ABSTRACT

The challenges of the 21st century place inquiry as a necessary pedagogical orientation to educate young people for the future. In Singapore, inquiry-based learning is a core feature in social studies and the humanities subjects (geography and history) and has been extended recently to curriculum in the arts. Its centrality in the education system has been well acknowledged by Singapore’s Ministry of Education. However, an examination of research focusing on inquiry-based learning in Singapore has revealed that inquiry instruction remains teacher-centred and teachers are unsure about how to use inquiry as a core pedagogical approach.

This article presents a meta-synthesis from the international literature, as well as studies in Singapore, to generate a theory on impactful forms of inquiry-based classroom practices for pedagogical innovation and school improvement. The article concludes that students learn best, in terms of conceptual understanding and higher-order thinking, when they are experientially and collaboratively engaged in the search for meanings, solving problems, questioning, sharing and communicating their understanding. Finally, the article argues for the importance of building an inquiry culture, mindsets and social practice in order to address the broader challenges to inquiry-based instruction from a systems or ecological view.

摘要

21世纪的挑战使探究成为教育年轻人未来的必要的教学方向。在新加坡，基于探究的学习是社会研究和人文学科（地理和历史）的核心特征，并且最近已扩展到艺术课程。它在教育系统中的中心地位已得到新加坡教育部的认可。然而，一项针对新加坡以探究式学习为重点的研究的调查显示，探究教学仍以教师为中心，教师不确定如何将探究作为核心的教学方法。

本文介绍了来自国际文献和新加坡研究的综合信息，以产生一种基于影响形式的探究式课堂实践的理论，以用于教学创新和学校改善。文章的结论是，当学生在体验和协作中寻求意义，解决问题，质疑，分享和交流他们的理解时，他们将在概念理解和高阶思维方面学习得最好。最后，本文提出了建立探究文化，思维方式和社会实践的重要性，以便从系统或生态的角度应对基于探究的教学的更大挑战。