POGIL sounds like a sad robot in a second-rate sci-fi flick…or maybe a fish you should throw back into the lake instead of frying it up for dinner. But when you break down the acronym and focus on what it stands for, it's not such a bad name.

The Letters

• The P and the O are for "Process Oriented." As in focused more on the manner in which knowledge is acquired than on the content itself.
• The G and the I give us "Guided Inquiry," meaning that students are encouraged to investigate, ask questions, and seek answers (that's the inquiry part), but that they aren't left completely to their own devices. It's the teacher's job to act as a facilitator and guide them along the way.
• And the L? We all know what lessons are, but in POGIL, the lessons are specially crafted to promote the P-O and G-I parts of the plan.

But what does that actually mean?

Well, a typical POGIL lesson, say in a science or math class, starts students off with a question to answer or a puzzle to study, and they get either a series of questions or a short activity that will help guide them toward discovering a key concept.

Sounds nice, but…

How About a Quick Example?

This lesson on fish identification from UMich includes the following steps:

• Students get a generic fish illustration and set of cards with pictures of fish from different species.
• The students are told that the fish in the pictures come from 10 different families of fish found in the Great Lakes. Hungry yet?
• Students work together in small groups, say 3-4, to sort the cards in a way that makes sense to them.
• Groups then explain how they sorted the fish (by fin shape or size? markings? other characteristics?) while the teacher guides them in using the correct terms for various traits.

That's just the beginning of the lesson, but you get the gist. And maybe even a craving for fish tacos. The idea is that instead of simply lecturing about the characteristics of specific fish families, teachers can involve students in the discovery process from the get-go.

 

Boom. POGIL.

As a side note, POGIL-type lessons are usually used in STEM classes, and they originated in college chemistry classes in the mid 1990s. So it's no wonder this teaching strategy bears a strong resemblance the scientific process.

The "In-short" and the "Overall"

In short, POGIL is a student-centered teaching method that emphasizes discovery over memorization and places a higher premium on critical thinking and communication skills than regurgitating content.

Overall, POGIL seeks to help students develop collaboration, communication, and management skills (hence the emphasis on small group work) as well as critical thinking and problem-solving skills. POGIL presents science and math as creative processes that go beyond the memorization of facts and formulas, and it encourages students to engage their curiosity.

Anxious to learn more about employing POGIL in your classroom? You can attend workshops and trainings or receive support to enable you to visit nearby schools where POGIL is being used. There are also materials and other resources available at POGIL.org. And if you still need more, there is, of course, a POGIL TEDx Talk.

Because how could it be a valuable teaching method if there weren't a TEDx Talk?