Topic 2 - Inquiry

How can you build a culture of inquiry in your classroom? What are strategies and best practices for helping students ask good questions? How will this help them learn?

For the month of October, you will be exploring these questions through readings, videos, discussion and reflection. 


Learning Beliefs & Text Understanding Read about this research study that examines students’ ability to understand text in relation to their views about learning. What are the implications for the classroom? Where does inquiry fit in this? How might a culture of inquiry help students to form a more constructivist view of learning?

The Third Teacher:  Explore the “chapters” links on the left side of the page. Actually, each of these is a brief statement or strategy to improve the learning environment in the classroom. Many of these can be considered strategies for building a culture of inquiry in the classroom.  While some of these design features are beyond our control, there are many, many things that you do have the ability to implement!

Spoon Feeding Answers Read through this brief Q& A  from the business world on Tom Foster’s Management Skills Blog.  What are the possible implications for the classroom? 

Activity 1: Watch

Watch Angela Meier’s presentation for the 2009 K-12 Online Conference on “Engaging Our Youngest Minds.”  How can we create a classroom culture that nurtures students’ inborn sense of wonder?  How might you use technology tools to ignite passion in students and provide a means for them to explore that passion?

Watch Howard Gardner’s short video clip in which he talks about the importance of addressing multiple intelligences in the classroom.  Can a culture of inquiry in the classroom help with this? How?

Watch this video about Project Based Learning.  How can this type of inquiry lead to motivated students and allow them  opportunities to practice 21st century skills?

And –even the youngest children can participate! Check out “Five Year Olds Pilot Their Own Project-Based Learning

 Activity 2: Listen 

Listen to this podcast interview with Dr. Leslie Maniotes on the concept of third space.  What are the implications for your classroom?

Activity 3: Discuss

Discussion: Respond to the questions posted in the forum on this site– converse with other cadre members, search for additional resources, and share them in the forum.


Can a culture of inquiry and attention to third space help ignite passion in our students?  What other ideas do you have? How do we get there?


Create a blog post on this site. Write about your understanding of  and ideas for creating a culture of inquiry in the classroom. How is this connected to the other topics and strategies you explored this month? What do you see is the connection to helping students acquire 21st century skills?

Other Resources

Cotton, Kathleen. Classroom Questioning.

McKenzie, Jamie. “Beyond Cut-and-Paste: Engaging Students in Wrestling with Questions of Import.”

McKenzie, Jamie.  Questioning Toolkit:

McKenzie, Jamie.  “Filling the Tool Box: Classroom Strategies to Engender Student Questioning”

McKenzie, Jamie. (2005).  Learning to Question, to Wonder, to Learnavailable in the district professional library

Kuhlthau, Carol, Leslie Maniotes, and Ann Caspari. (2007). Guided Inquiry: Learning in the 21st CenturyAvailable in the district professional library

Koechlin, Carol and Sandi Zwaan. (2006). Q-Tasks. Available in the district professional library.

Journey North. “A Menu of Inquiry Strategies.” Available

Classroom 2.0: Discussion on “How to Create  Culture of Inquiry.”

WikiEd. “ Questioning strategies.”