Collaborative Inquiry

Hi Everyone,

Has anyone tried to incorporate collaborative inquiry into their lessons? I find that it is very useful for all my classes at all levels (adults and young learners) as it helps them use their critical thinking skills as well as practice their language skills by generating new vocabulary and practicing their fluency. Furthermore, it is something that they find interesting and as long as the context is relevant to them, they are very motivated to work together. I find that collaborative inquiry brings out a lot of benefits as students can learn from each other and build on their language skills - it also prepares them for life outside of class since most adult learners who are learning English want to land better jobs or get into higher education, and collaborative inquiry skills will help them with this. Problem solving in groups is a great way to get your students speaking and expressing ideas in a way that they normally wouldn't do in class so I think it is highly beneficial.

I want to hear from you:
- Have you ever used collaborative inquiry in your English classes? In what contexts?
- Did students enjoy this activity?
- What were the pros and cons?
- Did you find cultural differences affecting this activity?

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Cheers

Hello,

I am new to these forums and so far I find them extremely helpful as an English teacher.

I agree that collaborative inquiry is a good idea to incorporate in our classes. I actually have been doing this for a while with my adult students and they really enjoy it - it helps their critical thinking skills and also produces a wide range of vocabulary. I don't really know how to do this with my younger learners though as their language is very limited - they are creative and can think critically but I'm not sure if they are ready for inquiry. I do a lot of group work and pair work though and they really enjoy that.

Any ideas of how I can do collaborative inquiry with my YLs?

Thanks.

As an older teacher who works on the internet, can I ask whether the term has changed? Back in the day when I was teaching in real space, it referred to getting teachers to share data rather than build walls around their professional lives. Pardon my ignorance.

Tdol said:

their professional loves.

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Are you sure? ;-)

emsr2d2 said:

Are you sure? ;-)

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Oops.

haleemah said:

Hello,

I am new to these forums and so far I find them extremely helpful as an English teacher.

I agree that collaborative inquiry is a good idea to incorporate in our classes. I actually have been doing this for a while with my adult students and they really enjoy it - it helps their critical thinking skills and also produces a wide range of vocabulary. I don't really know how to do this with my younger learners though as their language is very limited - they are creative and can think critically but I'm not sure if they are ready for inquiry. I do a lot of group work and pair work though and they really enjoy that.

Any ideas of how I can do collaborative inquiry with my YLs?

Thanks.

Click to expand...

Hi and thanks for your post. I think you are already doing a great job with your YLs if you are doing collaborative learning as this will really help them in being creative and thinking critically. Collaborative activities do not all have to be based on inquiry as I understand that young ESL learners can have difficulty with this. So they can just be doing group work, discussions, role play etc. Anything that helps them use the language but the idea of learning together reaps a lot of benefits rather than working alone. With regard to inquiry - you could still integrate it but keep it simple and make sure the context is relevant and age appropriate. For example, with my YLs, we do inquiries related to nature, animals, science, etc. - something simple that's not too complicated. And one thing for sure that you need to be aware of is demonstrating how to do this or else they will be lost!!! A list of steps to follow or a chart is very helpful. Hope this answers your question.

Cheers

I've been teaching English for 5 years in Cambodia and used to put my students in groups for learning activities quite often, but I had a lot of difficulty with this as there were often conflicts and arguments among students (I teach teenagers 13-15). Sometimes they were okay and depending on their moods they would sometimes cooperate and work together but most of the time I always experienced issues like group members not getting along, disagreeing, fighting or just plain not wanting to work with others. :-?

Maybe my class is a bit strange but I find that they work better alone and are more productive that way. Is collaborative learning really that necessary or can we just do whatever works for our class? :roll:

Tdol said:

As an older teacher who works on the internet, can I ask whether the term has changed? Back in the day when I was teaching in real space, it referred to getting teachers to share data rather than build walls around their professional lives. Pardon my ignorance.

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Yes you are right - collaborative inquiry (CI) is also used for teachers to share data and solve problems they are experiencing with students or problems within the school (for example working together to figure out why students have difficulty reading English and proposing practical solutions). However, it can also be incorporated in a classroom setting with students as this helps to promote more critical and creative thinking. The topic can be virtually anything relevant to their interests as long as it's appropriate for a classroom setting.

missmaryam said:

Hi and thanks for your post. I think you are already doing a great job with your YLs if you are doing collaborative learning as this will really help them in being creative and thinking critically. Collaborative activities do not all have to be based on inquiry as I understand that young ESL learners can have difficulty with this. So they can just be doing group work, discussions, role play etc. Anything that helps them use the language but the idea of learning together reaps a lot of benefits rather than working alone. With regard to inquiry - you could still integrate it but keep it simple and make sure the context is relevant and age appropriate. For example, with my YLs, we do inquiries related to nature, animals, science, etc. - something simple that's not too complicated. And one thing for sure that you need to be aware of is demonstrating how to do this or else they will be lost!!! A list of steps to follow or a chart is very helpful. Hope this answers your question.

Cheers

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Thank you - yes this is helpful. Will try this with my YLs.

markrogers said:

I've been teaching English for 5 years in Cambodia and used to put my students in groups for learning activities quite often, but I had a lot of difficulty with this as there were often conflicts and arguments among students (I teach teenagers 13-15). Sometimes they were okay and depending on their moods they would sometimes cooperate and work together but most of the time I always experienced issues like group members not getting along, disagreeing, fighting or just plain not wanting to work with others. :-?

Maybe my class is a bit strange but I find that they work better alone and are more productive that way. Is collaborative learning really that necessary or can we just do whatever works for our class? :roll:

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Hi,

I understand your frustrations, and I guess every class is different. You mentioned that it depends on their moods when they want to work together or not so I would suggest monitoring your class to see what makes them want to work together and what doesn't. Are there certain students who don't get along and can't stand each other? Or they just prefer to work alone in general? If there is something that you can help in resolving I would take that initiative, as collaborative learning is quite beneficial in many ways.

I found this resource that might help you - it talks about the benefits of collaborative learning and there are 2 videos at the bottom that give tips on how to make effective groups of students for CL while considering all the issues you mentioned:

http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/coopcollab/index_sub3.html

Also, I wanted to know how you all use Collaborative Inquiry not only in your classrooms with students but amongst your colleauges at work - any experiences or tips you would like to share?

missmaryam said:

Hi,

I understand your frustrations, and I guess every class is different. You mentioned that it depends on their moods when they want to work together or not so I would suggest monitoring your class to see what makes them want to work together and what doesn't. Are there certain students who don't get along and can't stand each other? Or they just prefer to work alone in general? If there is something that you can help in resolving I would take that initiative, as collaborative learning is quite beneficial in many ways.

I found this resource that might help you - it talks about the benefits of collaborative learning and there are 2 videos at the bottom that give tips on how to make effective groups of students for CL while considering all the issues you mentioned:

http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/coopcollab/index_sub3.html

Also, I wanted to know how you all use Collaborative Inquiry not only in your classrooms with students but amongst your colleauges at work - any experiences or tips you would like to share?

Click to expand...

I really think it depends on your workplace environment. At the school I work at in Cambodia, all the teachers (just like the students) prefer to work alone. Even if there’s a problem they don’t like to share it with others and rather solve it themselves. And to be honest I’m quite the same... it kinda looks bad on us in front of the principal if we need help to solve an issue in class or with students. It’s like we’re not competent enough to take care of it ourselves. :-?

When I was in Cambodia, many years ago, some people put the lack of collaboration in many areas down to mistrust following the Pol Pot/DK era. I don't know how much truth there was in that.

markrogers said:

I really think it depends on your workplace environment. At the school I work at in Cambodia, all the teachers (just like the students) prefer to work alone. Even if there’s a problem they don’t like to share it with others and rather solve it themselves. And to be honest I’m quite the same... it kinda looks bad on us in front of the principal if we need help to solve an issue in class or with students. It’s like we’re not competent enough to take care of it ourselves. :-?

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I can totally understand that - it looks bad on us as teachers if we're unable to manage and deal with issues that arise in our classes... but that being said, I would consult other teachers/my boss if it was something that's really critical cuz my supervisor probabaly wouldn't appreciate the fact that I didn't bring it to his attention and the issue escalated and involved parents complaining etc.

haleemah said:

I can totally understand that - it looks bad on us as teachers if we're unable to manage and deal with issues that arise in our classes... but that being said, I would consult other teachers/my boss if it was something that's really critical cuz my supervisor probabaly wouldn't appreciate the fact that I didn't bring it to his attention and the issue escalated and involved parents complaining etc.

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I agree that our particular work environment does play a huge role in why or why we cannot incorporate collaborate inquiry with our colleagues. Fortunately, where I work, it is actually encouraged (UAE), as it takes the pressure off us as teachers and we can learn from our colleagues experiences (especially the more senior teachers). When it's a petty issue that we can solve on our own I agree that there is no need to involve others.

However, the more complex problems, or "ill-structured" problems that don't have an easy answer are the ones we could use some help with! I recently had a student who was not able to read and write properly and despite several efforts, continuously kept making mistakes. It was with the help of another colleage that suggested she may have dyslexia. After considering this fact we had a chat with the parents to get her assessed by a professional, and she was indeed found to be dyslexic. We have now ordered special materials for her and have a shadow teacher to help her in class to offer extra support. Her parents are also working closely with her therapist on how to help their daughter and they often meet with me as well and share these techniques so I can better help her in class. I have designed a special plan for this child with my supervisor and other teachers so she can succeed at her literacy skills. Of course she gets the extra help she needs outside of class as well, but at least now we know what was causing her difficulty and came up with the appropriate solutions to help her out.

Has anyone else encountered a problem like this with any of their students?

How old was this girl?

AndrewD said:

How old was this girl?

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She was 6.

I've had some students around the same age in my class who had trouble with reading and writing but it was just becuase they didn't feel like doing it - they were just plain lazy and bored. They needed a lot of motivation and encouragement or else the wouldn't do anything in class - this was in Spain about 2 years back. Their parents were the ones who forced them to be in class to learn English - I could tell they didn't wanna be there. So that was quite challenging for me to deal with. They were smart kids but didn't put in the effort...

AndrewD said:

I've had some students around the same age in my class who had trouble with reading and writing but it was just becuase they didn't feel like doing it - they were just plain lazy and bored. They needed a lot of motivation and encouragement or else the wouldn't do anything in class - this was in Spain about 2 years back. Their parents were the ones who forced them to be in class to learn English - I could tell they didn't wanna be there. So that was quite challenging for me to deal with. They were smart kids but didn't put in the effort...

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So what did you do to motivate them and how did you go about it? I'm also facing the same challenge with my younger students - especially the 9-11 year olds. They clearly do not want to be in class and are being forced to go by parents... and the pressure is on us teachers to make sure they are learning and doing very well or else we have to deal with some angry parents!

haleemah said:

So what did you do to motivate them and how did you go about it? I'm also facing the same challenge with my younger students - especially the 9-11 year olds. They clearly do not want to be in class and are being forced to go by parents... and the pressure is on us teachers to make sure they are learning and doing very well or else we have to deal with some angry parents!

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Well first off, we held a meeting with all teachers cuz this was an issue with a lot of classes, not just mine. We got together and figured out the reasons why they are not motivated (that was the easy part), and then how we can engage them more in class activities so they actually want to come on their own and not just because their parents are the ones telling them to. So we came up with the following ideas:

- reward system for speaking English
- more games and fun activities
- making the topic of the lessons more appealing to them and what they are interested in and teaching around that
- praising students more (sometimes this helped and sometimes it didn't depending on the student...)
- playing some popular English songs they know in class and deriving English lessons from it (grammar and vocabulary)
- role plays and using costumes
- other fun stuff...

we came up with a lot of ideas actually when we all brainstormed together - so I'd say we did engage in "collaborative inquiry" to solve this problem - even though I've never heard of this term before (thanks missmaryam for introducing it to me), I'd say we do it a lot unconsciously at work... but only when we all have the same problem!

AndrewD said:

Well first off, we held a meeting with all teachers cuz this was an issue with a lot of classes, not just mine. We got together and figured out the reasons why they are not motivated (that was the easy part), and then how we can engage them more in class activities so they actually want to come on their own and not just because their parents are the ones telling them to. So we came up with the following ideas:

- reward system for speaking English
- more games and fun activities
- making the topic of the lessons more appealing to them and what they are interested in and teaching around that
- praising students more (sometimes this helped and sometimes it didn't depending on the student...)
- playing some popular English songs they know in class and deriving English lessons from it (grammar and vocabulary)
- role plays and using costumes
- other fun stuff...

we came up with a lot of ideas actually when we all brainstormed together - so I'd say we did engage in "collaborative inquiry" to solve this problem - even though I've never heard of this term before (thanks missmaryam for introducing it to me), I'd say we do it a lot unconsciously at work... but only when we all have the same problem!

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Thanks AndrewD!

I will definitely try to incorporate these ideas in my classes to help motivate my students.

It's funny because they just find excuses not to do stuff - for example if I group the boys and girls together they don't want to work together lol.