Inquiry Mindset: 10 Reasons to Use Inquiry Based Learning

Courtesy of Trevor Mackenzie

This chapter of Inquiry Mindset focused on 10 reasons to use inquiry-based learning, and challenged me to describe how I do well on any one of the ten. Though this is valuable, I feel like it is more valuable for me to note my goals for this year and future years, and how I hope to reach those goals.

Teach Grit, Perseverance, Growth Mindset, and Self-Regulation

Though I find issue with some of these terms due to lack of equity (How is teaching grit going to help a student who regularly faces systemic racism or discrimination based on socioeconomic status? Grit won't get rid of racist or discriminatory policies and practices; it will only teach students to ignore them and then the problem is not solved. But I digress...more on this in a future blog post.), I do believe that self-regulation is important.  I want my students to be able to reflect, revise, and view mistakes as "opportunities to be better."

Make Research Meaningful and Develop Strong Research Skills

I am on this path already, but my main goal this year is to focus each unit around a compelling question. This will help my students see what we are trying to find out, as well as why it is important that we conduct research in order to learn about it. Every single learning activity will apply to the compelling question and I will avoid busy work for the sake of having a grade in the grade book. The learning is more important to me.

Deepen Understanding to Go Beyond Memorizing Facts and Content

I know the big ideas that I strive to teach my students, but my students can't always articulate what the big ideas are. I need to communicate this more clearly and make sure that they truly understand it.

Fortify the Importance of Asking Good Questions

I hadn't heard of the terms "open" and "closed" questions until I was at a standards workshop this January. I had always known the difference between an open-ended question and a yes-or-no question, but I hadn't heard of it being described this way before. It made so much sense! Teaching this distinction to my students can help them come up with research questions that will help them dig deeper, rather than questions that can be answered by the first result in a simple Google Search.

Enable Students to Take Ownership Over Their Own Learning and to Reach Their Own Goals

The standards are goals that the state and I have for my students, but students need to learn how to set their own goals as well. I'm not sure how to do this yet, but I have toyed with the idea of student portfolios where each page is a power standard (not all standards will be reflected, as this will simply be overwhelming) and the students post a certain number of artifacts on each page to show what they have learned. Goal-setting can be oriented around this.

Solve the Problems of Tomorrow in the Classrooms of Today

I am striving to make my classes more authentic. I will be more intentional about including the 4 C's (communication, collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking) in my classroom teaching and activities.