When putting an Inquiry plan in place I wanted to generate questions that would be the origin of deep thinking. I wanted reasoned points of view to be brought to the fore. I knew that this type of question would need to be succinct, open-ended, non-judgemental and answering it would require high-level cognitive study, evaluation that would lead to judgements being made.
I read school documents that stated, for example, ‘Central Idea’, ‘Essential Learnings’ and under these headings were questions, one about a phenomenon “How does lightning work?” another, “How is electricity produced? I thought about the students being told to research, ‘All animals have life cycles characterized by physical change’. I felt that all these types of questions and statements, although legitimate inquiry paths that will be travelled by students, were more quests for information, did not allow inconclusive answers, resulting in more questions being asked, more research being conducted? These questions did not allow one or more plausible answers? They were more Lines of Enquiry (see below).
I began changing these questions trying to abide by the criteria of open-endedness and the development of critical thinking, “Does lightning affect our environment?” “Could we live without electricity?’ I felt these questions would allow different points to be formed. As I wanted to put in practise an Inquiry about Advertisements I mulled over many questions (e.g. Do advertisements affect society?) before I found the ‘just right’ question, ‘Are advertisements necessary?’ The same happened when planning for an Inquiry about river systems. After making a list of questions, I refined my selection until I settled on, ‘Are rivers important to people?
LEADING QUESTIONS
When making lists of questions about topics for Inquiry I found that I was often asking ‘leading questions‘, “Why do advertisements influence societies?’ ‘Why is poverty bad?’ I found that these questions had already been answered – advertisements do influence societies and poverty is bad. The purpose was not to investigate the question but to find the answer that supports the idea. So I dismissed this type of question.
LINES OF INQUIRY AND STUDENT QUESTIONS
The Inquiry Question is a huge undertaking for children to manage. The Inquiry Question is broken into manageable parts to answer it. Lines of Enquiry (Thinking Features) are the next step in the process of planning an Inquiry. Lines of Inquiry (planned by the teacher) are generally not in question form. The Inquiry on Advertisements involved these Lines of Enquiry:
Effects of Advertisements, Elements of Advertisements, Comparing types of Advertisements, Facts (are advertisements factual?)
With these in mind children ask their own questions (who, what, when, where, how, why), “What makes a good advertisement?’ ‘What language is used in Advertisements?’ As children investigate they keep the Inquiry Question (also called the Big, Essential or Guiding question) in their minds. There is so much finding out before they can answer it.
By the dénouement of the investigation, the children have gained a lot of knowledge about the topic and it is only then that they are in an enlightened position to analyse/ make judgements about the good points and bad points of advertising.
INQUIRY QUESTIONS SHOULD ALLOW INTEGRATION OF SUBJECTS
Teachers are more able to coordinate the learning when a great open ended and yet focussed question is asked. I loved reading Rob Traver’s, ‘What is a good question? where he related a particular school’s experience. The Inquiry question was, ‘Who will survive?’ The English class focussed on the Line of Inquiry, ‘how cultures value some organisms more than others’. Social Studies examined ‘political documents’ relating to the topic. The line of Inquiry in the mathematics class was ‘rates of expansion and decay to describe changes in populations of plants and animals’. Biology focused on ‘the ecology and genetics of plant and animal biodiversity’. What a wonderful mixture of learning to form opinions about ‘Who will survive?’
Traver, Rob. 1998. What is a Good Guiding Question? Educational Leadership (March).
