Definition:
This
model is designed to assist students in developing the skills required to raise
questions and seek out answers stemming from their curiosity.
Steps: The five steps involved in this model are as follows:
1. The teacher
presents students with a puzzling situation or event. Students are allowed to ask the teacher questions
that must be answered by a “yes” or “no”. The purpose of this phase is to
verify the facts.
2. Students next gather information and verify
the occurrence of the puzzling situation.
3. Students identify relevant variables,
hypothesize and test causal relationships.
4. Next, the
teacher asks students to organize the data and formulate an explanation for the
puzzle.
5. Finally,
students analyze their pattern of inquiry and propose improvements.
When:
The Suchman Inquiry Training Model is
most commonly used in science and social studies. Students need an
initial period of practice in teacher-structured inquiry sessions before they
can undertake inquiry individually or in small groups.
Resources:
http://www.excel.net/~ssmith/models.html
Joyce,
B., Weil, M., Showers, B. (1992). Models of
teaching. Boston: Allyn and
Bacon.
Example:
For elementary
students, an example of a puzzling situation might be: How is the fortune put
into a fortune cookie?