HIGH SCHOOL
Connecting Curiosity & Content
Ms. LaTosha Parker-Jackson - IGCSE Coordinator
As a product of the social media age, I resort to Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube for fresh, innovative, and experimental activities for my History lessons in High School. There are hundreds of phenomenal educators who use social media to share fresh ideas, geared towards enhancing learning in the classroom, making content and skills relatable for learners, and push the boundaries for what a “student centred” classrooms looks like.
In recent years, inquiry-based learning and projects have become a buzz word throughout educational circles. According to Edutopia, a foundation focused on informing teachers of “strategic approaches to improving education” since 1991, inquiry based learning is described as not simply having teachers present facts, but instead we “use questions, problems, and scenarios to help students learn through their own agency and investigation” (About, 2019)(Inquiry, 2019).
Having a desire and interest in bringing inquiry-based-projects into IGCSE subjects is one thing, but re-structuring how content is taught, giving students time to practice important skills, and (most importantly) ensuring students in Year 2 are properly prepared for their external examinations is another thing all together. How can a dedicated and passionate IGCSE teacher, adequately and realistically incorporate inquiry-based-projects into their lessons, without sacrificing major components of their course?
This is the quintessential question at stake here.
It will involve an all-out re-examination of how your two-year
course is taught, training and resources on the best approaches to
teaching and learning through inquiry-based-projects, and a flexible
yet determined mind set on the side of the educators.
Yes… challenging; but not impossible.
In fact, the outcome can be very rewarding.