My Experience with the Inquiry Project
The Inquiry Project ‘Recreating the Future: Towards the Goal of Sustainability’ is designed in the form of a four-week long workshop with the big idea of involving students in the Zero Waste Challenge. All the four lessons are focused upon different goals which progress from week one to week four, that is, identifying the waste in the surroundings to recreating something useful from the waste that students see around them. One of the major learnings from this inquiry projects is that it facilitated me to think critically about my own waste consumption practices and its impact on the environment, community and world. In addition to this, the project encouraged to develop a sense of accountability and responsibility towards creating a sustainable future. While planning for the Inquiry Project, I have encountered the challenge of finding the appropriate resources that can invite students from all backgrounds, interests and skills in the inquiry in order to make the process of learning more engaging, inclusive and meaningful by providing them an opportunity to strengthen the relationship that they share with the place and people around them. Moreover, there are certain questions that one needs to reflect on:
- Is it possible to recreate something useful from every waste that they we produce daily?
- How can we cooperate and collaborate by switching to a zero-waste lifestyle?
- Why waste generation is considered as a barrier in building a sustainable community?
If I was asked to plan this inquiry project differently, I would have designed this in the form of a month-long experiential learning program by letting students interact with local community members and know their ideas and practices about zero waste through surveys and interviews. Furthermore, students will be encouraged to observe and explore the zero waste practices employed by people by creating something useful from their day-to-day waste generation and present the same in the actual classroom instead of the virtual one.
My Understanding about the Process of Inquiry
Considering my inquiry project, I have developed a deeper understanding about the process of inquiry by acknowledging its importance for the holistic development of students that allows them to emerge as more rational and responsible human beings who have the potential to take the decisions wisely. Additionally, I have learnt that it is very crucial to involve students in the process of inquiry by allowing them to acquire knowledge from multiple resources that exist in the real world without being confined to the textbook as the only source of learning. The most important aspect of the process of inquiry is to allow students to challenge their own assumptions and think divergently as inquiry is the kind of navigation in which one can ask questions for the creative possibility of perceiving things differently for more enriched, novel, vital, or deeper meanings (Bai, 2005). Apart from this, the initial step to indulge students in the process of inquiry is to develop right questions that spark curiosity among them and nurture their imaginative capacities. Here, teacher plays an integral role by thinking about the cognitive tools such as images, emotions, stories and metaphors that can give the concepts and content life and energy (Egan & Judson, 2015). While thinking about incorporating inquiry-based pedagogy in the curriculum, there are some questions I am still wondering about:
- How can teachers formulate effective and relevant inquiry questions that are meaningful for each and every learner present in the classroom?
- What should be the philosophy behind those questions?
- What skills should a teacher possess for designing the same?
I think finding the answers to the abovementioned questions require a deeper critical insight of our own educational philosophy and pedagogical practices.
Reflection on the Feedback provided by Instructor and Peers
During the gallery walk presentation, I have received constructive feedback from my peers in the form of a star, wish and question that helped me to identify and work upon the specific area such as designing an open-ended activity by enabling students to showcase their creativity of what they have learnt. Besides this, the instructor guided me and provided me with some great ideas about designing my inquiry project as a four-week extended workshop based on enhancing various skills. I think all the suggestions are very useful that helped me to understand the real purpose of inquiry as a means of nurturing creativity among students by coming up with their original ideas. As described by Lubart’s (2000), “The creative process is the sequence of thought and action that leads to a novel, adaptive production” (Kelly, 2012, p. 6).