A Visit About Inquiry

This Wednesday, our class took a field trip to George Jay Elementary in the Victoria School District to talk with a teacher about using Inquiry in the Kindergarten classroom. The teacher we visited, Rebecca Bathurst-Hunt, also known as @inquiryteacher on Instagram, uses an inquiry and student-based approach to teaching early primary students.

She spoke to us for about 40 minutes and then allowed us to explore her classroom and take photos of what inspired us. I really enjoyed looking around her classroom and was inspired by all of the natural elements in the toys and the furniture. She includes toys and books that center around topics that the children are interested in (for this term, the topic is dinosaurs). I also really enjoyed all of the quiet spaces around her class and the flexible seating for students (with clipboards, stools, wobble chairs, and coffee tables).

She spoke to us a lot about encouraging student autonomy, even in the early primary years. When students are engaged with a topic, they are excited to come to school and learn. She also spoke about how inquiry does not have to mean a complete loss of control and chaos in the classroom. Inquiry can start with more structure, with the teacher closely guiding the students with pre-determined questions. As the students gain experience with inquiry and guiding their innate curiosity, the teacher can release some control, and the students can guide their inquiries.

At the Kindergarten level, inquiry can be a topic chosen by the students. In Rebecca’s classroom, the students chose dinosaurs as their main topic of focus. Rebecca then sub-divided the students to focus on one type of dinosaur of their choice. The students will do research with picture books to learn more about what they eat, where they lived, and what they look like. While the students chose the topic, the teacher still has control over how the classes are structured.

To know more about Inquiry in Primary Classrooms, check out the book Inquiry Mindset.

Found on Amazon.