The journey into Inquiry based
learning, or IBL is never easy. There is a proverbial “leap of faith” when you
let go of traditional teaching, and IBL doesn’t happen overnight. There is a
lot of learning (for both teacher and students) and a lot of trust and modeling
for everyone involved.
I taught for 3 years in Full Day
Kindergarten where play based learning is what we strive to implement each and
every day. When I moved to a primary split, I thought, “I’ll just do what I did
in K.” Well, it backfired. “Inquiry time” became “play time”, which became “seek
and destroy manipulatives and wreak havoc on the teacher” time. So, we scaled
back. I took some cues from some professional reading, and we focused our
energy a little differently. There was more focused reading, more focused
writing, and our inquiry topics were based on our Social Studies and Science
curriculums. Over time, we have gradually moved to more of an inquiry based
learning classroom where the students are learning more about their own topics
of interest. Is it perfect? Not in any way, shape or form. Are my students
learning? You bet they are. Are they better for it? I can’t answer that.
I know that they are better
questioners and seek out information with more purpose. I know that they are
collaborators who are willing to learn from each other and ask questions of
each other. I know that they are kind to each other and that they work hard
each day. So I have learned to trust in the messiness of IBL and trust in my students.
Mindfully yours,
Pam
