Having an Inquiry Stance

Educators (teachers, librarians, and school leaders) who use an inquiry approach to teaching and learning in schools today have a leg up on those who don't.

Why?  Because inquiry requires that students ask questions and investigate  to learn from those questions.  Through that process students learn how to find, evaluate, and use information.  Some people call this information literacy.  Information literacy is one of the top literacies necessary for this time and age.  We can find all kinds of information so easily- the trick is to evaluate it and use it well (hint- good librarians are awesome at this!).  

Using an inquiry model, we can guide students to become experts of using information through all content areas.  Inquiry Educators take a step back to re-evaluate all their practices and see if they are aligned with an Inquiry Stance so they aren't imposing structures or old habits that might be counter productive to their students learning.

There are some things that traditional teachers used to do during research that would be counter productive to inquiry learning. (See the left column below.)

Educators who use an inquiry approach, like Guided Inquiry Design assume an inquiry stance when planning and thinking about what activities, assignments, resources, and mindsets to use with students. (See the right column below.)  

Look at the chart below. Where do you stand?  Is there anything that you might want reconsider? 

EDUCATORS Who Take an Inquiry Stance 

Don’t	Do
DON'T  Think that students have their question at the beginning of the work.	Collaboratively design engaging experiences that allow students to become curious, interested, and knowledgeable before they get to the big questions. GID in Action Open & Immerse
DON'T Ask for specific the number and type of sources on the paper/project (Your paper will have 10 references)	Focus students on gathering multiple sources and perspectives on information.  Focus on the depth of understanding to determine if students need more information sources.
DON'T Constrain the types of resources required. (Your paper/project will include 5 database articles, 4 newspaper articles, and 3 primary sources.)	Recognize that the resources will be organically dictated by the question that the student asked
DON'T Only curate resources for students  (and not allow them to search on their own)	Have students  searching for,  evaluating  and curating their own sources for information and research
DON'T Set students off to identify their question on their own - (Here's a list of topics- pick one and go do your research!)	Confer with students about their question once they have had some time to explore their own interests in the topic
DON'T Assess students based on the product alone	Observe students interactions during the process to guide them. Recognize signs like optimism, frustration, procrastination, increased interest, clarity, lack of confidence, increasing confidence, sense of accomplishment (Kuhlthau, 2004)