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Inquiry-based learning is more than asking a student what he or she wants to know.聽It鈥檚 about triggering curiosity. And activating a student鈥檚 curiosity is, I would argue, a far more important and complex goal than mere information delivery.

Despite its complexity, inquiry-based learning can be聽easier on teachers,聽partly because it transfers some responsibilities from teachers to students, but mostly because releasing authority engages students.

Teachers who use inquiry-based learning combat the 鈥渄unno鈥濃�攁 chronic problem in student engagement.聽

When you ask a student something like, 鈥淲hat do you want to know about _____?鈥� you鈥檙e often met with a shrug聽or聽鈥渄unno.鈥� Inquiry-based learning, if front-loaded well, generates such excitement in students that neurons begin to fire, curiosity is triggered, and they can鈥檛 wait to become experts in answering their own questions.

What inquiry-based teachers do isn鈥檛 easy at all; it鈥檚 just hidden, and some people confuse the two. Teachers hide the strategies they use to encourage inquiry, and聽the students develop their own skills as content-area experts.

Learning Something New

Triggering inquiry is about learning something new, and triggering curiosity is no small feat. It takes modeling enthusiasm, and learning something new generates our own enthusiasm, even if it鈥檚 something new about the content we鈥檝e covered for years.聽

Let鈥檚 say you鈥檙e clicking through your Twitter or Facebook feed and you stumble on a link in your content area.聽You realize it鈥檚 a new factoid, a new perspective on an age-old topic.聽Maybe it鈥檚 a new TED talk or graph with statistics, something that makes a concept more concrete.聽Maybe it鈥檚 an infographic or a photo, something that startles you and leads to furrow your brow and say, 鈥淲haaa?!鈥�

By the way, I think one of the reasons why the whole world seems to be losing its mind over the Broadway production of Hamilton is because it presents a fresh take on a story we鈥檝e all heard before.聽The power of learning something new is undeniable.

You have to bring that 鈥渨haaa?!鈥� into your聽classroom.聽You have to model your own curiosity quotient鈥攖hat hunger to learn that defines how we advance our knowledge of the world.聽According to the , a higher curiosity quotient can indicate more flexibility and help build a greater ability to handle complexity.

So think about your content area.聽What is a new take on a topic that you can bring to your classroom?聽What new piece of information might help you trigger your own enthusiasm that can then trigger your students鈥� curiosity?

The 4聽Steps of Inquiry-Based Learning

So you鈥檝e discovered something that generates your own inquiry, and you鈥檝e recreated聽that moment for your students when your curiosity was triggered.聽So what comes next in inquiry-based learning? This can be answered in four basic steps that should represent the outline of a simple unit.

1. Students develop questions that they are hungry to answer.聽Have them develop a problem statement that requires them to pitch聽their question using a constructed response, further inquiry, and citation.

2. Research the topic using time in class.聽It鈥檚 crucial to have some of this be classwork so students have access to the head researcher in the room鈥攜ou.聽You aren鈥檛 going to do the work for them, but you are going to guide them and model methods of researching reliably.聽

3. Have students present what they鈥檝e learned. Students should create and present a culminating artifact.聽When I have my students present what they鈥檝e learned, I use a rubric with 鈥淎ble to Teach鈥� as the acme of what to reach for.聽After all, many people can understand content, but can they communicate it?聽Students can develop a website using Weebly, or perhaps a slideshow using Google Slides.

4. Ask students to reflect on what worked about the process and what didn鈥檛. Reflection is key.聽And it isn鈥檛 just about asking them to think back on their opinion of the topic.聽It鈥檚 about reflecting on the process itself. That鈥檚 where you can work in metacognition鈥攖hinking about thinking. Have students focus on聽how they learned in addition to聽what they learned.

In terms of your content area, imagine a classroom where different kids are presenting their findings on a single, simple aspect of the content.聽You鈥檇 have a classroom that, overall, learns deeper and wider than ever before.

In terms of student achievement, the power of their question should help drive the research, the writing, and the presentation.聽It should help motivate them to become experts in their聽self-described field.聽And the more often a student gets a taste of what it feels like to be an expert, in however small a concept, the more they will want that feeling later on in life.

It all starts with finding your own enthusiasm, your own excitement, and your own curiosity.聽Do that, and you鈥檒l be heading toward聽a classroom built on inquiry.