1. “It is hard to follow learners’ interest and questions in today’s high-stakes testing environment. To meet mandates and prepare for tests, some teachers simply follow prescribed curricula.”(Falk & Blumenreich p.174)

2. So whatever happened to the importance of meaningful learning
So whatever happened to the importance of meaningful learning? Where does inquiry learning fit in?

3. State of Confusion
I graduated with a bachelors in Education and as I enter my second semester in my masters program I find myself confused.
Why? Between student teaching, field work, experiences in the educational system, and my personal job, I have become frustrated with what “the system” has become.
I am not the only one, I have found from classroom discussions and talking with my peers who are public school teachers they feel the same way.
I am so frustrated that I have lost hope that I have began to question my career in education. But educating is all I know.

4. Why Am I so frustrated?
The route of my frustration seems to steam from the loss of meaningful teaching and the focus of “teaching to the test.”
Children's needs are not being met.
There seems to be no room to go back, you teach your lesson and move on. If a child does not get the information, it doesn’t matter. We are living in a go, go, go, move, move, move, society.
Budget cuts, lay-offs, overcrowding of classrooms and overall moral of colleagues adds to this frustration.

5. Issues with teaching to the test …..
In Bushnell’s Education and urban Society, she mentions the use of standardized tests has become a “tyranny” in which “teachers may find themselves spending more than half the year teaching specifically for the tests; their jobs and the standing of their schools are on the line” (Botstein, 2000, p. A11).
Student anxiety:
More homework
More tests
Less inquiry
Less “Free choice”
More stress & added pressure for teachers:
They become the scapegoat for poor test scores
Teachers may tend to loose interest or be overworked and become burnt out.
How is this helping any one?!?!?!

6. What have our schools become?
A factory where the teacher is only there as a “factory hand” not as an educator, they do not have a sense of autonomy in their classroom (Bushnell, p.259).
Curricula packages and “teacher proof” material scripts. This means that several classrooms/teachers will be giving the same lesson verbatim. There is no room or time for the teachers own views or inquiry from the students (Bushnell, p.260).
“National and state standardized tests such as those mandated in the No Child Left Behind Act overshadow the work of teachers in New York schools as they constitute the ultimate evaluation of teachers' abilities” (Bushnell, p261).

7. Benefits Inquiry learning
It gets children involved, it is student directed
Students begin to dig deeper, asking “who, what, where, why” questions.
“Questions often led to bigger issues that carried across different units of study in the investigations” (Falk & Blumenreich p. 173).
Students may be more relaxed and enjoy choosing their own topic.
“The investment of the children was much greater when they had the opportunity to make their own choices” (Falk & Blumenreich p.172).
There is so much to explore
Students get a sense of ownership to their work
“Through this way of working, each child was able to find and area in which they excelled and to become valued by the others as an “expert” in that area” (Falk & Blumenreich p170).
Most will hold on to what they learned for years to come, it is not in one ear and out the other.

8. We need more Inquiry Learning!
"Now, more then ever we need schools to produce thoughtful questioners and life-long learners"(Falk & Blumenreich p.2)
“The wonder of the early years fades. By the time we enter the fourth or fifth grade, our natural inquisitiveness almost seems to disappear. Somewhere along the way we stop asking about the “how”, the “what” and the “why”-questions that lead to deeper thinking, and we grow acculturated to the routine questions that currently dominate the work of schools: how do you spell…?What is the formula for….?what is the definition of…?” (Falk & Blumenreich p.1)
Are children just memorizing facts and formulas? Is it really learning?
Children should be able to ponder more about a subject and ask why?
Asking questions is how you learn.

9. How to be successful in inquiry based learning
One must observe, document, and keep records of what the children are thinking, finding, and questioning. Also remind the children of what they learned (Falk & Blumenreich p.166).
As teachers we need to learn how to give up control. We must become more of an observer, facilitator and listener. (Falk & Blumenreich p.171).

10. Final Thoughts
As teachers we can’t hide from the test. We are going to have to face them, its inevitable. So what do we do?
In chapter nine of “The Power of Questions” there were two teachers who made inquiry learning work. Yes it may become very time consuming and they may not be able to do it for every topic, but it creates meaningful learning. This teaching style allows the students to better retain knowledge, while having fun learning.
As teachers we have to get creative with the curriculum and make learning fun while preparing these children for “the tests”. A challenge indeed.