User:Holstem1/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Inquiry-based learning

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
'''The article I chose is “Inquiry Based Learning” because, as an iSTEM student, inquiry based learning is at the center of what I believe best practices in science pedagogy to be. It is incredibly important that students learn science by doing science not by having science told to them. The lead section of the article seems fairly effective and concisely describes what inquiry based learning is about and what the article will cover. It is also the article that comes up when using the British spelling of “enquiry” based learning; this shows that the authors have given thought to how different people can access the information. It also references and links a key inquiry based learning strategy, problem based learning. Finally, the lead section contains three sources but only one of them, an article from the University of Manchester’s Centre for Excellence in Enquiry Based Learning. The others are the dictionary and a broken link.'''

Evaluate the article
The content of the article is thorough in many ways, but some of it seems dated and includes references to foreign countries such as Canada and the Netherlands. The history of inquiry based learning and prominent figures is included. It is described as a movement beginning in the 1960s and with Piaget, Dewey, and others spearheading this kind of pedagogy over more traditional forms of teaching which focus on rote learning. The article also provides an explanation of various levels of inquiry that could be employed ranging from fully structured to fully open ended. The only references to United States science standards go back to 1996 and the National Science Education Standards (NSES) which are very different from the current best practices endorsed by the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Finally, there is a section specifically serving as notes for educators but the information is fairly limited and comes with a message from Wikipedia that it is written like a guidebook and needs to be reviewed to provide a neutral point of view.

This brings me to my analysis of the overall tone and balance of the article. I did a search for the word “best” as many will make the claim that inquiry based learning is the “best” and it came up with two hits. The first was in the Inquiry Learning in Ontario’s Kindergarten Program section where it says “As research shows, children learn best through play, whether it is independently or in a group.”  The second is in the Necessity for Teacher Training section where it says “The teacher training and process of using inquiry learning should be a joint mission to ensure the maximal amount of resources are used and that the teachers are producing the best learning scenarios. The scholarly literature supports this notion.”  Although those who are familiar with inquiry based learning would still agree, these uses of the word best are given without thorough support by research (especially current research). There is, however, a section dedicated to criticism of the inquiry based learning model.

As previously mentioned, although there are over 50 sources in the article, many of them are outdated or are focused on countries outside the United States (primarily the Netherlands and Canada). In addition, some of the links to the sources are “broken” and lead to outdated webpages that have been moved to new URLs. One example is this link ( https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxkb3MwMDN8Z3g6MmU4MzM5YzA1YzcyNzM4 ) which leads to an error message. Another is this link ( https://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/elementary/kindergarten_english_june3.pdf ) which prompts you to go to this ( https://www.dcp.edu.gov.on.ca/en/ ) updated link. A brief sweep of the sources shows many of them have these problems and most are from the 1990s and early 2000s. Only a few sources used are from the past few years.

Overall I would rate the quality as fairly poor. Although it is diverse and has over 50 sources, most of them are dated or lead to broken links that are unable to support many of the claims made in the article. On top of this, the science standards referenced for the United States are 30 years out of date. Finally, there are sections that are not written from a neutral point of view and could therefore serve to be updated. Taking all of this into consideration, I’d say that there are many ways that this article could be improved. This could be done first by updating the sources to be more current. The examples of inquiry based learning could also be simplified and more references to inquiry based learning in science education should be mentioned. The main examples of inquiry based learning is in how Dutch students learn the alphabet through inquiry which is difficult to follow.