The Murdoch Inquiry Model

In 2008 the new curriculum for the foundation stage in wales began its roll out. Its aim was to bring consistency and continuity to children’s education, thus transforming early year’s education in Wales. The principles on which the curriculum is based are that children should be provided with a good basis for future learning and the ability to apply their learning to everyday situations. Leighton Andrews, the former education minister, said in an article on the Welsh Government website that the curriculum was designed “to allow all children to flourish whatever their stage of development or learning ability” (Andrews, 2010). The Framework for Children’s Learning for 3 to 7 Year olds in Wales (here forth known as ‘The Framework’) outlines 7 key areas of learning. These are ‘Personal and social development, well-being and cultural diversity’, ‘Language, literacy and communication skills’, ‘Mathematical development’, ‘Welsh language development’, ‘Knowledge and understanding of the world’, ‘Physical development’ and ‘Creative development’. The curriculum focuses on holistic learning, meaning that whilst there are 7 separate areas of learning, they are to be taught in a way which entwines them together allowing for children to develop skills such as everyday problem solving by understanding that mathematics is not merely a school subject but a skill which is used in everyday life.

Inquiry Skills—You will develop questions and plan investigations, evaluate change and continuity over time, develop credible explanations of historical events and developments based on reasoned interpretation of evidence, gather evidence, evaluate and use evidence, develop explanations and make persuasive arguments in support of your conclusions, and communicate your conclusions.

The process skills approach to teaching is defined as the educator helping children develop science skills and processes to confidently undertake their own investigations (Campbell, 2012). These skills are developed through: communicating, science language, asking questions, making sense of phenomena, predicting, modelling, conducting investigations, planning, testing, observing, reasoning, and drawing conclusions of science concepts (Campbell, 2012). When the educator assist children’s learning, it is important to put the emphasis on the nature of science and scientific concepts. Guided discovery approach to teaching requires the educator to ask effective questions that encourage children to explore and extend their investigations throughout science learning (Campbell, 2012). This can be developed through play experiences as children explore their world around them. An interactive approach to teaching children is based on questions that lead explorations and the educators to provide essential resources to guide these explorations (Campbell, 2012). It is the educators’ responsibility to support children’s development, ideas, questions, ways of thinking, and develop scientific thinking. Furthermore, an inquiry approach to teaching relates to children investigating the answers to their own

The Chinese Proverb, “Tell me and I forget, show me and I remember, involve me and I understand”, applies to the 21st century skills that students need to have to meet the global challenges. Inquiry is a process of active learning that is driven by questioning and critical thinking. The understandings that students develop through inquiry are deeper and longer lasting than any pre-packaged knowledge delivered by teachers to students. Inquiry-based learning follows a process that progresses through phases, but is recursive and reflective throughout (Library of Congress n.d). Furthermore,

science -inquiry concepts. In the video clip from lesson 4,minute Students will work together to form hypothesis, observe ,follow procedure ,collect and analyze data, write a conclusion. This lab has four stations, with each stations student were dealing with situation involving phenomenon that they see outside of the classroom, likely on daily basis. so, with each station the Students can be seen using data and their observations as evidence to explain why they were seeing this real-world phenomenon. then students need to answer the lab analysis questions that also connect them with real world. video 2. Furthermore, to help students construct their explanations, I asked questions that push students to make connections to the real world. For example, in video 2, minute , I ask students why organic compounds dose not conduct electricity ? and how about if we try using water and salt ?

Kostos and Shin present the research problem by explaining (in great detail) the implications and consequences of students having these issues. The researchers explain the difficulty in having students focus on finding the right answer, and then shifting that focus to finding a meaningful process instead. Students are required to “communicate

The Early Years Learning framework for Australia Document is important to have in our Schools; as it talks about how Children are confident and involved learners, we need our student’s to be confident and involved in all aspects of learning in the classroom. Having this in place means children get more hands on experience in the classroom and more room for activities, exploring and learning new things and not being afraid to step out of their comfort zone to learn. This means more creativity from students and their individuality to reveal and explore more. Having this in place means that children can connect with nature and the world and be able to communicate and have upright people skills from a young age. The early years learning

This way I can be a source of knowledge rather than a teacher who fills the students head with knowledge. This technique should also be able to direct students’ enquiries as well as allow them to ask their own questions and follow what directions their enquiries about Science might take them. My next key learning element would be the value of group work and the peer collaboration between students to enable better understanding about the topic being investigated or the experiment being conducted. My other key learning experience that was gained from this lesson was the determination of what prior learning had the students done on a particular subject so that their constructs can be added to or modified to achieve better scientific results. My thoughts are that, even more careful planning has to go into a design and make (discovery learning) lesson than into a mere investigation through books and the internet. These tasks increase student motivation and the willingness to accept Science as practical, necessary and important in today’s modern

The Foundation Phase was introduced to nursery level children at the start of the 2008-2009 academic year and each year after until all students in nursery, reception, year 1 and year 2 were taking part in this first stage of the new Welsh Curriculum (DCELLS, 2008a). The curriculum for the Foundation Phase is set out in The Framework for Children’s learning for 3 to 7-year olds in Wales (The Framework) (DCELLS, 2012). The main focus for the Foundation Phase curriculum is that the children learn by gaining first-hand experience through activities that may challenge them but are enjoyable so that they the children seek out experimental learning and active involvement themselves (DCELLS, 2008a). The Framework has several key messages (DCELLS, 2008a) and they link with the experiences that the children should be having. To get a better understanding of the experiences the children ought to be receiving it’s best to go back to the research and the reasons why the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) decided to change the curriculum.

Seamless Assessment Chapter 3 applies to life science and how students investigate to build foundation. Mrs. Schwartz a first grade teacher engages her students to conduct an investigation to find out the differences between seeds and eggs. As part of the assessment strategies the students had to engage, explore, explain, and elaborate/evaluate. As part of the engage stage, students had to place objects into two different circle labeled “seeds” and “not seeds”. The different objects included candy, seeds, and beads. If the students were not sure they left it to the side. Mrs. Schwartz at the end of the activity had a scientist meeting. For young students I think it is imperative for them to be able to discuss their findings and thoughts. It

Reflection may be ‘on action’ by looking back to a memory and recording it, or ‘in action’ which occurs while engaged in planning, teaching or assessing (Churchill et, al., 2013). Reflective teaching is important within the teaching profession as everyday teaching practice helps teachers take informed actions. The Early Learning Years Framework is a kept component helping support critical reflection in children’s learning from birth to five years, as the framework is not a syllabus, curriculum or assessment tool of what a child should or will learn. It is a framework of principles, practice, and outcomes to help build children’s sense of belonging, being and becoming before entering school. Thus, why it is important to understand children building partnerships, establishing reliable learning environments and exploring what children learn are all key components in the critical reflection that help to teach practices to contribute to effective

This assignment is a case study of a child’s engagement, inquiry skills and understanding of physical or chemical understandings. There are two parts to the assignment that build to the final case study report. Part A is to design a science inquiry activity suitable for engaging a child at junior primary with physical or chemical science understandings that uses materials like water, sand, ball or tubes. At the next, it is needed to figure out how the planned inquiry activity links to the Australian Curriculum and the early Years Learning Framework. This report also needs to explain and justify the learning theory that underpins the activity and the proposed teaching and learning approach. At the last

Things need to be seen or manipulated to be understood, students in this stage of development display an increasingly accurate perception of reality and a decline in magical thinking, memory is improving and new skills in problem solving are emerging. They demonstrate creative, analytical and flexible thinking.

As part of the science curriculum, it is mandatory to introduce the concept of enquiry through experiments and investigations. The practical element of science promotes the idea that children need to develop a certain level of scientific enquiry through a wide range of activities suggests, Cross and Bowden (2014). Some examples of scientific enquiry can range from; nature walks in order to observe the numerous mini beasts amongst the school

Science is, by its nature, inquiry based and science knowledge is built through processes in which discoveries of the natural world are made (Abruscato, 2000). It utilizes discovery and scientific thinking process to explore and learn knowledge and skills. Learning by doing is the new efficient method in teaching science. For kindergarten, this method leads to better understanding of science concepts and builds skills that children will use in future life .What a child can do with assistance now, they can later do on their own (Vygotsky, 1978). John Dewey (1916) stated that children must be engaged in an active quest for learning and new ideas. Inquiry is important in educating kindergarteners because it not only keeps them interested in lessons but also helps them retain more information when performing exploration and investigation. Children are naturally motivated to learn and actively seek out information to help their understanding (Piaget, 1950).The success of students who participate in hands- on inquiry activities suggests that if students have first hands experience with science, concepts are easier to understand and apply and students are generally more favorable to science and have better understanding of the nature of science .Within a conceptual framework, inquiry learning and active learner involvement can lead to important outcomes in the classroom. In kindergarten, students who are actively making observations, collecting results and drawing