Investigative & Inquiry Learning

Investigative Learning - Foundation - Year Two

The Investigative Learning program at Croydon Hills gives our Foundation to Year 2 students the opportunity to follow their own interests and learn through hands-on experiences. It is a research-based approach, which increases student motivation and engagement dramatically.  Whilst we still have formal reading, writing and maths sessions every day, during Investigative Learning, students are able to choose from a range of learning experiences in which they can apply and practise key literacy and numeracy concepts. Examples of the learning experiences include block or box construction, dramatic role-play (eg. the class café, puppet theatre or a veterinary clinic), painting, collage, working at the writing centre or a science station. The teacher creates a learning environment that supports academic development, whilst also nurturing physical, social and emotional development. The skills developed during Investigative Learning help our students to become effective, life-long learners and successful citizens in the 21st century. These skills include the ability to:

• Make decisions
• Solve problems
• Persist
• Be resilient
• Work co-operatively with others
• Communicate effectively
• Respect others’ point of view
• Reflect on their own learning

The students are encouraged to vary the way in which they work, sometimes independently and sometimes with a partner or in a small group.  While the students are involved in their personal or collaborative investigations, the teacher scaffolds individual learners, targets instruction at each students’ own level and helps them to set personal learning goals. 

Much evidence-based research indicates the importance of learning matched to student’s developmental stages as extremely important and this is therefore the foundation for our Investigative Learning approach.

Inquiry Learning - Year 3 - Year 6

The inquiry is integrated or subject specific to the topics studied that term. It is a shared or negotiated inquiry, whereby the teacher determines the unit of focus and the class, with teacher direction, will work through the initial stages of inquiry; Tuning in, Finding out and Sorting out.

Purpose/Focus:

• To enable students to identify a personal area of interest within an integrated topic to learn more about.
• To teach students to become effective inquirers by teaching them the skills to pose researchable questions, locate appropriate sources of information, gather sort and organise information and data, present information in an appropriate format, reflect on what they have learnt and to apply their newly-gained knowledge.
• To assist students to set achievable goals and teach them time management skills needed to achieve their goals.