Spotlight On Learning Open Inquiry

Spotlight on Learning - Open Inquiry in Histoire du Monde 12 French Immersion 

Presented by: B. Malloo

Teacher Reflection:  There is no better way for students to learn about the past and gain skills for the future than by providing them the opportunity to explore their passion through an open inquiry project. To make history interesting and challenging for students, the idea was to be curious and prepare them for real life. Students have had many opportunities to reflect on their own learning throughout the course. However, for this assignment they were asked to choose a topic they have always been curious about but never had the opportunity to learn in class. The biggest challenge was creating their own question – something which they did for the first time as they have always been working on guided inquiries in class. So, with lots of support and guidance, they came up with an essential question that they remodeled and reviewed with their peers and me. After analyzing and seeking answers to their essential question from a variety of sources, they presented their findings to the class. Personally, my takeaway from this experience is that I’ve provided my students with the best opportunity to have both voice and choice in this inquiry project. Although the outcome wasn’t as expected, I was truly amazed with the results and creative variety the students showed. It was truly a pleasure to see how students have unlocked being able to think outside the box by acquiring communication, analytical, and problem-solving skills. Along with that, they have also demonstrated the ability to apply knowledge and critical thinking skills in real-world settings.  

Student Reflection:  For this inquiry project, we were assigned to come up with a relevant, authentic, and a significant question relating to today’s world and the content we explored in World History 12. I took a keen interest during the Cold War unit, as I realized how it shaped the life we live today in different ways. Much of the technology, like our cell phones and computers, was invented using the foundations developed during this conflict. Additionally, foreign relations today were based on the threat of the Soviet Union and much of the financial aspect of European development after WW2 was funded through the Marshall plan. Originally, I was going to explore the impact of the dissolution of the USSR on today’s world but wanted to explore deeper into the role of this alliance during the cold war. Hence, I settled on the question: what would the world be like today if the Cold War had never happened? While researching these questions, I discovered information never learnt during class. For example, how most communist countries and dictatorships were directly influenced by the Cold War. If this event never took place, North Korea would not have been a dictatorship today. After exploring a whole new reality, I wrote down my information and worked on my presentation slides. The most challenging aspect of this project for me was to come up with a good question relating to the world, the course, and information we did not explore. As mentioned, I changed my question and reworded it many times to achieve this goal. Overall, the presentation went well and I am proud of the research and oral portion.  

Read the full News from the Nest for Feb. 2, 2024