What is Inquiry?

Home
What is Inquiry?
Ownership & Authenticity
The Question
Create and Synthesise
Evaluation
Inquiry & ICT
My Research
Thinking
Professional Development
Resources
Solutions
Key Competencies

 

"Instead of thinking of a school as a place where 300 young people attend to be provided with an education, try thinking about a school as a research site, populated with 300 small sized researchers."

"Rethinking the role of schools as producers of useful and valuable knowledge opens up many important questions. Equally, it positions schools as an important new resource for the community and provides students with valuable experience in serious knowledge work"

Chris Bigum

Computers in New Zealand Schools

July 2003 p. 26

 

Inquiry-based learning is a constructivist approach, in which students have ownership of their learning. It starts with exploration and questioning and leads to investigation into a worthy question, issue, problem or idea.

It involves asking questions, gathering and analysing information, generating solutions, making decisions, justifying conclusions and taking action.

 

 Based on definitions from Sharon Friesen and www.galileo.org/inquiry-what.html  
 

“Through the process of inquiry, individuals construct much of their understanding of the natural and human-designed worlds.”

 

 

Why Inquiry?

Inquiry-based learning approaches when correctly implemented can help develop higher-order, information literacy and critical thinking skills. They can also develop problem-solving abilities and develop skills for lifelong learning. My experience has shown this approach to engage and motivate students. Students in my classes worked co-operatively and collaboratively to solve problems and I found the depth of understanding to be greater than with other teaching approaches.

Teacher's Role

The teacher's role in inquiry-based learning is one of 'Guide on the side' rather than 'Sage on the stage". The teacher scaffolds learning for students, gradually removing the scaffolding as students develop their skills. With young children or students new to inquiry it is usually necessary to use a form of guided inquiry.

Questions

At the heart of inquiry is a good question. It is often open-ended (has no right or wrong answer) and is higher-order, rich, worthy and/or fertile. Check out the Question page for more on this aspect.

Why Inquiry?

In this video clip which can be found on the excellent edtalks site I talk about what inquiry-based learning means to me.

 

Inquiry Models

There are a number of inquiry-based models such as Eisenberg and Berkowitz's (2004) ‘Big6™' and Super3™ ( a modified Big6™ for juniors), Jamie McKenzie's (2000) ‘Research Cycle' , Trevor Bond's (2001) ‘SAUCE' and Gwen Gawith's Action Learning (1988), and 3 Doors to Infoliteracy® (2000).  Many of these were initially developed as information literacy models but fit well with inquiry-based learning.

Problem and project-based learning, Mantle of the Expert, curriculum integration (Beane, 1997) and communities of thinking (Harpaz & Lefstein, 2000) are other variations of inquiry-based learning.

Many schools have developed their own models which are often based on one or more of the existing models but have been adapted to suit the needs of the school and community. As part of my e-fellows' research I asked 23 New Zealand teachers which inquiry models they had heard of and which ones they were using. The results are shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Models 23 teachers had heard of and/or used

Model

Heard of

Used

Big 6™

61%

26%

Research Cycle

48%

13%

Action Learning

91%

43%

SAUCE

65%

30%

Problem-based learning

22%

17%

Own school model

87%

87%

Other (various)

26%

22%

For more information on inquiry check out these sites:

  • Guided Inquiry: Carol Kuhlthau and Ross Todd outline six characteristics of guided inquiry.

  • Galileo Foundation - Sharon Friesen and Pat Clifford. Choose the ‘ICT & Inquiry’ or ‘Integrating Technology’ Links from the top menu bar.

  • Thoughts, ideas and examples of inquiry from Yoram Harpaz - especially the “Communities of Thinking” article.

  • Mark Treadwell’s Teachers at Work site newsletters, especially the October 2004 article on ‘e-portfolios and the Inquiry Learning Process’ and the three ‘Education in the 21st Century  - The Dinner Party’ articles.

  • ‘Using the Internet to Promote Inquiry’ is an excellent article on the Biopoint site which outlines ways to support students in the inquiry process.

  • The Concept to Classroom site has definitions and thoughts on inquiry and an interview with Art Costa on inquiry.

  • Edutopia - the ‘Project based learning’ and ‘Technology Integration’ pages.

  • The Inquiry Page for info and examples of inquiry.

  • Trevor Bond's Site - explains his SAUCE model and has links to other inquiry-based models.

Recommended Reading

Beane, J. (1997). Curriculum Integration. New York: Teachers College Press.

Harpaz, Y. & Lefstein, A. (2000). Communities of thinking. Educational Leadership, 58(3), 54 - 57. Retrieved May 6, 2006 from www.learningtolearn.sa.edu.au/Colleagues/files/links/Communities_of_Thinking_i_1.doc

 Creative Commons License  

Jan-Marie Kellow 2009
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.

Photos must only be used for educational purposes and must be attributed. Photos of children may only be used with my permission.