Inquiry: A Catalyst for Meaningful Academic Discourse

When teachers pose questions that lead to meaningful inquiry, a deeper understanding of subject matter emerges. Academic conversations resulting form such questions may spark learners' intrinsic inquiry, reinforce learning, further develop critical-thinking skills, and assist teachers when assessing understanding. However, as educators, we are often left wondering what types of questions we may ask students to inspire inquiry and make learning purposeful. It may be hypothesized that supportive academic discourse may lead to increased conceptual learning. Altering the nature of a traditional andhierarchical academic discourse pattern to one based upon democratice principles may encourage supportive trajectories of classroom dialogue.