What Is Inquiry?Inquiry learning is a dynamic process of being open to wonder and puzzlement and coming to know and understand the world. Inquiry is based on the belief that students construct understanding by working and conversing together as they pose and solve problems, make discoveries and rigorously test the discoveries that arise in the course of shared activity.The inquiry study stems from a question, problem or exploration that has meaning to the students and it allows them to build knowledge that leads to deep understanding. The inquiry study encourages students to develop habits of mind that encourage them to ask questions of;
The study requires students to address a semi-structured question, issue or problem, relevant to curriculum outcomes, but grounded in the life and work beyond the school. It requires them to develop organizational and self management skills in order to complete the study and leads students to acquire and use competencies expected in high performance work organizations (eg. team work, problem solving, communication, decision making and project management).There is often an overarching "umbrella" question that sparks and guides further and more specific questions.
A lot of our Inquiry work comes from our Living Green and STEM subjects where students are posed questions and challenges in their classroom learning.
One of our most recent 'inquiry challenge' days of learning invloving the whole school was the 'race around the world' where in teams, students explored how to construct smaller models of well known landmarks from around the world.
These subjects and lessons are usually very hands on and group orientated and always ask students to reflect on how they impact the world and local community.