Over the course of this semester, my understanding of inquiry learning has flourished. I find myself critiquing lessons and activities in my current workplace and thinking about which GeSTE Window activities belong to (Lupton, 2016). Critical literacies have always been a large part of my teaching strategy across curriculum areas. This inquiry subject has encouraged me to think beyond Generic and Situated Windows and encourage students to be better critical thinkers. I have learnt a great deal about effective searching techniques across a variety of different databases which has helped me in my university studies, as well as with students and helping my colleagues.

 

This inquiry subject has also challenged my thinking about inquiry learning by redesigning this unit into 'sessions' rather than 'lessons,' as lessons can imply the teacher has all the 'answers' (Kuhlthau et al., 2012).  The redesigned Earth and Space Sciences inquiry unit still has elements of being teacher led rather than student led, though this subject continues to inspire me to develop it further into a more student led unit. Furthermore, allowing student choice in the assessment mode, as well as collaboration allows greater enhancement of the learning outcomes and experiences for children (Kuhlthau et al., 2012).

 

Questions I am still pondering:

* How can I encourage my colleagues to look for more Transformative learning experiences with their classes?

* How can I incorporate more inquiry learning thinking in my pedagogy, particularly in the library space where my time is limited?

* Why isn't the Australian Curriculum written in a way to further push the envelope with inquiry learning?

* How can we have more student led inquiry learning units within our curriculum?

* What is my plan of attack now that I know more about inquiry learning and the positive impact it can have on students to enhance and inspire their learning journey?

* How can I ensure I incorporate the Expressive Window into more teaching and learning experiences for children?  

* Are there better ways to incorporate questioning skills into my pedagogy?

 

As an advocate for digital technologies, I found this quote from McKenzie, (2005), quite powerful: "Questions and questioning may be the most powerful technologies of all." I have always utilised big questions at the start of a unit of work. Learning to ask better questions as a teacher, and helping students to create more thought provoking questions, is something I am still learning. Throughout this unit, McKenzie's (2005) Questions as Technology reading prompted me to further investigate different ways of asking great questions. I sent this article, as well as Barell’s (2008) KWHLAQ framework to our primary curriculum leader, and she shared it with all of our staff, to help facilitate questioning conversations with staff: how can we better ask questions and how can we help students to ask better questions to deepen their understanding of the world?

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