Why Inquiry? Part I

There are many paths to the top of the mountain, but the view is always the same.

--Chinese proverb

From Jeff: Technology and Inquiry for a Purpose

Technology is at our fingertips and at our students’ fingertips these days and can aide us in the most basic forms of inquiry all the way to the more complex.

For example, we have a 15 year old dryer that had done an excellent job, up until a few months ago, when the heating element burned out. We searched for a few repair places and found the cost to replace the heating element to be expensive. So I did a few more searches and found several DIY sites that gave videos on how to take the dryer apart replace the element myself.

A quick call to a parts store for the $30 heating element and I was back in the laundry room with YouTube open on my phone and the dryer schematic on my iPad. About an hour later, the dryer was back in working order.  Better yet, I spent 20 minutes learning how not to take the dryer apart should there be a next time.

Do you remember this advertisement?
Jeff added to this guy's woes.

I was able to celebrate my success by sharing out on social media and then a few weeks later had a friend in the same boat where I was able to offer guidance as they needed to do the same task. 

I had an important question to answer, I was fully engaged in the process of answering the question, and I had technology to assist me in my inquiry.  The result was that I learned well and was even able to help others.

The question: How will you provide opportunities for students to use technology to fully engage in answering questions that are important to them?

From Jan: Speaking in Questions, Rather Than Statements

I had the amazing opportunity to study in Reggio Emilia, Italy several years ago.  I spent a week listening to the wise educators who helped craft what became known as the World’s Best Early Childhood Program (Newsweek, 1991).  I scripted what they said as they spoke eloquently about how they challenge themselves and their own thinking.  (If you read carefully, you will notice that I wrote it reflecting their heavy Italian accent!J) 

• Here are a few of their comments:
• It’s about being open to possibilities
• Maybe you create new possibilities
• We welcome criticism, challenges and other ways of thinking
• We don’t feel ourselves satisfied – when we say “we are done” there is always someone round us saying “are you sure?  Have you tried this?”
• Sometimes I act by instinct – sometimes I pause and breathe…I find it better when I pause and breathe – follow the rhythm of the work…
• We welcome a sort of attitude about feeling unsettled…and maybe we talk more with question marks and less statements.

Photo of students in Reggio Emilia, where the
questions are more important than the answers.

How wise!  Isn’t that truly what inquiry is?  Being open, creating new possibilities, welcoming challenges and other ways of thinking, a willingness to be unsettled, and—most importantly—talking more with question marks and less with statements. 

I will echo their final statement from that long ago day: This is our journey together….

From Phil: Understanding by Design--Why Essential Questions?

In Stage 1 of the Understanding by Design framework, developed by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, call for using backward planning and list the “Desired Results” first.  The desired results include “Understandings” that students will be able to independently use.  In fact, a student doesn’t really understand, say Wiggins and McTighe, unless they can transfer the learning to new situations.

A key component of the backward planning is to develop “Essential Questions.”  These questions provide the student doorway into the desired learning.  Essential questions engage students, focus the learning, and prioritize teaching, but they also establish a culture of inquiry in a classroom.

From Grant Wiggins: 

We want students to consider more challenging and interesting questions.  We want students to engage in higher order thinking.  We want them to engage in sustained inquiry.  That is the point of an essential question.  The question signals that we want inquiry.  That we want in-depth, not superficial answers.  That there isn’t one way to look at it.  That it is worth asking and re-asking, because that is how in-depth learning and genuine understanding work.

These are characteristics of essential questions:

• Open-ended; will not have a single, final, correct answer
• Thought-provoking and intellectually engaging, often sparking discussion and debate.
• Calls for Higher Order Thinking; cannot be answered by recall alone
• Points toward transferable ideas and often across disciplines
• Raises additional questions and sparks further inquiry
• Requires support and justification, not just an answer
• Recurs over time; can be revisited again and again.

Here is one: What one question will you ask your students repeatedly

this week that will spark discussions and engage students

in inquiry?

If you want many examples, more information, and lots of free resources about Essential Questions and UbD, hit this link: Jay McTighe or read: Essential Questions: Opening Doors for Student Understanding, by Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins.

Next week you will hear from others on the Teaching and Learning Team.  We hope your week is great, one filled with curiosity, laughter, and learning.

HSE Teaching and Learning Team