March 22, 2023
More than 40 educators came together for the second OpenCitizen gathering March 17–19 to be inspired, ask big questions about education and share their learnings on facilitating inquiry learning in the classroom.
The event, held at SkySong, the ASU Scottsdale Innovation Center, was co-hosted by Arizona State University's Interplanetary Initiative, ASU's Learning Enterprise and Beagle Learning.
A group of educators brainstorms at the OpenCitizen Gathering.
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Arizona elementary, middle and high school teachers and school leaders participated in a weekend of professional development sessions designed to introduce open-inquiry processes, learner-centered pedagogies and strategies for how teams of students can move from inquiry to action.
“Our goal for this gathering is to share our common passion and practical skills for student-centered inquiry learning, so we can all continue to bring these techniques to our classrooms. We also want to prepare this fantastic group of educators to pilot OpenCitizen in their classrooms or after-school programs this fall,” said Lindy Elkins-Tanton, vice president of the Interplanetary Initiative.
Attendees participated in a series of highly interactive workshops, gaining skills in teaching and facilitating inquiry-based learning through the OpenCitizen process, and leaving with a plan for bringing this process to their school or classroom.
OpenCitizen uses an inquiry-based learning and problem-solving approach that follows five key elements:
1. Problem identification
2. Research
3. Project planning.
4. Project operations
5. Learnings and reflections.
During items one through three, teams use an inquiry process to find background knowledge about their project, identify unknowns and suggest hypotheses. They set an overarching goal question, then follow a cycle of asking their own natural next questions, researching answers and sharing learnings with their team. This inquiry cycle makes learning flexible and helps learners gather project-critical information while focusing on what matters most to them.
“We learned about inquiry, and how to give students agency and help them become more excited about learning and ultimately go out and be able to be individuals that are problem solvers and contributors to the community, who feel connected not only to the important issues in the world but also to each other,” said Tawn Hauptli, from Mesa Community College. “I’m really looking forward to this process taking over education. I think more people need to be aware of it, more people need to practice it.”