The co-principal of St. Agnes of Bohemia School, 2643 S. Central Park Ave., Meghan Hurley Gibbs observed her young, energetic and idealistic staff slowly introduce inquiry based learning into the classroom. Prompted by the interest, the school ran professional development programs on inquiry-based learning last school year, providing know-how and resources for teachers seeking a pedagogical method that puts the student’s problem-solving skills front and center. Interest surged more and this year, St. Agnes adopted a more formal inquiry-based learning program. “Part of Catholic social teaching is to try and light a fire under students to make the world better and inquiry-based learning is one approach in the academic setting that can make a real-world difference,” Gibbs said of a movement gaining momentum in archdiocesan schools. What is it? Inquiry-based learning is, in theory and reality, the antithesis of the multiple choice test. It is portfolios and blogs, infomercials and guidebooks. Much as its title suggests, inquiry- based learning is rooted in questioning. Rather than a teacher providing direct, authoritative content, students work together to solve problems and discover understanding and conclusions themselves. Analytical skills take precedence over any rote assembly of knowledge. “It’s a natural process for human beings to meet a challenge and analyze a task with investigation and reasoning, and inquirybased learning perfectly represents this natural, human way of problem solving,” said Emily Alford, a retired public school principal who now works with area Catholic schools, including her parish school, Holy Family Catholic Academy in Inverness, to implement inquiry-based learning programs. While the inquiry-based learning model presents itself as a linear process — see a challenge, analyze the task, investigate, think and reason and, finally, take action — it is, in fact, a cyclical process that spurs learning. “As you gain more information that empowers more questions and, in time, greater understanding,” Alford said. Classroom instruction is grounded in a connection between content and the real world, while the inquiry-based starting point invites students into learning. Rather than reading about the earth’s structure and its moving plates in a textbook, fifth and sixth grade students at Nativity BVM School, 6820 S. Washtenaw, were charged with creating a slideshow to compel parishioner donations to Catholic Charities following last January’s Haitian earthquake. The assignment was a direct challenge for students to learn about the earth’s structure before exploring how the natural world’s evolution impacts humanity and the future. “The whole idea is to involve kids in a collaborative method and the discovery process,” said Dolores Baumgarten, a former Catholic school principal and assistant superintendent of Catholic Schools who now serves as a curriculum consultant. Early results Area Catholic schools are increasingly investigating inquirybased academic programs as a greater piece of their curriculum offerings, perhaps as a tool to attract students otherwise destined for public schools. To date, 20 different area Catholic schools, across the socioeconomic and ethnic spectrum, have implemented more formal inquiry-based learning programs, including 125 new teachers incorporating the pedagogy into their classroom for the 2010-2011 school year. Graduates of Holy Family Catholic Academy, which has been utilizing inquiry-based education for the last six years, are reporting a successful transition to the scholastic challenges of high school life in comparison to their peers. Gibbs has noticed students at St. Agnes engage in more questioning, just as her teachers become more confident with the pedagogical approach. “There’s an excitement that the students have with discovery and I think this will lead to higher-order thinking in the long term,” she said. Clem Martin, principal at both St. Frances of Rome and Our Lady of Charity, both in Cicero, says inquiry-based learning has brought new assessment methods and expectations. “The quality of work our students are producing and their engagement are both improving,” Martin said. The academic benefit Originally attached to science, inquiry-based learning has spread across academic disciplines to include mathematics, literature and history among others. A principal benefit of inquiry-based education resides in the practical, real-world nature of its problem-solving ways and focus on collaboration as well as current media tools, such as distance learning. Martin says the real-world applications of the inquiry-based method make a compelling case. “Students gather information, process that information, ask questions, and create a finished product, which are all skills that mimic the world we live in,” he said. While inquiry-based learning has gained momentum in recent years, its effectiveness continues to be challenged — one noted critic calling the instructional method a fallacy. Critics challenge that inquiry-based learning can fall off course when students assemble information that is incomplete, disorganized or based in misconceptions. In spite of its perceived limitations, Baumgarten believes inquiry-based learning, as well as other potential-showing methods, must be examined as classroom tools capable of nurturing wellrounded individuals. “We’re not throwing out our old ways and we have plenty to be proud of as a school system,” she said. “But it makes sense that we foster the skills in our students that they’ll need to compete in the global workplace and inquirybased learning has that ability.”