Inductive Learning

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Excellence in Education: Inductive Learning

After visiting with Ms. Ye’s students one thing that stuck with me was students were discovering. They were required to make assumptions or  generalizations that lead to a deeper understanding of the rules of science. Science is about discovery, not following lab directions step-by-step with an end product that many, if not, most of the students already knew would occur. Science, and all learning, should be a cognitive challenge.

So how can we as teachers move away from the the more traditional--and teacher-centric--approach of teaching to a more inductive, problem-based model?

The following strategy works well when we want students to analyze and identify similarities and differences, a high-yield instructional strategy.

Planning

Create a list of words, phrases, items, problems, images, etc. from a reading, discussion, or a unit to be taught. From here on, I’ll collectively refer to these as “examples.” It is often helpful to print these examples on index cards so students will be able to manipulate them easily.

Inductive Learning Activity In Action

1. Provide students with list or cards of examples.
2. Students categorize the examples into groups.
3. Students give each group a label that describes.
4. Students draw a conclusion, make a generalization or form a hypothesis about the content.
5. Students group things in a different way.

Other instructional choices to be made:

1. Do you model the process by showing students an example of grouping and labeling?
2. Should you set a number of categories you’d like them to group the examples into?
3. Do you want students working individually, in groups or in a combination of individually and groups?
4. Can students create their own list of examples to be categorized?

Many of the ideas in this blog came from:

Silver, H., Strong, R., Perini, M, (2007). The Strategic Teacher: Selecting the Right Research-Based Strategy for Every Lesson Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill.

Shout Outs:

Phenomenal reviews for the One Acts.

In case you missed Mustang students in the news:

The Governor’s Visit

Sydney Mincer’s Charitable Work

Courtney Grooms’ Necessary Trouble

Natalie Gibson, Athlete of the Week

Need to Knows:

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Teacher Handbook

Calendar Items

A-B-A-B Week, No School on Friday

October 24

NCAA/Student-Athlete 101, 7-8:30pm

October 26

Senior Jostens Ordering: during lunch

Mid-term Exams (1st and 3rd, semester block classes)

October 27

Faculty Meeting: .MORNING-meeting only

Accessibility Tools on Student Laptops: All Day in Green Room (upstairs) with Bert

Senior Jostens Ordering: during lunch

Mid-term Exams (2nd and 4th, semester block classes)

October 28

Reimaging High School (Optional, 10:30, location to be determined)

Mustang Morning Draft completed by 4pm

November 1

Grades due: 9am

November 3

Sophomore Ring Order: Mustang Morning

Birthdays

None this week

Worth Your Time

Motivating the Unmotivated (Embracing) It gets a little “commercial” at the end, but some good ideas

Personalized Learning: How Kids Are Getting into College by Mastering Their Skills (Innovating)