Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Session 7: Inquiry

An inquiry process allows students to revisit and revise prior knowledge in the light of new experiences in order to extend their learning






What is the connection between questions and inquiry?
The PYP recognises many different forms of inquiry based on children's genuine curiosity and on their needing and wanting to know about the world.  It is most successful when the questions are honest and have real significance in moving them to new levels of knowledge and understanding.  The most penetrating questions, ones most likely to move the child's understanding further, arise from existing knowledge.  (From A Basis for Practice)

During this session we will be defining what inquiry is:
  • Inquiry provokes curiosity that leads to open-ended questions and student driven exploration, enabling students to gain ownership of their learning.
  • Inquiry is a student driven process based on curiosity, sharing of knowledge, understanding and multiple perspectives.
  • Inquiry empowers learners to build conceptual understanding through actively wondering and exploring.
  • Inquiry = curiosity that inspires self driven investigations that use past experiences to question and create new knowledge.
  • Inquiry is a process of focusing in on or zooming out of conceptual understandings via curiosity, questioning and exploration.
Think, Puzzle, Explore 
Use this Visible Thinking routine as you read Kath Murdoch's Inquiry Learning. Workbook p 131 - 135.

This Visible Thinking (workbook page 6) routine helps you to connect to prior knowledge, stimulates curiosity and lays the groundwork for independent inquiry.


You can find out more about Harvard Project Zero Visible Thinking Routines here.

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