Classroom Practice

Inquiry learning, for the most part, follows a common structure which guides the learner in pursuit of new understandings. The diagram below details this process as expressed by Kath Murdoch, a leading educator in the inquiry learning field.

 

This model clearly defines the inquiry process and how one would go about addressing an area of study using this constructivist approach. 

The process is fluid in nature, seeking to develop deeper learning and critical thinking. It is hoped that during the evaluation phase, students would devise new questions to explore and so begin the process once more. The cyclical nature of this model ensures that students are able to more wholly take account of their learning and continue to develop understandings in a range of topic areas in an upward, branching trajectory. 

As a teacher in the classroom there are a myriad of strategies that may be implemented to facilitate inquiry based learning among students. Kath Murdoch identifies ten practices that are conducive to effective inquiry teaching. Below, I will detail these practices and some classroom strategies that lend themselves to the inquiry learning approach. The practices and strategies lend themselves to student centred inquiry learning where "the teacher helps guide students to construct meaningfully and monitor their own learning by emphasising student autonomy, conscious decision making, responsibility, challenge, intrinsic motivation and ownership of the learning process" (Snowman et.al, 2009, p. 400). 

1. "Effective inquiry teacher work in ways that challenge more students to think more deeply more of the time." Rather than providing the answers to the students, the teacher helps students come to their own conclusions through tactical questioning and careful scaffolding. Scaffolding in particular is important in the early phases as it "demonstrates how tasks should be accomplished, giving hints to the correct solution to a problem or answer to a question....as students become more capable this support is withdrawn" (Snowman et.al., 2009, p. 47).

2. "Effective inquiry teachers teach students about thinking." Teacher facilitates and models metacognitive learning practices. Students would be encouraged to discuss their ideas in cooperative learning groups, or reflecting through journaling of their ideas.

3. "Effective inquiry teachers deliberately provoke curiosity and wonderment." Teachers need to engage students in learning. This would be primarily achieved through a mix of open ended tasks that are presented in such a way as to be of interest to the learner e.g. choice of personal interest task around a content area such as identity in the HSIE syllabus.

4."Effective inquiry teachers invite students voices into the learning experience." Students are involved in the devising of learning experiences. They are able offer ideas that may be useful to exploring the subject area, providing strategies for peers that may be of use in their own learning processes.

5. "Effective inquiry teachers help students make connections between the known and the new." This may be achieved through a range of strategies. For example, working in groups, students may use the jigsaw strategy where they become experts in an area of study and return to a foundation group, share their responses and record the information from other members, thus building a wider knowledge base on previously unknown content. This is an effective strategy as it "encourages listening, engagement, and empathy by giving each member of the group an essential part to play in the academic activity" (Aranson, 2010).

6. "Effective inquiry teachers explicitly teach the skills and process used by researchers." Students are guided by the teacher to methods used by researchers. ICT integration would be prominent as the students are educated in how to find relevant information and to critically analyse it e.g. is this a valid source? does it demonstrate bias?

7. "Effective inquiry teachers ensure that students have the bigger picture." The practice is a collaborative effort that allows for students to understand the reasoning behind why an issue is being explored. Dialogue around the bigger picture allows students, facilitated by the teacher, to devise a course of study to reach the specified learning goal.

8. "Effective inquiry teachers share learning intentions with their students." Whole class discussions may be used to clarify the learning intentions, ask questions and possibly modify the content. This would be an ongoing process as to keep student informed and engaged with their learning whilst modifying intent along the way as dictated by student learning.

9. "Effective inquiry teachers focus as much on the 'process' as they do the content." Although satisfying the syllabus is the bottom line, the process of inquiry learning has merit beyond the localised content area. As students are becoming more globally active it is important to understand that skills of critical thinking and self analysis are becoming more and more necessary in students making sense of the developing, fast paced world around them.

10. "Effective inquiry teachers are dependent on building relationships with students." Strategies such as talking circles work well in developing relationships between the teacher and students. In a talking circle forum either party can bring up a topic for discussion with the wider group. As a result, the class as a collective can analyse learning and the dynamic of the classroom. Such forums seek to "build trusting, warm and connected relationships within the learning community" (Murdoch, 2010).


This is by no means an exhaustive list of classroom strategies. However, the ideas presented above illustrate how the inquiry process takes place, what characteristics effective inquiry teachers have and strategies that they may implement in the classroom.


 *All ten practices were taken from:       http://kathmurdoch.com.au/uploads/media/whatdoinquiryteachersdo.pdf.