There is a famous quote by Benjamin Franklin that you may have heard - “tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I will learn”. 

In a nutshell, this old adage captures the essence of inquiry learning in AIP at Ormiston Junior College. In a traditional school model, learners are passive in their learning. They are expected to listen and repeat. At OJC our learners are instead encouraged to question and experience. OJC learners are active in their own learning and construct their own new knowledge. The reason we do this is simple - we don’t believe the traditional learning model equips our young people well enough for the world ahead of them. In the 21st century where information is available with a tap of the virtual keyboard on a touch screen, knowledge quite simply does not have the same esteem it once did. As we head deeper into the new century the skills that successful people will need in the future changes from people who ‘know’ to people who can ‘do’. Collaboration, perseverance, problem solving skills, critical thinking, communication and grit replace knowledge as the new ‘keys to the kingdom’. Inquiry is the very best way of involving learners in their own learning and puts them in a position where in an uncertain world they can solve their own problems, show resilience in the face of challenge and find the answer to the important questions. The grandfather of modern education was the Swiss scientist Jean Piaget. Piaget’s definition of intelligence is ‘what you do when you don’t know what to do’. At OJC we prepare our learners for the future by unapologetically teaching them how to teach themselves.

For more information on inquiry learning, check out the links below:

http://galileo.org/teachers/designing-learning/articles/why-inquiry/

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/what-heck-inquiry-based-learning-heather-wolpert-gawron