Inquiry based learning is a form of active learning focused on questions which students ask themselves. It means that people construct their knowledge through their own experience that leads to deeper understanding of content, but the most valuable result is development of critical thinking, goals settings, research and synthesis skills.

In this method roles of students and teachers are different from those in traditional pedagogy. Using students’ inquiries as a guidance teachers engage them to be active thinkers rather than passive learners (listeners). This level of involvement makes learning more relevant, encouraging students to develop their own agency and soft skills. You can find short and clear explanation of new roles in this video https://youtu.be/u84ZsS6niPc

The roles of teacher at this approach are:

• To facilitate discussions
• To be a content expert
• To design environment and exploration activity
• To educate students to ask “essential questions”

To my mind, the key point of the method is this idea of essential questions. According to Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, essential questions do not lead to a single answer but instead serve as a catalyst for discussions, require high-order thinking skills such as inference and evaluation, and spark more questions (that lead to even more inquiry).

I found a nice illustration to this at Anthony Egbers and Kerryn White materials. They divide all questions into 4 groups and ask their students to focus on the third ant fourth groups.

Of course, it is unrealistic to expect small children to be ready for inquiring process from the beginning. So three levels of inquiring learning can be pointed out:

1. Structured (starting point) – teacher asks questions and shows main steps of inquiring process and explains methods, helps to reflect the results, gives feedback
2. Guided – teacher asks questions, but choosing of method and defining of main steps – are the responsibility of student.
3. Open level – students are in charge for all steps (ask opened-end questions, research and investigate, present and share results and reflect the process). Teacher gives feedback and advice in difficult situations.

To conclude, inquiry based learning requires student to engage in active learning by generating their own driving questions, seeking out answers, and exploring complex problems. This significantly change roles of teachers and students

I also recommend you some other resources, if you try to find “right questions”

• An article by Beth Holland with thought-provoking question “Can students do research without inquiry, or inquiry without a formal research process?” https://www.edutopia.org/article/inquiry-and-research-process
• Description of “thinking routine” – “See. Think. Wonder.” 
   http://www.visiblethinkingpz.org/VisibleThinking_html_files/03_ThinkingRoutines/03c_Core_routines/SeeThinkWonder/SeeThinkWonder_Routine.html
• portal, where a lot of ideas can be found http://inspiringscience.eu/