Inquiry in a primary setting

Inquiry in a primary setting

 Primary Years Programme
Inquiry in a primary setting

Published October 2018

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 IB mission statement
The International Baccalaureate aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who
help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect.

To this end the organization works with schools, governments and international organizations to develop
challenging programmes of international education and rigorous assessment.

These programmes encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong
learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right.
 IB learner profile
profile IB learner
arner profile IB le
ile IB learner prof
IB learner profile H E IB L E AR
N

ER
er profile IB learn

PROFILE
IB learner profile
The aim of all IB programmes is to develop internationally minded people who, recognizing their common
humanity and shared guardianship of the planet, help to create a better and more peaceful world.
As IB learners we strive to be:

We nurture our curiosity, developing skills for inquiry and We critically appreciate our own cultures and personal histories,
research. We know how to learn independently and with others. as well as the values and traditions of others. We seek and evaluate
We learn with enthusiasm and sustain our love of learning a range of points of view, and we are willing to grow from the
throughout life. experience.

We develop and use conceptual understanding, exploring We show empathy, compassion and respect. We have a
knowledge across a range of disciplines. We engage with issues commitment to service, and we act to make a positive difference
and ideas that have local and global significance. in the lives of others and in the world around us.

We use critical and creative thinking skills to analyse and take We approach uncertainty with forethought and determination;
responsible action on complex problems. We exercise initiative in we work independently and cooperatively to explore new ideas
making reasoned, ethical decisions. and innovative strategies. We are resourceful and resilient in the
face of challenges and change.
We express ourselves confidently and creatively in more than one
language and in many ways. We collaborate effectively, listening We understand the importance of balancing different aspects of
carefully to the perspectives of other individuals and groups. our lives—intellectual, physical, and emotional—to achieve
well-being for ourselves and others. We recognize our interde-
pendence with other people and with the world in which we live.
We act with integrity and honesty, with a strong sense of
fairness and justice, and with respect for the dignity and rights We thoughtfully consider the world and our own ideas and expe-
of people everywhere. We take responsibility for our actions rience. We work to understand our strengths and weaknesses in
and their consequences. order to support our learning and personal development.

The IB learner profile represents 10 attributes valued by IB World Schools. We believe these attributes, and others
like them, can help individuals and groups become responsible members of local, national and global communities.

© International Baccalaureate Organization 2017

International Baccalaureate® | Baccalauréat International® | Bachillerato Internacional®
Inquiry in action

Setting the scene

Learning goals • To explore some examples of inquiry learning in a school

• To develop a better understanding of the ways in which inquiry learning
is personalized through context and student needs
Learn about Assessment (early years)

School context
International School of Amsterdam (ISA), the Netherlands
Melanie Smith has worked as a kindergarten teacher, Primary Years Programme (PYP) coordinator and now
as a grade 2 teacher and grade-level coordinator at ISA. Before joining the school, she was new to inquiry-
based learning, and new to the PYP. This interview explores Melanie’s own personal journey with concept-
based inquiry, alongside examples of inquiry in action.

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Inquiry in action

Interview with Melanie

Q: What does inquiry mean to you and your students?

A: I really do believe that inquiry is about engaging students in meaningful and memorable learning.
It’s about tapping into students’ personal experiences and curiosities, and using these to help them make
sense of the world. Inquiry involves risk-taking—my students know that unexpected opportunities can lead
to exciting learning.
Q: What advice do you have to help teachers plan for inquiry?
A: Firstly, you have to know your students really well, and understand how they learn best. Observe, listen,
question—what do your students already know, and what are they wondering about? How do they engage
with what’s going on around them? How do they construct meaning? Use this understanding of their
learning process—along with their ideas—to help you plan, making sure there’s flexibility to respond to
evolving theories and unexpected directions for learning. (See vignette 1.)
You also need to know your curriculum really well—authentic student inquiry is not just about letting the
students go in any direction. You need to know the learning outcomes so you can gently guide the inquiry
process towards the bigger picture of learning.
Then, it’s about understanding the concepts you’re teaching. This is where the PYP differs from other
curriculums—this isn’t just inquiry learning, but concept-based inquiry. For example, one of our units of
inquiry was about inventions—except, it wasn’t really about that. It was about understanding concepts
such as innovation, and how this can lead to people changing the way they think and live their lives. For
students to develop an understanding of this, you can’t just teach about inventions, you have to explore
concepts. Concepts are timeless, universal and abstract. Inventions can be used as the context or case study
in order to help the students understand, for example, the concept of innovation.

Vignette 1: Honouring student ideas

We were looking at the ways you can keep fit and healthy when one of my students took a particular
interest in the digestive system. She was fascinated by its complexity and said that she wasn’t sure her mum
even understood how it worked. This was an invitation to learn—and we seized it with both hands!
I asked the students how we could help the mum learn more about the digestive system. “We could teach
her!” someone suggested. I asked them if they could think of a time when they had taught people
something they didn’t know before. The students reflected on a past inquiry where they had led workshops
to teach their parents how to use iPads—accessing prior learning but now transferring it to a different
context. From there, we launched a whole-class inquiry to help parents understand the internal workings of
the human body!
I already knew in my head where we could go with the learning, but at no point did the students think I was
planning the unit of inquiry for them. It was their idea, it was what they wanted to learn—and how they
wanted to learn. My role was facilitator, helping to turn their ideas into real learning opportunities.

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Q: What are the main differences between how you used to teach, and how you teach now using the
PYP?
This has been a fundamental shift from how I used to teach many years ago. It’s not about themes or topics
—“Let’s learn about inventions” or “Now we’re going to find out about how to keep fit and healthy”. Topics
are limiting and too specific, but concepts are much broader. Conceptual learning goes beyond facts,
processes and skills, helping students get to a deeper understanding of big ideas that are timeless and
universal. It’s about creating enduring understandings that students can link to many different areas of their
lives, now and in the future—this should be your ultimate aim, regardless of the units that are planned.
Understanding concepts and conceptual understandings is challenging at first—it stems from strong
central ideas. When reflecting on our central ideas, it’s been useful for us to think about whether they can
be transferred through time and across different cultures, whether they can be supported by many
different examples and, most importantly, whether they can be understood by the students. Revisiting and
refining central ideas collaboratively is essential in order to make sure they capture those conceptual
understandings. It can take a lot of time, but it really does lead to more effective concept-based inquiry.
The conceptual understandings from the scope and sequence documents are a great starting point. And I
say “starting point” because although your students will be working towards these conceptual
understandings, they will also—without knowing it—be working towards understandings that haven’t
even been planned for. That element of discovery and learning that takes you beyond your initial thinking
is one of the most powerful aspects of inquiry.

Example
Original central idea (past tense, topic based):
Certain inventions have led to changes in the way people think and live.
Revised central idea (more active, enduring understanding):

Innovation leads to a change in the way people think and live.

Over time, I’ve developed confidence with inquiry learning—I have complete faith in the process. It’s
important to remember that inquiry can come in different forms, ranging from teacher-guided to
completely open student-initiated inquiries. Whichever type of inquiry you’re engaged in, ask yourself:
What is it you want the students to learn? Where are they in their learning? What will help them move on in
their learning? These are your starting points. I always think about what students know (the facts), what
students understand (conceptual understandings) and what students can do (the skills). When students

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Interview with Melanie

know the facts, achieve conceptual understandings and have the right skills in place, they will then be able
to apply their learning in many different contexts.
Q: How do you ensure that the whole learning experience is coherent for students?
A: I always think about how to link to current, past and future inquiries to support the development of
conceptual understandings. Some of our inquiries from the earlier part of the year were more guided, but
much of the learning from these influenced later inquiries. It’s important for the teacher and the students to
have that overview of the conceptual understandings that weave and build throughout the programme of
inquiry.
It’s also useful to keep in mind the various ways in which the inquiry is transdisciplinary. We plan within our
grade level, but also collaborate closely with other members of the teaching team—drama, IT, library, and
so on. I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to make time for this collaborative planning as the
teaching team’s disciplinary knowledge is invaluable for me to make authentic learning links to the learning
goals of each subject.
Another thing to consider is how to plan uninterrupted time with the whole class for inquiry. I know this is a
challenge, and it’s something that everyone needs to make decisions about and commit to. Inquiry has to
be a flexible process, and one that doesn’t always have a time frame imposed on it.
Q: You spoke earlier about engaging students in meaningful and memorable learning—can you tell
us a bit more about how you plan for that?
A: For learning to be meaningful, you really need to consider student agency—what voice, choice and
ownership do they have in their learning experiences? What connections can they make between their
inquiries and their own experiences? When learning has a purpose for the students, that’s when it becomes
memorable.
Throughout the planning and learning process, I’m always on the lookout for the different ways I can make
connections to children’s experiences and real-life problem solving. (See vignette 2).

Vignette 2: Learning through authentic contexts

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 Interview with Melanie

We approach all our subject-specific learning with a spirit of inquiry, and set learning experiences in
authentic contexts. For example, in mathematics, a student was telling the class about a food delivery
system that his parents had signed up to, where they received a box of food and recipe cards each week.
This discussion led to the class setting up their own food delivery company! I spent time looking at the
mathematics curriculum and linked this student-initiated learning to fractions and sharing.
We filled the room with foods of different weights, and posed the problem that our customers had their
recipe cards but no food, and we needed to divide what we had between them.
Each group was given four customers, thereby dividing the foodstuffs into quarters. Through their inquiries,
I learned that the students weren’t using the packaging to help them divide weights. This led to an
opportunity to explore packaging information, bringing in science and health education.
By the end of the inquiry, the students had a good understanding of fractions—way beyond what they
would have developed had textbooks or mathematics schemes been used. Adopting an inquiry-based

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approach supports students to take ownership of their learning and to really challenge themselves. I also
find that it is an excellent way of personalising the learning, and its lots of fun too!

The outcomes of inquiry benefit the whole learning community, so we’re always looking at ways to share
our learning with them—and this has the added benefit of giving learning a real audience. ( For example, in
one of our units we were exploring ways to keep fit and healthy—both physically and emotionally. The
culmination of this learning took place through a series of student-initiated and student-designed
workshops, such as yoga, meditation, stretching and marathon running. The whole school was invited to
take part, including non-teaching staff. We had staff from the admissions department taking part in a mini
marathon, a Spanish teacher signing up for the painting workshop, and the business office staff
collaborating with parents through exercise. It was a wonderful way of having so many people from
different departments from school taking part in student inquiry.
Q: Can you talk us through an example of guided inquiry in your context?
A: Guided inquiry scaffolds the process for students—I might determine the lines of inquiry and conceptual
focus, but the process isn’t entirely directed by me. Inquiry is always a collaborative co-constructed
experience that emerges from students’ questions, theories, discoveries and reflections.
We always start our units of inquiry with some sort of provocation to spark curiosity and help students
make personal connections between what they already know and what they are about to learn. We record
any reactions to the provocations, often completing “visible thinking” routines such as “Think, Puzzle,
Explore and See” and “Think, Wonder” (from Project Zero) to find out more about their current
understandings and interests. In most cases, the first few weeks of a guided inquiry involve the “front
loading” of knowledge, so students have a shared base to work from. It’s really important to put aside time
for students to explore the lines of inquiry, developing and answering their own questions, as this process
will support them in gradually constructing and developing conceptual understandings linked to the
central idea.
Throughout a guided inquiry, there will often be moments of direct teaching—for example, I will monitor
the learning and sometimes intervene with a “mini lesson” to teach certain skills that the students need to
take their inquiry further. My role is to teach “just in time”, anticipating what comes next and nudging
students towards their potential. It’s a thoughtful balance between when to teach and when to stand back
and let students lead the way. (See vignette 4.)

Vignette 4: Guided inquiry

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Transdisciplinary theme: How we organize ourselves (interconnectedness of human-made systems and

communities)
Central idea: People use systems to organize themselves.
Lines of inquiry:
What a system is
The systems people use to function in the community
The consequences of system breakdown
This guided inquiry involved all the classes in grade 2. Our provocation was a council meeting, linked to the
student’s prior knowledge of the student council. In the middle of the common area was a large piece of
land with a “For sale” sign on it. Each teacher represented a councillor and announced that we had bought
a piece of land and wanted to invite the community to collaborate on an urban planning project.
First, the students voted on what type of community the land was going to represent. At this stage, the
teachers “front loaded” some of this knowledge, creating presentations about different types of habitat
(coastal, mountainous, desert), linking back to learning from a previous unit of inquiry. We then guided the
students through the different systems of a community (transport, government, entertainment, industrial,
and so on) and they collaborated on posters to present their ideas on how these things could be placed in
the community to maximize space and well-being.
Direct teaching took place through role play. For example, the students, as town planners, had to ask for
planning permission from the councillors. This created opportunities for discussions around building
requirements and restrictions, and generated lots of new learning for the town planners to take back to
their designs. Student voice, choice and ownership was reflected in each council meeting, where students
were responsible for pitching their ideas and voting on community decisions, demonstrating personal and
collective action through participation. They took their roles seriously—as did the teachers. We even
booked the boardroom and kept agendas for each meeting!
Even though this inquiry was guided, there were many student-initiated ideas and learning opportunities.
Beyond planning and building their 3D models, the students started to create pipe systems under the
tables, and make tunnels and bridges to join one part of the city to another. Their ideas and enthusiasm
took the inquiry way beyond the initial teacher planning, and included a wealth of opportunities to develop
and demonstrate approaches to learning (ATL) and the attributes of the learner profile.

Q: What about student-initiated inquiry—how is this different from guided inquiry?

A: It’s important to remember that it’s not an either/or situation— a student may initiate an inquiry or a
teacher may initiate an inquiry. An inquiry-focused teacher will identify when and to what degree their
intervention can support students’ thinking in relation to the central idea and their own questions.
Students may lead parts of the inquiry while teachers may take on a more guided role for others.
Student-initiated inquiry is at the heart of the PYP and is central to our practice at ISA. It can be challenging
to have students taking part in personalized inquiries, but it’s a truly authentic way of developing and
demonstrating the skills and dispositions for learning, as well as constructing knowledge and deepening
conceptual understandings. You have to really value this as part of the learning process.
It’s important to plan time for student-initiated inquiries to unfold. My advice to schools would be to make
sure you have a shared understanding of what student-initiated inquiry is, and create some essential
agreements around this type of learning.
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to student-initiated inquiry. People often ask, “What does it look like?”.
It could look like play, collaboration, experimentation, problem-based learning, interviewing experts,
collecting data, research or field trips. It looks like students posing and pursuing their own questions in
order to make sense of the world around them.
Throughout student-initiated inquiry, I’m mindful of the learning destination. The children know that their
inquiries should link back to curriculum outcomes, lines of inquiry and the central idea in some way. It’s my
job to support them, whether that’s through targeted mini lessons to develop their skills or through
exploring potential transdisciplinary links to extend their inquiries.

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Interview with Melanie

Having said that, sometimes you just have to go with what is happening that day—heavy snowfall means
we all go out and inquire about snow! Someone has a new baby in the family—what can we do to help?
Student-initiated inquiry, in fact all inquiry, involves an element of risk-taking. It’s an invitation to “find out”
and delve into the unknown. (See vignette 5.)

Vignette 5: Student-initiated inquiry

Transdisciplinary theme: How the world works (the interaction between the natural world (physical and
biological) and human societies)
Central idea: A habitable planet needs certain conditions for life to exist.
Lines of inquiry:
What makes Earth habitable
Our solar system
Solids, liquids and gases

This unit launched with a reading of Bartholomew and the Oobleck by Dr Seuss. The students were
fascinated by Oobleck (non-Newtonian fluid), and this immediately captured their curiosity about solids,
liquids and gases. To set the scene further, we explored a range of non-fiction books, taking time to practise
and develop research skills. Through this process, the children naturally became interested in things they
didn’t yet understand, such as black holes and uninhabitable planets.
During the first couple of weeks of science immersion, students started to post their own questions and
wonderings next to the lines of inquiry on display. Having identified their personal areas of interest, we
discussed how these connected to other questions in the class. Students negotiated their own groupings
based on similar areas of interest linking back to the lines of inquiry.
To help scaffold their inquiries, students work collaboratively on an inquiry plan, revisiting and revising their
steps along the way. It’s important for me to know what their plans are so that I can guide and support, as
needed.
In this unit, a lot of the student-initiated inquiries linked back to previous learning experiences. For
example, one group was inquiring into whether Oobleck could be made with liquids other than water, and
wanted to explore this through a documentary-style video, using their existing scriptwriting and green-
screening skills. Other students shared their conceptual understandings through non-fiction books, circling
back to the learning from the start of the unit.

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The children wanted to share their books—The Big Bang, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Let’s Explore the Planets
—through the library, which led to inquiries into the publishing process. Before I knew it, the students were
making decisions about how many copies of each book they needed to make, and teaching themselves
how to use the book binder! They took so much pride in the books they published, which then became part
of the main library collection—meaning anyone could search for their names as authors and find their
books. One student took action and suggested to the library that it would be nice to have a section of the
library with books written by the children. There is now such a section in the library—and the collection is
growing!
Student-initiated inquiries can run over several weeks—and they are worth every minute. When children’s
agency is supported through choice, wonderful and unexpected learning can happen.

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Interview with Melanie

Q: You mentioned that students pose their own questions and wonderings. How important are
questions, and how can students be supported in forming their own?
A: Questions are central to any inquiry, whether guided or student-initiated. When we’re engaged in the
early stages of an inquiry, I might encourage the students to pick an area that they want to learn more
about, and they then form groups based on shared interests. I think it’s important for teachers to know that
not all student questions can be directly addressed—and that’s OK—but each child’s question will be
recorded and validated in some way. I am an avid user of sticky notes, and I use these in conjunction with
visible thinking routines (from "Project Zero"), such as “Think, Puzzle, Explore”, to note down questions. It’s
so important to allow enough time for children not only to ask questions, but also to have the thinking time
when answering them.

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 Interview with Melanie

But the really challenging part is coming up with great questions to start with—especially at the beginning
of an inquiry. It’s my aim to nurture and develop the students’ thinking skills—they know right from the
start of the year that thinking is greatly valued. This year, my students and I have created a poster of
powerful thinking words to help them come up with a range of vocabulary to shape their questions and
inquiries. I build on the powerful thinking words in day-to-day teaching, sometimes purposefully using
examples in a sentence to see if the students pick up on them. As more words were added to the poster, the
students noticed that many of the learner profile attributes were also powerful thinking words, so they are
now using these more in their questions. Many of the powerful thinking words are also concepts, which
leads to some really interesting discussions.

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The strength of a question really influences the direction and depth of an inquiry, and scaffolds the
students in deepening their conceptual understandings. I’ve found that my students often have more
questions at the end of an inquiry than at the start!

In this example, students were exploring the concept of innovation. They had identified a problem that
they wanted to solve, and were asked to think of questions they would need to consider, using their
powerful thinking words.

Q: What about learning spaces—how can these be used to promote inquiry learning?
A: Our classroom is set up in a way that both promotes and provokes inquiry learning. I say “our” classroom
because the space is co-constructed with the students. (See vignette 6). One of my personal goals this year
was to ensure students had the opportunity to design their learning spaces in ways they believed best
supported their thinking. Throughout the year, the students have suggested improvements to the
classroom—we now have a meditation area, quiet learning corners, display cabinets, a new rug and sofa!

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However, this may change next year with a new group of students in the room. I really enjoy setting up a
calm environment that inspires collaborative learning and encourages students to want to inquire and
explore.

Vignette 6: Inquiry into classroom design

Early in the year, we launched an inquiry to find out how we could alter the space to promote better
thinking and learning. In mathematics, students used their shape and space knowledge to design different
table configurations. The students really enjoyed moving the tables around and physically changing the
set-up of the room, with the responsibility of reflecting on which configurations worked better for
collaborative learning. If you view students as constructors of their own knowledge, it’s essential that their
agency is supported through ownership of their own learning spaces.

At ISA, our aim is to develop innovative and effective learning spaces that encourage a genuine sense of
wonder. We think about learning spaces in a multisensory way—not just how they look, but how they smell

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and sound. We’re very proud of our communal learning space in grade 2, which changes at the start of each
unit of inquiry. The space is set up in a way that promotes discovery and provokes reactions. (See
vignette 7.)

Vignette 7: Spaces to promote inquiry

The common area for each grade level is always set up to promote inquiry and a playful approach to
learning. The area is changed for each unit of inquiry so that on the first day the students arrive to see a
completely transformed learning space. Setting up the common area in such an elaborate way takes time
and effort, but we really enjoy planning how we can set it up in a way that will encourage the students to
inquire. The students, parents and our teaching colleagues are always excited to see the transformation,
and it promotes a sense of wonder with all ages. As the children get older, there seem to be less
opportunities to play, so this is something we have purposefully brought into our grade level. In the picture
below, the children are using magnifying glasses to explore what they can find on the walls. As they move
through this area, they can hear the sounds of the rainforest. We have this playing on a loop through
surround-sound speakers. It plays quietly in this area for the duration of the unit. Students, parents and staff
have commented on what a powerful immersive effect the sounds have.

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Q: How do you assess the learning that comes from inquiry?

A: Our PYP planners are working documents, with the flexibility to revise learning outcomes, engagements
and ongoing assessments. This is reflected in the PYP planning process and optional planner, where
assessment and reflection are positioned throughout the learning.
Assessment doesn’t just involve me identifying what students could develop further, but also involves the
students identifying this for themselves. We’ve found the best way of assessing student inquiry is to design
a self-assessment with the students. (See vignette 8.)

Vignette 8: Student-designed assessment

At the start of our guided inquiry on systems and communities, the students drew an aerial-view plan of a
community, in black pen. Some weeks later, they were given back the plan and asked to add all their new
learning, in blue pen. Students could add additional sheets to their plans—some were so large they had to
work on them on the floor!

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Interview with Melanie

When they had finished, the students asked if they could add a key. We co-constructed the key as a class,
which then became a tool for reflection. The students marked their maps using the key, and included
written reflections on which elements were or weren’t represented, and why. This paved the way for
discussions around the ways in which their maps could be developed in the future. For me, this is a great
example of student-designed self-assessment in action, helping the children to become truly assessment-
capable learners who can adjust and improve their own learning.

Q: What do you think are the greatest benefits of inquiry-based learning?

A: Inquiry opens the doors to infinite possibilities for learning—learning that goes way beyond the initial
planned outcomes. Inquiry gives children a huge sense of responsibility because they are making that
meaning themselves, using their personal experiences and interests to make connections, revise theories
and clarify existing ideas. Inquiry honours the students and shows them that you are interested in what
they want to know—and that you don’t have all the answers yourself!

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Over the years, I’ve seen the impact that inquiry learning has had on students who are still at ISA. They
come and talk to me about our collaborative inquiries and the fun we had together. And for me, that’s what
learning is all about—creating powerful memories and understandings that children will take with them
through life. I just can’t imagine teaching in any other way.

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Inquiry in action

Questions

First impressions
• How does Melanie’s personal experience of inquiry-based learning resonate with your own? What
similarities have you experienced, and what ideas will you take away for your future practice?
• Melanie talks about the importance of having a shared understanding of student-initiated inquiry.
What is your personal understanding of student-initiated inquiry, and to what extent has this been
explored collaboratively with teachers, students and the learning community?

Deepening your understanding

• Melanie says that “getting” concepts and conceptual understandings stems from strong central ideas
that are reviewed and refined through collaboration. What process do you go through when
reviewing your central ideas? How have they been refined in order to strengthen conceptual
understandings?
• Melanie talks about the power of student-designed self-assessment. Revisit the content on
“assessment” and reflect on how you currently monitor and document, measure and record both
guided- and student-initiated inquiry learning.

Next steps
Reread this teacher support material with reference to the content on “inquiry”.
Take some time to reflect on what currently helps or hinders inquiry-based learning in your school.
Collaborate to create an action plan for building on existing strengths and overcoming potential barriers.
How can you involve the whole learning community in this process?

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Further reading

Ritchhart, R. 2015. Creating cultures of thinking: The 8 forces we must master to truly transform our schools. San
Francisco, CA, USA. Jossey-Bass.
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Inquiry in action

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20 Inquiry in a primary setting