Inquiry Based Instruction: Michelle (Post 1)

My research topic on inquiry based instruction was inspired by my student teaching placement last semester. My CT structured her day with allocated time for reading, writing, and math in addition to a specific time for "inquiry" during the end of the day. This was a time when she addressed units of inquiry that she created in alignment with social studies and science grade level standards. The units started with a central question to help guide the students and then they were asked to generate their own questions. The curriculum was then created to answer the students' questions and offer them learning experiences before my CT or I reinforced the concept with direct teaching. In response to these units of inquiry, I saw my classroom of 1st graders making meaningful connections, show that they were really excited about learning, and they were able to remember more when the content was framed this way. Since I saw what a great experience units of inquiry provided for these students, I decided that I wanted to learn more about this unfamiliar topic myself. In response to this the following are my tentative research questions:

1. Does inquiry-based practice foster student engagement and participation?
2. How does inquiry-based practice influence student learning in regard to conceptual problem solving and content understandings?
3. How can inquiry-based instruction be implemented to meet students’ cultural or  individual learning needs (i.e. ELLs)?

 During my research for my first draft of the literature review, I saw that there was not much literature on inquiry-based instruction as a cross curricular tool; rather, it has been primarily associated with science. I found a few examples of inquiry-based instruction and its applications to writers workshop, geography, and other subjects. Nevertheless, I have come across a few problems. Although I want to focus on inquiry-based instruction as a cross-disciplinary technique, I feel like I need to narrow my topic. Also there are competing definitions of what inquiry-based instruction is and some of the literature claims that it is the same as problem-based learning and other authors find a concrete distinction. To help me better understand how inquiry-based instruction can frame the content of multiple subjects, I am currently reading the book Integrating Inquiry Across the Curriculum by Audet and Jordan. I am hoping that it will help me narrow my topic and give my research more of a focus within the "inquiry based instruction" topic.