Designing InquiryBased Learning
Environments
Ravit Golan Duncan
Rutgers University
Overview

The design of COOLClassroom

Try it yourself- Model the Hudson River Plume

Proficiency in Science- What do we want students to learn
and know?

Using Data- the Coral Reef Investigation

Design Frameworks and the Design Process
Building a Design Team
Educators
Scientists
Teachers
Domain experts
The Team
Collaborative team
that builds on each
other’s expertise.
Interface
Designers
Education
Researchers
Programmers
Graphic artists
Learning Scientists
Learning Sciences
Building theory in education through the design and
empirical testing of learning environments that are:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Knowledge centered
Learner centered
Assessment centered
Situated within a learning
community
NRC: How People Learn (Bransford, Brown & Cocking, 1999)
Cool Classroom Environment
Hudson River Plume
http://new.coolclassroo
Cool Classroom Environment
Knowledge Centered

Inquiry-based and
organized around
questions/problems

Includes hands-on
and minds-on
activities- both on
and off line.

Investigations
conclude with the
development of a
scientific
explanation
Mirrors scientific practice
(Duschl, 1990; Donovan & Bransford, 2005)
Student Centered

Initial activities serve to
surface students’ prior
knowledge

Investigation activities
help students build
understandings of the
core concepts

There are opportunities
to reflect on learning and
compare initial ideas to
final ideas
Surface, build, and revise ideas
(Driver et al., 1996; Ford & Forman, 2006)
Assessment Centered

Formative
assessment is critical
for learning

Reflective journal
questions provide an
assessable record of
student thinking

Supports teachers in
tailoring instruction to
meet students’ needs
Make thinking visible
(Black & Wiliam, 1998; Bransford, Brown & Cocking, 2000)
Community Centered
Web-based unit
+
Scientists
+
Teacher
Students
(peer interaction)
+
http://new.coolclassroom.org/adventures/explore/plume/6
Take a picture of your model
White Board Tools
Your models
A
Student Models
of the Plume
B
C
Proficiency in Science

What do we want students to learn about in
science classes?
Proficiency in Science
A. Content- core concepts and theories
B. Practices- the process/method of science
C. Epistemology- how scientific knowledge
develops
Proficiency in Science




Know, use, and interpret scientific
explanations
Generate and evaluate scientific evidence
and explanations
Understand the nature and development of
scientific knowledge
Participate productively in scientific practices
and discourse
NRC 2007 report Taking Science to School
Model-Based Inquiry



Models are abstractions that highlight certain
features that help explain and predict natural
phenomena
The development, testing and revisions of
models is a core practice in science
Model-based inquiry is a flavor of inquiry that
emphasizes the role of models as tools-tothink-with
Developing Models from Data
Reef Ecosystems
Articles
Data Maps
Example Model (7-8th grade)
Final Model
Language of Design



Design space - all possible options
Design decisions- choice of one option
Tradeoffs - benefits and costs associated with
each choice
You can design however you want to but you
must always know what decisions you made
and what were the associated tradeoffs
Design Frameworks: Backwards
Design (UbD- Wiggins & McTighe, 1998)

Driven by end goals- what we
want students to be able to
do (performance oriented)

Strength is in the focus on
creating greater coherence
and alignment between
goals, learning experiences,
and assessments
Design Frameworks: Backwards
Design (Wiggins & McTighe, 1998)



Determine enduring understandings:
 Few core ideas as enduring (3-5)
 Filters- big idea; at heart of domain; requires un-coverage;
engaging
Evidence:
 Ongoing assessment (formative) not just at the end; formal
and informal; performance oriented
 Valid, reliable, authentic, feasible
Learning experiences:
 What is the enabling knowledge?
 Match learning goals to activities
 Provide scaffolding
 Coherent and goal oriented for students
Design Frameworks: Learning for
Use (Edelson, 2001)
For each target goal:
 Motivate: beyond the hook, this is creating a need
to know. Create demand/elicit curiosity
 Construct: provide opportunities for learners to
construct the objective understandings (this is
where scaffolding comes in)
 Refine/Apply: provide learners with opportunities
to use the knowledge and reflect on it, thus
refining it.
Design Process

Backwards Design:
1. Begin with goals- what are the knowledge and skills you
want individuals to develop

Learning for Use:
2. Think about motivating problem or project
(contextualize)
3. Define the backbone- main sequence of events
4. Develop activities within the backbone
 Don’t tell the answer, have learners figure it out- they
learn goals in context of project
5. Provide opportunity to apply knowledge
(culminating task)
Design Frameworks: Learning for
Use (Edelson, 2001)
Learning theories:




Constructivism: learners construct knowledge; this takes
time and is incremental; kids bring knowledge with them
Goal directed: we learn what we need to know, learning is
initiated by the learner
Knowledge is contextual: retrieved based
on contextual cues (indices)
Application: For knowledge not to be inert
we need to know how to apply it
The End
ravit.duncan@gse.rutgers.edu
Readings…





Edelson, D. C. (2001). Learning-for-Use: A Framework for the Design of
Technology-Supported Inquiry Activities. Journal of Research in Science
Teaching, 38 (3), p355-85
Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J. (1998). Understanding by design. Association
for Supervision and Curriculum Development: Alexandria, Virginia.
Rivet, A. E., & Krajcik, J. S. (2008). Contextualizing instruction:
Leveraging students' prior knowledge and experiences to foster
understanding of middle school science. Journal of Research in Science
Teaching, 45(1), 79 - 100.
Moje, E. B. (2007). Developing Socially Just Subject-Matter Instruction:
A Review of the Literature on Disciplinary Literacy Teaching . Review of
Research in Education 2007 31: 1-44.
Moje, E. B., Collazo, T., Carrillo, R., & Marx, R. W. (2001). “Maestro,
what is quality?": Language, literacy, and discourse in project-based
science. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 38(4), 469-496.
New Age in Science Education
Students’ Explanations
Interim Notes:
We have many hy potheses.
 One is that there is too much Algae in the water. This would cloud up the water, making
photosynthesis harder, due to lack of sunlight. The coral would then produce more chlorophyl, in
an attempt to make the most of the little sunlight that makes it through past the algae. But this
attempt would only slow down the process.
 It also could have been water temperature change . This could upset the balance in the
ecosy stem and cuase many coral to die. This could also be linked to the hy pothesis that there
could be too many pollutants . fI there are too many pollutants it coulod cuase the water
temperature to rise. This couldf urther upset upset the way things are.
 `May be the thing that cuased all the sea urchin deaths couldbe affecting the corals. May be it
was a new kind of fish introduced to the area. It could be allot of things.
Final Summary:
There were many factors that eff ected the coral. The major f actor starts with the people. The
more people there are, the more sewage is dumped into the water surrounding the coral. The more
sewage there is, the more the nutrients get off balance. The more the nutrients change, the more the
algae grows. The more the algae grows, the more it blocks the sunlight from coming into the water,
which keeps the zooxanthellaes f rom perf orming photosy nthesis, which prov di es the coral with its major
source of energy. Normally the sea urchins would eat the algae and keep its lev el down, but most of
them my ster
iously died in 1987.