What are the skills that people need to engage in scientific inquiry and mathematical reasoning?
What habits of mind support these modes of thinking? What pedagogical strategies support these notions of learning and thinking? However, before we can sort out these dimensions of inquiry, we need to set aside two ideas that tend to confuse the discussion. The first such notion is that there can be “pure inquiry.” In designing instructional experiences, we need to make decisions about the relative degrees of students self-direction and teacher direction in relation to nature of the particular subject matter, levels of student cognitive development, and available time and resources. Second, we need to be clear that although the urge to inquire is a fundamental human trait, we are always inquiring about something. We want students to learn how to inquire, so that they develop more nuanced understandings about the world that are grounded in reason and evidence. Teacher professional development should help bring some clarity to these questions in order to guide what happens in classrooms.
