Inquiry-based Learning

Mrs Cara Fugill

Teaching and Learning

Demystifying inquiry-based learning

Solving authentic problems has powerful outcomes for boys’ cognitive development since they more readily engage in activities where they have ownership over their learning. Inquiry is a teaching method that places the child’s interests, abilities and preferred learning style at its core. This model encourages students to make decisions, think creatively, work collaboratively and research, while offering the practise needed to become independent learners, maximising their chance of academic success long term.

Engagement is the fundamental ingredient in academic success and the key driver behind how a teacher develops a unit of work. Inquiry is the most effective method to create engagement for young learners, but only when done correctly. Inquiry is often given a bad rap in education, not because it is problematic in itself, but because the expertise required to do it well is often beyond the training provided in a four-year education degree. Inquiry takes years of practice to master, significant resources for professional development and time for teachers to plan collaboratively with colleagues. Realistically, this only occurs once a teacher has mastered the fundamental aspect of teaching and is working in a culture where inquiry is a focus.

Designing a unit of inquiry

Children are born with an innate ability to inquire, and in fact, traditional education is partly responsible for removing the need to practise this skill. By the time a child is eight or younger, they know that adults often have the answers and, therefore, the need to explore for themselves becomes futile.

The process of inquiry imbues more than just knowledge. It builds important skills in our children that they will carry through life. When a teacher plans a unit of inquiry, they consider the key concepts they want students to learn and how these link across the curriculum. They use data collected on each student to determine the appropriate level of challenge for the class and how the task might be differentiated for the various development stages. From here, they design the activities and assessments that will capture students’ enthusiasm to complete the task to the best of their ability.

Often people describe inquiry as a hands-off approach, suggesting that inquiry is all done in the planning, however, classroom practice is where the teacher’s mastery is most relevant. A learner struggling with a task without support is not acquiring skills of perseverance, resilience or independence, they are simply a student who is not having a great time and learning that there is no point in trying since they cannot achieve their goal.

The best outcomes are achieved when teachers understand each student’s capability, set an appropriately challenging task and have them complete it with assistance from more capable people, such as teachers and sometimes peers. Creating this type of learning environment places each student into the ‘zone of proximal development’, which has been shown to develop high levels of intrinsic motivation in students. Intrinsic motivation is the key ingredient to academic success; the learner has high self-efficacy to complete the task as it was set within their capability, and they understand they can access assistance when required. Outstanding educators will continually push out the zone of proximal development for each child to invoke the greatest feeling of success when the goal is achieved. Inquiry learning is very much about a hands-on approach.

Inquiry and child development

Traditional education measures only content acquisition whilst an inquiry model asks teachers to produce a programme that assesses content and skills. This model sits over the top of a regular curriculum and can only be achieved if there is the opportunity for students to practice their skills.

For example, rather than learn about how the Australian political system is structured, a model of inquiry might ask students to research various political systems and form their own to see how effective their model would be when arguing for a more sustainable future. One requires them to memorise what already exists; the other asks them to do far more than that: research, think critically, work collaboratively, recognise patterns, apply it to a different context and then practise its application using an authentic problem. It is easy to see why the latter is far more engaging for young learners when they are in a supportive environment that guarantees their success.

Scotch offers an inquiry model partnered with excellent support, professional development and teachers who have mastered their craft. Inquiry is not an all the time approach to learning either. Literacy and Numeracy, although integrated into our units of inquiry, are also taught using a more direct method as evidence suggest this is more effective.

Year 1s at Bush School with PLC students

Scotch balances different approaches to teaching to get the best outcomes for students. The success of many of our graduates suggests that our approach extends students beyond what a traditional curriculum can do.