means more than being able to design tasks within a Cycle of Inquiry or inviting students to ask and pursue problems and questions.
Inquiry comes from a deeper commitment to reflective, process-oriented learning. The inquirer (both teacher and learner) sees themselves and their learning as 'work in progress.' They are driven by the desire not to simply accumulate or conquer a body of knowledge but to make Meaning of the ever-changing knowledge landscape of which we are part. This includes acquiring knowledge, but it is *Understanding* that is the ultimate quest.
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MURDOCH, Kath, 2015. The power of inquiry. Seastar Education.
# From a ‘Subject’ to an Approach across the Day
Thinking of Inquiry as something we 'do' (eg, when we do a 'unit of inquiry' on Thursday afternoon) is problematic.
Teachers are familiar with the concept of a Cycle or Framework for inquiry that helps us design an ongoing journey of learning for students - often over several weeks.
Tasks are organized around a broad sequence of phases that moves students from an Exploration of their prior knowledge through to deeper understanding as a result of research, analysis and synthesis.
This process is generally framed by questions generated by both teachers and students.
This cycle can be applied to short and long-term investigations. The use of inquiry as a planning framework for such units is powerful and effective; however, when we see it only in this context we run the risk of treating it like a separate subject in the curriculum (see chapter 5 for more on inquiry frameworks).