Types of Inquiry

Everyone talks about inquiry, especially in science classrooms. But it can be very difficult to understand exactly what it is, particularly when you're under the gun and need to design a lesson on Sunday for Monday! Basically, inquiry is when we turn the tables, and instead of us asking the questions of students, they have to ask questions and discover answers to those questions.

Of course, this works very well in science, so here are the major four types of inquiry:

Open Students investigate questions that are student formulated through student designed/selected procedures.	Guided Students investigate a teacher-presented question using student designed/ selected procedures.
Structured Students investigate a teacher-presented question through a prescribed procedure.	Confirmation Students confirm a principle through an activity when the results are known in advance.

I find that true, open inquiry is very difficult to implement and has to happen closer to the end of the school year after students are comfortable with the basic tenets of inquiry and science. Essentially, these are science fair questions, but you can still guide students in open inquiry to investigate a question that is about a particular unit of study.