Browsing by Subject "inquiry"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    Beyond Googling: Applying Google Tools to Inquiry-based Learning
    (2010-04) Lamb, Annette; Johnson, Larry
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    "Discovering" Writing With Struggling Students: Using Discovery Learning Pedagogy to Improve Writing Skills in Reluctant and Remedial Learners
    (2016-03) Bohney, Brandie Lee; Lovejoy, Kim B.; Fox, Steve; Brooks-Gillies, Marilee Elizabeth
    Few writing teachers will disagree that teaching writing conventions in isolation is a fruitless, even harmful, pedagogy which does little, if anything, to improve student writing. Teaching conventions, style, and usage (often collectively referred to as grammar) in context, however, proves difficult when struggling secondary students develop good ideas and evidence but fail to clearly articulate them because of their lack of understanding of various writing conventions. The purpose of this study is to test the efficacy of a carefully designed discovery learning activity which intends to push students into metacognition about what they read, how it is structured, and how that structure affects the reader. Three sources of data were used to determine whether students who had learned by discovery were better able to avoid and revise run-on sentences than students who did not learn through discovery pedagogy. The data sources include two sets of essays, surveys taken by the students, and teacher analyses of essays for readability. The results of the data analysis indicate that use of run-on sentences, especially early in an essay, detrimentally affects the readability of student written work; discovery learning activities improve student understanding, application, and transfer of skill; and while students believe they understand more than their written work indicates, the results provide teachers direction for further instruction. The findings of this study indicate that use of discovery learning for writing instruction with struggling learners holds great promise: a group of students generally regarded as academically weak showed greater understanding and application of run-on sentence avoidance than slightly stronger students who learned without discovery methods. This indicates that discovery learning is a method that improves learning among reluctant secondary students, a population many teachers struggle to reach effectively. Discovery learning is not limited to conventions, though: the promise of its application potential extends into a variety of writing skills and concepts. In addition to the run-on sentence discovery activity studied here, discovery activities for various other skills—from semicolon use through creating characterization with dialogue—are included.
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    Graphic Inquiry: Skills and Strategies, Part II
    (2007-10) Callison, Daniel; Lamb, Annette
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    Peirce’s Heuristic Conception of Fundamentality
    (2024) De Tienne, André; Philosophy, School of Liberal Arts
    What are the signs that inform us that some theory, concept, or entity is fundamental? What is fundamentality? Is fundamentality foundational? This article delves into such questions through an examination of the writings of American philosopher Charles S. Peirce, arguably one of the most genuinely “fundamental” thinkers in history. After an introductory contextualization of the topic, a representative sample of eight distinct principles or conceptions that Peirce announced as essential or fundamental is drawn from a chronologically diverse collection of his papers to identify which characters emerge that seem to justify their fundamentality. The article then articulates ten general properties that seem to be essential to Peirce’s conception of fundamentality, all of which are especially pertinent to the research endeavor. It concludes that Peirce’s heuristic conception of fundamentality cannot be separated from his metaphysical conception of reality, which sets him apart from contemporary debate.
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    Reading the World: Toward a Praxis of Inquiry, Critical Literacy, and Cultural Knowledge
    (Wiley, 2017) Kazembe, Lasana D.; School of Education
    Most people have struggled with reading in one situation or another, depending on their appreciation for the content, their prior experiences, and the texts. This department column shares ways for educators to help literacy learners unlock their potential with instruction anchored in their skills, knowledge, ways of learning, interests, and attitudes.
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    Wikis and Collaborative Inquiry
    (2009-02) Lamb, Annette; Johnson, Larry