Curriculum Connections: Chapter 1

Summary
Chapter 1 is an introduction to inquiry learning. Inquiry learning is a system of learning where we start with the known and move to the unknown. We inquire by asking "intriguing" questions about what is not yet know, begin an investigation of the question(s), and communicate with others to achieve greater understanding.

Unlike informational problem solving, inquiry-based learning is open-ended. Constructivism, the melding of inquiry with the practice of teaching, has turned regular classrooms into student-centered learning environments. How this occurs is through the use of a series of experiences that are related to each other as well as due to the interactions between students, teachers, and the community around them. It provides students and teachers with opportunity to look at important ideas in depth.

Significant text is devoted to the difference between inquiry and information problem solving. While both are based on a process, inquiry most closely relates to the constructivist environment. It provides a situation for learning that is "...active, shared, and based on pursuit of student-generated questions; meaning is constructed by the learner; the curriculum is based on big concepts; assessment is founded on student work rather than on teacher-generated tests; and the teacher's role is to interact and mediate the environment."

The Inquiry Process includes:

• Connect (to previous knowledge)
  
• Wonder (develop questions)
  
• Investigate (find and evaluate information)
  
• Construct (new understandings related to previous knowledge)
  
• Express (new ideas to share learning with others)
  
• Reflect (on own process of learning and ask new questions)
  

Once you have decided to use an inquire model to drive curriculum and instruction, you need to look at organizing curriculum by disciplines. Student need to inquire in discipline-specific ways because which discipline determines the types of questions that need to be asked. They look like:

• Science: Students are searching for the truth and for explanations of the physical world.
• Math: While also a focus on finding the truth, math is immutable. Math does not need the who, why, and where.
• Social Studies: Emphasis is on values and behaviors. Beyond just why, who, and where, but also how good or bad and what are the consequences.
• Language arts: Emphasis is on process. Because educators are now using more non-fiction, more inquiry can now be used in the language arts classroom.

Inquiry requires four pieces in order to be inquiry:

1. Learner-centered
2. Knowledge-centered
3. Assessment-centered
4. Community-centered
   

Response
Inquiry based learning is the librarian's job. When we talk about information literacy skills, this can best be taught through the use of inquiry. When we talk about those "experiences" that need to be strung together, we are talking using those information literacy skills in creative ways along the inquiry model. While inquiry is not the collection of those skills, there is a solid relationship between those skills and content.

Related Articles
Pappas, M. (2009, May). Inquiry and 21 st-Century Learning. School Library Media Activities Monthly, 25(9), 49-51. Retrieved June 23, 2009, from Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts database.