Inquiry-based Learning

What is inquiry?

'Inquiry is the dynamic process of being open to wonder and puzzlements and coming to know and understand the world' (Alberta Learning, 2004).

'Simply put, inquiry is the personal path of questioning, investigating, and reasoning that takes us from not knowing to knowing' (Ferlazzo & Boss, 2015).

What is inquiry-based learning?

'Inquiry-based learning is a process where students are involved in their learning, create essential questions, investigate widely, and then build new understandings, meanings and knowledge. That knowledge is new to the students and may be used to answer their essential questions, to develop a solution, or to support a position or point of view. The knowledge is usually presented to others and may result in some sort of action' (Alberta Learning, 2004).

Inquiry in the curriculum

There are a number of Curriculum learning areas that are underpinned by an inquiry-based approach to learning. This is most evident in The Humanities (History and Geography) and in the Sciences. Inquiry is hinted at in the K-10 Mathematics strand of Statistics and Probability (data representation and interpretation).

types of student inquiry

Trevor MacKenzie in his book 'Dive into Inquiry' (2016) talks about the Types of Student Inquiry being a scaffolded approach to inquiry in the classroom, one that gradually increases student agency over learning whilst providing learners with the necessary skills, knowledge and understanding to be successful in their inquiry.

There are four main types of student inquiry:

Structured Inquiry: whole class engages in inquiry together with the teacher in control of the inquiry process. The learners all demonstrating their understanding in a similar way. Beginning with this type of inquiry helps learners become familiar with the process of inquiry.

Without the Types of Student Inquiry, students will not feel as confident, supported, or empowered through their inquiry journey.

#DiveintoInquiry - Trevor MacKenzie 2016

Controlled Inquiry: agency over learning begins to shift during this type of inquiry, as they are given more choice over the essential question and resources they will explore.
Guided Inquiry: learners are further empowered during this type of inquiry as they are given choice over the resources they will use to research their answers and how they will demonstrate their understanding.
Free Inquiry : Teacher acts as a guide and facilitator as students choose their own topics, resources and method of presenting understanding. In this type of inquiry all students could be working on something completely different.

The inquiry model

concept routines and inquiry-based learning

Concept routines are effective tools to help make students' thinking visible during the inquiry process. They are also valuable assessment tools as they assist teachers in gathering data used to set-up and drive future investigations.

The following are some examples of useful Concept Routines:

True or False: make judgements about one or more statements.
Concept Walk: analyse and record ideas related to a series of words, images, artifacts or statements stationed around the room.
Concept Sort: make connections between different concepts, ideas or images.
Concept Hierarchy: think about concepts in relation to one another and organise them according to importance.
Concept Wall: is an interactive and ongoing space where students can actively participate in the building of understanding.
Concept Questions: generate deep questions related to concepts.

To find out more about ways these concept routines can be used, visit the Inquiry Mindset blog.

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Acknowledgement of Sources:

Trevor MacKenzie website - Dive into Inquiry - http://trevormackenzie.com/
MacKenzie, T. (2016) Dive Into Inquiry: Amplify learning and empower student voice. EdTechTeam Press: USA.
Kath Murdoch website - http://www.kathmurdoch.com.au/
Ferlazzo, L., Boss, S. (2015) Different ways of learning by doing - http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/classroom_qa_with_larry_ferlazzo/2015/03/response_different_ways_of_learning_by_doing.html
Alberta Learning (2004) Focus on Inquiry: A Teacher's guide to implementing inquiry-based learning - http://open.alberta.ca/dataset/032c67af-325c-4039-a0f3-100f44306910/resource/b7585634-fabe-4488-a836-af22f1cbab2a/download/29065832004focusoninquiry.pdf
Inquiry Mindset blog (2017) Using concept routines to drive inquiries - http://www.inquirymindset.com/using-concept-routines-drive-inquiries/
Inquiry in Theory image (2017) @traintheteacher - https://traintheteacher.me/2017/08/27/the-dance-of-inquiry/

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