Concept-Based Inquiry in Action
Strategies to Promote Transferable Understanding
- Carla Marschall
- Rachel French - Frankfurt International School (Oberusel, Germany)
Foreword by H. Lynn Erickson and Lois Lanning
Corwin Teaching Essentials
"This is exactly what my school needs right now to support colleagues to build on the foundations of our written concept-based curriculum and to take-off our taught curriculum to the next - and highest - levels."
Neville Kirton, Deputy Head of Secondary
Colegio Anglo Colombiano, Bogota, Colombia
"Filled with strategies, illustrations, diagrams, and pictures, this book really gives you the insight you need to help students better understand what they are learning. So many great ideas that can be used in any classroom. A must read for all educators."
Amanda McKee, 9th, Algebra/Geometry, Secondary Certified Instructor/Mentor
Johnsonville High School, Johnsonville, SC
Create a thinking classroom that helps students move from the factual to the conceptual
All students deserve the opportunity to think conceptually. But seeing conceptual relationships does not come naturally to every student. How can teachers construct thinking classrooms where students can move from the factual to the conceptual level of thinking?
Concept-Based Inquiry in Action has the answers. In this book, the authors marry theory with practice to create a new framework for inquiry that promotes deep understanding: Concept-Based Inquiry. The key is helping students to inquire into concepts and the relationships between them using guiding questions developed by the teacher, the students themselves, or by the teacher and students together. Step by step, the authors lead both new and experienced educators to implement teaching strategies that support the realization of inquiry-based learning for understanding in any K–12 classroom.
The book and its accompanying website are rich with the resources necessary to facilitate the construction and transfer of conceptual understanding, including
- Numerous practical teaching strategies, aligned to each phase of Concept-Based Inquiry, that can be modified for diverse populations
- Visual notes that represent significant ideas discussed
within each chapter - Videos of instructional strategies and teacher interviews that show Concept-Based Inquiry in action in K–12 classrooms around the world
- Templates of graphic organizers, sample anchor charts, and blackline masters that support the use of teaching strategies in the classroom
- Planners that show how the phases of Concept-Based Inquiry come together in a unit
In a world filled with complexity, the role of the teacher as a facilitator of conceptual understanding has never been more pressing. Concept-Based Inquiry in Action provides teachers with the tools necessary to organize and focus student learning around concepts and conceptual relationships that support deep understanding.
"For all its pedagogical purity, concept-based learning continues, no doubt, to perplex in practice. This book synchronizes concept and inquiry-based learning, demystifying the theories that underpin them and providing a wealth of practical classroom strategies that, ultimately, serves to deepen students’ conceptual understandings. This is exactly what my school needs right now to support colleagues to build on the foundations of our written concept-based curriculum and to take-off our taught curriculum to the next - and highest - levels."
"I feel that this is a book that is timely and needed for a clearer picture of Concept-based Inquiry in action. This is a manuscript that educators would be able to pick up, understand, and apply into the classroom."
"Filled with strategies, illustrations, diagrams, and pictures, this book really gives you the insight you need to help students better understand what they are learning. So many great ideas that can be used in any classroom. A must read for all educators."
"It’s not every day that you read educational literature that you know will immediately have an impact on developing and improving your teaching practice. This book is like a guide that will lead you through the steps to becoming a better Concept-Based teacher. It is a book that teachers will take to planning meetings, have open, and refer to everyday. Just as a travel guide leads you too new discoveries this book will lead you to new discoveries with Concept-Based Inquiry. With this book you will see change and success in not only your teaching practice but also the understanding that the students will have in their learning."
This text will be adopted for summer 2020.