Inquiry learning
Research process
The New Zealand Curriculum outlines five key competencies that “people need in order to live, learn, work, and contribute as active members of their community”.f
- thinking
- using language, symbols, and texts
- managing self
- relating to others
- participating and contributing
The inquiry learning process provides an excellent framework for developing these key competencies in authentic contexts. It requires students to:
The process encourages students to work together and formulate investigative questions, carry out research using a series of structured investigations to obtain factual information, build knowledge that answers their original question and evaluate and report on their findings.
Your Living Heritage story
To guide you through the research process and help you plan your Living Heritage story we have provided a template below for you to follow.
| Identify the essential question that will become the basis of your inquiry, decide the scope of the study and your methods of research.
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| Ask further questions (hypotheses) and gather information (research) from a number of sources.
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| Organise the information, evaluate your research and make collaborative decisions about what to record.
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| Assess your work so far and evaluate whether more work is needed. You may need to review your work several times during the research process, including at the end to reflect on how you have worked.
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| When you are satisfied with your findings, present the material clearly following the headings given.
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| Now you can make the work available to a wider audience through your published website.
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