An Integrated Inquiry-Based approach to learning is implemented at St Vincent de Paul Primary School and is based on the research of Inquiry Educational Consultant, Kath Murdoch.
This approach fosters our students’ curiosity about the world around them and encourages them to actively investigate questions and wonderings they have in relation to their learning. Students also learn and build upon the skills of an Inquirer including self-management, collaboration, researching, thinking and communication, alongside our school learning dispositions.
Through an Integrated Inquiry approach, our students interests and ideas are placed at the centre of their learning experience. Student voice drives teacher planning and the pathways in which learning experiences take, in conjunction with the Victorian Curriculum requirements. These include, but are not limited to, the learning areas of: The Humanities (Civics and Citizenship, Economics and Business, History and Geography), Technologies (Design and Technologies and Digital Technologies) Science and Health.
The implementation of an Integrated Inquiry model allows our students to:
- Ask questions
- Build on their prior knowledge through investigations and personal discoveries
- Find out information from various resources
- Make connections between their ideas and essential learnings
- Take action based on their discoveries and learnings
- Reflect on and evaluate their learning
“Today’s schools need to be educating not just for exam results but for life-long learning. To thrive in the 21st century, it is not enough to leave school with a clutch of examination certificates. Pupils need to have learned to be tenacious and resourceful, imaginative and logical, self disciplined and self aware, collaborative and inquisitive.”
