Magical Curiosity: Learning through Inquiry

Our educational approaches at School Beyond Limitations make use of a wide range of educational strategies to inspire our students in our zoom rooms. We often make use of an Inquiry Based Approach to Learning to extend our student’s learning and to foster deeper inspiration in the areas that our students wish to focus upon.

This means that we intentionally place emphasis on our students actively engaging in their learning process by posing questions, conducting investigations, and exploring topics in a self-directed manner. An Inquiry Based Approach encourages our students to think critically, solve problems, and to gain a deeper understanding of any area they wish to research. With this in mind, I thought it is worthwhile to provide a brief guide to what really constitutes an Inquiry Based Learning approach and to how this is used at SBL:

We Guide Open-Ended Questions:

• We encourage our students to ask open-ended questions that require thoughtful investigation and analysis rather than simple yes or no answers.
• We help our students formulate questions that should be framed to stimulate curiosity and prompt further exploration.

We Develop a Curious Mindset:

• We intentionally foster a curious mindset by creating an environment where our students feel comfortable asking questions, expressing their interests, and pursuing answers.

We Design Guiding Questions:

• We provide guiding questions that help our students to structure their inquiry process. These questions lead our students through their exploration while allowing room for their own interpretations and discoveries.

We Encourage Research and Investigation:

• We guide our students to research and investigate topics independently. This may involve library research, online searches, interviews, experiments, or fieldwork.
• We teach them how to evaluate sources for reliability and relevance.

We Facilitate Collaboration and Communication:

• We encourage collaboration among our students. Group projects and discussions help our student learn from each other, share ideas, and develop important interpersonal skills.
• We promote effective communication skills, both written and oral, to articulate findings and insights.

We Develop Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving skills:

• We emphasise critical thinking skills by challenging our students to analyse information, draw conclusions, and solve problems.
• We provide opportunities for them to apply their knowledge to real-world scenarios.

We Practise Reflection:

• We Incorporate reflection sessions regularly, during which our students discuss what they have learnt, the challenges they faced, and how their understanding has evolved.
• We ask them to think about the learning process itself and how they can improve their inquiry skills.

We Support Flexibility and Adaptability:

• We recognize that inquiry-based learning is a dynamic process for our students and we support them to be flexible and open to adjusting the direction of the inquiry on their interests and discoveries.
• We allow for unexpected tangents that may arise during the exploration.

We Adapt Assessment:

• We assess so that we are aligned with the goals of inquiry-based learning. We evaluate not only the final product but also the process, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity.
• Our assessment can take a variety forms, including presentations, reports, portfolios, or demonstrations.

We are Facilitators:

• We see ourselves as facilitators and guides, rather than a sole source of information. We support and scaffold the learning process, providing assistance when needed, but we allow our students to take ownership of their learning.

Inquiry Based Learning at SBL encourages our students to have ownership of their learning and to be curious, we foster a love for learning that extends beyond our zoom rooms. It prepares students to be lifelong learners and critical thinkers in a rapidly changing world.

Are you interested in SBL’s learning approach? If you would like to access more information about School Beyond Limitations or ask any questions, please reach out to us.