'These Kids Can't Do Inquiry,' Another Urban Legend

摘要

"These kids can't do inquiry." This claim is often made in reference to students who have a low level of academic engagement and/or who lack proficiency in one or more of the following basic skills: reading, math, graphing, logical problem solving, and collaborative teaming. To challenge this claim, we address a perception that "doing inquiry" means leveraging a student's preexisting inquiry skills in order to develop the students' content understanding. We claim, instead, that by utilizing a specifically designed and aligned system of supports, teachers can assist students in developing inquiry skills and content understanding simultaneously. In other words: "Students learn what teachers teach." To support this claim we share evidence from a design-based methodology within an urban reform initiative which supports the claim that teachers can and do shift toward using an inquiry-based instructional framework. In doing so, they discover that students, even those with low or delayed abilities, respond and demonstrate progress in skill acquisition and in learning science.