This is a video from John Spencer that beautifully captures what inquiry-based learning is all about. (Spoiler Alert: If you are a Harry Potter fan, you are going to love it.) All of John’s videos are here, and John’s blog is here.

I define inquiry-based learning as students learning through investigation and exploration. Of course, there are many ways to make this happen, and the video provides two frameworks:

• Margus Pedaste’s four phases of inquiry: orientation, conceptualization, investigation, conclusion.
• Heather Banchi & Randy Bell’s four levels of inquiry, from teacher-centered to learner-centered: confirmation inquiry, structured inquiry, guided inquiry, open inquiry.

And the video provides a few practical ways to get started:

• A wonder-day or wonder week project where students develop their own questions and move through the inquiry process
• Genius Hour
• In math, students exploring a concept and developing their own problems
• In science, a science fair project or a myth-buster style approach to testing an urban legend