As educators and parents, we often find that students aren’t engaged in the lessons. They either find the lesson too dull or it doesn’t hold their interest long enough. Many Researchers suggest that one of the ways to overcome this hurdle is to get students to become contributors to their own learning experience through a teaching method known as INQUIRY-BASED LEARNING. Put simply, inquiry-based learning is an open-ended approach wherein students contribute and learn through questioning, sharing ideas, and observing.
How is it beneficial?
Inquiry-based learning considers students’ participation central to the whole learning process. The approach encourages students to build their knowledge through experience and exploration – thus allowing both teachers and students to share responsibility for learning.
Suitable for all types of learners
The purpose of inquiry-based learning is to help students learn through individual thought and investigation. The teacher must encourage students to talk about the topic at hand, and draw on their intuition to understand it. In such a flexible learning environment, all types of students – shy, slow or even distracted ones, feel included.
Inquiry-based learning allows students to develop stronger relationships with their classmates. Additionally, it helps them improve their communication skills, and increases the confidence to express their own ideas.
Tips to encourage it in our classrooms:
• ENCOURAGE QUESTIONS: A teacher must take the time to answer all of the students’ questions. This will help them delve deeper into a topic. As students thoroughly understand a concept it will form connections and provide context to apply the learning beyond the classroom environment.
• BECOME A CO-LEARNER: In an inquiry-based classroom, a teacher must become a co-learner with their students. The focus is not on showing students how much the teacher knows, rather it’s working along with students and discovering how much the students know.
• TURN LESSONS INTO PROJECTS: Inquiry-based learning is about doing, not just observing and listening. Projects give children room to explore and express their creativity and imagination. They will use all their curiosity to explore the topic and still meet the learning requirement.
• SURPRISE YOUR STUDENTS: Instead of the traditional ‘chalk and talk’ teaching method, show a video or take them out for a field trip. The content or experience must relate to the lesson plan and should effectively engage the students. Follow it up with open questions and discussions. With such an engaging experience, students’ learning will go further even beyond the activity.
• INCLUDE REFLECTION TIME: After every lesson give time to students to reflect and ponder on new concepts. Encourage them to share questions or ideas that they have. Ask them how can they transfer this knowledge outside of the classroom. Reflection time helps both the teacher and the students to gauge if the students have achieved the learning outcome that was planned.
A skill for the future
Inquiry-Based learning is a skill that will take our children into the 21st century. The world of tomorrow will be a world apart from the world of today. To be successful, students will need to think critically, tackling and solving problems from different perspectives. They will need to have the skills and knowledge to move away from the traditional and conventional approaches to become the new millennial innovators.
Why Winmore academy encourages inquiry-based learning?
At Winmore Academy, we believe curiosity is an important catalyst for learning. Children want to understand the world around them and do so by asking questions. Inquiry-based learning encourages students to ask more in-depth questions based on analytical and logical reasoning. Our goal is to nurture the inquisitive minds towards ‘out of the box’ lateral thinking leading students to find their own enlightened solutions. More importantly, this mindset gets deeply entrenched for life