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FALL 2012
THE TORCH
15
Nicole Davies,
Junior School Teacher
Librarian
I
n our complex information age dominated by
the Internet, students cannot possibly learn all
the content there is to know. Teachers must move
away from an emphasis on learning facts and shift
towards teaching students how to learn and how to
take responsibility for their own learning. Students
must become critical consumers of information as
well as knowledge builders. The massive amounts of
information available at our fingertips requires us
to teach our students how to filter information for
quality and accuracy, synthesize it for relevance and
build and apply knowledge through connection-
making and idea generation.
The Guided Inquiry framework is a teaching
and learning methodology that promotes the
development of a community of learners while
building the important research and inquiry skills
that are required by 21st century students. It offers a
flexible method of integrating skills in a way that is
relevant to students. Using this framework, teachers
help students focus on a question or problem,
which they are then required to investigate using a
wide range of information sources. Within a given
area of the curriculum, an instructional team of
teachers, including the classroom teacher, teacher
librarian, information technology teacher and STEM
teacher, work together as appropriate to support
student understanding. The Guided Inquiry process
requires students to be curious problem solvers in
order to answer their own questions and to build
understanding of complex concepts. It puts students
in the driver’s seat of their own learning within a
framework designed by the teacher. This process
helps students to recognize that they can be more
than knowledge consumers—they can be knowledge
builders.
In both the Junior and Upper Schools, teachers
are developing Guided Inquiry units of study. For
example, students in Grade 5 are learning about
ancient civilizations through a series of Guided
Inquiry sessions. At a recent inquiry session, students
explored ideas about how the modern world has been
influenced by the innovations of early civilizations.
While rotating through 12 inquiry stations—each
containing a different modern day artifact such as
makeup, a calendar and paper—students were asked
to decide where and when each artifact was invented.
Working in small groups, students shared their
ideas and recorded their thinking in their inquiry
journals. In a subsequent session, students revisited
each of the 12 stations, which now included written
information and photographs about where and
when each artifact was actually invented. Students
were amazed to learn that each artifact was actually
an ancient innovation. This process guided students
toward an understanding that early civilizations were
sophisticated, technologically advanced societies
that are strongly linked to our lives today. It allowed
the students to construct this understanding for
themselves, rather than being told the information by
their teacher.
As educators rethink what 21st century students may
need in order to successfully live and work in our
complex and unpredictable world, Guided Inquiry is
one strategy that Havergal teachers are using to help
our students navigate the changing world.
Learning
Through a Guided Inquiry Framework
By Nicole Davies
JUNIOR SCHOOL