I will share 9 tips that will help you start your career as an inquiry-based teacher:
- Be an inquirer, be a role model. You can’t teach in an inquiry-based learning classroom if you are not curious and a life long-learner. Share your journal, your portfolio, or your reflections with your students. Start learning something new: a language, cooking, swimming, or anything you are interested in. You need to practice it before modeling it.
- Build a community of learners, create a safe learning environment. Inquiry means making mistakes and learning from mistakes, so without a safe learning environment inquiry can’t take place. Watch this video with your students and discuss it. Know your students’ strengths and areas to improve, passion and interest.
- Ask questions, open ended questions, provocative questions. We come to school these days not to find answers but to learn how to ask good questions. To learn how to learn. To learn 21st century skills. Make sure your timetable is based on conceptual questions, use the learners’ questions posted on the wonder wall to inform your planning and teaching.
- Join a network of teachers, ask a colleague, alone you can’t do it. You need support, you need to collaborate with others and exchange ideas. Reach out and don’t feel shy or overwhelmed. It’s a journey and it takes time.
- If you use an inquiry cycle at your school, post it in the classroom. Unpack it with your learners and remember, that the cycle is not linear, you can start anywhere.
- Establish routines and co-create essential agreements with the students. Introduce the visible thinking routines and make sure that reflection is embedded in the learning, the learning journey is more important than the product.
- Make sure the parents are onboard and they know what inquiry-based learning means. Share with them a short video or an article. Invite them to join a learning experience. They are an additional resource.
- Remember you are not anymore, the sources of knowledge. All the knowledge is available now on the internet. You are here to guide the students on how to reach the suitable resources and learn from it.
- Ask yourself why I’m teaching this. If you can’t find the answer and if your students are not able to find it, then what you teach is a waste of time. Remember what you teach should be relevant, engaging, significant and authentic.
Remember to start small and step by step