Inquiry-based Service Learning project

At the 2010 KCPDC Master Teacher Retreat, I had the privilege to sit in on a group discussion where several teachers shared success stories of a service learning projects informed by inquiry-based learning pedagogy. This pedagogy / andragogy works for students of any age - but unless you've gone to a Montessori school, you may not have had much experience with it.

The process is fairly simple.

1. Choose a problem of global or campus wide significance that is relevant to our community.
2. Research the problem.
3. Inform the community.
   

In this project the students keep the following rules/ mandates in mind.

• Every step of the process must be ethical
• No one can get hurt
• The students have to live with the consequences
• the community has to have the chance to respond.

As one professor put it: pick a topic, tell us the truth, explain how we know the truth and pose possible solutions.

These teachers described profound learning, with students generating funds for charities, making proposals to student senate, and generally making their world a better place while meeting the objectives of the class as listed in the syllabus.

The students make the decisions and choose the directions, and the instructor acts as a coach, mentor or guide - which is a more realistic role if we want what happens in class to compare or prepare students for real life and the workforce.