The Use of Inquiry Based Learning in A Level Physics

Upon joining my current school, where I teach mainly A Level as one of only two specialists, I completed an exam analysis with my Head of Department on the previous academic years papers. Upon doing this I noticed two main places where students were dropping marks – practical planning (especially unknown practical’s!) and problem solving. The problem solving was a real issue for us as an A Level team as paper 3 is all based on problem solving! I knew straight away that we had a problem that we needed to solve. It was decided that inquiry based learning was to be the way which we were going to attempt to solve this problem.

Inquiry based learning is when as the teacher you ask the students a question or introduce them to a problem and leave them to solve it on their own with very little input from the teacher. This is not a technique that can be used with novice learners. It takes time as a learner to develop the skills so that IBL is effective. We have to carefully consider if we are doing this with novice learners. 

 

A novice would be a student who has little or no experience in the subject. I would argue that an A Level student wouldn’t be considered as or thought of as a novice (unless its particle physics!). They have all studied and got a good grade in their GCSE –this shows a level of understanding and knowledge in content as well as maths and practical skills. This would mean that at A Level none of our students can really be defined as a novice. 

 

IBL is a very powerful and effective learning tool when used correctly. For me some of the main benefits of Inquiry Based Learning at A Level is the skills that the pupils develop as a result.

For example:

•       Communication with peers about the topic

•       Development of problem solving skills

•       Development of research skills

•       Development of practical skills

These are all such important benefits of IBL but I am going to focus on the two that I have mainly been working on after the exam analysis – developing problem solving skills and practical skills.

I am not going to say that IBL is a fantastic magical teaching technique that solves every problem without introducing some of its own problems. Problems in IBL are usually because they don’t know how to start! There are a few things you can do to help with this,

For example:

•        Giving students a ‘poke’ or ‘nudge’. Sometimes when getting used to and adapting to this way of learning, particularly start of a level, students are sometimes not brave enough to just go for it so require a little nudge or poke in the right direction. Sometimes I do this by just pointing at a page in the textbook or writing a word! Its key that even when ‘helping’ you give them as little guidance as possible. If you are too heavily helping the students then you are taking away from the effectiveness of the technique and skills you are trying to help your students develop.

•       Scaffolding can be key. When starting out with this technique or if doing it with a LA A Level class some scaffolding can really help them. There are many ways in which I scaffold this task. It can be as simple as putting up the final answer they are looking for on the board so they know what they are working for, giving them an initial hint to get them started or to write one or maybe two intermediate stages that they should be working towards. Even with this scaffolding you are still giving the same skills. Eventually you will also be able to remove this scaffold so they can work completely independently.

When using this technique, thinking about the grouping you are going to use with the students also plays a key role. Grouping can be done in multiple ways but these are the two ways that I group my students:

•       Work with who they want

•       Specific groups – groups need to be chosen with a focus in mind not just randomly as this helps no-one!

Allowing students to work with who they want I have found works better. They are happier to communicate, bounce ideas off of each other and less embarrassed to be completely honest and open about their thought process. However, I have also done it where I have put them in very specific groups for a reason – such as mixed ability so HA support LA or ability so that I can scaffold and guide as needed or weakness in a certain area. Choosing how to group the students is important. It needs to be thought about and reasoned as to the particular groupings. Groupings may change based on the task they are doing. The most important thing is that groupings aren’t done randomly. Everything within IBL has to be reasoned and have a purpose in order for it to be effective. We as the teacher are not in control of this at the front so we need to plan as carefully and effectively as we can to ensure what we want to be taken from the lesson is!

IBL is a fantastic way for developing the students problem solving skills which are vital. 

For my A level course we have a whole paper called ‘synoptic’ which is based around problem solving skills. When I first joined my current school the students were really bad at problem solving and the synoptic paper and I have developed a few ways to deal with this. One is by IBL, I give them a really hard exam question linking multiple topics and equations together and just give it to them and leave them to work it out for themselves!

When doing this as a teacher the key is to give as little help as possible! 

I know this goes against our values as a teacher but the struggle to solve the problem is where they develop their problem-solving skills and it helps them to build stronger connections between the content. Whilst doing this I am actually really mean and give little help! I reassure them, often saying ‘I know you can do it and you have all the skills required’ this is often a good enough push for them to keep trying as they know I believe in them.

This is an example of a question I give them: 

An electron is fired from the positive plate of a capacitor towards the negative plate along the direction of the electric field with a velocity of 5kms^-1. The p.d across the plates is 550V and their separation is 5cm. Calculate the maximum distance the electron will travel.

 

So, why do they find this question so hard? 

·      Its electric fields!

·      There are units to be converted

·      They need to use multiple equations

·      The equations come from different topics

I let them do this question in pairs or groups as I have found that to be the best way for them to actually obtain an answer! Once all the groups have got to the end, normally in various different ways I then model to them exactly how I would have approached it and done including all my thoughts processes too. If they are finding it particularly difficult as a whole class, I will sometimes put a hint on the board in the form of an equation they need to solve it but not necessarily one that it’s obvious how to get too, that way they still have problem solving to do but they are doing it with a goal.

I also use IBL to develop their practical skills, especially questions often asked in an exam. Practical skills are vital for many reasons:

•       Practical component of A Level

•       Practical questions in exams

•       Preparing them for any science-based degree

Another brilliant use of IBL with our students is in developing practical skills. As we all know practical skills are vital for them not only for their A level but for their future career prospects. One thing I have found is that despite all the practical skills they have developed, if you give them all the equipment and a goal, they have no idea how to get there despite having used all the equipment before and done a similar practical before. When doing this I will just give them the title of the practical (usually the PAG name) and then tell them they have all the equipment they need and all the practical skills they need to be able to do the practical. From there, they have to write me a method of how they will achieve this before I allow them to do the practical. The reason for this? - exam practice. In exams they are quite often asked to write methods or do analysis for known practical's and this helps them to understand and think about exactly what they are doing and why.

The method of how I run my practical's has another purpose too:
It helps them plan unknown practical's in the exam! 

As I mentioned earlier, after exam analysis of year 13s papers it was noticed that they struggle to plan practical's which they haven’t done. By making them plan the method in class before doing the practical helps them develop this skill. They have to consider the equipment they have and how they can use that to achieve their goal. The 6^th form are getting better at planning unknown practical's since starting to use IBL with them, they’re still not perfect but they never will be. However, I have noticed they are much more confident and have a go at the questions now rather than just leaving them blank!

So that’s a very quick tour about what I have spent approx. 3 years working on! Thank you so much for reading, I hope that you found it interesting and useful and that you are thinking of ways to use it in your classrooms.

If you want to discuss any of the ideas I’ve talked about today or hear more about what I get upto then you can follow me on twitter @MissCJenner