Exemplar answers to Question 1

1. Mr. Anderson teaches geography in a middle school of Indiana. One day, he is teaching his 16 students about the factors that affect average temperature. Instead of doing a lot of talking himself, Mr. Anderson decides to make students think and discover.

a. If Mr. Anderson uses the Inquiry Teaching way of articulation, what would he ask students to do?

Mr. Anderson may first ask students to list some factors that they deem to affect average temperature, and then ask questions as entrapment to help students find their misunderstanding, if any. He may also try to get students to systematically test out their hypotheses, for example, by comparing temperature in different places in the real world.

(This is actually a real-life example. Two excerpts below show what Anderson has done.)

Forming Hypotheses

S:   Some other factor besides north-south distance must also affect temperature.

RA: Yes! Right! What could this factor be?

S:   I don't have any idea.

RA: Why don't you look at your map of North America. Do you see any differences between Montana and Newfoundland?

S:   Montana is in the center of the country. Newfoundland is on the ocean.

RA: Do you soppose that distance from the ocean affects temperature?

S:   I'm not sure. It would just be a guess.

RA: True! The name for such a guess is a hypothesis. Supposing the hypothesis were correct, what exactly would you predict?

S:   The further a place is from the ocean, the lower the temperature will be in the winter.

Evaluating Hypotheses

RA: How could you test your hypothesis?

S:   By comparing temperatures of places different distances form the ocean.

RA: Very good. Let's do that. Suppose we take St. Louis, Missouri. Which would be best to compare, Atlanta, Georgia, or Washington, D. C.?

S:   I would pick Washington.

RA: Why?

S:   Because it's at the same latitude as St. Louis.

RA: Why is that important?

S:   Well, if Atlanta were warner, I wouldn't know whether it was because it was nearer the ocean or further south.

There are no standarded answers to each question. Find something interesting from diverse answers from other learners!

---

Go back to Application of Articulation Strategies