The Many Levels of Inquiry: Inquiry Comes in Various Forms

Abstract

Elementary teachers often struggle with how to design and implement inquiry instruction with their students. For many, just understanding what inquiry is can be difficult, let alone designing activities that support high levels of inquiry. In this article, we present a continuum by which to evaluate an activity’s level of inquiry. Then, using a fifth-grade unit exploring sinking and floating, we describe examples of each type of inquiry from lowlevel structured inquiry to high-level open inquiry. The Inquiry Continuum Teachers sometimes believe that in order for students to be engaged in inquiryoriented activities they need to be designing scientific investigations from scratch and carrying them out on their own. This simply isn’t true. Elementary students cannot be expected to immediately be able to design and carry out their own investigations. In fact, most students, regardless of age, need extensive practice to develop their inquiry abilities and understandings to a point where they can conduct their own investigation from start to finish. Luckily, there are