based Learning….

• Depends on 2 things:– The structure of the problem – The skill of the teacher in guiding students

• Teacher shifts between traditional and nontraditional roles

Metacognition• Definition- is the awareness of one’s own thinking• This is a valuable asset for students’ understanding of content

and skills of effective learning• 3 parts of metacognition:

– Being aware of one’s own commitment, attention, and attitude toward a task

– Exertion of metacognitive control over the learning process

– Student monitors how well the planned strategies are working and checks progress made toward the goal

Steps to Inductive Approachespage 228

• Exploring data• Finding patterns or make hypotheses• Test hypotheses• Form concepts or generalizations • Metacognition• Apply understanding in a new situation

* The middle stages (2 and 3) may be repeated as many times as necessary.

Role-Play• Definition- an activity in which students take on a role and

pretend they are a particular person or thing in order to solve a problem or act out a situation.

• Effective tools for enhancing understanding of content and developing of social and life skills

• Can be done in small groups or by one group in front of the class

• No script• Brief activity completed in one class session• Helps students to develop varied points of view by

considering issues from more than one perspective

4 Steps in Panning Role-Play

• Select the general problem area to be addressed

• Define the specific situation to be portrayed • Plan a role for the audience• Decide how you will introduce the role-play

Follow these Steps!

• Provide the introductory activities• Clearly explain the situation to be enacted• Select students for each role and assign the

observation task to the audience• Give the observers a talk to perform• Conduct the role-play one or more times• Allow enough time for the students to respond to

the activity

Simulation• Definition- an activity in which students experience a

simplified version of reality, either through complex extended role-play or through electronic “virtual” experiences

• Involves many students over a period of days, weeks, or months

• Should include a variety of roles that demand differing strengths and weaknesses

• Events should take place as a normal consequence of students actions

• Students should act as they believe their role demands• Many simulations are available on computers

4 Key Questions to Ask When Creating a Simulation

• What is the problem?• Who are the participants?• What do they have to do?• What do they have to do it with?