Why Inquiry-Based Learning?
Some studies show that 4-year-olds ask anywhere between 200-400 questions a day. Children are curious by nature. Inquiry based learning is not a subject, or a scheduled lesson – it is an approach to how we can encourage deep thinking and take our students further on their inquiry journey about the world around them. Inquiry-based learning honours children as capable and competent learners, who can become empowered and independent researchers.
Being curious, powers up learning. It is widely acknowledged that we are more motivated to learn when we are genuinely interested in or curious about the subject or when we have a problem to solve (Engel, 2015; Daniels, 2017) By adopting inquiry learning as a pedagogical approach in our classrooms, we are intentionally nurturing curiosity and showing learners that their questions matter.
For inquiry to be a successful approach in early learning, the classroom needs to embrace a culture of going deeper with investigating those big questions. Inquiry learning is not a one and done – the variety of contexts and integrated approaches, provide unlimited opportunities for children to be wonder-led learners. Inquiry can be reached through play, projects, design, challenges, service, problem-solving, place. The list really does go on.
Through inquiry-based learning, a child’s joy and sense of wonder really can be harnessed and nurtured to fuel their curiosity and encourage their growth into successful life-long learners and the problem solvers of tomorrow.
Sally-Anne Anderson and Heather Dreckow | Early Childhood Education Teachers
