ABSTRACT
The students in the previous vignette are members of the kind of community of reflective, disciplined inquiry already described in Chapter 2. Such a community encourages participation with others in goal-directed activity, engagement with intellectual problems that cannot be resolved through the routine application of previously learned knowledge, and understanding and resolving problems with the aid of a variety of intellectual tools. Establishing a community of inquiry in a classroom that provides a meaningful, integrative, challenging, and active context for learning history, as Rebecca Valbuena notes in Chapter 2, is not just a mishap. Whether primary children are investigating the facts and exaggerations of an American historical legend, fourth graders are writing the history of their school, or middle schoolers are debating the merits of nonviolent protest as a response to colonialism in India, communities of inquiry have certain things in common:
This chapter introduces the kind of reflective, disciplined inquiry that sustains the communities of inquiry you will meet throughout this book. Well-constructed, integrated instruction presents students with tasks that require engagement with the content and methods of the discipline of history while providing the scaffolding necessary for students to engage in in-depth study.
