What is inquiry learning?
In a nutshell, inquiry learning is the equivalent of a teacher saying to students “You need to learn how to solve problems and answer important questions on your own. So, I’m giving you a question or problem and some clues, and you have to practice your thinking skills to come up with conclusions or answers.” The teacher provides students with resources, hints. Ideally, students are taught a step-by-step process to figure out the answer or solution.
Inquiry learning is often explained by comparing it with another common teaching method – direct instruction. In direct instruction, the teacher is saying “I’m an expert and I know what you need to learn (for life, for a test, etc.). Therefore, I’m going to explicitly tell you what is important to know. You don’t have to figure it out; just learn it.”
Unfortunately, inquiry learning is often described as “active learning” and contrasted with direct instruction, described as “passive learning.” This is a mistaken and misleading comparison. Direct instruction occurs when the teacher organizes and presents the information to students, but it does not have to be “passive.” A common misconception is direct instruction always equates a lecture. This is not true; a variety of teaching methods can also be used in direct instruction, including reading, engaging activities, as well as lecture.
Contrasting direct instruction with inquiry learning and presenting one as “good” and one as “bad” is doing a disservice to both styles of instruction. First, it is like comparing apples to oranges. Teaching some content, lessons, or skills is more successful with direct instruction; inquiry works better for other lessons. A good classroom has some of both.
Inquiry learning has lots of aliases – problem-based learning, project-based learning, or discovery learning. Students learning and practicing critical thinking skills are at the core of all of these inquiry teaching methods.
What does inquiry learning look like history or social studies classes?
Inquiry learning can take place using a single, simple strategy or short portion of a typical one-hour lesson. Or, an inquiry project can take several days or be the focus on an entire unit or class.
Teachers can prompt inquiry learning in history with essential (or compelling) questions or even ask students to come up with their own problems or questions to solve. Essential questions are perfect for inquiry. Good essential questions are open-ended and can be interpreted and answered in many different ways. Therefore, students must analyze what they already know about an issue or concept, incorporate the new information learned in class, and summarize everything to answer the essential question. Students must “cite the evidence” for their answers using information learned in class. However, lesson, units, and courses designed around essential questions aren’t just about asking students questions and leaving them to it. Teachers must provide a solid foundation of information, usually through direct instruction, so students can produce informed answers. In other words, inquiry using essential questions coexists with direct instruction.
Visual discovery is my favorite “quick” method for incorporating inquiry into a lesson. The teacher chooses a thought-provoking image (historical primary source image or modern social media post for example) related to the topic. Students are asked carefully prepared questions to lead them to conclusions relevant to the lesson. The questions begin at the lower level of Bloom’s Taxonomy – easy, obvious, and “tell me what you see” questions. The questions that follow are more complex, so students are interpreting the details of the image and making hypotheses based on this evidence. These hypotheses are then “tested” in the lesson that follows. Visual discovery can be used to begin a lesson, end a lesson, or incorporated in a typical lecture. The hardest thing for a teacher is to ask the questions and allow the students to answer. In my experience, it is SO easy to jump in and just “tell” the students what they see instead of pushing them to explain, discuss, and support their conclusions with evidence.
Visual discovery is one of several effective teaching methods described in Bring Learning Alive, Methods to Transform Middle and High School Social Studies Instruction.
Concept development activities are another of my favorite inquiry methods for social studies. Students explore the meanings of critical concepts such as liberal or conservative; or words with many meanings and interpretations, such as family or home; or “slippery” terms. Concept development activities encourage students to examine what they already know (or think they know), compare it with the knowledge and experiences of their peers, and contrast that with the “official” definitions from the past and present from dictionaries and other scholarly sources.
At the other end of the inquiry continuum are more complex learning activities spread out over several days or an entire unit. The Inquiry Arc promoted by the National Council for the Social Studies is one such example. This multi-dimensional model for inquiry learning emphasizes “the disciplinary concepts and practices that support students as they develop the capacity to know, analyze, explain, and argue about interdisciplinary challenges in our social world.” This model consists of four dimensions: 1. developing questions and planning inquiries; 2. applying disciplinary concepts and tools; 3. evaluating primary sources and using evidence; and 4. communicating conclusions and taking informed action.
For example, a history inquiry using the Inquiry Arc model might begin with a teacher- provided compelling/essential questions such as “Why are men and women expected to follow different codes of etiquette?” Or students might formulate their own questions related to this topic. My favorite method to guide students in asking their own questions is the Question Formulation Technique (QFT). For the second dimension, students explore change and continuity of manners over time and the perspectives of different cultures and groups of people. Supporting questions guide learning of key facts and concepts related to etiquette. In other words, teachers guide students or tell students (direct instruction) what they need to know to understand the topic. For the third dimension, students analyze primary and secondary source documents such as books of etiquette from different time periods or histories of the evolution etiquette over time. They formulate educated conclusions answering the compelling/essential question, supported with evidence. Finally, students communicate their conclusions in formal essays or creative projects. They may also take action by recommending solutions. For example, students might propose or carry about a project related to manners and etiquette in their own school.
Many step-by-step models are available for larger, long-term inquiry projects. My favorites are the Inquiry Design Model and the model used by the DBQ (Document Based Question) Project.
In conclusion, inquiry learning is a teaching strategy. But it is not a panacea or magic elixir guaranteeing every student becomes an enthusiastic learner and every lesson a complete success. Inquiry learning one of many tools used by teachers, in combination with other strategies, to encourage students to learn and thinking critically.