1. Managing and Pursuing Inquiry in the MYP
Natalie Beals
EDUC 623

2. Inquiry in the IB Inquiry in the IB is: Less teacher-centered
More student-centered
Not taught as a separate subject
Integrated with the disciplinary curriculum
Less dependent on single-student activities
More often practiced in collaboration
Less focused a single perspective
Developed from a variety of perspectives
Less dependent on a few well-used strategies
Invites a variety of teaching and learning strategies
Recognize the different perspectives of parents that are in the audience. Some have had experience with the PYP and its units of inquiry, some are returning to the MYP, and some have no experience with an IB school.

3. Inquiry in the IB IB Mission Statement
Inquiry is a key element of the IB. The IB Learner Profile expects students to be “inquirers” (IBO, 2008a, p. 5) and the IB Mission Statement states that the IB “aims to develop inquiring young people” (IBO, 2008d, p. 3).
IB Mission Statement
“The International Baccalaureate aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect.”
(IBO, 2008d, p. 3)

4. Our Inquiry into Inquiry
What is inquiry?
How will I manage my use of inquiry in the classroom?
What inquiry support will I receive in the classroom?
This presentation will provide an overview of the practice and management of inquiry in the MYP. We will focus on three questions: What is inquiry, how will I manage my use of inquiry in the classroom, and what inquiry support will I receive in the classroom?

5. What is inquiry? What is it? How does in work? Why is it necessary?
In answering the question, “What is inquiry?” we will observe what inquiry includes, how inquiry works in the MYP, and why inquiry is necessary for an IB education.

6. Inquiry involves:
Asking questions that guide learning from prior knowledge to new insights
“Inquiry, interpreted in the broadest sense, is the process initiated by the student or the teacher that moves the student from their current level of understanding to a new and deeper level of understanding.” (IBO, 2008d, p. 15)
Using higher-order thinking skills
Analysis and synthesis
Application of knowledge
Reflection
Engaging the surrounding world in order to “make sense” of it (IBO, 2008d, p. 14)
Inquiry involves asking questions that guide learning from prior knowledge to new insights. [Read and discuss quote.]
The purpose of inquiry is to extend learning based on what a student already knows.
Higher-order thinking skills must also be activated in order to successfully practice inquiry. Inquiry will not necessarily be focused on single-answer or yes/no questions. Instead, students will analyze information and synthesize new understandings based on that information. Students will also explore how to apply the knowledge that they have gleaned in beneficial ways. The process of inquiry is greatly dependent upon reflection, asking the following questions: what worked, what didn’t work, why didn’t it work, and what could I try instead?
Inquiry is also not practiced in a bubble. Students inquire into “real-life” situations in which they may find themselves outside of school. Through inquiry, students are “mak[ing] sense” of their surroundings (IBO, 2008d, p. 14).

7. How does inquiry work in the MYP?
The practice of inquiry is an unending cycle. The basic format of the cycle is that students begin with an awareness or understanding, they take action based upon that understanding, and they reflect upon the results of that action in order to form a new or more in-depth understanding. Because of the flexible nature of inquiry, however, a student may reflect upon an understanding before taking action or decide to take a new action based upon the reflection and only then receive a new understanding. The order of the cycle is not as important as the inquiry that is taking place.
MYP Inquiry Circle
IBO, 2008d

8. Why go to the trouble of inquiry?
Inquiry delves beneath superficial knowledge.
Inquiry provides direction.
Inquiry attaches personal significance to a study.
Inquiry can be a difficult task, but it has its rewards.
First of all, inquiry delves beneath superficial knowledge and seeks to understand, as opposed to merely identify or repeat.
Inquiry also provides direction in one’s education. Remember a time you were assigned a written report on a subject of your choice. You went to the library to complete your research but were overwhelmed because your topic was excessively broad. [Do you realize how many sources on “Abraham Lincoln” there are in the library?] Now imagine you narrowed your topic a bit. [Maybe you focused on “Abraham Lincoln and the 13th Amendment.”] Your more focused search has reduced the amount of sources to skim through. What if you entered the library with a specific question? [“How did the American public respond to the 13th Amendment?”] You now have a specific path on which to direct your research.
Inquiry also attaches personal significance to a study. We remember that which is important to us. By conducting personal inquiry, we have established personal meaning to the area of study.

9. How will I manage my use of inquiry in the classroom?
Approaches to Learning
The approaches to learning encompass the skills that students will need to succeed in the IB classroom and to effectively practice inquiry.
Areas of Interaction
The areas of interaction provide “a context for student inquiry in each subject group” and “bring diverse subjects together under common contexts” (IBO, 2008b, p. 14).
Next, we will observe the ways in which students manage their own practice of inquiry in the classroom as they relate to the approaches to learning and the areas of interaction. [Read quotes.]

10. This is the MYP Curriculum Framework (IBO, 2009, p. 4)
This is the MYP Curriculum Framework (IBO, 2009, p. 4). The IB Learner Profile is at the center because the learner is both the starting point and the end result of the MYP curriculum. Thus, the student as an inquirer is at the center. Around the profile, you can see the areas of interaction, which include the approaches to learning. Through these five areas, students conduct inquiry into the disciplines listed around the outside. By viewing disciplines through the lenses of the areas of interaction, students build interdisciplinary connections that, in turn, generate meaning that can be carried from the classroom into “real life.”
MYP Curriculum Framework
(IBO, 2009)

11. Approaches to Learning
In engaging the various approaches to learning, students are “learning how to learn” (IBO, 2008b, p. 14).
The approaches to learning encompass the skills that make inquiry possible.

12. Approaches to Learning
Organization
Students learn how to organize themselves as well as manage their time in order to fulfill their educational goals and expectations.
Exploration into questions requires students to be organized in their thoughts and processes.
(IBO, 2008b)

13. Approaches to Learning
Collaboration
Students develop skills needed to collaboratively accomplish goals. They maintain an open-minded approach to others’ perspectives and seek to improve their own limitations.
Much of the inquiry practiced in class is done collaboratively.
(IBO, 2008b)

14. Approaches to Learning
Communication
In addition to becoming literate in the MYP disciplines, students develop media literacy to access a variety of resources. Students also advance their ability to communicate through various means.
Students must be informed as they pursue inquiry and they should be able to share their results with others.
(IBO, 2008b)

15. Approaches to Learning
Information Literacy
Students acquire skills related to multiple aspects of research including how and where to access information, methods of arranging information original and well-defined ways, and citing sources.
Research is a key aspect of inquiry. Even inquiry that is action-centered, such as a science experiment, must be based in research.
(IBO, 2008b)

16. Approaches to Learning
Reflection
Students evaluate their own work, thought processes, and attitudes, recognizing both positive attributes and aspects that need improvement.
As a part of the inquiry circle, reflection is vital to inquiry. Students evaluate their understanding and actions in order to affirm their beliefs, come to new understandings, or redirect action.
(IBO, 2008b)

17. Approaches to Learning
Thinking
Students detect problems and come up with a variety of solutions. They engage in planning and seek the practical application of newfound knowledge.
Inquiry is a specific aspect of thinking. It includes “questioning and challenging information and arguments, developing questions, using the inquiry cycle” (IBO, 2008b, p. 24)
(IBO, 2008b)

18. Approaches to Learning
Transfer
Through investigation and exploration, students forge connections across disciplines and the different aspects of their lives.
“Inquiring into different contexts [includes] changing the context of an inquiry to gain various perspectives” (IBO, 2008b, p. 25).
(IBO, 2008b)

19. How does transfer further student inquiry?
Connections
Personal
Meaningful
Applications
Problem-solving
Explaining
Developing a product
Creating a work of art
Transfer is a key element of student inquiry. Knowledge becomes transferrable when students make connections with the content that are personal and meaningful. When the students have a personal interest in the content, they are more apt to see how that knowledge can be applied in other contexts, like problem solving, explaining, developing a product, or creating a work of art.

20. Transfer through the Areas of Interaction
The areas of interaction provide a framework through which interdisciplinary inquiry may be undertaken.
Approaches to learning (ATL)
Community and service
Health and social education
Environments
Human ingenuity
(IBO, 2008b)

21. What inquiry support will I receive in the classroom?
Inquiry-based unit planning
Classroom environments conducive to inquiry
Learning activities that further inquiry
Conducting inquiry can be a daunting task, so it is our school’s and our teachers’ goal to support students in their development of inquiry. This will be achieved through inquiry-based unit planning, classroom environments conducive to inquiry, and learning activities that further inquiry.

22. Inquiry-Based Unit Planning
creativity, culture,
self-expression
Human Ingenuity
When teachers plan units of study, we plan them with a specific inquiry in mind. Units are designed around specific concepts that partner with an area of interaction to approach content with a specific question in mind. For example, a Language A class may use the area of interaction “human ingenuity” and the concepts creativity, culture, and self-expression to consider poetry in light of the following question: “How is poetry an expression of oneself and one’s culture?”
How is poetry an expression of oneself and one’s culture?
(IBO, 2008c)

23. Inquiry-Based Unit Planning
Unit plans will focus on specific approaches to learning in order to help students develop the skills needed to accomplish inquiry.
(IBO, 2008c)

24. Classroom Environment
Teachers will work with students to maintain an environment which encourages and enhances inquiry.
A positive classroom environment:
Is characterized by respect
Inspires student initiative
Nurtures the skills needed for insightful inquiry
Teachers will also partner with students to maintain an environment which encourages and enhances inquiry.

25. Classroom Environment
The students “should be invited to investigate significant issues by formulating their own questions, designing their own inquiries, assessing the various means available to support their inquiries, and proceeding with research, experimentation, observation and analysis that will help them find their own responses to the issues” (IBO, 2008b, p. 63).
This is a description of the result of a classroom environment that nurtures inquiry.

26. Activities that Further Inquiry
Units may be as short as a week or as long as 6 or 8 weeks. Teachers will organize a variety of activities over that time so that students may pursue the inquiry question of the unit, as well as their own inquiries.

27. Activities that Further Inquiry
Inquiry is practiced in the classroom through:
Prediction and investigation
Research
Varied approaches to problem-solving
Open-ended discussion
Hypothesizing/theorizing
Analysis, synthesis, and evaluation
Connecting previous knowledge with new knowledge
(IBO, 2008d)

28. Activities that Further Inquiry
Examples of inquiry-based activities:
Socratic seminars and other open-ended discussions
Student-led inquiry-based projects
Lab or problem-based activities that have no single right answer
Working individually, in pairs, or in larger groups
Creative activities such as dramatizations and field trips
Community service work
Reflections (written or oral)
MYP Personal Project
(IBO, 2009)

29. Inquiry in the IB
“These programmes encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right” (IBO, 2008d, p. 3).
We have looked into what inquiry is, how students will manage their use of inquiry in the classroom, and what support they will be receiving from teachers. Though we have looked in some depth into the benefits of an inquiry-based education, it is important to also see why inquiry plays such a sizable role in the IB. This quote comes from the last part of the IB Mission Statement. [Read Mission Statement] We don’t want students’ education to end once they graduate. The goal of the IB is to foster “lifelong learners” (IBO, 2008d, p. 3). When students take charge of their own education through the practices of inquiry, they have attached personal meaning and significance to the knowledge and skills they learn. And when the practices of education have meaning, they are maintained throughout one’s life.

30. References
International Baccalaureate Organization. (2008a). IB learner profile booklet. Retrieved July 24, 2013, from International Baccalaureate Organization. (2008b). MYP: From principles into practice. Retrieved July 24, 2013, from International Baccalaureate Organization. (2008c). MYP unit planner. Retrieved July 25, 2013, from International Baccalaureate Organization. (2008d). Towards a continuum of international education. Retrieved July 24, 2013, from

31. References
International Baccalaureate Organization. (2009). The Middle Years Programme: a basis for practice. Retrieved July 24, 2013, from International Baccalaureate Organization. (2012). Teaching the disciplines in the MYP: Nurturing big ideas and deep understanding. Retrieved July 24, 2013, from

32. Images
IB-tri-logo. [Online image]. Retrieved July 25, 2013, from IB learner profile logo. [Online image]. Retrieved July 25, 2013, from [Untitled image of construction activity]. Retrieved July 25, 2013, from [Untitled image of girl with light bulb]. Retrieved July 25, 2013, from [Untitled image of puzzle pieces]. Retrieved July 25, 2013, from [Untitled image of road sign]. Retrieved July 25, 2013, from

33. Images
[Untitled image of Socratic seminar]. Retrieved July 25, 2013, from [Untitled image of students and teacher]. Retrieved July 25, 2013, from [Untitled image of students around computer]. Retrieved July 25, 2013, from