I’m currently working on a ‘field guide to inquiry’. My goal is to create a document (that is somewhat concise and practical) that can assist teachers as they begin to adopt an inquiry-based teaching perspective into their classrooms. I just wrapped up the intro. I’d love thoughts and feedback…

“The meaning of knowing has shifted from being able to remember and repeat information to being able to find and use it.” (National Research Council, 2007)

Popular discourse as well as recent findings in the learning sciences tell a similar story. The model of education typical of 20th century classrooms was effective for that era of human history, but the ‘knowledge society’ we live in requires new thinking and approaches to teaching and learning. This new thinking means that “former conceptions of knowledge, minds and learning no longer serve a world where what we know is less important that what we are able to do with knowledge in different contexts.” (Friesen, 2009)

Inquiry-based learning is an approach to teaching and learning that makes intellectual engagement and deep understanding possible through a hands-on, minds-on approach towards the curriculum. Inquiry-based learning also honours the complex, interconnected nature of knowledge construction. As an entry point, Inquiry-based approach generally involves students:

• tackling real-world questions, issues and controversies
• pursuing curiosities and interests within a meaningful topic
• deepening questioning, research and communication skills
• solving problems or creating solutions
• collaborating within and beyond the classroom
• developing deep understanding of content knowledge
• sharing their work and ideas publicly to improve their learning
• becoming confident and independent learners

Inquiry-learning is a umbrella term that covers a number of other approaches to teaching and learning. Subsets of inquiry-based learning include:

• problem-based learning: learning that starts with an ill-structured problem or case-study
• project-based learning: students create a project or presentation as a demonstration of their understanding
• design-based learning: learning through the working design of a solution to a complex problem
• constructionism: learning through the physical construction of a tangible object in the real world

As contrasted with more traditional forms of teaching and learning, inquiry-based practices emphasize the process of learning in addition to the intended acquisition of knowledge and skills. Inquiry-based learning draws from a constructivist learning theory, the notion that understanding is built through the active development of conceptual frameworks by the learner. This approach is supported and enhanced by a broad research base which has identified three key implications for effective instructional practices:

1. Students come to the classroom with preconceptions about the world. This means teaching practices must draw out and work with students preexisting understandings and make student ‘thinking’ visible and central to the learning.

2. Competence in an area of study requires factual knowledge organized in the context of conceptual frameworks to facilitate retrieval and application. Classroom activities should be designed to develop understanding through in-depth study of curriculum topics.

3. Meta-cognition (thinking about thinking) helps students take control of their learning.
Opportunities for students to define learning goals and monitor their own understanding needs to be embedded into classroom tasks.

If we are to make use of these important findings, it becomes clear that an inquiry-based approach to teaching and learning must be a structured and thoughtfully designed endeavour. While ‘minimal-guided’ inquiry has been shown to be somewhat effective as a teaching technique, (Hattie) learning that is worthy of student’s time and attention, relevant, connected to the world and organized around the ‘big ideas’ of a subject can lead to understanding and intellectual interest and engagement with students. For inquiry-based learning to be an effective approach to teaching and learning requires significant intellectual investment on the part of teachers to design learning tasks that are connected to the disciplines, to their students’ lives, and to the world, while focused on clear and achievable learning targets.

Playing the “Whole Game”

Another way to consider inquiry based learning is the notion of “playing the whole game,” an idea by David Perkins, professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Perkins begins with the belief that teachers have historical approached the complexity of teaching in one of two ways:

• Students learn isolated elements of skills and knowledge, starting with the simple building blocks of a particular topic and then building to more complex ideas. While this approach appeals to common sense (think of the efficiency of a automobile assembly line), the problem with this approach is the removal of any context to the learning, making understanding of the content less likely. Perkins calls this approach elementitis, when learning is structured exclusively around disconnected elements and fragmented pieces of information.

• Students learn about a particular topic. This approach is frequently utilized in history and science where students are taught about other people’s ideas but rarely if ever given the opportunity to produce and test and reflect upon their own ideas. Learning is reduced to consuming knowledge or information, without developing the critical thinking or creative, knowledge-building skills necessary to transfer knowledge to novel situations.

The solution that Perkins offers to the typical classroom experience is what he calls learning by wholes, structuring learning around opportunities to experience or engage in the topic as it would exist outside of school. Perkins uses the metaphor of a baseball game, where the experience of most students in most classrooms involves students either learn isolated skills (i.e., only ever throwing a ball) or learning about the game (i.e., studying baseball statistics or the history of baseball) without ever getting out onto the field and participating in an actual game. In a classroom setting, this means providing opportunities for students to experience the ‘whole game’ of mathematical thinking or scientific problem solving or historical analysis of primary source artifacts.

It is important to note that focusing on the elements of a topic, or learning about a topic are not necessary bad approaches to teaching and learning. Rather, they are important tools for teachers to use in a classroom environment. However, the issue arises when learning is focused solely on elementitis or aboutitis, the usual practice in most classrooms. With an inquiry-based, or whole-game approach, authenticity and relevant learning tasks provide the necessary context and engagement into which other teaching practices such as learning the elements or background about a topic can be embedded in a more productive way.

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