Have you ever felt like a student’s inquiry might not be going anywhere, and everyone is starting to feel frustrated? I have realised that breaking the constraints and rigidity of what a clear path of inquiry looks like will give an inquiry momentum. Often, the hindering person is us, and we need to step out of the way for the ball to roll.
Looking for opportunities to take action and do something with the knowledge one has acquired allows learners to form new thinking patterns. It is one thing for them to know and another for them to apply. Only through this is one able to indeed formulate new ways of thinking and reflecting.
Taking action or doing something can look and appear in different ways. The most important thing is that learners are finding opportunities for their learning. Taking action could look like presenting to peers, creating something, writing about it or something as invisible as changing one’s thinking.
This approach allows you to see what skills the learners will require to be successful. Last week, we had a couple of mishaps, and our time wasn’t well spent because learners that had scheduled an appointment with different experts around the school didn’t have the skills to prepare for a successful meeting. Today, we spent creating schedules (which is essentially understanding the concept of time and how it works) and exploring and making a decision about the best way to document one’s learning. This skill-building session allowed them to prepare beforehand to make the most out of their meetings.
When in doubt, do something with the knowledge you have acquired. It is sure to open pathways to thinking.
