Parent Information Night: Inquiry

An inquiry approach helps foster and develop our students’ natural curiosity for the social, biological and physical worlds in which they live. When planning units of inquiry, we need to consider in depth ‘What are the concepts we want to develop in our students about these worlds. How are these worlds organised? How do they change? How do they interrelate? How do we communicate about, within and across these worlds? From the big concepts we move to an essential question that gives our inquiry a specific direction. For example, we are looking at the big idea of healthly communities. Our essential question focuses on choices relating to our health and its impact on the overall health of our community. Engaging the students in the inquiry is an essential part of the process, provoking their thinking and ascertaining prior knowledge and values they bring to the inquiry. The essential question gives rise to a problem or challenge that needs to be solved. Students generate guiding questions that they will need answered in order for them to complete their challenge. Through the process both the students and teachers work together as collaborators and co-constructors of knowledge. Students in this process have a voice in their learning journey, negotiating possible pathways for their learning.

The integrated and seamless nature of learning is embedded through the process. Students are given explicit opportunities to use language, mathematics, the arts and technology to inquire about, analyse and communicate their understandings. Simultaneously, students are learning about and mastering the processes and conventions for each particular discipline area and seeing the relationship of learning across each area.