Pedagogy in Support of Inquiry -
Teaching for Conceptual Understanding
A foundation for the critical importance of implementing inquiry-based strategies in the teaching of mathematics and science is provided. The lack of conceptual understanding in even the brightest of students who have been taught via procedural tasks and rote memorization is vividly demonstrated by a set of videos called Private Universe, funded in part by the Annenberg/CPB Math Science Project.
INTEC provides web-based conceptual probes teachers can use in order to assess conceptual understanding in their own students. Since ordinary testing does not reveal the level of students' knowledge or the depth of any misunderstandings, the course addresses the questions: How does one develop an understanding of the assumptions students bring to the classroom? How can we facilitate their breaking assumptions that bar deeper understanding? This last question is an old one, as the late Renaissance drawing, Empedocles breaks through the Celestial Spheres, shows. Empedocles' efforts reveal unseen mechanisms, displayed as cogs and wheels, behind the apparently complete traditional vision of earthly phenomena.
Finally, what are the mechanisms whereby students can learn? Are there different mechanisms for procedual or conceptual understanding? What does "using a constructivist apporoach" actually mean?
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