Relating Inquiry to Disciplinary Literacy: A Pedagogical Approach

Inquiry is an effective approach to teaching and learning in a world that is exploding with information. In fact, teachers can use inquiry to support students as they delve deep into disciplinary content to provide a rich, nuanced learning experience. In our model, we want students to do more than explore topics during inquiry, we want them to use the tools of a discipline to understand claims and evidences and to create new knowledge. Our aim is that students will engage in authentic, intellectual work so that their products will have value within schools as well as outside of school in their everyday lives.

In this document, we (a) explain our previous work on project-based inquiry,(b) introduce the Model for Inquirybased Disciplinary Literacy (IDL) with its 5 phases, and (c) illustrate how to read, write, speak, and listen like a disciplinary expert (ie, literary critic, scientist, historian, and mathematician) within the inquiry process.