Instructor: Chip Bruce
Time: Tuesday, 9:00 - 11:50 a.m.
Place: 109 LIS
Semester: Spring 2006
Call #: 36880

The primary goal for this course is to provide an introduction to a way of thinking about learning as it occurs in libraries, museums, homes, and workplaces, as well as in formal educational settings. In order to explore that, we will read about, observe, and engage in inquiry-based learning. We will examine the creation of environments in which learners are actively engaged in making meaning through personal and collaborative inquiry. The course will also examine challenges to inquiry-based instruction, including those related to management, assessment, basic skills, cultural differences, and pedagogical goals.

A possible focus for Spring 2006 is a study of alternative schooling. This would emphasize programs that reach underserved students or employ innovative designs of curricula or instruction, such as Summerhill, England; Totto-Chan's school in a train. Japan; University of Chicago Laboratory Schools; Little Red School House, New York; Barbiana school, Italy; New Harmony, Indiana, Prologue Learning Center, Chicago; and Reggio Emilia, Italy.