Creative Teaching and Learning

The Framework Of Skills For Inquiry Learning (FOSIL) Can Transform Students’ Knowledge Of Their Subject

Children need a framework a to undertake enquiry-based learning well. Elizabeth Hutchinson extols FOSIL and the role of school librarians.

"Inquiry - a process and stance aimed at building knowledge and understanding of the world and ourselves in it, which is the basis for responsible participation in community - is fundamental to learning, both formal and informal" (Stripling and Toerien).

If this is a definition of inquiry, what does that mean in the reality of a school setting? 

In Linking librarians, inquiry learning, and information literacy (2020), Lance and Maniotes explain that the underlying principle of inquiry is that "Students choose a topic of interest to them, study it at depth, and share what they’ve learned. While teachers offer guidance and support, students 'form their own questions through experiences, reflection, conversation, and writing [and] gain a sense of ownership and accomplishment in the work they are producing that gradually leads to competence, independence, and expertise'".

This is something that needs to be progressively and systematically developed over all of their years at school.

What is inquiry-based learning?

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