We included both inquiry and schoolyards in this chapter because the key strategy for building confidence in both is the same - direct engagement of the teachers in learning ecology on schoolyards. There is no substitute for learning first-hand about inquiry and about schoolyards. In this section we explore the thinking behind our approach to involving teachers in schoolyard inquiry, addressing these topics:

• How can teachers become better inquiry learners?
• Why do inquiry in a SYE Institute?
• What do we mean by inquiry?
• What are the different kinds of inquiry learning?
• Why do teachers need to do inquiry on their own schoolyards?

To be effective teachers of schoolyard ecology, teachers need:

• to understand the nature of scientific inquiry and how to use the skills and processes of inquiry for themselves
• to be knowledgeable about and comfortable in their schoolyard
• to be able to foster student learning through inquiry

Our approaches to fostering growth towards these goals start with an emphasis on teachers as inquirers. In an effective SYE Institute, teachers are active inquirers on their schoolyards, forming and pursuing questions that come from their own interests rather than being constrained by what might be appropriate or engaging for their students, or by questions given to them by "experts" or from a pre-set curriculum. Familiarity with the ecology of their own school sites develops as a direct result of their own inquiries outside.

By engaging teachers in the inquiry process, we model a constructivist approach to fostering teacher learning. Thus, teachers' inquiries are framed around what they know, don't know and want to find out about a topic, and the group of colleagues and leaders together help them build the connections to larger understandings in ecology and life sciences.

During a SYE Institute, teachers are genuine learners and innovators. They are not trained to use a specific set of lessons, but rather are immersed in learning in ways that are similar to the ways their students might learn. One dilemma you will face as leaders of a SYE Institute is in crafting learning experiences that are appropriate for adults while also exposing teachers to activities that will appeal to their students. While it is virtually impossible to turn off teachers' practical thinking ("how might my second graders do this?"), it is essential for them to delve into at least some investigations that fully challenge and engage them as adults if they are to gain insight into the learning experience of their students.

One of the key strategies recommended in the following section is to teach the inquiry process explicitly. Teachers and any other learner benefit from clearly defined goals, and this applies to learning about the inquiry process as much as it does to learning about the organisms in the schoolyard. This is in accord with the Professional Development Standards defined in the National Science Education Standards and with extensive literature on inquiry learning.

Why Do Inquiry in a SYE Institute?

• Motivation: Most teachers are hooked on inquiry teaching once they've tasted the excitement and intellectual rewards of learner-centered inquiry for themselves.
• Insight: What better way for them to get the enthusiasm and insights they'll need to try out what for many of them is a new approach to teaching?
• Modeling: To model the kind of inquiry teaching you hope teachers will adopt, you should use an inquiry approach to teaching them.
• Inquiry is the essence of science: The parallels between inquiry learning and scientific research are clear. Both scientists and the layperson use inquiry to build their understanding of the world around them. For more information on inquiry frameworks, see Appendix 4.

Inquiry is question-driven learning. Investigations of natural phenomena that follow from initial questions begin with developing ways to answer the question, and entail observation, sometimes manipulation, and then documentation using narrative or numerical data. Inquiry-based investigations culminate with summarizing, evaluating, and communicating findings in the context of known facts and theories. Making sense of the data in these ways brings the inquirer back to addressing the original question with possible explanations for patterns in data, and leads to making decisions about what additional types of information will help in the next phases of addressing the same or a new question. In inquiry-based teaching, the phenomenon is the focus, rather than the teacher's preconceived activity plan. The question, whether it is their own original question or one suggested by the teacher or a classmate, frames and gives purpose to subsequent activities in inquiry learning. This is in contrast to hands-on learning in which activities may simply demonstrate a concept, explore a laboratory technique for its own sake, or provide opportunity for aimless exploration.

Using an inquiry approach to science teaching promotes complex learning, consistent with the National Education Science Standards and with other science education reform agendas. Learners actively explore scientific phenomena, engage in authentic scientific practices, apply skills and ideas to ill-structured problems, and experience in-depth immersion in important topics. Teachers also are expected to teach for understanding by recognizing that students' learning is influenced by their prior knowledge, skills, values, and beliefs, and that shaping the classroom as a community of learners who share goals, standards, trust, and academic values can make it possible for students to take risks and engage in sustained efforts that are necessary for meaningful learning. These tenets guide our work with teachers both by helping us choose goals and means for the teachers' own inquiry learning, and by providing guidelines for what teachers would eventually need to be able to do as facilitators of their students' inquiry learning.

One of the most important early goals for the SYEFEST family of Lead Teachers and Lead Ecologists was to craft their own vision for what inquiry learning means. At their Leadership Workshop in Gainesville, Florida, they came up with this definition:

Learners take responsibility for their own learning through active involvement and process including:

• observation using the immediate surroundings
• developing a question that matters to them
• devising a means to seek answers
• investigating, testing, and maybe failing
• re-testing and re-questioning
• analysis of results
• communicating and sharing results
• reflection on the process

The process proceeds at a pace that matches learners' level of understanding, experience, and cultural context. Curiosity and wonder set the agenda.

One way of thinking about the different kinds of inquiry learning is to consider who directs or specifies each of the various components of the process. In the Table of Inquiry, we show a range of inquiry types, from the most open to the most guided. Some believe that increasing sophistication and achievement is required for the types of inquiry at the top of this table, while others point out that learners with a range of abilities and experience levels can tackle many if not all of these pathways.

Why Do Teachers Need to do Inquiry on Their Own Schoolyards?

Teachers need to learn inquiry by doing it. They need to get comfortable studying schoolyards by doing it. Studying ecology at a nature center, college campus, or even the schoolyard of other teachers has less direct relevance than working on their own turf. Many teachers come into a SYE Institute thinking that their schoolyard is depauperate and barren. By successfully investigating ecology themselves on their school grounds, teachers discover the rich resource that was invisible to them before.