During my investigations, I came across the website, Inquiring Mind and Herron's model for classifying inquiries. Now this gets interesting on a number of levels. Herron's model as shown on that website is going to be another part of my workshop and so I tried to find the original reference to it. However, after hours of research to find the original source, I must now call it the Schwab/Herron model. This model was first suggested by Joseph J. Schwab in the article, Teaching Science as Inquiry (Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists,Volume 14, Issue 9, 1958); and then added to by M.D. Herron (The nature of Scientific Inquiry. School Review 79(2): 171–212.). Both were describing inquiry in lab experiments in science education. Diagrams of it appear on various websites but I have yet to find its original source. Neither Schwab, nor Herron seem to have put their ideas into a diagram.
| Level of Inquiry | Teacher supplied problem? | Teacher prescribed procedure? | Solution known in advance? |
| 0 Confirmation/Verification | Y | Y | Y |
| 1 Structured | Y | Y | N |
| 2 Guided | Y | N | N |
| 3 Open | N | N | N |
I like this model as a description of the various stages of inquiry. Hopefully, we are beyond level 0. I would like to think that our grade 6 students are at the level 1 stage, and that as students progress through the secondary school, they will move into the 2nd level, until finally in grade 11 when students start the Extended Essay, they have reached the final level of open inquiry. That's what I hope anyway!
Certainly looks familiar...
ReplyDelete