Academy for Inquiry

Critical questioning skills and independent thinking are essential goals of education if we are to encourage students to be life-long learners in any discipline. ASSET programs are based on the tenet that students - both children and adults - learn best in an inquiry-centered environment that challenges them to build on their previous knowledge and skills.

Inquiry is an approach to learning that involves a process of exploring the natural world. It leads to asking questions and making discoveries in the search for new and deeper understandings. In science education, inquiry mirrors as closely as possible the process of doing real science. In other disciplines, inquiry - and the "scientific method" upon which it is modeled - allows learners to face the challenges and complexities of the rapidly changing modern world.

Inquiry-based education challenges educators to fundamentally re-examine the relationship between teachers and learners. Inquiry requires that teachers become facilitators, or guides, for the learner's own process of discovery and meaning making in the world around them. Since 1993, ASSET has been working closely with the National Science Resources Center, the National Science Foundation and the Exploratorium's Institute for Inquiry in San Francisco, to develop a philosophy and teaching style which enables students to benefit from an inquiry-based education environment. ASSET also realizes the importance of allowing teachers the same kind of experiential learning process which builds on their existing knowledge and skills - recognizing that science standards do not change educational outcomes, teachers do.

The Academy for Inquiry enables professional educators to master the skills and gain the essential experience necessary to create classrooms that are supportive environments for students' inquiry. A special strand has been created for administrators - such as superintendents, principals and curriculum coordinators - who strive to provide an academic environment that supports and encourages their teachers as they establish inquiry-based education in the classroom.

Teacher Strand

The Academy for Inquiry courses, institutes and conferences are designed to build upon one another. Teachers who complete all levels of the Academy will:

• Reflect on their own teaching and their students' learning.
• Develop a greater awareness of his or her own teaching style.
• Integrate the use of questions as critical to inquiry.
• Develop a greater understanding of the use and impact of hands-on activities.
• Utilize process skills to contribute to student learning.
• Participate in a personal experience of a Full Blown Inquiry (FBI).
• Define formative assessment and how it relates to the inquiry process.
• Reflect in their teaching practice the principles of sound design: match activity to purpose, sequence learning, allow for multiple entry points and allow for meaning making.

Institute for Inquiry
30 Hour Institute; typically offered each semester and summer
Session one begins with an experience in each of the three kinds of hands-on learning and the role of questioning and process skills in the learning process. Session two covers starting points for the application of inquiry, and teachers participate in the first part of a personal inquiry experience with reporting out reflection. In session three, teachers participate in the second phase of their personal inquiry experience and make meaning of their explorations and share insights. Session four addresses the assessment of process skills. Teachers, through sharing and synthesis from the group, create a plan to apply inquiry methodology in their classroom.

Inquiry as Teacher Research [Action Research]
15 Hour Institute; new offering
What does it mean to be a teacher researcher? Are you curious about your students' learning--and your teaching practices? What kind of data can you collect to explore this? How might you interpret this data? Through the inquiry process you will find the answers tot hese questions. Participants will share their research on day two of the institute.

Teachers Inquiry Conference
15 Hour Conference; held annually during summer
Teachers who successfully completed the Institute for Inquiry (IFI) are invited to join other IFI graduates for a day of reflection. Participants will engage in collegial dialog regarding inquiry experiences in their own classroom and participat in breakout sessions lead by their colleagues on topics essential to this cutting-edge area of teaching and learning.

Administrator Strand

This strand is designed for administrators who are in a position to assist in developing effective professional development in their districts and strive to support an academic environment for their teachers which fosters inquiry-based education. Participants in the Administrators Forum will:

• Reflect on teachers' practices and how it relates to their students' learning.
• Gain a greater awareness of their teachers' teaching styles.
• Define a greater understanding of the use of process skills in hands-on activities.
• Define formative assessment and how it relates to the inquiry process.
• Make decisions about professional development applying sound design principles: match activity to purpose, sequence learning and allow for meaning making.
• Relate science concepts and lessons to PA State Standards.