Have you ever seen the words critical and inquiry together as a type of approach for teaching and learning? I don't think I have actually seen it anywhere other than my own stuff, but it came together for me one day as I was reading through the stage 6 syllabus (yes, just reading it from start to finish, I'm like that).

You see at the time I had also been engaging with a couple of other educators and the work they were doing. One was Michael Anderson from Sydney Uni.² His work is all on the 21st-century skills of creativity, critical reflection, communication, and collaboration. The other was Trevor MacKenzie from Canada who specialises in Inquiry-Based Learning.³

I had read their books and interviewed them both on my podcast and as I read the syllabus I began to think it was designed for a combination of their approaches as well as a few other things I really enjoyed about project-based learning.

1. What is critical inquiry?

Critical inquiry is simply bringing together two great...