Conduct a search using your favourite search engine, and you will find a plethora of sites offering their unique take on Inquiry-Based Learning. Each will describe their philosophical basis, the benefits of a constructivist approach and subsequent pedagogical moves. The unique element posed by each will be the labels attached to steps students are to take as they engage in the inquiry approach. You will find flowcharts, diagrams and a range of mnemonics to ensure that students apply the prescribed recipe as it should be. This richness of options can be overwhelming, and teachers and schools could spend a great deal of time debating the merits of each. But is this time well spent or might our efforts be best placed elsewhere?
Having a model of inquiry that makes sense to a school’s broader context makes sense. If staff own the process and believe in its merits, it is likely to have a more enduring impact. If the language used when discussing the inquiry process aligns with other language moves made across the learning environment, then students will benefit from the consistency of approach. What is more important than the model of inquiry deployed, however, is the mindset or stance taken by teachers towards inquiry.
When we first explore an inquiry approach, there will likely be times when our students are doing inquiry. We plan a project that employs an inquiry cycle. Our students are rigorously introduced to the steps and then march through the process in lockstep fashion. Once the inquiry is done, we assess the content that students have absorbed and then move on to the next unit. Doing inquiry in this way is a nice way to start a journey towards inquiry-based learning, but if we stick with this sort of inquiry by numbers approach, we will miss out on the true benefits.
But, when we adopt an inquiry stance towards learning, we start to see things differently. Taking an inquiry stance towards learning involves a shift in mindset and practice for both student and teacher. It allows us to move beyond doing inquiry towards being inquisitive.
In many ways for our students, adopting an inquiry mindset involves a reigniting the sense of curiosity and wonder that was the norm in their pre-school learning. The student who has embraced an inquisitive stance will want to know why things are the way they are. They will need to understand why that mathematical equation works, why those chemicals react as they do and how those historical moments connect. They will question knowledge with healthy scepticism. The inquisitive student will want to understand not only what they are learning, but how they learn. They will be reflective, self-navigating practitioners who are deliberately metacognitive.
The teacher who embraces an inquiry stance will do much more than teach through an inquiry method. Yes, they will create opportunities for their students to engage in inquiry, and they will teach and scaffold these inquiries as required. But, the inquiry stance will be evident in everything they do. Their inquisitive stance will be apparent in the way they observe their learners in the act of learning. They will create opportunities to be researchers of their students and will want to understand how their students’ skills knowledge and dispositions are developing. They will ask questions about the curriculum and seek opportunities to broaden their understanding of what they are teaching and why. They will seek to make visible the impact that their pedagogy is having, interrogate the language moves they make and analyse the learning opportunities they create. They will seek feedback from their students and peers, knowing that this will enable them to better understand how they might grow.
Adopting an inquiry-based approach can bring engaging opportunities to a lesson, but embracing an inquiry stance can enhance every learning moment.
By Nigel Coutts