Step 1, ask the question.

How can inquiry-based learning be scaffolded in such a way that all learners, including varied learners, can find success?

Hmm… bit broad. Let’s see if we can’t narrow it down a touch and introduce a couple of sub-questions.

How can we encompass the entire curriculum in an inquiry-based setting?                    How do we provide support for all students with different learning styles?

Could still use some work, but for now, let’s role with it. On to…

Step 2, hope you can find some information out there that supports your idea.

Unsurprisingly, there is a lot of information out there about inquiry. While I haven’t read everything, my observation so far is that the idea of inquiry-based learning is often used in the sciences as it closely resembles the scientific method (and by ‘closely’, I mean that it pretty much is the scientific method). Take, for instance, Inquiry Takes Time by Julia Baxter, Angie Ruzicka and Sharon Blackwell. In the article’s introduction, they provide this insight;

Their solution was to implement a year long framework in which they can teach their students (Grade 3) how to successfully create and solve an inquiry project. My initial hesitance with this article was due to the fact that they have stuck with using science as the subject. Upon reflection, I realize that it would be the easiest way to teach the students as there is already a method implemented in the curriculum that is quite similar to inquiry (the aforementioned scientific one). I briefly wondered if there was a way to introduce the idea of inquiry in the early primary years, but filed that question away for later reflection so I could delve into the article.

The authors divided the article up using the terms and this framework:

• Structured inquiry: Students investigate a prescribed question using a method provided by the teacher
• Guided inquiry: Students investigate a prescribed question using methods that they have designed
• Open inquiry: Students investigate questions that they have posed using methods that they have designed.

The year is already divided up to provide a way to implement this into the curriculum. The fall term would have the teachers encourage the development of observational and recording skills, to move them towards structured inquiry. In the winter, they would then start predicting and posing questions that would take them into guided inquiry. Before the end of the Winter term, and after they completed a number of units in science, they would then be encouraged to pose questions and test ideas of their own, not of the teachers, that would then move them towards open inquiry. By the spring, they would be immersed in open inquiry, where they could explore their final unit being fuelled by their own curiosity on the matter. And all of it fit in, if not exceeded, the standards set out by the curriculum. They succeeded in doing this by recognizing this fact;

While this article is the first in a long list that I will have to read for this project, it helped me overcome my initial resistance to focus solely on science. I have come to realize that it likely the best subject to provide the base knowledge needed for students to be successful in implementing inquiry in their school career.

Bibliography

Baxter, J., Ruzicka, A., & Blackwell, S. (2012). Inquiry Takes Time. Science & Children, 50(1), 42-47.