Teacher’s Toolkit: A blueprint for cultivating inquiry

by: Bill Metz and Julia Gooding

Scientific inquiry, a methodology that can trace its roots back to the time and teachings of Socrates, has been an elusive and evolving part of our education lexicon for many years. The Socratic approach to teaching, in its simplest form, can be thought of as instruction that involves the use of open-ended questions and investigative queries of students rather than a teacher-centered, lecture format. For some reason, however, this straightforward idea has been difficult to translate into practice. Therefore, this article provides a blueprint for cultivating inquiry in the science classroom.

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Type Journal ArticlePub Date 9/1/2008Stock # ss08_032_01_12Volume 032Issue 01

NSTA Press produces classroom-ready activities, hands-on approaches to inquiry, relevant professional development, the latest scientific education news and research, assessment and standards-based instruction.

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