In week four, we had Trevor McKenzie as a guest speaker, and he talked about inquiry-based learning and the importance of curiosity in the classroom. Inquiry-based learning interests me as it strays away from traditional learning, where content is delivered and students must regurgitate the content through assessment. Instead, incorporating inquiry-based learning involves critical thinking, being active when learning, problem solving, and exploring many possible outcomes to a problem, which can all have positive impacts on learning. Inquiry-based learning also allows students to explore different ways of learning, which in turn can spark interest and curiosity within the classroom.
Trevor talked about the importance of curiosity within the classroom and how it can effectively decrease behavioral challenges; for example, students will be less likely to skip a class that sparks their curiosity. Before this lecture, I had never thought about the positive relationship that curiosity and classroom management have. Thinking back to my experience with school, I can see the connection as the more curious I was about a concept, the more effort I put in and paid more attention.
As a future educator, I hope to create curiosity within students in my physical health education classes by incorporating inquiry-based learning to increase participation. The example that Trevor had of inquiry-based learning in a PHE class inspired me, as it can be used as a tool to create cohesion with students by asking guiding questions about teamwork and having them come up with answers together. This lecture has motivated me to work hard in order to spark curiosity in every student by incorporating inquiry-based learning.
Below is a youtube viedo that I found helpful when thinking about how I would apply inquiry-based learning into PHE classes. This video provides ideas and suggestions for incoperating inquiry in PHE, and also shows what inquiry learning can look like in PHE.