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"In this epaper, we describe a structured approach to inquiry-based learning that uses the World Wide Web as a primary information resource. Specifically, we address an intuitive 8-step process that begins with an essential question and ends with a knowledge product produced by students, typically completed in a cooperative setting. We also discuss the skills required by both student and teacher to make inquiry-based learning and the Internet a successful endeavor. Finally, we discuss the components of a Project Page, an online document that facilitates the learning process and support the reader with Web links relating to inquiry-based learning."

Steps to the Inquiry process

Check this site out.... wonderful explanation on the Inquiry process.

Interesting read on an inquiry model of learning. 

"What kinds of questions make for good inquiry-based projects? As we said, they must first be questions that the kids truly care about because they come up with them themselves. In addition, good questions share the following characteristics: The questions must be answerable. "What is the poem 'Dream Deferred' based on?" is answerable. "Why did Langston Hughes write it?" may be answerable if such information exists, or if the students have some relevant and defensible opinions. "Why did he choose this particular word in line six?" is not answerable because the only person likely to know such a specific answer is Hughes himself, now deceased. The answer cannot be a simple fact. "In what year was Lincoln killed?" doesn't make for a very compelling project because you can just look it up in any number of books or Web sites. "What factors caused the assassination attempt?" might be a good project because it will require research, interpretation, and analysis. The answer can't already be known. "What is hip-hop music?" is a bit too straightforward and the kids are not likely to learn much more than they know already. "What musical styles does hip-hop draw from and how?" offers more opportunity for exploration. The questions must have some objective basis for an answer. "Why is the sky blue?" can be answered through research. "Why did God make the sky blue?" cannot because it is a faith-based question. Both are meaningful, valid, real questions, but the latter isn't appropriate for an inquiry-based project. "What have people said about why God made the sky blue?" might be appropriate. Likewise, "Why did the dinosaurs become extinct?" is ultimately unanswerable in that form because no humans were around to know for sure, but "What do scientists believe was the reason for their extinction?" or "What does the evidence suggest about the cause?" will work. Questions based on value judgments don't work for similar reasons. You can't objectively answer "Is Hamle

Inquiry based learning originates with John Dewey's philosophy that education begins with curiousity. It focuses on guiding students through a process of finding answers to questions. Inquiry based learning: Is driven by questions of interest rather than general topics.Emphasizes asking good researchable questions.Coaches students as they go.Provides research journal to help students monitor their progress.Draws on expertise of the instructor / teacher librarian to model effective inquiry.Assesses student progress in developing inquiry skills as well as understanding of content.

Inquiry Learning strategies

Interesting. These questions are at a more macro-level of planning than the interpretive ones I am used to preparing for close reading and Shared Inquiry discussion. Nice that they can be used by either students or teachers.

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.

In the ebb and flow of educational theories and approaches to learning one can see many commonalities to the world of fashion. A good idea emerges, becomes mainstream, is appropriated by a wide number of educators who blend the essential elements into their methodology and over time the once good idea becomes an oversimplified or slightly misunderstood model of what it once was.

A scholarly article with tremendous real-world practical implications and suggestions. Love this.

A scholarly article with tremendous real-world practical implications and suggestions. Love this.

Vocational Education meets Research in the dynamic classroom of Linda Darling-Hammond, 2008. The students are doing the research, teaching and learning. They control their own destiny and they are taking the world by storm! They are not waiting to be taught, they are teaching each other and themselves as teams of researchers. Darling-Hammond, L. (2008). Powerful learning: what we know about teaching for understanding. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Case studies from Emory University. CASES Online is a collection of inquiry-based lessons for K-12 and undergraduate students in exploring the science behind real-world problems. Cases are grounded in Problem-Based Learning (PBL), Investigative Case-Based Learning (ICBL), and related student-centered pedagogies.

From site: "The best way for students to learn science is to experience problems that challenge science, and the thought, habits of mind and actions associated with trying to solve them. This implies opportunities for authentic, inquiry-based learning. Problem-based learning (PBL) is a powerful vehicle for this, in which a real-world problem becomes a context for students to investigate, in depth, what they need to know and want to know (Checkly, 1997). It is a robust, constructivist process, shaped and directed primarily by the student, with the instructor as metacognitive coach."

FREE, self-paced workshops covering a wide variety of hot topics in education including assessment, multiple intelligences, constructivism, inquiry-based learning, and cooperative learning.

A worldwide hands-on, primary and secondary school-based science and education program. GLOBE's vision promotes and supports students, teachers and scientists to collaborate on inquiry-based investigations of the environment and the Earth system working in close partnership with NASA and NSF Earth System Science Projects (ESSPs) in study and research about the dynamics of Earth's environment.

"Any research based or inquiry-based project seems to work well for me. I enjoy leading the children through the process of developing a research question. It's always interesting to hear what goes on in the minds of these inquisitive learners. Last year my grade 8 (14-year-olds) were working on the impact of government systems on individual and Societies. Students took up the case studies of India and Pakistan, some of them worked on Arab-Israeli conflict, and yet another group picked the Berlin Wall and its impact on the population."