Inquiry Learning
By Mary Keeling – Supervisor, Library Media Services
We recognize that our students need to become self-directed learners.
Inquiry is a form of self-directed learning.
We believe that inquiry learning can foster curiosity and a desire to learn, but there are challenges as well as opportunities for students.
For example, students show vulnerability when asking questions. How can we make questioning emotionally safe and intellectually rewarding? If there are intellectual rewards, will students become more willing to take risks? What intellectual rewards are worth the risk?
Who fosters inquiry learning in your school?
March 19th, 2009 at 12:18 pm
In order to make students feel comfortable about asking questions, teachers first model using inquiry by showing students HOW to ask questions. Teachers can make students feel safer about asking questions by first moving beyond literal knowledge questions whenever possible. Too many literal knowledge questions foster the idea of “right” and “wrong” answers, which can cause students to feel emotionally vulnerable if they don’t know the “right” answer.
Modeling questions that involve higher level skills like analyzing and evaluating show students that they can and should think beyond rote memorization. As they become more comfortable with these higher level skills, they start to come up with more questions on their own, and feel a greater sense of ownership for their own learning.
March 20th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
I love to take our biology class outdoors whenever possible, although I realize that we can’t always do that. It really opens up all kinds of possibilities for inquiry based learning. Our field biology class goes out frequently, and we always start off with observations of our surroundings. We ask questions such as “What do you notice different in this environment?” followed by “What do you think might be causing this?” Students quickly get good at noticing things around them and asking their own questions. It is so much more rewarding for the students when they can form their own questions, and come back to the classroom to research and formulate their own conclusions.
April 29th, 2009 at 10:06 am
As humans we are always seeking to learn about the things around us, and this usually starts with inquiry. I believe all true learning is inquiry based. Inquiry based learning helps students develop critical thinking and problem solving skills which will help them when they leave the classroom. Anytime a student is able to solve a problem on their own they become an autonomous learner, which is what we teachers strive for them to be. That benefit alone outweighs the risks that may be involved. I believe it is up to teachers to help students feel comfortable with asking questions and to foster inquiry learning in class, but they ultimately need the support of the entire school system. Students who are hesitant to ask questions can be coaxed by teachers through modeling as Kate Wolfe stated. A fun way to teach students about inquiry learning is by creating activities for them to do such as WebQuests. When creating WebQuests, you find a problem, ask a question related to the problem, collect data that will help you solve the problem, analyze the data, and determine the solution based on the questions you asked. This can be used for any content area. Once the students have completed some WebQuests, they should feel comfortable enough to find their own questions to ask and data to gather to find a solution. You can also use KWL charts (what I know, what I want to know, what I learned) that can be displayed on the board or given to them as worksheets. Students can write their questions “W” block on the worksheet, or you can write their questions on the board. Writing all student questions on the board, no matter what they may consist of can show students that no question is a stupid question.
In Filling the Tool Box, Jamieson McKenzie and Hilarie Davis discuss various strategies to create student questioning. They state “when questions are nurtured, admitting a lack of knowledge is rewarded” which, is the first step in learning and problem-solving. They mention how teachers can start new units by asking them to think of questions that they can ask about the topic like “what questions should we ask about the digestive system?” The questions that you ask students to ask themselves should get them motivated to create their own questions. They also mention how you can teach the importance of asking questions through having students act as a character to a story they read and have the others students act as news reporters by creating three questions to ask the character.