Investigating Inquiry

Inquiry has become a buzzword among educators of late, but in my experience many teachers are not exactly sure just what that means. Our Master’s class was fortunate to have Michelle Wood, VP at Walnut Grove Secondary (and a queen of inquiry!) come and offer some suggestions this past week. Inquiry, in her words, is wondering, observing, finding answers to the questions that intrigue us...the things that we do everyday without even realizing that it’s “inquiry”! The fact that it’s something we all do (to some degree) inherently doesn’t mean, however, that children are able to transfer this to learning in the classroom without scaffolds. I have observed classes where students are “inquiring” without any idea of what to look for! They have been told to research a question, when they can barely explain what a question is! Scaffolding, then, is key. Michelle outlined four stages of inquiry in the classroom. She provided Science examples (her area of passion) but this could be done with any subject area! All that changes are the levels of supports provided by the teacher. In fact, I’d say this leveled support means that inquiry can easily be done with diverse groups; not all students need to get the same level of support at any given time.

Four levels of inquiry

• Confirmation inquiry
• Learners confirm understanding through an activity in which the results are known in advance
• Structured inquiry
• Learners investigate a teacher-presented question through a prescribed procedure
• Guided inquiry
• Scaffolded learning of skills beforehand
• Leading through steps, but learners come up with method
• Learners investigate a teacher-presented question using their own design/procedure
• Open inquiry
• Learner investigates their own topic-related question using their own design/procedure

Among Michelle’s own gurus of inquiry are Judy Halbert and Linda Kaser, the authors of Spirals of Inquiry: For Equity and Quality. I was lucky enough to receive a copy of this book, and have already read through it! There is some incredibly valuable information about the benefits of formative assessment, the power of feedback, and the possibilities of reciprocal teaching. However, my greatest take-away from the book involves the importance of asking four questions of our students:

• Can you name two people in this school/setting who believe that you can be a success in life?

• Where are you going with your learning?

• How are you doing with your learning?

• Where are you going next with your learning?

These four, powerful questions put the focus of teaching exactly where it should be: on the student. It might be a bit frightening to find the answers. Perhaps the students we care about tremendously don’t feel that we do! Despite our beautiful lessons, it’s possible our students have no idea what they are supposed to be learning! However, I believe that knowledge is power, and I plan to ask my students this frequently. How can any of us get better at what we are doing, if we never ask where we are going? It’s certainly not just children who need to ponder these questions!