Teachers Implementing a System Inquiry Learning Initiative: A Constructivist Perspective

• In Event: 44.049 - Constructivist Theory, Research and Practice SIG: Focus on Teacher Development and Efficacy

Abstract

This paper is based on a study of 20 elementary teachers, especially in their tenth year of teaching (2013-2014). At this time, the teachers were working under heavy pressure from their government and school districts to implement “inquiry learning.” While broadly accepting this pedagogy, however, the teachers varied substantially in their understanding of what it meant, and also expressed concern about its feasibility given the system’s equally heavy emphasis on covering a large amount of academic content. Based on the data and relevant inquiry learning and constructivist literature, we recommend that teachers, education academics, and policy developers give more attention to clarifying the nature of inquiry learning and identifying feasible ways of implementing it in the current climate.

Authors

• Clive M. Beck, OISE/University of Toronto

• Clare Kosnik, University of Toronto/OISE

• Monica Eileen McGlynn-Stewart, George Brown College

• Tiffany MacKay, Peel District School Board

• Belinda Monique Longe, University of Toronto - OISE

• Julie Middleton, OISE/University of Toronto