Reflections on Inquiry Based Instruction

    
It is crazy to think that we are less than 40 days away from our final presentations! As we gear up for our student teaching experience, we have had so many great opportunities to grow as future educators by participating in experiences such as National FFA Convention, microteaching, and the Agriscience Inquiry Institute. 

    The Agriscience Inquiry Institute was a two day professional development event in which the PSU Ag Ed '24 cohort and 8 preservice educators came together to do a deep dive into inquiry based instruction. Inquiry based instruction is a student-centered approach in which the instructor guides students through activities that encourage them to ask question, develop methods, analyze data, and make real world connections. We has the opportunity to learn from two phenomenal educators, Sherisa Nailor and Krista Pontius, who are also workshop leaders for the National Association of Agricultural Educators (NAAE). They walked us through multiple lessons that are inquiry based so that we could think about how to apply these concepts into our classrooms. 

Student-Centered Learning

As I was going through the Inquiry Institute, I realized that I really struggle with wanted to give my students the correct answer all the time. When I am writing lesson plans, I often find myself writing lesson plans that are engaging, but I always want to create activities that take specific steps leading them to their correct answers. However, students will be so much more engaged if they feel as though they are leading their own learning. As I continue to write lesson plans and prepare for my student teaching experience, I am going to be more aware of the fact that learning should be student centered and I should work towards fostering this environment in my classroom. 

Slowly Introduce These Concepts to Students

Another concept that I really struggled with was how to directly implement some of the activities that we were doing into my classroom. For example, I really struggled with creating effective data tables, and I was really worried that if I would do this activity to students and tell them to create a data table on their own that they would not be as effective. However, Mrs. Nailor and Ms.Pontius both shared that they originally implemented these to their classrooms very slowly. For example, first you would give your students a data chart to copy, then you would have your students work with you to create a data sheet, then they could create a data sheet in small groups or a pair, and finally they will create a data sheet independently. As a preservice educator, it was really nice to have this concept laid out by someone who has implemented these concepts into their classrooms successfully. 

The idea of slowly introducing concepts is also a great way to make sure that you are setting your students up for success. As educators, I think it is important to keep in mind that we are trying to prepare our students for the real world. This is a great way to help foster students independence and also teaching them a skill that could serve them well throughout the rest of their lives.