Characteristics of Inquiry Teaching
-- an alternative view --

taken from Teaching as a Subversive Activity

by Postman and Weingartner

The attitudes of the inquiry teacher are reflected in behavior. When you observe such a teacher in action, you observer the following:

1. The teacher rarely tells students what (s)he thinks they ought to know.
2. The teacher's basic mode of discourse with students is questioning.
3. The teacher generally does not accept a single statement as an answer to a question.
4. The teacher encourages student-student interaction as opposed to student-teacher interaction; the teacher generally avoids acting as a mediator or judge of the ideas expressed.
5. The teacher rarely summarizes the positions taken by students on the learning that occurs.
6. The teacher's lessons develop from the responses of students and not from a previously determined "logical" structure.
7. The teacher's lessons generally pose a problem for students to solve.
8. The teacher measurers personal success in terms of behavioral changes in students.