To inquiry or not to inquiry?

Inquiry-based learning is my bread and butter. In my work as an Educator with the Florida Museum of Natural History, the majority of programming I create for children (and even adults!) is based on the idea that children will learn about the natural history of Florida through interaction with science.



Visitors engaging with a wetland model with the UF Wetlands Club at ButterflyFest this past October at the Florida Museum of Natural History (Photo Credit: ©Florida Museum of Natural History photo by Jeff Gage)

 

I find that children learn better by touching items or engaging with experiments. For example, they will discover how waves impact a seashore by creating their own wave demonstrations and studying erosion patterns and actually seeing it happen through their experiments much better than I could ever tell them in a lecture. Through my work with the Museum, I can definitely say that a child's interaction with material is a better teacher than I could ever be. Granted, guiding them through exploration helps them to investigate it and think about it in new and different ways than they might have done on their own. But overall, the opportunity to see and hold something brings it off the page and into their world.



 (Photo source: http://www.protozone.net/AJsand.html)

Experimentation with seashores at the Long Island Children's Museum

.

Learning is done through experience-- whether that experience is a lecture/discussion or by touching artifacts. Children should be given every opportunity to create meaning for themselves rather than just having meaning thrust upon them.

While I tend to be biased toward inquiry and experience based learning, it is definitely important to make sure the ways in which we teach are varied and can meet the needs of all of our students-- whether it is objectivist or constructivist. With that said, I don't think it is necessarily fair to say that one way is more correct than the other. I am definitely a huge fan of inquiry-based, or constructivist, learning but I understand and see the benefits behind a more structured and standardized learning approach. However, the best approach we as educators can take is the most varied one-- where we incorporate different methods and opportunities for children to learn.