Successful Inquiry Learning Environments

These are some of the aspects of successful learning environments that various teachers have identified.

Characteristics of the Environment

1. Affect
   • feeling of success
   • support
   • appreciation
   • recognition
   • alive
   • laughter
   • visible signs of learning
2. Values
   • Acceptance of difference
     • language use
     • beliefs
     • values
   • Critical awareness
     • political consciousness
     • understanding of schooling
     • relation of personal, family, societal goals
3. Learning as a process
   • sense making
   • student directed
   • affective
   • holistic
   • experiential
   • time to build
   • revision
   • space as well as time frame
   • open-ended
   • challenging problems
   • alternate conceptions
   • visible strategies
4. Participants
   • Students
     • taking responsibility
     • making decisions
     • initiating inquiry
     • self-initiated learning
   • Teachers
     • as co-workers
     • as coaches
     • as helpers
   • Involved parents
   • Collaboration
     • flexible roles
     • with other students
     • with teachers
     • with members of the larger community

Working in the Environment

1. Integration
   • projects
   • theme studies
   • literacy across the curriculum
2. Language use
   • evolving
   • linked with ordinary experience
   • teacher excitement
3. Sharing
   • in and beyond the classroom
   • drama
   • publishing
   • real audiences
4. Forums for communication
   • sharing ideas about teaching and learning
   • opportunity to develop literacy skills
   • multiple media and genres
5. Purposes
   • personal
   • shared with students and teacher
   • community
   • outcomes
6. Resources
   • texts
     • variety of genres, topics, difficulty levels
     • student selected
     • authentic
   • in the community
   • technology for meaningful purposes