The Power of Inquiry: What Happens When Children Drive their Own Learning

Marin Mommies presents a sponsored shout-out from Mark Day School in San Rafael.

Has your child asked a question you couldn't answer, followed by another question, and then another? Or perhaps taken something apart—maybe even a household item you'd have preferred they hadn't—just to see what was inside?

That impulse is a child’s natural curiosity turning into the practice of inquiry, and it is one of the most powerful forces in a K–8 education.

At Mark Day School, our teachers are experts in guiding and facilitating student inquiry. While a child's curiosity is already there, the teacher's craft is creating the conditions—the questions, the materials, the timing—that lead it to flourish. When driven by their own curiosities, students are much more motivated to persist through uncertainty, confusion, or failure to reach beyond what used to be their limits.

This approach to inquiry can be seen across classrooms and grade levels at Mark Day. In 1st grade, for example, teacher Lisa Becker intentionally creates opportunities for students to explore mathematical ideas by inviting them to find their own paths to the answer, testing their thinking, and explaining their reasoning along the way. A prompt like “How many ways can you make 20?” will lead to many different answers. Rather than directing students toward one method, she uses their responses to understand how each child is thinking and help guide what comes next.

Similarly, 6th grade history teacher Beckie Mejia challenges students to push from initial curiosity to a deeper pursuit of history learning. During the study of Mesopotamia, for example, students choose an aspect of the civilization to explore in depth, becoming an expert to help teach their peers (whom they will in turn learn from on other aspects of the civilization). By following their interests within a structured curriculum, students learn to ask questions, make choices, dig deeper, and take greater ownership of their learning.

Another place where student inquiry is ever-present is in our Creativity Lab. The space itself is designed for possibility, with movable work tables, a workshop for loud and messy projects, and a "think tank" where sketches and ideas take shape. Here, students are encouraged to figure out for themselves what works and what doesn’t. In practice, it could be through building a solar-powered caterpillar car or a bubble wand crafted from ordinary household materials. Each project begins with a student wondering whether something is possible, and ends somewhere the teacher didn't fully script.

Regardless of grade level and subject, students are always encountering things they don't yet know how to do, and, through inquiry, they build the curiosity, confidence, and persistence to find out what comes next. That's the habit we're building at Mark Day, and it's one that students carry with them well beyond the borders of our campus and their days here.

Mark Day School is located at 39 Trellis Drive in San Rafael. For more info, visit www.markdayschool.org/admission.