What does inquiry-based learning look like in Prep?

In his article, Simplifying Inquiry Instruction, Bell (2005) writes specifically about using inquiry learning in science. Bell (2005) explains that different levels of inquiry are based on a) the amount of information provided by the teacher; b) the complexity of the task in terms of openness and cognitive demand. His descriptions of the levels are:  A  Level 1 or ‘confirmation’ inquiry-based learning activity uses a teacher-provided question and process to verify expected results. In a Level 2 or ‘structured’ inquiry the teacher presents a question and prescribes a procedure for investigating it. A Level 3 or ‘guided’ inquiry, students  determine the investigative method and solution for a teacher-presented question. While a Level 4 or open inquiry requires students to pose the question and plan and conduct data collection and analysis independently.

According to Bell (2005), inquiry is a learning process in which student collect and analyse data in order to answer questions. So an inquiry learning process requires skills such as identifying needs or problems, planning and conducting investigations, choosing appropriate tools and techniques for data collection; anyalsing relationships through critical and logical thinking; formulating explanations and communicating arguments (Bell, 2005). Bell (2005) stresses that for students to gain the confidence and competence in these skills that is necessary for conducting independent open inquiries, they generally require significant amounts of scaffolding. This means that the four broad levels of inquiry (confirmation, structured, guided and open) are all necessary to students’ development of effective inquiry practice.

From Bell’s description, it becomes apparent that inquiry-based learning will ‘look’ different during different stages of students development. While all inquiry-based learning should start with a problem to be solved or a question to be answered, the amount and type of teacher scaffolding will vary from context to context, task to task and student to student.

A work in progress

In a Preparatory year setting, teachers would need to think about how to scaffold the development of the following.

	Skill set	Literacy and numercy demands
Identify needs or problems	asking questions stating problems	Understanding the meanings of words like ‘know’, ‘learn’, ‘ask’, ‘question’, ‘statement’. Distinguishing between questions and statements
Plan and conduct investigations	Identifying sources of information	Understanding the meanings of words like ‘know’, ‘ask’, ‘learn’, ‘information’, ‘facts’ and terms used to describe different sources of information that are accessible to 5-6 year old pre-readers (e.g. photos, pictures, illustrations, books, posters, television, radio, computers, iphones)
Collect and select  appropriate data and information	tools techniques	Number names, conservation, one-to-correspondence, colour names, interpreting tables and graphs
Anyalse relationships through critical and logical thinking	Identifying similarities and differences Sorting and comparing data Identifying relationships amongst sets of data (empty, independent, intersecting sets and subsets) Identifying patterns data	language to describe colour, shape and size comparative language such as ‘same’, ‘similar’, ‘different’, ‘a lot’, ‘not many’, ‘all’, ‘none’, ‘more’, ‘less’, ‘most’, ‘least’.
Formulate and communicate findings, explanations and arguments	Inferring Conclude Explaining Predicting

My attempts to plot the literacy and numeracy demands of inquiry-based learning only highlight gaps in my understanding of how preparatory year students might identify problems and questions, plan and conduct investigations, collect data and information, analyse relationships amongst data and information, and formulate conclusions, explanations and arguments.

References

Bell, R; Smetana, L & Binns, I. (2005). Simplyfying inquiry instruction The Science Teacher, 72 (7), 30-‐33.