ABC of inquiry-Application: “Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do”these words by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe invite to reflect on the real reason learners enter our classrooms. We have been trusted not just to help students gain knowledge and skills but own them in such a way that they can use their ideas beyond the walls of the classroom.
APPLICATION: Help wanted, apply within
If a learner understands an idea, or is committed to a particular perspective they will draw on it when opportunities, possibilities or problems present themselves in the world outside the classroom, so it is said that they are applying their knowledge, skills and understanding. Being able to apply an idea, means being able to adapt your thinking and use it in a variety of settings.
Application of learning is evidence of understanding.
Assessment processes that are inquiry based, rely on learners applying their knowledge, skills, understandings or attitudes to a new or real world situation.
Learning and the use of it in the real world, is like a job application, we apply for jobs we know we can do because we have the attitudes, skills and understandings to support us in that role. Learning that we can apply, is learning that person has ownership over because they understanding it, they help construct the understanding, they didn’t passively receive or recall facts or details, they didn’t just copy or repeat a drill, the learner really understands the process, content or perspectives needed to do the real life job of problem solving in a new situation.
Open ended questions like‘What could an eight sided shape with straight lines look like?”, will have learners applying for this learning job, because they have understandings about shapes, line and space. They can use this understanding to create figures that are in-fact regular or irregular octagons rather than just trying to recall what an regular octagon looks like. This sort of application of adaptive thinking to solve a problem will help learners develop new ways of approaching real world problems.
Words to be explored in the A sections of our dictionary will include
Action
Active
Adaptive thinking
Agency
Anchor charts
Application
Assessment
Attitudes
BCW will now use ‘They — themself’ as a singular, gender-neutral pronoun in all subsequent material generated on our website.
