Students and Teachers Exploring the World Together!

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Virginia Farkas
Grade 4, East Rochester Elementary School
Rochester, NH

It All Starts With A Question

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Virginia Farkas

I begin by letting my students know that intelligent people ask questions.

Questions lead us to answers, inventions, and they increase our knowledge about the world and how it functions. Questioning leads to cures for incurable diseases, it helps us to discover new worlds and ways to explore the oceans. Questions sometimes lead us to more questions even before we figure out answers or come up with solutions.

I tell them to think of their doctor or their car mechanic. When you visit them for help with solving your problem, don’t they begin by asking you questions? Don’t those questions lead to a series of ongoing explorations?  One exploration may lead to more questions and more explorations, until the problem is solved. The doctor may prescribe tests or give you medications based on the answer to your questions. The mechanic may replace parts or adjust something. You feel well again or you drive your car out of the shop.

My fourth grade students understand the importance of how a well thought out question can lead to new understanding.  It can take you on a path of knowledge and power.  It can help you to find the underlying message that a good book has to offer. They have made these discoveries by forming opinions and ideas about what they are learning in class and, at times, sharing with me how they might best learn it.  I believe they have acquired these skills, and have been empowered through my persistent modeling of the practice of inquiry.

The inquiry model of teaching science allows children to discover the wonders of the world and beyond by following their natural curiosity through carefully constructed lessons akin to natural experience.  It is a model that gives the child an opportunity to learn by doing and figuring things out on their own.  They become connected with the topic by physically touching, manipulating, and examining objects based on questions they have previously formulated about the topic they are exploring. The child is using his or her natural inclination for exploration to make mind/body connections with the world and how things work.

This is the inquiry method of science. We use the method everyday, sometimes without even realizing it. Learning takes place by inquiring in our lives each day. It starts from the moment we wake with choices as simple as the decision about what to wear each particular day. We make those decisions based on our environment or reliance upon our senses. So what do we do? We check the weather,  “Is it cold or hot? What is the reading on the thermometer?  Oh it is cold, 32 degrees, then I need a sweater.”  Therefore, it makes sense, it’s natural that students learn by inquiring.  Intelligent people ask questions; my students are intelligent people so I encourage  them to ask questions in my class. 

The Rivier Science Mentor/Mentee program  has enhanced my teaching style in ways I could not have envisioned. The instructional practice has changed how I teach all subjects, not just science.  I begin each lesson whether it is in reading, math, social studies, or science with questions about the lesson’s given topic. We begin each week’s reading lesson with a topic question about the story. Students are allowed to add thoughts or ideas to or about the question as we read. They are also encouraged to add more questions for investigation as we progress. 

We review the list and analyze it to form a deeper understanding of the story.  Students also use Post-it notes as they read for writing  more questions they think about as they read the story. We share these questions at the end of the day. I believe this has given my students the confidence to think about what they are reading rather than “just reading” for plot. Now you might wonder what this has to do with Inquiry Science? Just this, inquiry is the process by which we learn, so does it matter if spontaneous exploration is used in a science class or a beginning reading class? I think the answer is a resounding no! The end result for students (and teachers!) is a deeper, more appreciative and more lasting understanding of the subject matter.

In science class students are excited to explore and learn new things. They also understand the importance of getting to the underling meaning of their exploration. Through their questioning skills, my students see themselves as people who can raise questions to solve problems in the world.

My students have developed their own homework assignments based on what we are learning in class. From a mini-unit on landforms they asked if they could create their own countries. We created a list of what might be important aspects of a country and created a class generated rubric for this student generated project. They collaborated and formed treaties, designed countries that had connecting oceans, and discussed rules and laws for  governance. I do not believe this student initiated idea would have occurred if I had not allowed my students to develop their own questions about the topics they studied this year. If I had given teacher generated questions they would just be going through the motions of answering my questions. They have been given the confidence and skill to think on their own and now are able to take their learning one step beyond the textbook material.

This strikes me as is a practical, ever so useful, common sense approach to teaching.  If we experience something, we remember it.  If we created it, we understand how it is made and understand how to fix it if it breaks. If we watch it, we know what it is doing and look for why it is doing it.  If someone else tells us the story we do not get a picture in our minds eye. We are only memorizing facts and not forming connections to how they apply in the world.  We become a society of functioning literates whose knowledge is superficial, based on what others tell us. We risk losing the ability to think for ourselves and, more perilous, we numb our thirst for understanding why things happen.

 Early on my students would be frustrated when I would answer their questions with a question such as: Well, what do you think will happen? Or, What could you do to find that out? Now when they ask me a question, they answer with I know what you are going to say,  “What do you think will happen?” Of course, they then tell me what they think will happen and they begin the process of solving their own problems and answers to their own questions. The inquiry process is a wonderful student empowering tool for any teachers “toolkit”.

The class has become a true community of inquiring minds. They have developed ownership in their learning by developing the freedom to ask questions about what they are learning as well as how they could learn more about a particular topic.  They have taken the freedom to explore and the responsibility for their own education. My students have been empowered with the ability to think for themselves.

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