The Girl Who Cried "Why?": Using Inquiry/Constructivist Methodology to Create Integrated History/English Webpages with Academy Sophmores
Graduation Date
Spring 2000
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Document Form
Degree Name
Master of Science
Program Name
Education
Program Director
Grace Grant, EdD
Abstract
This study examines the use of inquiry/ constructivist methodology to teach Academy sophomores an integrated exploration of industrialization, Latin American studies, and poetry through the use of webpage design. The study includes a detailed definition of this methodology as well as a discussion of the intrinsic democratic quality of this methodology. The study looks closely at the structure of a Northern California high school Multimedia and Communications Academy and the role of the inquiry/constructivist method within this specific Academy model. The study reviews the method from both a practical and philosophical perspective. The specific project chronicled in this study, the virtual vacation project, provides a practical illustration of the method, while the discussion to follow aims to explore the method from a more theoretical stance. This stance concerns an analysis of the skills students can acquire within this method as well as explore the need for an overarching shift in the classroom paradigm from a teacher-centered to a student-centered classroom in order for the methodology to thrive.