Maui’s Dolphin –

For more help supporting your students to ask rich questions, see
http://www.inquiringmind.co.nz/the_task.htm
Inquiry stage two: Choosing and using information
Once the question is posed, students are encouraged to investigate the topic by gathering
information from sources that have been either provided by the teacher or found in
learning resources or tools that are readily available to the students. Many of the learning
experiences on pages 15–33 will be ideal for this stage.
When enough information related to the topic of inquiry is gathered, it is either organised
into categories or the important information relative to the topic is highlighted. This
organisation should be teacher led, but have a high level of student involvement. This
helps the student make connections between new and prior knowledge. Note that prior
knowledge was established during the immersion stage, but this stage should be revisited
once the key question has been decided. This will ensure that specific prior knowledge
relating to that question is established.
Here are some ideas you could use:
An excellent tool is a KWHL chart – what I know, what I want to find out, how I will find out,
what I learned (see www.graphic.org/kwhl.html for an example). Used as a whole class
wall-chart or individually, these are great because they keep track of the whole inquiry to
action process, showing a running record of the expansion of student’s knowledge and
understanding. Try to take key words and ideas out of the general brainstorm and into
some other form of graphic organiser; for example, a chain or persuasion organiser or a
T-chart (see www.enchantedlearning.com/graphicorganizers for examples).
Sources for gathering information could be websites, video clips on YouTube, books,
pictures, and people in the community. See pages 34–39 for an extensive list of resources.
Talk to students about how to ensure sources are reliable and remind them about
obtaining information from a variety of sources.
There are many tools and strategies that will help your students to organise the information
they gather. Possibilities include PMIs, a decision-making matrix, comparing and
contrasting, similarities and differences, and evaluation and generalisation. Models of
all of these can be found online (see www.enchantedlearning.com/graphicorganizers for
examples).
The information should be discussed and analysed for further understanding. The teacher
can direct the discussion, highlighting the issues that are arising from the inquiry and how
these, in turn, have an impact on the choice of action to take.
Inquiry stage three: Coming to our conclusions
Before conclusions can be drawn, reflection and analysis must take place. This serves to
reinforce the inquiry model so that students can repeat the process in any problem-solving
situation. Because of the non-linear nature of inquiry learning, reflection and analysis may
lead to a return to a previous stage to gather more information.
Maui’s Dolphin – An inquiry to action
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