Feedback from forms filled in at the Inquiry Page Workshop 2/21/01

1. Name:

2. How familiar were you before the workshop with inquiry-based teaching and learning?

1) 11 2) 5 3) 6 4) 3 5) 1

Very Familiar Familiar Not Very Familiar

3. Please indicate your thoughts on the workshop overall:

Provided new information about integrating inquiry into teaching and learning Yes 17 No 6

Gave you concrete new skills in using Inquiry Page in your teaching Yes 19 No 6

Motivated you to engage in a dialog with others in an “inquiry community” Yes 25 No 0

Additional comments:

· liked practice time on Inquiry Page use

· small group dialog most helpful we always need more time to talk

· I enjoyed being at this workshop today. It was a pleasant break from a rough school year.

· I really valued being in conversations of other people who value Inquiry however defined as we move forward in promoting lessons of our own and our students

· I appreciate being able to participate with this group

· picked up some ideas to take back to our staff

· I enjoyed most the Web part of the workshop. Great resources and new ideas!

· My original questions and issues still exist. There was great discussion of issues but not much for solutions. Resources provided were very helpful and I'll use the Inquiry Page where I was unaware of this Page originally.

4. What were the aspects of the workshop that you enjoyed most and why? What sessions you would like to see at future workshops?

• sharing time the final portion which discussed our questions from the morning
• small group discussions were helpful
• I enjoyed discussing those questions we all have how to make Inquiry work in our classrooms?
• sharing in small groups
• assessment piece
• seeing the Inquiry Page information and having hands-on experience with using an exploring the information available
• sharing with others who use Inquiry and/or are interested in Inquiry learning
• I valued the breakout sessions during the morning. Reviewing Inquiry poster displays of out an opportunity to network with other disciplines. Help to show connections across disciplines and across my own district
• I enjoyed the sharing sessions and being able to see people with whom I've worked before but haven't seen for while. I also like the notebook and the other guides given out.
• the sharing of ideas and resources was enjoyable. We need to see more of the Inquiry pages how they work on the Internet. Jenny could have talked earlier in the day.
• I enjoyed the two morning sessions. Both Dr. Malone and Dr. Jenkins gave valuable information. The first small group discussions "assumptions about learning" generated an interesting and valuable discussion. Our group had trouble with the second discussion "questions" perhaps because we were tired.
• like to all of it frankly. Maybe a couple more "keynotes" each followed by a teacher giving concrete examples from their work maybe a kind of theory into practice
• the presentations in the a.m. from Inquiry workshop staff. Learning more about Inquiry learning WebSite. Making connections with others interested in incurred learning.
• time to share ideas and discuss questions with others
• the assessment portion was very informative. Also learning about how others are doing this in their classrooms
• I really enjoyed the opportunity to beat in interact with this group. I thought that was a good balance of structured and less structured time.
• discussion with others outside my own school district. Sharing of units that we can go back implement that utilize Inquiry based learning
• I enjoyed the Inquiry Page session
• the chance to me, talk with and share ideas with a diverse group of people (and see some familiar faces)
• good hands-on work use of the Inquiry workshop was good good small group interaction
• assessment session the Inquiry Page session Inquiry based strategies and techniques for classroom
• assessment part and collaboratory part
• the broad-based approach was a change from the specific curriculum inquiry of chickscope. It was interesting to hear the range of experiences in using Inquiry
• government talks session more time and opportunity to work on and with the actual Inquiry Page site
• some new ideas and new people to dialog with people in the same boat to. Future sessions: people giving as concrete answers to the questions posed
• use of government talks more time please. I wanted to do some planning to integrate this resource

5. How and to what extent do you feel that interactions with other educators could support your efforts to develop and incorporate inquiry-based materials into your teaching?

· dependent upon format. Lecture, not all; small groups demo more effective

· it will be great to communicate with others who have similar beliefs

· potential for exchanging and sharing in follow on the Inquiry Web page is nice. We need to connect to others / can't do this alone

· collaboration is always beneficial and talking about new ways to use Inquiry material helps in my teaching

· knowing others who are interested in approaching learning in this manner. Could provide a "peer review" process to check out a unit your putting together

· the interactions have inspired me to continue to pursue new projects and to incorporate more into my teaching. Actually, you have inspired me to complete "incubating" projects

· help in planning for career unit that the academy teachers are now creating

· I think that interacting with other like-minded educators is one of the most valuable and necessary components of successful Inquiry based integration

· may be to see what new Inquiry units are launched off the ones on the WebSite one from several discipline areas

· it's always good to learn of human resources to support your educational efforts. Even if it's merely to know that you're not alone.

· a supportive collaborative environment will make all the difference but it has to be easy and non-time-consuming

· it was very powerful to seek common issues that transcend various teaching learning settings

· support new ideas content and management dialog how to get others "on-board" how to implement and still stay within curriculum boundaries

· there is a San Diego WebSite with supporting topics that coincides with their state performance standards. It will be great to have Inquiry pages with links to topics aligned with state performance standards i.e. brief descriptions are projects students did throughout the curriculum with links to connect and sites (museums, PowerPoint presentations, etc.)

· provide a forum (online?) Where people can call construct units and activities (and revise and modify them)

· interesting to hear how others are working in this field

· find out some conceptions (perspectives) about Inquiry of teachers

· the collaborative aspect of Inquiry requires teachers to have the support of other educators. This was a rewarding workshop a first step?

· sharing/nurturing among educators for strategy and technique development is/would be very helpful

· it to always good to brainstorm in collaborate with others. When you have a comfort level you'll more apt to experiment and try new things

· it would have to be continuous

· only if I have continued contact. Listserv would be helpful

6. In what ways could the workshop have been a more meaningful experience to you?

• there is an assumption that everyone understands the components of incurred learning. How it doesn't look in the classroom? What does an (unit) look like?
• presented in Inquiry based style too much sit and listen
• more Inquiry based activities and less lecture
• pace to slow. It concerns me that Inquiry is coming off looking like a packaged program instead of a process for learning
• excellent opportunity to visit with other educators
• I can't think of anything at this time. Thanks for letting me share some of the things I've done in the past
• it was very good, but by 4 p.m. I was tired. Perhaps shortening some of the working sessions will be needed if done again. my own personal problem perhaps, but by 330 I'm afraid I do shutdown. Just too long to sit
• I'm not surety could have more. I enjoyed the range of more and less structured (though I would have enjoyed more computer time) lunch browsing things was good and to have presentations and discussions devoted to particular questions that might be added to over the day and then different people go to those different groups to focus on one issue/questions/topic
• more education administrators in the group. Often these are the professionals classroom teachers need to support Inquiry learning methods
• some sessions or discussions for people working at various levels. Time for teachers of grad students to elementary students to dialog is valuable, but are issues are very different
• sharing more examples of how Inquiry learning occurs in the classroom. It would be nice to see several concrete and complete examples or cases
• there were very diverse orientations (as evidenced by the additional questions) to Inquiry in this group. A lot of territory was explored but it was difficult to get into much depth in any particular idea
• database that participants keep contact bibliography of "Inquiry" resources
• I've been thinking about using add-a-unit (or whatever the precise name is) as it curriculum design tool/structure or space. I enjoyed trying to do that "on the spot" with other teachers/educators/and ... wow... students!
• minor note spelling and grammar errors on handout. Last session should have been done earlier
• especially, collaborating/community building needed to Inquiry based learning
• small groups organized by school level
• I would like to have experts, and share their knowledge. We ask lots of questions and gave our answers but what do experts know?
• much of the material was pretty basic. I need to go beyond dialog. I think many of our original questions and concerns went unanswered. The instruction of this workshop modeled Inquiry based learning but we didn't get the depths we needed
• looking for more information about assessment processes and presentation was not as helpful as I was hoping what have liked more time online exploring and begin seeing collaboratory in use. It would have been helpful to actually see this

7. Additional comments regarding your workshop experience (continue on back if desired):

· I have been involved with problem based learning for over five years and IC similarities between PBL and Inquiry based learning have my questions answered now

· why are workshops about Inquiry almost always lecture based

· excellent opportunity to visit with other educators

· thank you for all your hard work. Everything was excellent as anticipated. The second part of the chickscope project last created, about the post hatching experiences/suggestions, isn't up on the server. "The ABC's for hatching" is the title I think.

· Also, how do we access the units to make corrections and/or add materials to units already appearing on the Web?

· Could we have a certificate for attending that we can add to our portfolios, etc.? Thanks! Can we get a copy of the videotape?

· I think the groups could also be mixed as the day goes on. This would give new ideas of fresh faces as a day progresses

· all in all, a great day. I really enjoyed conversations with old friends and meeting new people. Good food.

· 8-5 is a long day though you were certainly accommodating. Tables and chairs more comfortable for such a long day

· thanks! This was great!

· I enjoyed a lot. Thanks

· it was a thought-provoking day and a way to network