Inquiry pedagogy to develop conceptual understanding
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Inquiry pedagogy is a deliberate and thoughtful methodology designed to support students in developing deep conceptual understanding. This understanding emerges as learners explore concepts across a range of meaningful and varied contexts.
At the heart of inquiry is the recognition that students are not passive recipients of knowledge but active participants in their own learning. Effective inquiry-based classrooms are built by teachers who intentionally design learning that teaches the skills of inquiry, provokes curiosity, supports investigation, and encourages reflection. These teachers understand that for students to develop a deep understanding of their world, they must be challenged to inquire into significant and relevant ideas.
We can work in partnership to address:
- Developing a school-wide inquiry process with guidelines and requirements. This would be based on the current cultural narrative and language of learning in the school.
- Training teachers in the starting links to inquiry learning to develop conceptual understandings and transfer understandings through; personal links, local links, national links and global links.
- Coaching teachers in the pedagogical approaches required to support students through successful inquiry in their programmes
- Modelling the use of many inquiry strategies to support students to become independent inquires
- Share the Four Levels of Independence in Inquiry, showing how at primary school level teachers primary work at the Structured Inquiry Level with students.
- The formulation of teacher’s guiding questions; factual, conceptual and provocative
- Training students in the formulation of their inquiry questions
Planning our package
Together we would plan a package collaboratively considering your school’s curriculum needs and create requirements for the implementation of inquiry pedagogy in your school. We would evaluate the on-going success of the process as we move forward.
Some ideas of ways to work together:
- Keynote presentations
- Working with senior leadership to plan the process and create a way forward
- Workshopping with senior leaders, team leaders and/or planning teams
- Teacher Only Day workshops with whole staff
- Staff meetings
- Team planning sessions
- Buy my book
Oaklands School began working with Kate Brown from EduKateNZ Consultancy Ltd in September 2022. We needed support with developing our local curriculum and embedding inquiry based learning practices. Over the next two years Kate supported us with the following:Â
- Writing our local curriculum and creating a visual representation of it that aligns with our cultural narrative
- Leading professional development with staff to define what learning through inquiry would look like in our school context and creating documentation to support this.
- Working with the leadership team to develop an Oaklands inquiry process and unit plan, making connections to our cultural narrative.
- Building teachers knowledge of teaching through inquiry including how to set up and use wonder walls, choosing questions to provoke thinking, building a bank of strategies and skills to develop thinking and defining what happens at each stage of the inquiry process.
- Working with our leadership team to develop a bank of resources, particularly in Science.Â
Kate is an amazing listener and was able to tailor support to our specific needs. Her professional development sessions were engaging and she ensured that all staff have hands on experiences and come away with practical strategies they can implement immediately.
She is highly collaborative and knows how to get the best out of people. I would not hesitate to work with her again or to recommend her to other schools.
Caroline Martin
Acting Principal, Oaklands | Te Kura o ĹŚwaka
My Passion
My passion is to ensure that every student develops understanding of their world and every teacher has strong understanding, knowledge and skill in inquiry pedagogy. I believe every student should have access to an education of high expectations with the opportunity to succeed at the highest level. My approach is practical, strengths-based, and grounded in the greatest respect for education and teachers at all levels.
