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Inquiry: The Cornerstone of All Authentic Learning Models

Updated: Jan 20

ramseyer hall ohio state univeristy

Maybe some readers, like me, have attended classes in Teaching and Learning at Ohio State. If so, maybe you noticed a slogan carved above the entrance to Ramseyer Hall, which reads, Prize the Doubt, Low Kinds Exist Without. Walking under those words a few nights a week always gave me pause in the busy footsteps of my thoughts. It’s no wonder, either, that the slogan greets you at the door. At about the same time Ohio State was building Ramseyer Hall, the great philosopher of Education, John Dewey was giving lectures at Harvard and teaching similar ideas about what it means to think deeply. Those lectures became his book, Art as Experience (1934), and in it there's a line that’s something like...a state of doubt and to carry on with inquiry – these are the essentials of thinking.


Fast forward, and here we are today, touting the praises of authentic learning for what it does for student thinking and engagement. In today’s terms, we might think of doubt as curiosity and inquiry, is, well, still inquiry, or the actions to learn and explore possible solutions and answers to an identified challenge or question. No matter the authentic learning strategy or model (service-learning, project-based learning, design thinking, dialogic teaching), they all have ONE common denominator - inquiry - and inquiry matters for learners. 


When students ask their own authentic questions, they have more say-so in their learning (this is agency or student voice), boosting their engagement because it’s what all humans are wired to do - to take action for themselves. Likewise, in answering their own questions, their thinking leads to deeper learning. They notice the connections between their prior knowledge that informed the question and the new information that generates deeper learning.  That’s power in learning!


As the second semester begins, we wonder if you might give genuine inquiry, where students are curious and ask their questions, a renewed focus?  One strategy we like and that we’ve been using with teachers at Trinity Catholic in Grandview, OH and United Local Schools in Hanoverton, OH, is wonder walls (we encourage you to do a quick search of them in “education” and you will find lots of examples and resources).  Also, here’s a similar HS example from Edutopia.  And a re-post of an elementary example, also from Edutopia.  Here’s a video we like, too.


Wonder walls could be used in lots of ways, but Kristen Hepner, United Local 8th grade teacher, is using them to jumpstart learning in the units of  Math 8 and Algebra classes. Kristen is part of a cohort of teachers learning about the building blocks, strategies, and models of authentic learning. Inquiry was a “light bulb moment” for Kristen in that it merged what she was already doing in her teaching with something newer and more robust for its likelihood to boost engagement and curiosity in math. It worked!  She loved the outcomes we knew were possible!

Math bulletin board with colorful sticky notes showing slope equations and questions. Text: "Wonder Wall, Kristin Hepner, United Local Schools, November 2024."

Wonder walls may be a small step toward authentic learning, but they are a giant leap for inquiry, opening the possibilities for higher engagement, deeper learning, and robust thinking.


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