Keeping in mind, the poor training of teachers, the curriculum load, the format of examination system emphasizing rote learning, and the prevalent manner of our teaching and learning styles; how successfully can we integrate inquiry in our Pakistani classrooms at secondary or higher education.
instead of burdening with inquiry and all those formalities, class room teaching can be made effective by training the teachers regularly once in a month, mentoring system can be helpful in dealing with problem of students regarding slow learning. I think administrative and regular teaching process could get affected if inquiry is imposed on them,
Answer appreciated but still inquiry method is regarded as most successful teaching method in research. The query remains that how we can introduce inquiry in a class room with the above mentioned problems?
Fayyaz, you make an interesting point - if teachers are poorly trained then they may not be able to use the inquiry method in their teaching. Here in Trinidad we have a high number of untrained teachers and our schools seem to favour rote learning. As we know this is not a very effective format for deep learning. So I too would like to see a movement to inquiry-based learning. For me the secret is a change in the way that teachers ask questions. Rote learning uses a lot of 'what' questions but inquiry-based learning focuses on 'why' questions (for example, instead of asking 'What are the colours of the rainbow?" the teacher could ask "Why are rainbows so colourful?") Getting teachers to ask their questions in a new way could be introduced quite quickly and quite cheaply. Another benefit of the inquiry-based approach is that teachers don't need to know all the answers. So if the teachers are not well educated (I don't know if this is true in Pakistan but it is true in Trinidad) then inquiry-based learning allows them to step back and let the children find out the answers for themselves. This changes the role of the teacher from instructor to motivator/facilitator.
Part of the issue is what students and teachers regard as 'doing a good job' or 'being successful'. If being successful is seen as remembering a lot, then it is not possible to change. So two parts to the problem. Erik has already started on one of them. Telling teachers to pose questions differently will slowly change the perception of what is wanted in class, but the second is even more important. Change the assessment to reflect what you want. Both students and teachers will soon see that deep thinking is valued more than rote learning. In the interim there will need to be a transition process so that no student is penalised. The way I approached this (and actually still use) is to make the criteria for a pass as either reasonable ability to think OR reasonable amoount of knowledge. Criteria for better than pass require greater degrees of thoughtfulness rather than greater amount of knowledge. These are only general descriptors of criteria naturally. Sharing criteria with students is valuable too.
whatever the situation is going on in any developing or under developed country, the main emphasis is and should be better future. No doubt the lack of funding in education sector is major problem but determination to change can give way to phase wise introduction of new or improved methods. which further depends on adaptation by concerned departments, however most important is suggestions by thinkers which one day will lead to changes.
Raising this concern is appreciate able.
Awareness is the key to the problem you mentioned. We need to initiate a moment at national level that if we really want to be active participants in 21st century, then we need to educate each and every person of our society in a way that is suitable for current demands and futuristic needs.
This is the time for knowledge economy. Keep yourself and others updated with open educational resources. Make people realize that they are in a stuck situation. Show them light and let them find their way out.
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