2nd Semester Practical Research 1
Lesson 1
Nature of Inquiry
I. Preliminaries
I. Objectives
A. Content Standards:
The importance of research in daily life
The characteristics, processes, and ethics of
Research quantitative and qualitative
Research the kinds of research across fields
B. Performance Standards
The learners will discuss and defend the research that they conducted
and present to the panelist and the principal as well.
C. Learning Competencies
Use some new terms you have learned in expressing their worldviews
freely
Explain your understanding of the term “inquiry”
Outline all the ideas you have learned about inquiry
Infer about societal issues through speculative thinking
Enumerate the benefits of inquiry-based learning
Identify a question as simple or complex based on the kind of thinking it
elicits from you; and
Compose an essay to prove the extent of your understanding of inquiry.
II. Content:
NATURE OF INQUIRY
2nd Semester Practical Research 1
Lesson 1
Nature of Inquiry
Concept Notes
INQUIRY-BASED LEARNING
Meaning of Inquiry Learning is your way of obtaining knowledge about your
surroundings. This takes place in many ways, and one of these is inquiry, which many people
in the field of education consider effective. Inquiry is a learning process that motivates you to
obtain knowledge or information about people, things, places, or events. You do this by
investigating or asking questions about something you are inquisitive about. It requires you
to collect data, meaning, facts, and information about the object of your inquiry, and examine
such data carefully. In your analysis, you execute varied thinking strategies that range from
lower-order to higher-order thinking skills such as inferential, critical, integrative, and
creative thinking. These are top-level thinking strategies that you ought to perform in
discovering and understanding the object of your inquiry. Engaging yourself in many ways of
thinking, you come to conclude that inquiry is an active learning process.
Putting you in a situation where you need to probe, investigate, or ask questions to find
answers or solutions to what you are worried or doubtful about, inquiry is a problem-solving
technique. Solving a problem by being inquisitive, you tend to act like scientists who are
inclined to think logically or systematically in seeking evidence to support their conclusions
about something. Beginning with whatever experience or background knowledge you have,
you proceed like scientists with your inquiry by imagining, speculating, interpreting,
criticizing, and creating something out of what you discovered.
Inquiry elevates your thinking power. It makes you think in different ways, enabling
you to arrive at a particular idea or understanding that will motivate you to create something
unique, new, or innovative for your personal growth as well as for the world. Inquisitive
thinking allows you to shift from one level of thought to another. It does not go in a linear
fashion; rather, it operates in an interactive manner.
Solving a problem, especially social issues, does not only involve yourself but other
members of the society too. Hence, inquiry, as a problem-solving technique, includes
cooperative learning because any knowledge from members of the society can help to make
the solution. Whatever knowledge you have about your world bears the influence of your
cultural, sociological, institutional, or ideological understanding of the world. (Badke 2012)
Governing Principles or Foundation of Inquiry
Inquiry-based Learning gets its support from these three educational theories serving
as its foundation: John Dewey's theory of connected experiences for exploratory and
reflective thinking; Lev Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) that stresses the
essence of provocation and scaffolding in learning; and Jerome Bruner's theory on learners'
varied world Rerceptions for their own interpretative thinking of people and things around
them.
Backed up by all these theories, inquiry, as a way of learning, concerns itself with these
elements: changing knowledge, creativity, subjectivity, socio-cultural factors, sensory
experience, and higher-order thinking strategies. All of these are achievable through the
inquiry methods of fieldwork, case studies, investigations, individual group project, and
research work. (Small 2012)
Benefits of Inquiry-Based Learning
In conclusion, you can say that Inquiry-based Learning gives you the following
advantages:
1. Elevates interpretative thinking through graphic skills
2. Improves student learning abilities
3. Widens learners' vocabulary
4. Facilitates problem-solving acts
5. Increases social awareness and cultural knowledge
6. Encourages cooperative learning
7. Provides mastery of procedural knowledge
8. Encourages higher-order thinking strategies
9. Hastens conceptual understanding
Educators, businessmen, and other professionals consider all these benefits of
Inquiry-based Learning in various fields of knowledge to be crucial to the success of anyone
in the 21st Century.
Therefore, knowing the ins and outs of Inquiry-based Learning will greatly guide you
in deciding which learning method will guarantee successful learning in the present world,
which is tagged by many as the Era of Globalization, Age of Knowledge Explosion, Age of
Consumerism, Digital Age, Age of Instant World, etc.
2nd Semester Practical Research 1
Lesson 1
Nature of Inquiry
Seatwork No. 1
Directions: WHOLE-CLASS ACTIVITY. Explain your understanding of inquiry by answering
the following questions intelligently. (Depending on the teacher, the students may do this in
a socialized recitation or in a small group-writing work.)
1. Compare and contrast the three foundation theories behind Inquiry-based
Learning.
___________________________________________________________________________
2. Describe one who thinks in a linear fashion.
___________________________________________________________________________
3. How do you learn something through inquiry?
___________________________________________________________________________
4. Why is inquiry a scientific way of thinking?
___________________________________________________________________________
5. In your opinion, is this an effective learning method? Why or why not?
___________________________________________________________________________
6. What kind of thinking is involved in this learning method?
___________________________________________________________________________
7. Do you agree that inquiring on something means you are researching about it?
Explain your point.
___________________________________________________________________________
8. Was there an instance in your life when you, too, did a sort of an inquiry or
research? Describe your experience.
___________________________________________________________________________
9. Do you know someone in your school or community who often does this kind of
learning? Describe how he or she did it.
___________________________________________________________________________
10. Characterize the person you are referring to in number
___________________________________________________________________________
ACTIVITY NO. 1
Directions: INDIVIDUAL WORK. On this sheet of paper, present your understanding
of inquiry through a topical outline that uses either the traditions system (using Roman
numerals, letters, and numbers) or the modern numbering system (using Arabic numbers).
