on using Inductive Teaching Methods to Escape Black Holes

Who I Am...

I am a dual national (British/Romanian) and a bilingual, Cambridge University English Language Teacher (CELTA – with ‘Distinction’ at that), with more than a decade of international experience across a range of specialist communication areas, starting with Academic & Professional English (FCE, CAE, CPE, BEC, IELTS, UCAS applications and counselling) up to, and including, Aviation English, English for Medical Professionals, Legal English, English for the hospitality industry, and translations.

The rather flattering post-course feedback received upon teaching General & Business English in the UK, and the rest of the specialist communication areas mentioned above, in Italy and Romania, owes to my track record in communicating an engaging picture that motivates my trainees to achieve well.

Revealing myself as a facilitator (of achieving specific aims) and a resourceful assistant of people’s discoveries (in Mark Van Doren’s mould), I employ an inductive, student-centred approach that identifies one’s specific needs while nurturing their learning enthusiasm.

As such, I elicit participation from all the class members to enable peer-led learning as far as this is practically possible. Where teacher-led instruction is required, I am clear and concise while checking understanding across the whole cohort. 

I am also a seasoned translator of a number of international bestsellers (see the Vellant Publishing House's titles) which include: Allain de Botton’s Status Anxiety, Penguin Books, 2015, Julian Bell’s Mirror of the World: A new History of Art, Thames and Hudson, 2007 (co-host &/interpreter at the book’s launch in Romania, at the Carturesti Bookstore, in Bucharest), Alain de Botton and John Armstrong’s Art as Therapy, Phaidon, 2013, Thomas Nagel’s The View from Nowhere, Oxford University Press, 1986, Noam Chomski’s Interventions, Hamish Hamilton, 2007, Oliver James’ The Selfish Capitalist, Vermilion, 2008, Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine, 2007,  Susan Sontag’s Illness as Metaphor & Aids and its Metaphors, Penguin classics, 2002, Valentina Iancu’s Leon Misosniky, 2014, etc.

Aside from my Cambridge University qualifications, I am a graduate of Politics and Government from Canterbury at Kent and I also hold a PhD in Sociology from the NSPSPA (The University of Bucharest).

My professional expertise spans both the public as well as the private sector. To exemplify this by pointing to a single experience from each of the sectors detailed in my professional resume attached to my electronic signature, I will refer to my five-year stint in the Romanian Central Government, where I’ve worked as a Senior Counsellor (not a 'civil servant' due to the restrictions that existed at the time on dual nationals) and a Deputy Programme Officer (PHARE 9707/The Young Professionals Scheme RO 01.06.03), during which time I’ve played a part in several European programmes designed to reform the country’s public administration.

Undergoing a number of training modules in Project, Services & General Management, including that of Trainer of Trainers in European Affairs (InWent/The National Institute of Administration) gave me a good platform to move on to the private sector.Finally, as Project Manager for the RIFF Group, I’ve played a central role in the Group’s acquisition by Moore Stephens International. As Editor-in-Chief of the Group’s monthly magazine, the New Business, I was granted exclusive permission to disseminate Harvard Business School Review’s articles in Romania.

My Teaching Methodology

Though the title of this short presentation more than hints at Stephen Hawkins' theory, according to which there's something (information, that is) in each and every one of us allowing our escape from the enormous pull being exerted by a black hole's gravity, the analogy which I'm trying to make here actually infers something rather different come its (event) horizon...

I should therefore need to explain beforehand that my analogy actually refers to a student's innate ability to become an autonomous, self-directed learner, and in the process of their doing so, escape the gravitational pull exerted by the Direct Instruction teaching methods that they may have been subjected to over the years.

Given my proven track record in motivating students to achieve well - by employing an Inductive, student-centred approach that identifies one’s specific needs while nurturing their learning enthusiasm - I can assist those looking to further their academic/professional careers aptly.

The 'I' Method

Using the Inductive Teaching method for the purpose of 'assisting' one's own 'discoveries' (as Mark Van Doren would have it) offers a positive and rewarding contrast to old school teaching methods, namely Direct Instruction.

Thus, instead of stating beforehand a particular grammatical item proposed for study, on a Monday morning class, there is a better way of assisting and facilitating your trainees' 'own' discoveries of the rules governing the composition of clauses, phrases and words being used in the English language.

Whether the task at hand requires a student to attempt the structural analysis of a poem, in terms of its literal meaning - or apparent lack thereof - its auditory effect, rhythm and imagery, or whether they are required to find patterns of social interaction in an increasingly alienated society or, say, review a black hole's makeup and the outcomes of its transit, such theoretical pursuits are all about exercising one's critical thinking abilities in a more or less complex inquiry process.

Whereas the Direct Instruction method primarily focuses on the outcomes of one successful mastery of a target language's linguistic structures (morphology, syntax, phonology, phonetics, semantics and pragmatics), Inductive strategies help one focus more on the very processes by which knowledge is being formed and acquired. 

These strategies set people on the right track in their becoming critical users of the means by which (social) scientists codify such information - rather than (uncritical) human 'resources' (sic!), trained to reproduce ad literam a body of scientific information.

As such, they are able to formulate - as well as address, in an appropriate manner, which is using suitable methodologies - questions that show their ability to collect and analyse information, as well as draw proper conclusions to that end.

Though inductive methods can be both convergent - as the case stands when guiding students towards discovering a unifying concept - as much as they can be divergent - whereby they allow for a greater number of concepts and generalizations to be made in the process - it is the latter variant that appears to allow for significantly greater margins with regard to one's personal expression abilities.

Suchman's (1962) Inquiry Training lesson's model enables the observation of facts awaiting their theoretical codification. This strategy adds value to a student's natural curiosity by inviting them to take a seat at a "Select Committee Panel's" table (aka peer-led learning) where all the relevant questions that serve to propel one's learning further are being asked.

The Description of a Typical Inquiry Training Lesson

In an Inquiry Training lesson, the teacher/trainer present the students with a phenomenon (called a discrepant event) that is bound to stir their curiosity. A discrepant event can therefore be defined as an occurrence producing an incompatibility between the students' expectations and what actually happens in real life.

We will consider, for this purpose, Archimedes’ Principle. For expediency reasons, please refer to the known experiment here.

Upon presenting the discrepant event (or stimulus), students are invited to ask 'Yes-No' questions in order to ascertain whether their explanations for the observed phenomenon are logical or otherwise. By asking such (relevant) questions, students proceed to make causal connections explaining the discrepant event.

Even though Suchman's model was designed for science classes, as long as a teacher is comfortable finding, presenting and conducting relevant discrepant events or stimuli inquiries, such a type of training can be used across a whole host of subject areas. 

It is worth noting, however, that although this model is useful for students of most ages, younger children and English learners will need extra support in formulating their Yes-No questions:

Ice-breakers/Introduction:

1. Present a discrepant event or a puzzling situation;

Presentation/Practice/Production:

2. Describe the procedure: Students are tasked with forming explanations for what they are seeing by asking questions that can be addressed with a straight 'Yes' or 'No' answer.
3. Questions checking the understanding of the observed events and conditions will be allowed.
4. Put causal questions on hold until reaching the next stage.

5. Allow questions showing that relevant variables had been properly identified and test their underlying hypotheses.

6. Guide students towards stating/codifying the explanations formulated during the inquiry stage.

Closing remarks/Conclusions:

7. Prompt students to analyze their inquiry strategies.

N.B. It is worth pointing out here that the Inquiry Training method is more than a questioning game. Therefore, the answers given by students should be written down on the white-board/flip-chart, for reference purposes. 

Should a student state the correct explanation early on, the teacher ought to remain unfazed, pretending that this is as good an answer as any, which will have to be verified through empirical testing at a later stage. Throughout this stage, it is crucial that the classroom atmosphere is conducive to getting the students to listen to and interact with each other.

Using Inductive methods - such as case studies, concept attainment/formation, role playing etc. - at this data analysis stage in the discovery process serves to stimulate the students’ ability to discern patterns while it enables their ascertaining of structures and the discovery of important ideas that will help them structure and codify new concepts.

Moreover, by categorizing/grouping component items into classes of objects, students get to keep abreast of the constant flow of information, reduce the frightening complexity of their environments, make decisions without the constant need the verify every single variable, by inter-relating/ordering classes of events (Bruner, Goodnow, & Austin, 1960) and, most importantly of all, make their learning processes equally effective as they are efficient.

I will conclude this rather brief presentation by mentioning that the learning cycle itself favours this Inductive approach for it provides a smooth transition from firsthand experiences to a properly-structured understanding of its content and real-world applications.

The constructivist learning theory - which defines the act of learning as being both a process as well as a result of our own inquiries and expositions in the on-going process of integrating current and past experiences (Marlowe & Page, 1998) - is the basis for my drawing on a rather remarkable (admittedly) personal life experience, which allows me to give my students a more realistic sense of purpose to what should otherwise be but a life-long pursuit of building background/content knowledge. This, incidentally, is particularly useful for younger/EFL learners.

Bibliography:

A COLLECTION OF DISCREPANT EVENTS – NSTA 1999 Courtney Willis Physics Department University of Northern Colorado Greeley, CO 80639.

A Study of thinking [by] Jerome S. Bruner, Jacqueline J. Goodnow [and] George A. Austin ; with an appendix on language by Roger W. Brown.

Inductive Teaching, http://pedagogy21.pbworks.com/f/IPM_finalcomments.pdf

Joyce, B. and Weil, M. Models of Teaching, Eighth Edition. Pearson, 2014.

Stephen Hawking explains how to (sort-of) escape a black hole, http://qz.com/487418/stephen-hawking-explains-how-to-escape-a-black-hole/