Flow of Knowledge

In a true inquiry lesson, there is a back and forth flow of knowledge between the teacher and students. It begins when the teacher poses an idea or concept and then asks targeted questions. This leads to students sharing their ideas and asking additional questions. Next, the teacher responds with additional thought-provoking questions that encourage students to investigate on their own and analyze their findings. And finally, students build on their knowledge and defend new explanations and understandings based on evidence they collect through their investigations.

On the other hand, if inquiry is not the focus of a lesson, the flow of knowledge tends to be one-directional, as the teacher poses an idea or concept and asks specific questions. The teacher then provides direct resources or learning activities from which the answers to the questions can be found. Students complete the activity or research with specific guidance from the teacher, and then present the answer to the question. This gives them little or no opportunity for higher level thinking.

Teacher as a Facilitator

With real inquiry, teachers are facilitators, as opposed to just a teacher imparting information. As a facilitator, they prompt student questioning and idea sharing with purposeful questions, ensure that students have access to the resources as they determine what they need, and set clear expectations for student behavior. Most importantly, students are held accountable for their own actions.

If a teacher is simply acting as a teacher, they may only lecture and they rarely encourage communication and questioning. Most likely, they provide limited resources such as books or websites, and they strictly monitor and micromanage student behavior. As you can imagine, this type of environment is not very conducive to feelings of student ownership. Students have no sense of ownership when they have no choice in how to investigate a problem. And if students are working independently and have no one depending on them, they don’t have much incentive to perform beyond minimum expectations.

Benefits of Inquiry

One benefits of true inquiry is a genuine feeling of student ownership as students are given meaningful tasks that are engaging and challenging. Additionally, student accountability increases when students are part of a cooperative group and have others depending on them.

A sense of ownership and accountability aren’t the only benefits to inquiry-based learning. Students’ natural curiosity is peaked in true inquiry as they explore a concept and ask their own questions to further understand what they are learning. Also, students are encouraged to think outside the box and creatively test their theories. Through this hands-on learning, students learn valuable 21^st century skills such as creativity, collaboration, perseverance, and problem solving. The authentic work they do is representative of what adults do in the real world, and they become familiar with the adult thinking process of analyzing an idea, breaking it into manageable parts, and seeking comprehension of each part to build a conceptual understanding.

If students are only exposed to “sit and get” learning, they have no opportunity to practice 21^st century skills, their work has not authentic purpose, and they are typically limited to rote knowledge and comprehension questions, instead of working on higher order thinking skills.

Classroom Practice

So what does this look like in a classroom? With true inquiry, students ask and answer questions that increase in rigor as their investigation progresses. Eventually, these include upper level Bloom’s Taxonomy questions such as synthesis and evaluation. In addition to books and online resources, students consult experts or conduct their own investigations, and use these resources to explore their ideas. They work on activities from levels 2 through 4 of Webb’s Depth of Knowledge which include Working with Skills and Concepts, Short-Term Strategic Thinking, and Extended Strategic Thinking. Best of all, students practice their critical thinking by planning their own investigations using the experimental design process. Furthermore, throughout the inquiry process, students must communicate their needs and offer progress updates. When they are ready to share their findings, they may present them in a wide variety of ways including verbally, in writing, or through a media presentation.

In contrast, if inquiry is not being practiced, student questions are limited to basic knowledge and comprehension, while activities are limited to level one in Webb’s Depth of Knowledge which is recall and reproduction. In other words, students complete tasks and activities by simply following step-by-step instructions, with little to no higher-level thinking. Their research is limited to books and online sources, and they use those only based on a specific plan developed by the teacher. When students are ready to share their work, their communication is limited to basic written work, multiple choice tests, or possibly short answer questions from the teacher.

When practiced regularly and with fidelity, inquiry benefits all learners by giving them the opportunity to synthesize their learning themselves. This article was meant to serve as an overview of what authentic inquiry-based learning consists of. With the information here, you can determine if your teaching practice aligns with these basic principles. As an additional resource, the information from this article has been compiled in an infographic, available for download below.

Use this infographic as a checklist to help you determine if you are implementing authentic Inquiry Based Learning, or if you need to adapt your plans.