Inquiry is a way of learning when people are on their own. By being alone, people form questions and these questions are then investigated. Inquiry involves “careful observation, critical reasoning…imagination, and…reliance on evidence” (Metz, 2006, 8). Through this, questions are answered and a new understanding is developed. In a science classroom, inquiry uses questioning from both teachers and students and active engagement in order to stimulate student learning. When inquiry is used in instruction it is always “student centered and the teacher is…the facilitator of knowledge and learning” (Spencer & Walker, 2011, 19). Students develop most of the questions that will be investigated while the teacher makes sure that the students understand the information and guides them through the process with mini lessons. With inquiry instruction students learn to be like scientists as they create their own questions and experiments, test their experiments, and use observations to develop their conclusions (Hollen, Toney, Bisaccio, Haberstroh, & Herbert, 2011). All of this leads to their own discoveries and a deeper understanding of science.
One method of inquiry that has all these qualities and is very effective is problem-based learning. Problem-based learning “actively engages students in solving real-world problems using a scientific approach” (Hollen et al., 2011, 59). Students develop their own questions based on something that is occurring around them. After they develop their own questions they explore and create possible reasons and solutions for the problem. Usually the questions deal with how and why certain things work. Students “manage their own data” throughout the investigation and “present their solutions” at the end (Weiland, 2011, 41). During this inquiry method, teachers are once again facilitators by making “key aspects of expertise visible through questions that scaffold student learning by modeling, coaching, and eventually fading some of...