IPM Lesson Plans

What is the foundation used for Information Process Model Lesson Plans?
IPM was a new method of teaching to me. For some reason I never really knew there were other methods of teaching other than Direct Instruction. Maybe that's the one that really stood out in my mind when I was a student, or maybe I just didn't realize the IPM lessons were teaching. Maybe I thought they were fun activities like the fifth grade students when the participated in my webquest.


What did I learn and what is the Information Processing Model?
The IPM model is a method of teaching where the teacher presents the students with a problem/situation and gets them to investigate and find the solution on their own.

As well discussed in class in our Job Interview session, derived from Katyln's question. What fruit or vegetable would you use to describe the IPM method? It's like an onion or artichoke. You keep peeling the outside to discover the solution in the inside. Teaching is done by asking instead of telling. This method of teaching allows the students to become independent, autonomous learners capable of figuring things out for themselves.

This is the theoretical foundations behind IPM?
The theoretical foundation of IPM is the Socratic Method, named after the Greek
philosopher, Socrates. It is a form of philosophical inquiry in which the questioner
explores the implications of others’ positions, to stimulate rational thinking and to
illuminate ideas. The term Socratic Questioning is used to describe a kind of questioning in which an original question is responded to as though it were an answer. This in turn forces the first questioner to reformulate a new question in light of the progress of the discourse.

IPM is a learning environment which is open, allows active student involvement, and an atmosphere of intellectual freedom.
The IPM method consists of five phases, which are:
• Orient students to the problem
• Organize students for study
• Assist with independent and group investigations
• Develop and present artifacts and exhibits
• Analyze and evaluate work

The IPM lesson plan was the second lesson plan we wrote this semester.
We created our webquest and built the lesson plan around it. It proved that a webquest is a great method to apply to IPM. We presented a problem at the beginning of our quest and the students had to investigate to solve it. When using my quest with the fifth grade during my field work, I couldn't help but notice the students enjoying the activity and not really realizing they were learning at the same time, similiar to my own observation as a child.

Here is the good and the bad when using IPM....
The good:
Some benefits of IPM would be that it helps the students develop investigative skills and problem solving skills. It allows students to gain confidence in their own ability to think, access, process and reflect on information.
The bad:

Some demerits of IPM is it requires major planning, clearly communicated goals, designing interesting and appropriate problem situations and logistical preparation.

What I thought about IPM vs DI......
IPM and DI are very different teaching styles, but I think they can compliment each other and if used together can create a very productive learning environment. DI is necessary to teach a new skill, it obvious you could not use IPM to teach a new skill, but you can build on the skill taught with DI using IPM to further encourage the students thinking and promote higher leveling thinking.

Please take a look at the Treasure Hunt posting to see more of what I learned....