Inquiry-Based Learning

When people hear about Inquiry-based learning, they often assume it only applies to Science or Math Classrooms. But that's not the case!

Inquiry-based learning simply means students are actively involved in their learning, rather than just receiving information from the teacher. It shifts the classroom from a teacher-led to a student-led environment.

This method helps learners understand what they are being taught by:

Asking questions,
Thinking critically,
Using evidence to make connections,
Communicating their thoughts logically.

Why Use Inquiry-Based Learning?

Did you know that students remember more when they are actively involved in their learning compared to when they're just reading and listening passively.

So here's big question:

Can Inquiry be used in all subjects? What do you think?

Let's dig in and explore this teaching approach. By the end, you'll have the answer.

Key components of Inquiry-based learning

Here are the building blocks of an Inquiry-based classroom:

Questioning: Students are encouraged to ask questions based on a topic, a picture, a video or even a real-life scenario. This spark their curiosity and drives the learning process.

Collaboration: After raising questions, students work with their peers to share ideas and come up with answers.

The teacher at this point, actively monitors while listening closely to student conversations, asking like "why do you think that?" or "what makes you say so?" This isn't about finding the right answer, it's about understanding students' thoughts.

Exploration: Students dive deeper by exploring hands-on activities, working on projects, doing research, engaging in experiments. This is where learning becomes real and meaningful.

Reflection: After exploring, students reflect on what they discovered. Were their ideas correct? If not, why? This helps them build stronger understanding and reasoning.

Benefits of Inquiry Based learning

Builds critical thinking skills allowing students learn to analyze, evaluate, and conclude.
Boosts student engagement which helps them become active participants in their learning.
Encourages deep understanding and better retention of information
Supports diverse learners through flexible and inclusive teaching strategies.

Simple strategies that fosters inquiry in the Classroom

Encourage students to ask questions using prompts.
Use the 5E Model to guide your lesson structure
Integrate Technology through videos, simulations, online research.
Promote collaboration through group work, project based tasks and peer discussions.
Connect lessons to real-life situations students care about.
Allow time for reflection at the end of each learning cycle.

Understanding the 5E Model

The 5E model is a popular way to structure inquiry-based learning. It includes:

Engage: Get students attention with an intriguing question, problem or activity.
Explore: Let students investigate and interact with the topic.
Explain: Guide students to share and discuss what they've learned.
Elaborate: Extend the learning by connecting the students with new situations.
Evaluate: Assess understanding through observation, discussion or task.

In the next section, we'll take a close look at each stage of the 5E model and how we can apply it in your classroom.

Angie just received a plant as a small plant from her mum as a gift. She's very excited as she has always dreamed of starting her own garden.

Photo by Kristian Angelo on Unsplash

Engage

What is the Engage Phase?

The Engage phase connects students' pre-existing knowledge to new information being introduced. This helps students to see how new concepts relate to what they've already learned.

It includes activities that spark curiosity and encourage students to ask questions. These questions become the foundation for deeper learning.

What If you Don't Have Access to Technology?

If you are in an underserved community without access to digital tools, don't worry - you can still do this! Here are a few creative ideas:

Provide printed question prompts. Print pictures using your school admin office or local resources.
You can create a scenario, or provide a question prompt.
Use your phone, even if it's slow. Colorful visuals still grab students' attention. Group your students to allow for sharing limited resources.
Be creative with local materials, you don't need fancy tools to spark curiosity.

Using a picture to Spark Inquiry

In this section, we'll look at a detailed example of how to use a picture to engage students at the start of a lesson.

Think of a lesson in you subject area, and try to create you own Engage activity using a similar approach.

Teacher Prompt:

Show the image and ask (image at the top left corner).

"What do you notice"?

"What do you wonder"?

This is simple prompt is visual, engaging and relatable for students of all ages.

Sample student responses

Let's take a look at some potential student response and how this applies to other subject areas.

What students might notice:

"The roots are out on the soil."
"She's using a garden tool."
"Two stems are cut."
"There's a pot containing soil by her side".

What students might wonder:

What kind of plant is that?
"Why is she repotting it?"
"Why did she cut some stems on the plant"?
"Why did she take the plant out of the pot and placed it on the mat"?

Connecting to subject area

Now lets see how these student responses can be tied into different subject areas. These examples are not specific to any grade level or country, they're just meant to show how flexible this strategy can be.

Science

How does sunlight or the type of soil affect the plant's health?
What does this plant need in other to grow?

Math

What information do you need to plan a tree planting project
If the plant grows 4cm every week, how tall will it be in 3 weeks?

English/Language Subjects

What words can you use to describe the image?
Write an essay from Angie's point of view after getting the plant.

Social studies

How do people from different cultures use plants?

Art:

Create a design of Angie's dream garden.
Use lines, shapes, color to show different types of plants.

Technology:

Help Angie create a digital journal to track her plant's growth.
Can she design a simple reminder app for watering and sunlight?

Explore

Moving from Engage to Explore

Once you've successfully carried out the Engage phase, you can now guide your students into the Explore phase.

The Explore phase is a necessary and vital part of a successful inquiry-based learning experience. This is the stage where students begin to dive-in by collecting data, testing ideas, making observations, designing solutions, and applying reasoning.

The Explore Phase in Details

In this phase, students are actively learning. They work with materials, tools, or environments to find answers that develop their understanding through hands-on experience.

Some strategies used in an Explore activity include:

Hands-on activities

Experiments
Out-door investigations
Online simulations
Model creation
Guided observation
Reading short articles or stories

Explore Activity in a Math Classroom

Let's piggyback to the Engage photo of Angie and her plant and apply it in a math lesson. The questions asked during this Explore activity may include:

What is the total area needed for planting?
What do you think is a good spacing between each tree?

Students will go outside their classrooms and explore the environment school environment to figure out what information they need to answer the questions above.

Teacher Guide

As a teacher you provide the students with open ended guiding questions like:

Can you find a suitable space for planting trees? (e.g. a section of the school yard)?
What is the total area of the space? (Length x width)
What is a good distance between each tree? (e.g. 1.5 meters)
Based on your measurements how many trees can be planted in that space?

This questions will allow students to master the following skills;

Measurement
Area and Perimeter
Multiplication and Division
Estimation
Problem-solving
Spatial reasoning

Teacher Tip: Try the activity ahead of time. That way, you can identify any misconceptions students might have and prepare ways to address these misconceptions during the lesson.

Explore Activity in an English Language Class

Students can Explore the same image in a Language or English Class. After students observation of Angie with her plant, students can explore character, voice, and emotion through writing.

Students can write a short narrative from Angie's point of view.

Questions teacher can ask include;

How does she feel about finally starting her garden?
What was she thinking while repotting the plant?
What challenges or emotions might she face in her gardening journey?

The following skills can be learned;

Descriptive writing
Using imagery and emotions in writing
Sentence fluency and creative thinking
Character perspective

Note: The Explore phase is not just about giving students the correct answer. It's about giving them the opportunity to think, try, make mistakes, identify they make mistakes and try to correct their mistakes and they in turn learn by doing. As a teacher, your role in this phase is to guide, support, and ask thoughtful questions that keep their curiosity alive, do not provide answers YET to their questions.

Explain

The Explain Phase

The Explain can be a little tricky because we often feel tempted to start talking while the students listen. But in the Inquiry-Based Learning, this is an opportunity to allow students collaborate, discuss their findings, and make sense of what they explores.

Students should be encouraged to share their thoughts, compare answers and hear who agrees and disagrees with their opinions. This can be done through:

Turn and talks
Think-Write-Pair and Share

This is point were you listen to students ideas, identify misconceptions and guide them gently toward clarity not by telling them the answer, but by asking the right questions.

The goal of the Explain Phase

The goal is to allow students

analyze their findings from the explore phase,
communicate their findings and what they learned.
Reflect on their thinking and process

Questions teacher can raise in the explain phase;

The Math Classroom

What steps did you take to figure out how much space you needed for planting?
How did you calculate how many trees could fit the area?
What challenges did you face when measuring or spacing the trees?
Did everyone have the same result? why or why not?
What math operations did you use, and why?

The English Language classroom

What words or phrased did you use to help readers imagine the scene?
Did you include a problem or conflict in her story? How was it resolved?
What emotions did you think Angie was feeling and how did you show that in your writing?

Reason why you should ask questions instead of telling the Answer

Raising open-ended and thought provoking questions instead of giving out the answers is to deepen students understanding by

It promotes deep thinking when helps in retaining information.
It helps students develop communication skills
reveal misconceptions which the teacher identifies and gently correct them through questioning and not correction
It encourages peer learning as students are able to share their ideas and learn from different perspectives.
It helps students become motivated and build confidence when they get they are able to figure things out.

Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.

– Benjamin Franklin

Elaborate

The Elaborate Phase

In the Elaborate phase, we get to stretch the students' thinking a little bit, now that they have explored, shared and explained their discoveries. Other words we can use to describe Elaborate is classwork or classroom practice. This is the part where students answer questions and the teacher check their answers to see if they are right or wrong.

While students are responding to questions, the teacher actively monitors, checks what students are doing and grade them in the moment.

By doing this, the teacher is able to identify students who are still struggling, and then use this opportunity to create small groups of students.

Creating small groups will allow the teacher to identity where these students have misconceptions and guide them to clearing those misconceptions.

This step is important especially if you teach a diverse classroom that includes:

SPED (Special Education)
EB (Emergent bilingual) students
In other regions fast and slow learners or high-achieving and low-achieving students.

In this phase, students should be able to apply what they've learned to a new situation or challenge or even deeper questions.

The goal here is not to start something completely new, but to extend what they have already been working on.

Using the Image of Angie and her plant: What Next?

We will continue with the same scenario of Angie and her Plant. Now that students have asked questions, measured planting areas, shared their ideas and explained their thinking, we will now take it a little further.

Let's take a look at some Elaborate Questions

Math Classroom

You have a budget of $150 to buy all you'll need to start a garden. How would you plan your spending?
If 6 square table has an area of 1.3 meter square and you want to place 6 of them evenly in a square layout, what total area would you need?
You are constructing a new garden bed in the shape of a triangle. If the base is 4 meters and the height is 3 meters, find the area of the garden bed?
You're planning a tree give away event in your community. Each house gets a tree and instructions on spacing. How would you explain the spacing to someone who knows nothing about measurement?

English Language Classroom

Write a letter to the principal of your school, persuading them to allow you start a school garden. How will you describe it's benefit to your school and how will you organize your points.
List 3 things you've cared for or watched grow. Write a short personal narrative about something you learned from the experience.

Evaluate

The Evaluate Phase

Evaluate can bee seen as an extra practice to further test the students understanding. This can be in form of a quiz, speed test or short task that helps check mastery.

Asides from these there are other ways students can be evaluated and this includes:

Classroom presentation,

Designing a short article.

For example:

"I noticed that flowers, although beautiful, have a lot of relevance to the environment. In what ways can they benefit the environment. What impact will this have on the people living in that community"?

Reflection

Take a moment and reflect on the phases we discussed above, Which component would you consider as

An Engage activity?
An Explore activity
Elaborate activity?

Tips for getting started with the 5E Model

You may have started the use of the 5E model in your classroom without even knowing that's what it's called.

The goal is not to use all the phases every single lesson, especially when you are still trying to figure it out and understand how it can work best in your classroom.

It's basically a guide to enable you understand the flow of the lesson and the type of activities you can plan to help boost your students learning outcomes.to see the orders of how it works, and activities to align it with your lessons in other to maximize student learning outcomes.

Start small stay consistent

Take it one step at a time, start small, make good use of resources available in your community.

If resources aren't provided to you, that's ok. Just start on engage until you gain mastery and feel confident, to move to the next phase.

The end goal of this is to make learning meaningful, engaging and doable.

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse

Inquiry-Based Learning

When people hear about Inquiry-based learning, they often assume it only applies to Science or Math Classrooms. But that's not the case!

Inquiry-based learning simply means students are actively involved in their learning, rather than just receiving information from the teacher. It shifts the classroom from a teacher-led to a student-led environment.

This method helps learners understand what they are being taught by:

Asking questions,

Thinking critically,

Using evidence to make connections,

Communicating their thoughts logically.

Why Use Inquiry-Based Learning?

Did you know that students remember more when they are actively involved in their learning compared to when they're just reading and listening passively.

So here's big question:

Can Inquiry be used in all subjects? What do you think?

Let's dig in and explore this teaching approach. By the end, you'll have the answer.

Key components of Inquiry-based learning

Here are the building blocks of an Inquiry-based classroom:

Questioning: Students are encouraged to ask questions based on a topic, a picture, a video or even a real-life scenario. This spark their curiosity and drives the learning process.

Collaboration: After raising questions, students work with their peers to share ideas and come up with answers.

The teacher at this point, actively monitors while listening closely to student conversations, asking like "why do you think that?" or "what makes you say so?" This isn't about finding the right answer, it's about understanding students' thoughts.

Exploration: Students dive deeper by exploring hands-on activities, working on projects, doing research, engaging in experiments. This is where learning becomes real and meaningful.

Reflection: After exploring, students reflect on what they discovered. Were their ideas correct? If not, why? This helps them build stronger understanding and reasoning.

Benefits of Inquiry Based learning

Builds critical thinking skills allowing students learn to analyze, evaluate, and conclude.

Boosts student engagement which helps them become active participants in their learning.

Encourages deep understanding and better retention of information

Supports diverse learners through flexible and inclusive teaching strategies.

Simple strategies that fosters inquiry in the Classroom

Encourage students to ask questions using prompts.

Use the 5E Model to guide your lesson structure

Integrate Technology through videos, simulations, online research.

Promote collaboration through group work, project based tasks and peer discussions.

Connect lessons to real-life situations students care about.

Allow time for reflection at the end of each learning cycle.

Understanding the 5E Model

The 5E model is a popular way to structure inquiry-based learning. It includes:

Engage: Get students attention with an intriguing question, problem or activity.

Explore: Let students investigate and interact with the topic.

Explain: Guide students to share and discuss what they've learned.

Elaborate: Extend the learning by connecting the students with new situations.

Evaluate: Assess understanding through observation, discussion or task.

In the next section, we'll take a close look at each stage of the 5E model and how we can apply it in your classroom.

Engage

What is the Engage Phase?

The Engage phase connects students' pre-existing knowledge to new information being introduced. This helps students to see how new concepts relate to what they've already learned.

It includes activities that spark curiosity and encourage students to ask questions. These questions become the foundation for deeper learning.

What If you Don't Have Access to Technology?

If you are in an underserved community without access to digital tools, don't worry - you can still do this! Here are a few creative ideas:

Provide printed question prompts. Print pictures using your school admin office or local resources.

You can create a scenario, or provide a question prompt.

Use your phone, even if it's slow. Colorful visuals still grab students' attention. Group your students to allow for sharing limited resources.

Be creative with local materials, you don't need fancy tools to spark curiosity.

Using a picture to Spark Inquiry

In this section, we'll look at a detailed example of how to use a picture to engage students at the start of a lesson.

Think of a lesson in you subject area, and try to create you own Engage activity using a similar approach.

Teacher Prompt:

Show the image and ask (image at the top left corner).

"What do you notice"?

"What do you wonder"?

This is simple prompt is visual, engaging and relatable for students of all ages.

Sample student responses

Let's take a look at some potential student response and how this applies to other subject areas.

What students might notice:

"The roots are out on the soil."

"She's using a garden tool."

"Two stems are cut."

"There's a pot containing soil by her side".

What students might wonder:

What kind of plant is that?

"Why is she repotting it?"

"Why did she cut some stems on the plant"?

"Why did she take the plant out of the pot and placed it on the mat"?

Connecting to subject area

Now lets see how these student responses can be tied into different subject areas. These examples are not specific to any grade level or country, they're just meant to show how flexible this strategy can be.

Science

How does sunlight or the type of soil affect the plant's health?

What does this plant need in other to grow?

Math

What information do you need to plan a tree planting project

If the plant grows 4cm every week, how tall will it be in 3 weeks?

English/Language Subjects

What words can you use to describe the image?