Something that I have learned quite a bit about through doing research for my own inquiry project is about self-assessment, and the importance of the students being self-aware about their learning process. This ties in directly with the constructivist learning theory and metacognition. While working on inquiry activities, the students will hopefully being using skills that engage them in their learning so that the students are not just memorizing the material, but actively processing that information.

Compared to regular instruction that just involves students copying down notes and memorizing the information, inquiry activities have the students processing the information to make inferences about what is relevant to what they are learning, and making meaningful connections. Through this process of inquiry-based learning, the students can reflect on what they learn, and better internalize the links in their learning that they create on their own.

The most important thing is that students are actively engaged in activities that they feel are relevant to their own lives and not so out of reach and abstract that they cannot find any interest in the subjects at all. Inquiry learning becomes much more purposeful for older students as they develop cognitively and are able to actually “think about their learning” through metacognition, but this does not mean that inquiry cannot be used with younger students. The role of teachers is to act as guides for students as they learn through questioning and problem-solving.