Inquiry in Teaching

While teaching, I have learned a lot concerning inquiry teaching in science versus traditional teaching methods. When I was in elementary school, most concepts were told to me instead of me having a chance to learn for myself. By doing this, it made me have to memorize concepts instead of really understanding them. The problem with that was that my memory did not always serve me well years later. I desire for my students to truly understand what we try to accomplish in class instead of me telling them what to know or learn. I had a student the other day who I was helping with a problem and she finally came to the correct answer by guessing. I told her it was correct but asked her to explain to me how she knew it was the correct answer. She said, "I have it correct, what else do you want?" I wanted her to understand how she came to that answer instead of just guessing it was the correct answer. "It is about the process more than the product," as one of my teachers used to say. When students have a chance to construct their own knowledge, it becomes more memorable. With inquiry-based teaching, children have a chance to question and explore for themselves. They get to learn by hands-on methods rather than a teacher telling them what to remember. Concerning the little girl with her math homework, she remembered what her teacher said to do concerning estimating, but she did not know at all what it meant. She had no idea why her answer was right or wrong. Teachers need to do more experimenting and building a child's natural curiousity to learn to get students engaged about what teachers are trying to instill in their mind.