Do you remember when you were a child, you liked to pick up snails and insects and put them in bottles just to see how the insects ate? The pure curiosity driven desire for exploration is the core soul of inquiry based learning. This concept overturns the traditional model of teachers imparting knowledge to students, turning the classroom into a wonderful journey full of questions and exploration. This means that without the participation and involvement of curious students, inquiry based learning cannot be carried out. Students still need to create an open environment where inquiry based learning can take place. Exploratory learning is based on constructivist theory, which means it requires students to construct their own knowledge through open inquiry. Students can respond to their curiosity by asking questions or contemplating practical possibilities, and they can reflect on these questions and answers. This is the main part of inquiry based learning.
Learning begins with a real, thought-provoking phenomenon, like when we were young, we often asked adults, ‘Why do leaves change color in autumn?’ or ‘Why does the sky snow?’. The best way to solve this problem is for students to discover and think on their own, rather than for teachers to guide their thinking. During our student years, we would enthusiastically discuss, repeatedly test, and modify the shape design of a paper airplane in order to verify which one could fly the farthest. They not only studied physics, but also experienced the complete process of scientific exploration, which exercised the core competencies necessary for future society. We use physical resistance and air to determine which type of nose can “break through the wind” and fly farther, and even research paper airplanes that can rotate in the air based on this knowledge. I think inquiry based learning is about giving students the initiative to learn, allowing them to pilot curious spacecraft and actively explore in the universe of knowledge. Knowledge is no longer just cold words in books, but is dynamically constructed through hands-on practice and team collaboration. Life is a process of constantly trying, making mistakes, and correcting oneself to become better. Knowledge constructed through personal experience is far more firmly remembered, understood more thoroughly, and easier to transfer to new knowledge than knowledge passively received. The exploration of the real world often lacks a standard answer, embracing the process of ‘not knowing’ and gradually approaching understanding through exploration. All answers are created by our exploratory nature and can only be obtained through hands-on experience.
Recent Comments