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"Inquiry Based Instruction has been an area of study for me for the last couple of years. In my opinion, teaching through inquiry is not only engaging for our students, but develops an essential skill that our kids need to be successful in the 21st century. In this post, I want to share a few of the resources I have been using for the last few years, as well as a few resources that I just learned about. "

If we believe that all learning is a consequence of thinking, then we should consider what types of thinking our learners are likely to benefit from at each phase of their inquiry. This is where the Understanding Map, developed by Ritchhart, Church & Morrison offers useful guidance. By contemplating the demands of each phase of our chosen inquiry model, we can plan for how we might scaffold thinking moves which will enhance our learners' learning.

Recently I have been contemplating how we might define inquiry. Like many terms in education, it is often used in multiple contexts and has a range of meanings attached to it. Coming to agreement on what inquiry is, requires negotiating seemingly divergent understandings. If we are to avoid oversimplifications and dichotomous thinking, we need to explore these multiple perspectives and find a balance point.

"early seven years after first opening its doors, the Science Leadership Academy public magnet high school* in Philadelphia and its inquiry-based approach to learning have become a national model for the kinds of reforms educators strive towards. "

"There are various types of student inquiry. How many of them do you know? Thanks to a post I found on Twitter, you're about to know about all of them. I watch social media closely and it's my job to share some of the hot topics on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and other outlets that teachers, principals, students, and parents are contributing."

"Life in an Inquiry Driven, Technology Embedded, Connected Classroom: English"

"Three weeks ago, I began exploring Evernote. Literally within minutes, I was convinced that it is an essential tool for inquiry-based teaching. I hope that by the end of this post, you will agree and want to join me in taking a huge step toward true metateaching." "

"Today in our Inquiry we are going to look deeply at the affect some of these celebrations have on people. We would like to listen are learn about the Declaration of Human Rights. Many people in different countries and especially Australia have different beliefs about culture. Where immigrants should be allowed in to a country, whether cultures have the right to even celebrate their traditions. Lets take a look at what the Declaration of Human Rights tells us. "

There is a debate taking place in the world of education. It is not a new debate but recently it has gathered new energy and the boundary between polite discussion of opposing views and hostility has been stretched. The debate is that between those who are advocates of inquiry based learning and those who believe direct instruction produces the best outcomes. - This article explore how the debate has gone wrong and fails to serve the needs of learners.

The basis for good inquiry questions

"Something we've become known for is our focus on thought, inquiry, and understanding, and questions are a big part of that. We've done questions that students should ask, parents should ask, students should and shouldn't answer, questions that promote and stifle inquiry, question that reveal self-knowledge and wisdom, and more. If the ultimate goal of education is for students to be able to effectively answer questions, then focusing on content and response strategies makes sense. If the ultimate goal of education is to teach students to think, then focusing on how we can help students ask better questions themselves might make sense, no?"

"What is on the five-year horizon for K-12 schools worldwide? Which trends and technologies will drive educational change? What are the challenges that we consider as solvable or difficult to overcome, and how can we strategize effective solutions? These questions and similar inquiries regarding technology adoption and transforming teaching and learning steered the collaborative research and discussions of a body of 56 experts to produce the NMC Horizon Report > 2015 K-12 Edition, in partnership with the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN). The NMC also gratefully acknowledges ISTE as a dissemination partner. The three key sections of this report - key trends, significant challenges, and important developments in educational technology - constitute a reference and straightforward technology planning guide for educators, school leaders, administrators, policymakers, and technologists. It is our hope that this research will help to inform the choices that institutions are making about technology to improve, support, or extend teaching, learning, and creative inquiry in K-12 education across the globe. View the wiki where the work was produced."

Check out the "Abilities Necessary to Do Scientific Inquiry" sections for K-4 and 5-12 for many activities and links.

"Ed note: This post is part 2 of 2 in a mini-series on Google and student inquiry. Part 1 can be seen here. As we recently talked about, Google impacts thinking by putting a universe of information at the end of any internet connection. This is both true and unhelpful. It offers up the universe, but no one needs the universe-they need the right thing at the right time."

"This week's question is: What are the differences between Project-Based, Problem-Based and Inquiry Learning? Thinker, educator, writer John Dewey suggested that we learned best by doing. Educators today are trying to implement that philosophy through a number of instructional strategies, including project based, problem based and inquiry learning. This series will explore the differences between the three of them."