Progressive Inquiry and Project Learning
The aim of progressive inquiry is to understand different phenomena and solve complex problems with a scientific approach (Hakkarainen, Lonka & Lipponen: Tutkiva Oppiminen: Järki, Tunteet ja Kulttuuri Oppimisen Sytyttäjinä, Sanoma Pro 2008). According to the authors, there are 3 perspectives to intelligent activity: acquiring information, participating, and creating information. New information is built in a social group setting, as well as individually, and then it will be critically evaluated and analyzed in group sessions. The best results are achieved, when the objects of learning or research are genuine and relevant for the students. I borrowed and read parts of Hakkarainen's book on progressive inquiry, as mentioned above. The ideas seemed feasible and useful at least for an analytic person like me. Even though this theory has been written down just recently, the method has been employed even unconsciously. I would argue that a person uses various and multiple overlapping methods in learning or finding out new information, if not in a formal school setting.
Project learning
Team Saturn shared that characteristics of virtual learning are separate physical environment between teacher and a student, it happens either in real time or in a preferred time frame, and the learning environment includes elements, such as instructions, chats, blogs, video conference system, forums, and links. One of the main characteristics is that learning occurs without immediate presence of the teacher (Hyppönen, Linden 2012). I can attest this to be very true. As I am writing this text, I have reviewed the source materials and presentations, and if something has been already forgotten or not understood, I am learning right now. Hyppönen and Linden also point out that the extent of learning corresponds to the time the student has spent studying. Again, true. This is one of the weaknesses of e-learning that there is a rather limited time frame to study and review the material, at least during this iVET program. Things are easier with individual e-courses, such as basics of e-commerce, which I took a year ago. For each iVET session we are supposed to learn our own material, comprising of several articles, links, videos, etc, and also learn the content from the other presentations. I have found this very challenging when we have dealt with heavy stuff like learning theories and educational science.
How can progressive inquiry and project learning be taught then? We were asked and shown a delicious and practical example of how us as bakery/confectionery students can be taught making chocolate. This involved several different stages where we first thought about the qualities of chocolate. Vocation students are a prime audience for this teaching method, as it requires gradually deepening knowledge, learning and analyzing learning outcomes in a group.
How can e-learning be enriched by those? Technical tools have a wide array of information to probe into progressive inquiry and project learning. Internet as a medium is just that for searching for a topic.
I am now able to consciously apply these principles into teaching. A good method would be, if I am teaching for example communication between different cultures, as this is my expertise, to make the students first think of typical situation that cause misunderstanding or their own experiences to tune their minds into the topic and make it concrete. Then I would explain the subject matter with some good illustrations and examples. Then I would ask the students to pick one country or culture and make a short (5 minutes) presentation for the next session about specific cultural aspects of communication and how to tackle them. I would then give more teaching and have the students play out some miscommunication scenarios with a few pre-selected features. In this fashion the progressive inquiry goes deeper. I would also employ discussion in pairs and a as group and assign further reading.
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