JOL>Collections>INQuiry based Learning>Using the Internet to Promote inquiry based Learning>Promoting Inquiry in the classroom with the project page

 

Introducing the Project Page

To promote the incorporation of the inquiry-based research model into your curriculum, we suggest the Project Page. Project Pages are online documents that guide learners through inquiry while engaging them in the particular essential question of interest. The inquiry-based research model described above is seamlessly embedded within the Project Page to provide the pedagogical support required for learning in an online environment.

The page itself is composed of five distinct components: the scenario, the task, the resource section, the product, and the assessment section. Each component has a particular structure and function that promote inquiry-based learning while using the World Wide Web as the primary information resource.

Project pages provide structure to learning. Too many teachers bring their students to a computer lab to work online for some project, only to be confronted with an unorganized, ineffective, and frustrating (for both students and teacher!) learning environment. The Project Page addresses this concern.

The Project Page is indeed a document that initially provides all of the components of an inquiry-based learning activity. An important point: the intent of the Project Page is to introduce inquiry-based learning to students. It is also intended to introduce the Web as a learning tool to students. Because of the complexity of this instructional approach, a teacher should be cautioned about asking students to do too much initially until the necessary process skills required to engage in inquiry-based learning and the Web as an independent learner are developed. One of the reasons problem-based learning (PBL) is difficult to implement in an effective manner is that too many skills are required by students initially.

After the initial use of the Project Page, teachers may elect to remove certain components of the inquiry-based research model and require that students develop those skills on their own. Teachers may require that students build their own foundation questions or that students find their own Web sites for information. In any case, both require separate lessons designed to develop those skills. The ultimate goal is for the student(s) to progress through the entire inquiry-based process independently.

 

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