TOOL #3 | reDESIGN’S RIGOR TOOLBOX
Inquiry-based Explorations
What if subject area content were organized to support meaningful inquiry and nonlinear, interest-driven pathways? What if curriculum were decoupled from grade levels, and instead prioritized the investigation of important issues and topics as the context for disciplinary and interdisciplinary concept and skill development? reDesign’s Explorations are curriculum reimagined: flexible, inquiry- and concept-based, modular, and highly engaging. Each interactive, online Exploration is a “starter” curation of diverse learning resources for investigating a compelling issue or topic of importance. The visual display makes the structure of inquiry transparent, and the modular format means any learner can build or contribute to the Exploration’s resources.
Why this? Explorations provide the compelling inquiry frame for learning important disciplinary content and engaging with complex ideas in the context of real-world issues, challenges, and observable phenomena. These interactive resources are designed to help learners develop conceptual understandings that form the “coat hangers” on which we interpret and assimilate new ideas, and relate and extend them (Hattie, 2012; Stern, Ferraro, Mohnkern, 2017).