ABSTRACT
Inquiry skills and the development of understanding In the case studies in Chapters 1 and 2 the teachers collected materials (ice, balls, soil samples, sealants) or took children to an environment (or created it in school) for children to explore and observe. Their observations were focused by a question – often starting with a ‘which is best’ question or a ‘what is going on here’ question and leading to a ‘how do we find out’ question. The children’s ideas based on earlier experience led them to suggest answers and the teachers encouraged them to gather more information which enabled the children to test their ideas. This was followed by interpreting and drawing conclusions from what they found and by communicating and reflecting on what they found. What understanding emerges from the inquiry, as noted in Chapter 6, depends on what and how information is gathered and used, in other words on the skills of observation, hypothesising, questioning, predicting, planning, interpreting, drawing conclusions, communicating and reflecting.
