Getting Started with Inquiry

Course

Paradigm Shifts in Instruction [3:58]

Inquiry is a model that takes instruction from being teacher-directed to being student-centered.

Let's talk about the paradigm shift in education towards inquiry. Inquiry is, as we said, is a model that moves from being teacher-directed to student-centered. The reason being that the research shows that the one doing the work is doing the learning. Consider that. If you choose a pedagogy model where the students have to work, have to dig down deep, guess who's doing the learning? The student is. It's that old Edgar Dale's Cone of Learning where you only remember 10% of what you hear, but if you teach somebody, it goes up to 90. You've all heard that research before. If a student has to manipulate content, their long-term retention and understanding increases dramatically.

In a teacher-centered model, the teacher does the work and the student listens. We like to call this a mode from coverage. We're leaving the coverage mode to going to a mode that is uncovering and discovering. If we give students a task, that is, let's say a question to answer or problem to investigate or historical or a scientific dilemma that presents a challenge, something real, something real world and relevant to their life, then they're more apt to be engaged.

Inquiry does both of this. It presents a problem or question that has to be answered. The teacher stands there as a guide by the side, guiding them in their discoveries. It's not that you ask an essential question and then you sit back. No, you have guiding questions. You stimulate their brain. You use the content vocabulary of the discipline to hint them along, let's say. The more you do it, the more you get into inquiry, the better you become at this. I will be talking later about crafting those essential questions. Basically, it's a hands-off approach. It can be a little messy from time to time. Once a teacher goes through this with a librarian, they realize, "Wow, my students were really into this. Yes, it was messy, but they learned. They did well."

There are many models for inquiry. There's guided inquiry, there's the Stripling Model. Simply put, we have a WISE model. We like to simply put it out there that it's wonder, they're wondering, they're investigating, they're synthesizing and they're expressing.

That being a very easy first time approach for inquiry. It's also a model that teachers can wrap their head around. Instead of some seven steps or a two-day workshop, you can say, "Listen, I heard about a skeleton that really works for inquiry. You know what it is? It's wonder, investigate, synthesize and express." I can move from a coverage to an uncovering model if I wrap up a problem with these questions.

The common core asks us to increase rigor and increase relevance. When I said it requires a real world problem, that is pointing back to what the common core has asked us to do, to cage our curriculum in a real world connection, because what do you hear from the millennial? You hear, "Why do I have to do this? What's in it for me?" Or, "When am I going to use this in my life?" They're very introspective and they want to know what's the relevance.

If you connect to the relevance in an inquiry model, you will transfer responsibility to the learner, because suddenly, it's about their life. We like to think that this is a good introduction for teachers. Join us as we talk about what inquiry is.

Expanding Your Understandings of Inquiry

Context:

Inquiry presents a problem or question for a student to answer. This differs from a "coverage mode" of instruction, whereby a teacher delivers content for a student to receive and master. There are numerous models of inquiry, but Jaeger suggests the WISE model as a simple skeleton to use, especially when explaining inquiry to fellow educators. The steps are Wonder, Investigate, Synthesize, and Express.

Instructions:

View the document, "What Is Inquiry?" provided in the Resources below. This brief but powerful list identifies what students and teachers each do in an inquiry process.

Reflect: How does this information build on your understandings of inquiry from Lesson 1?

Resources:

Document

MLA Citation

Morris, Rebecca J. "Getting Started with Inquiry: Expanding Your Understandings of Inquiry." School Library Connection, October 2024, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/1988316?learningModuleId=1988313&topicCenterId=0.

Entry ID: 2122836

Additional Resources

Bibliography and Resources.

About the Author

Paige Jaeger, MLIS, is a prolific author and prominent educational consultant, delivering professional development at the local, state, and national levels on inquiry-based learning, the CCSS, and the C3 framework. Previously, she was a library administrator serving 84 school libraries in New York. Email: pjaeger@schoollibraryconnection.com. Twitter: @INFOlit4U.

MLA Citation

Jaeger, Paige. "Getting Started with Inquiry. Paradigm Shifts in Instruction [3:58]." School Library Connection, ABC-CLIO, November 2015, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/1988316?learningModuleId=1988313&topicCenterId=0.

View all citation styles

https://schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/1988316?learningModuleId=1988313&topicCenterId=0

Entry ID: 1988316