The holiday season is here! It is a time of celebration, of family, and of looking forward to the new year. Happy holidays to you all!

We often talk about how we’re building our Middle School curriculum around inquiry-based education. But, new incoming parents have asked, what does that mean? I went to Mr. Igor, a member of our MS team here at ISN, for answers to this and related questions.

• What is “inquiry-based education?”

Inquiry-based education is an approach to learning that places students at the center. They ask questions, explore, reflect, do things on their own, and learn by doing. It doesn’t focus on memorizing facts, but rather on discovering things on one’s own.

• How does it follow from ISN Elementary?

Being the first IB accredited Elementary school in Nagano prefecture, we feel like ISN is one of the schools at the helm of bringing an inquiry-based approach to our region. We don’t want to speak negatively of the traditional view on education that is still prevalent in most Japanese public schools, but we are very proud of what ISN has achieved and of our students. We want to bring those same ideas and approaches practiced within the Elementary school to the PIC program as well.

• How does it compare to the Japanese public junior high program?

An inquiry-based classroom can still cover the same curricula as traditional schools, it’s just that the way of learning is different. The student in an inquiry-based classroom is not tasked with memorizing facts and reproducing them to pass a test. Our goal is for students to become life-long learners. The first step towards that is having them discover their interests, the way they personally learn best, and their own personal goals.

The teacher in an inquiry-based classroom acts as a facilitator of learning. They guide discussion and provide challenges for students. We approach each student individually based on their interests, their own way of learning and their goals, and make sure they are satisfied with the learning they do. Their understanding is assessed individually, at their own level.

Through this, the students come to see learning as an exciting adventure rather than a boring lesson, and they develop their problem-solving, communication, and independent thinking skills (among others) that make them grow into life-long learners.

• What is concept-based and project-based learning, and how do they link to inquiry-based learning?

Concept-based education and project-based education are closely connected to inquiry-based education because they both provide structures through which inquiry can happen. Concept-based education focuses inquiry on big, transferable ideas. Students explore concepts through guiding questions, seeing patterns and making connections across subjects and real-world contexts. Project-based education provides that context. Students investigate problems, ask questions, research, collaborate, and create an outcome they can reflect upon and be proud of.

• What does concept-based, project-based, inquiry-based learning mean to you?

I’m sure many of us don’t remember the facts we memorized during our time at school. For example, computer technology has changed drastically since I was a student. But, being interested in new things and knowing how to learn on my own has enabled me to follow the changes in technology that have taken place. It’s the same way with learning more about my interests or about the things I need in my day-to-day work – those weren’t taught at school to me directly either, but being ready to acquire new knowledge, and knowing how to do so, helped immensely.

– Thank you very much to Mr. Igor for sharing his knowledge and insights on inquiry-based learning. Have a wonderful holiday season everyone, and we’ll be back next month!