An interview with...

The power of the inquiry-based approach to teaching and learning

A chat with Deputy Principal: Learning and Teaching - Cherie Boltong

Education at its very best is about empowering the student; to build achievement on discovering the individual talents of each child and by instilling agency so that each student holds ownership and exercises voice in the process of their own, self-directed learning.

With over two decades of experience teaching at the renowned Canadian International School in Singapore, Cherie Boltong knows only too well the power and empowerment embedded within the inquiry approach to teaching and learning.

“Inquiry is just good practise,” Cherie said, “… what it allows the students to do is to make connections with their own learning along with how they can make the world a better place.

“With inquiry you won’t see 20- or 40-minute math, English or science lessons, after which the children simply put their books away, what it aims to do is to enable students to make connections throughout their learning, making it more authentic.”

Centred at the heart of numerous and vibrant educational approaches around the world, inquiry-based learning has a rich and enduring history.

At St Anne’s College, students acquire and develop learning assets to foster connections both to the world around them and to the world of learning. Evolving from the School of Wonder through to the Graduate Outcomes, learning assets underpin the construction of the individual student as a life-long learner able to generate rich questioning, thorough researching and inspiring all manner of possibility and creativity in doing so.

“We teach the Victorian Curriculum, but it is our job to find the links with something bigger, making connections for the students before they eventually start making their own links,” Cherie said.

“The Victorian Curriculum is our meat and potatoes, so you can compare us to any other school in the state, but the way we teach is different. If you just teach knowledge and not the way to learn, then it is just knowledge and as we know knowledge changes.

“If we empower the students with agency, which is giving ownership over their own learning, and giving them voice, they will not only be invested, but they will also be proud of their endeavours.”

Guided by learning mentors and bolstered by the robust Wellbeing Curriculum, Cherie said students not only pursue and acquire knowledge but must learn how to apply it.

“At St Anne’s there is no-one holder of knowledge, learning mentors and students learn together, but there must be some form of action with the learning, or what is the point. Giving students agency also allows them to tell you what has worked well during the learning process and what has not. This is not only empowering, but is active learning,” Cherie said.