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What does it mean for schools?

The process of reaching new understandings of the world depends on relationships between students and teachers that are based on sharing, trust and reciprocity. This is what we call a 'democratic classroom'.

In an enquiry-based classroom students are involved in the decisions about curriculum content - what to research and how to proceed at each stage of an enquiry.

This change is from a 'transmission' pedagogy to an 'enquiry' pedagogy, or 'co-constructive' pedagogy. The features of this include:

• teachers and students develop ways to talk together
• teachers use their knowledge and understanding to elicit and bring on students' knowledge
• students take on more responsibility for how the classroom should be and how learning takes place
• the classroom is a place where teachers and students think together.