Every three years, Alberta schools and school jurisdictions are invited by Alberta Education to submit proposals for grants to assist with instructional improvement under the Alberta Initiative for School Improvement (AISI) grant program. This is part of Alberta's ongoing commitment to providing excellent educational opportunities for all of our students.

Holy Spirit Catholic School School, along with other schools from Evergreen Catholic School Division, has been awarded grant funding for the next three years to implement inquiry based instructional methods in our classrooms. The grant is being used to train teachers in the inquiry model, implement teaching strategies and measure improvements to student learning that result directly from the use of inquiry in the classroom.

What is Inquiry?

Inquiry-based learning is a process where students are involved in their learning, formulate questions, investigate widely and then build new understandings, meanings and knowledge. That knowledge is new to the students and may be used to answer a question, to develop a solution or to support a position or point of view. The knowledge is usually presented to others and may result in some sort of action.

Inquiry-based learning is one of many terms used to describe educational approaches that are driven more by a learner's questions than by a teacher's lessons. How is inquiry-based learning different from traditional approaches? In the traditional framework, teachers come to class with highly structured curricula and activity plans. They act as the source of knowledge and as the person who determines which information is important.

In contrast, inquiry-based learning projects are driven by students. Teachers act more as coaches, guides, and facilitators who help learners arrive at their "true" questions - the things they really care about.

Teachers who adopt an inquiry learning approach help students identify and refine their questions into learning projects or opportunities. They then guide the subsequent research, inquiry, and reporting processes.(Top)

How Does Inquiry Benefit My Child ?

Inquiry-based learning provides opportunities for students to:

• develop skills they will need all their lives
• learn to cope with problems that may not have clear solutions
• deal with changes and challenges to understandings
• shape their search for solutions, now and in the future

A systematic approach to the development of these skills is essential to prepare students for problem soling and lifelong learning. A systematic approach ensures that students have the opportunity to engage in inquiry, to learn an overall process and to understand that this general inquiry process can be transferred to other inquiry situations.

Using these same process skills as they proceed from primary grades through senior high school will enable students to:

• become familiar with the inquiry process
• understand a framework that supports searching for and using information
• internalize a variety of inquiry skills and strategies for independent and group use
• adapt procedures to various inquiry situations (Top)

What Does Inquiry Look Like ?

Classrooms where teachers emphasize inquiry-based learning have the following characteristics:

• Inquiry is in the form of authentic (real-life) problems within the context of the curriculum and/or community.
• The inquiry capitalizes on student curiosity.
• Data and information are actively used, interpreted, refined, digested and discussed.
• Teachers, students and librarians collaborate.
• Community and society are connected with the inquiry.
• The teacher models the behaviors of inquirer.
• The teachers used the language of inquiry on an ongoing basis.
• Students take ownership of their learning.
• The teachers facilitates the process of gathering and presenting information.
• The teacher and students use technology to advance inquiry.(Top)

The Art of the Question ?

Because inquiry-based learning is premised on helping children ask questions, instructors themselves must learn the art of asking good questions. Parents can assist their children in developing inquiry skills by paying attention to how they discuss homework and other learning situations. Teachers and parents acting as leaders and guides to learn, must remember to model the spirit of inquiry.

Good Questions:

• The questions must be answerable. "What is the poem "Dream Deferred" based on? is answerable. "Why did Langston Hughes write it?" may be answerable if such information exists or if the students have some relevant and defensible opinions. "Why did he choose this particular work ?" is not answerable because the only person likely to know such a specific answer is Hughes himself, now deceased.
• The answer cannot be a simple fact. "In what year did Canada become a country?" doesn't make for a very compelling project because you can just look it up. "What factors led Canada being formed as a bilingual country?" might be a good project because it will require research, interpretation, and analysis.
• The answer can't already be known. "What is hip-hop music?" is a big too straightforward and the kids are not likely to learn much more than they know already. "What musical styles does hip-hop draw from and how?" offers much more opportunity for exploration.
• The question must have some objective basis for an answer. "Why did the dinosaurs become extinct?" is ultimately unanswerable in that form because no humans were around to know for sure, but "What do scientists believe was the reason for their extinction?" or "What does the evidence suggest about the cause?" will work.
• When working with children, rather than answer their questions for them, ask them how they might find out.
• If a students makes a statement they believe to be true, agree that it is a theory - then ask how it can be tested. .(Top)

What does the Research Say ?

Research suggest that using inquiry-based learning with students can help them become more creative, more positive and more independent (Kuhne, 1995). This is true for all students, including those with special needs who require more individual attention during the process.

Other academic research shows that inquiry-based learning improves student achievement (GLEF, 2001). Some of the research on this effect comes from studies of effective school library programs that are centres of inquiry-based learning

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