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Integrated Inquiry Units

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Integrated Inquiry Units at Bray Park State School – Prep to Year 2
In Prep, Year 1 and Year 2 at Bray Park State School learning is made deeply satisfying for students through the integration of the subject areas, and cross-curricula priorities of the Australian Curriculum into topics that deliver major understandings about how the world operates. Teachers use an inquiry approach and select topics with great care for their global significance, relevance to the children, and for their capacity to deliver required learning outcomes.
What is Inquiry?
An old adage states: "Tell me and I forget, show me and I remember, involve me and I understand." The last part of this statement is the essence of inquiry-based learning. Inquiry requires involvement that leads to understanding. Involvement in learning also requires the development of the skills and attitudes that help students to seek resolutions to questions and issues while constructing new knowledge.
Why Inquiry?
We have chosen to use an integrated inquiry-based approach to learning, as inquiry:
   goes across and beyond subject areas.
   allows students’ to pursue their interests.
   recognises students’ prior understandings.
   develops students’ higher order thinking and interpersonal skills.
   engages students in real-world questions and problems.
   develops students’ sense of agency and responsibility.
   teaches students skills to safely locate, access, navigate, evaluate and use information.
   is fun and enjoyable!
Kath Murdoch’s Inquiry Cycle
We use the Kath Murdoch Inquiry Cycle to help guide students in their learning and give them a framework to think and talk about their own inquiry journey.
The phases of inquiry are:
Tuning In- provoking interest and curiosity; gathering data about student’s existing thinking and knowledge; and helping students make connections with the key concepts.
Finding Out- gathering new information to address students’ questions; developing research skills; stimulating curiosity through new information and learning how to effectively record information gathered.
Sorting Out- comprehending and making meaning of the information gathered; revealing new thinking and deeper understanding and reviewing/revising early thinking.
Going Further- pursuing questions and interests arising from the journey so far.
Reflecting and Acting- thinking about learning, how they learn and why; identifying changes in skills, knowledge and values; drawing conclusions and making connections between ideas; taking and leading action based on what has been learnt throughout the inquiry.
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Last reviewed 27 April 2020
Last updated 27 April 2020