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Before this year, I was a literacy enhancement teacher and worked with students in Years 4, 5 and 6 at my Catholic primary school in the Western suburbs of Brisbane. I was always included in planning meetings and often involved in after school year level discussions and curriculum development. This enabled me to be part of the inquiry-based learning occurrences quite easily. However, this semester, I am fortunate enough to have a job share teacher-librarian role for one day a week. This has certainly provided a different lens to this inquiry University subject, as the scope for collaboration and worthiness of the role of the teacher-librarian has presented its challenges.

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When I first realised that I was going to undertake an ‘inquiry’ subject, I had mixed feelings of excitement and apprehension. Although I love the idea of inquiry-based learning and have always tried to focus my learnings with students around questioning techniques, I wondered what else there was to learn about inquiry? I was excited to get a refresh on the value and importance of this approach.

My initial thoughts on inquiry relate to a process of inquiry I went through at my last school. I remember this being a huge process but one that was worthwhile.

 

To me, inquiry learning involves taking the students on a path of discovery through an inquiry question. From learning about inquiry as a teacher, and seeing the benefits for students, I have always tried to create a question for students when we are beginning a new term in a different learning area. I see inquiry as a great way to engage students in their learning, and I have experimented with students creating their own question through a “negotiated curriculum” process and letting students take the reins for a term and design the whole unit of work through an inquiry process. This was a fruitful task, though we reverted to giving the students the questions to be better planned for the term, rather than week by week when students led it. I also enjoyed learning and using the different inquiry models, such as the 5E’s and the TELSTAR model.

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I think in my current primary school, there are elements of the inquiry learning model that are easily enabled in the 1:1 iPad learning environment. I am involved with in Year 5 and 6 students as they have the ability to search, share and organise and personalise their learning independently, and as a teacher you have access to these materials the students collect and create through the online Office 365 tools (which include Word, PowerPoint, Sway, Excel and so on).

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Recently, I was doing a relief day in a Year 6 class. Admittedly, I know these students quite well, having been their literacy enhancement teacher over the last three years. However, I found it a challenge to help these students devise high quality inquiry questions for their “Genius Hour.” This lesson prompted me to research three initial inquiry questions.

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My initial inquiry questions for this inquiry unit are:

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1.       What are the benefits of inquiry learning approaches in primary school settings?

2.       How can teachers assist students in developing effective inquiry questions?

3.       How can we as teachers assist students to engage in the inquiry process effectively?

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