How should learning tasks be designed to promote inquiry?

Designing learning tasks to promote inquiry involves encouraging students to actively engage with the material, explore their thoughts, and articulate their reasoning. When students are prompted to explain their thinking, they are able to make connections, reflect on their understanding, and deepen their learning process. This practice fosters critical thinking and helps students develop their inquiry skills as they consider different perspectives and construct their knowledge.

In contrast to this effective approach, providing structured, closed questions limits the scope of students' inquiry by requiring them to focus only on specific answers rather than exploring broader concepts. Discouraging student explanations stifles their ability to think critically and articulate their understanding. Lastly, focusing solely on final answers undermines the inquiry process, as it overlooks the importance of the journey of learning—that is, the thought processes and reasoning that lead to conclusions. Engaging students in explaining their thinking allows for a richer learning experience that emphasizes understanding over rote memorization.