The Five E's = Excellence!!!

The five E’s is based on constructivism, which is an instructional model. Using constructivism as a learning strategy will allow students to activate prior knowledge that will allow them to access what they already know about the concept they will be learning and build upon this prior knowledge with new information. This learning approach can work with both children and adults, the age does not matter because every learner has a different level of thinking. According to Enhancing Education (2002), “With a constructivist approach, students synthesize new understanding from prior learning and new information”(p.1). The five E’s also keeps teachers on track with their lesson plan and helps them stay organized when teaching. Each E has a different phase and in every phase there is an important key element that completes that phrase. When teachers plan to teach using the inquiry method, it is important to keep in mind the five E’s. As a teacher candidate I had to write an inquiry lesson for my unit plan, however the first inquiry lesson I wrote was very difficult because I thought all the information should be in the same place. Once I thoroughly went through each phase I began to break up my lesson. I had to create another inquiry lesson plan, however for the second time I breezed through it because I understood what goes in each phase and how it will help both the teacher and the students when teaching. Although it may be difficult to work with at first, once you understand what information goes in each phase your inquiry lessons will increase student knowledge since it is broken into stages for them to be engaged, explore, explain what they learned, elaborate on their deeper understanding and evaluate them to assess their understanding.

In the YouTube video above, it explains why it is important to inquiry-based learning in classrooms and inspires how this thinking process is used throughout life. The inquiry process can be integrated in multiple subjects, and this will allow students to be engaged and incorporate their strengths in various subjects. In this research article (2002),“A constructivist teacher sets up problems and monitors student exploration, guides student inquiry, and promotes new patterns of thinking. Working mostly with raw data, primary sources, and interactive material, constructivist teaching asks students to work with their own data and learn to direct their own explorations. Ultimately, students begin to think of learning as accumulated, evolving knowledge”(p.1). It is important to teach students to think like this because they will carry these critical thinking skills through their life. They will use these skills throughout their education and in their future career. There are five important phases to remember when teaching the inquiry process such as, engage, explore, explain, elaborate, and evaluate.

This YouTube video is an overview of the five E’s and a brief explanation of why they are important.

Engagement

During this phase the teacher’s goal is to get the students interested in what they will be learning. Many students get engaged quickly when they hear a connection between what they will be learning and everyday life because to them they can relate to it. By teachings relating life situations within the classroom, the content will be more meaningful to the students, since they want to learn about it and they can make their own connections. A teacher may get the student’s attention by asking them a question, having them do a brief activity, a newspaper article, displaying pictures or watching a short video. This phase is to get all the students attention by focusing them on the lesson topic they will be learning from activating their prior knowledge.  

According to Missouri’s Instructional Model (2012), “The role of the teacher during the Engagement phase includes:

• Focusing student thinking on the topic of the lesson
• Building connections between what learners are likely to already know about the topic and the learning to take place during the lesson
• Revealing students’ prior conceptions or misconceptions about the topic 
• Teachers can gain critical insight into students’ ideas, level of understanding, and potential misconceptions through a carefully planned engagement for the unit or lesson.”

Exploration

            In the exploration phase the students are given the opportunity to investigate on the specific topic they will be learning about. Students are encouraged to collaborate with their peers to collect data on what they may need to know. In this phase the teacher usually models what the students will be working on and the expectations the teacher has for the class. By the students seeing the teacher’s model, this gives them an idea of how they should be thinking and what questions they may have. The teacher should model some mistakes, therefore students know its okay to make a mistake and everyone does it. The teacher should be walking around as the students are exploring, collecting data, which will allow them to build upon prior knowledge. In this phase students will be making hypothesis, an educated guess, on what they are observing or testing.

According to Missouri’s Instructional Model (2012),  “The role of the teacher during the Exploration phase includes:

• Using an investigation to explore a concept prior to introducing vocabulary terms or providing explanations about the concept
• Challenging students to make and test predications of investigation outcomes
• Making connections between students prior knowledge of the concept and their experiences with the concept during the inquiry-based investigation
• Using questions to guide students’ thinking and addressing misconceptions

During this phase of the model, the teacher is the facilitator, providing equipment, materials, and guidance to student teams but not telling students what to do or what to expect. This is an inquiry-based experience through which students learn about the concept. This phase is designed to be student-centered with the teacher acting as a facilitator to enhance student learning.”

Explanation

While the students are still investigating, they begin to make logical reasons, therefore in the explanation phase, the students will be collaborating in teams on the data they collected. The students will be analyzing the data they collected and begin to make meaning of it and connect it with experiences they may have or heard of. Together as a team, the students will have a discussion on their thoughts and how they interpret the data they collected. Students should be formulating new questions based on their data and start to develop an evidence-based reasoning.

The Missouri’s Instructional Model (2012) states, “The role of the teacher during the Explanation phase includes:

·      Providing time for learners to share their ideas through brainstorming and discussion

·      Challenge learners to explain their understanding of the concept, process, or skill

·      Using videos, guest speakers, etc. to provide additional insight into the concept for students

·      Teacher explanations offered at this time provide an opportunity for learners to develop a deeper understanding of the concept

It is important to note that all explanations should be supported by learner experiences and observations drawn from evidence collected during the investigation.”

Elaboration

            In the elaboration phase, the students begin to apply their new knowledge to understand the concept of the lesson. During this phase the students will challenge themselves to apply their new experiences to create a deeper understanding of the content. Each group will collaborate and begin to make conclusions based on their data. One goal of this phase is to have the students reflect on their prior knowledge when they are investigating to collect and analyze data.  

The Missouri’s Instructional Model (2012) says, “The role of the teacher during the elaboration phase includes:

•       Challenging students with new investigations through which to construct deeper understanding of the concept
•       Helping students to apply their knowledge and skills to find answers to new questions

Through the challenges of elaboration, learners enhance their understanding of content, process, and skills.”

Evaluation

            During the evaluation phase, both the teacher and students will reflect on the material they learned. Teachers can evaluate students throughout the lesson by asking challenging questions, along with observation. During the exploration phase, teachers should be observing and evaluating students based on their group performance. Teachers complete formative assessments during this phase, which is based on the student’s performance and feedback. Rubrics are helpful to students because it is a guide of what is being expected for a task, activity, or assignment. Formative assessments “engage students to evaluate their own work” along with the teacher provide constructive feedback(Missouri’s Instructional Model, 2012). It is important to provide positive constructive feedback, therefore the student can improve their work. Each student should also be given a self-evaluation and peer evaluation. It is very important for students to reflect on how each team member performed during group work. In order for this to be accurate, students need to be honest and not give their friends good grades if they did not complete their role in the group. By completing this form on self-evaluation and peer evaluation, students begin to change how they act during group work the next time. Students are asked what they could improve on for next time and many students do improve that. Students should understand that if they are finished with their role, then they should help another team member to fulfill their role. Working together as a team is helping and guiding each other, it is not every man for them, which is very important for students to know. Students should also be given rubrics to evaluate their work, therefore they now what they may need to improve upon before submitting it.

According to Missouri’s Instructional Model (2012), “The role of the teacher during the evaluation phase includes:

•       Noting student responses to questions which provides insight into their understanding and can inform instructional decisions during the lesson
•      Noting student predictions to gain insight into their thinking and understanding of the concept
•      Providing rubric to support students in evaluating their own work and learning

Formative assessments are ongoing and provide opportunities for teachers to evaluate their instruction as well as student to reflect upon their learning. Formative assessments also provide opportunities for students to utilize feedback from the teacher and their peers to evaluate and make improvements to their work. Whereas, summative assessments are designed to reveal student learning and provide insight into achievement of science learning objectives related to course level and grade level expectations.” The five E’s can be an effective instructional model for an educator. It takes time to identify the goals of each phase, but with repetition, an educator can learn how to master this quickly. This then becomes a natural teaching method that can prove to be very effective.

 Thank you for reading,

Works Cited

Crombie, S. (2014, May 26). What is Inquiry-Based Learning? Retrieved March 8, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u84ZsS6niPc

Engaging Students with the 5-E Instructional Model GK-12 2012, 1-4. (2012). Retrieved March 8  2015, from http://gk12.missouri.edu/showmenature/lessons/5-E%20Overview-GK-12.pdf

The 5 E Learning Cycle Model. (2001, November). Retrieved March 8  2015, from http://faculty.mwsu.edu/west/maryann.coe/coe/inquire/inquiry.htm

The 5 E's. (2002). Retrieved March 8, 2015, from http://enhancinged.wgbh.org/research/eeeee.html

How to use the 5 E's - TeachLikeThis. (2013, December 27). Retrieved March 8, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDPh3vxKdfc