Inquiry LearningDavid GeelanUniversity of Queensland

Inquiry is not constructivism, although it is a teaching-learning approach that is consistent with constructivist theories about knowing and learning.

Inquiry can be open-entry (starts with a broad question but ends up with the development of a pre-planned scientific concept, for example) or open-ended (inquiry into a social or technological question where each student ends up with a different answer).

Inquiry is about asking questions in class. It’s about what kinds of questions are asked (just factual recall, or synthesis and application, or life-application, or open-entry/ended inquiry questions). It’s also about who asks the questions – the teacher or the students? And even if the teacher asks the question, do the students come to ‘own’ it during the inquiry?

Inquiry does not mean that the teacher’s role disappears or is minimised… the teacher is actively involved in planning for inquiry and in facilitating and supporting the students’ activities at every stage.

Students can develop new concepts (for them) in the process of inquiry, but they are unlikely to arrive at the same vocabulary and conventions of communication that scientists use, so the teacher has an important role in ‘translating’ student concepts into scientific language, and in teaching scientific language.

Inquiry can include library and web searches, but should not be limited to these. Considering that scientific concepts are tested (in experiments) against the real world, inquiry lessons that include real experiments are likely to be very powerful.

An important part of the teacher’s role is managing students’ engagement and attention.

A small amount of frustration can be helpful if it is encouraging students to explore and find ways to satisfy their curiosity, but too much frustration can lead students to give up.

In that situation it’s important for the teacher to come in with a hint or suggestion to allow some progress to be made and students to feel successful.