Reflection 4 EME 2040

How do you learn? Do you learn by listening intently to what is said by the teacher or do you learn better when you see how something is done? How do you understand? Do you understand better when you listen to the teacher intently or when you are involved in the lesson? Being involved in the lesson is the corner stone of Inquiry-based learning. The purpose of this kind of learning is to get the students to understand and there has been research to support that students understand better when there are involved in the activity. We all know that students learn in different ways and as educators we must recognize the different ways students learn and accommodate them but I believe this is an effective way to learn. The traditional way that students are taught is as follows: we listen to the teacher speak and listen and write down notes. We may not understand something but we just do it or memorize it the way that the teacher has told us. For many students this is an extremely effective way to learn but I believe that this method is not so effective in getting students to understand the material. Inquiry-based learning encourages asking questions and hands on activities.
The article suggest that we are natural inquires. He gives examples of babies interacting with their environment to better understand. It is true that babies do this to better understand their environment so the author suggests that this is the natural way that we learn but traditional does not have us learn this way. Inquiry-based learning teaches us in this fashion. In this method of learning we do not try to seek an answer to the problem but try to find a solution to the problem. There may also be many different ways that we can do this.
In my experience this has been an extremely effective way for me to learn. I have always been the kind of student to ask many questions. It has never been enough for me to listen to information but I also had to understand why it was this way. When I was involved in an activity I understood it even more. I can understand night and day when I understand that the Earth tilts away from the Sun during the night. I believe the basis of learning is understanding and if we understand then we learn.