Assessment is focused on determining the progress of skills development in addition to content understanding. Inquiry classrooms are open systems where students are encouraged to search and make use of resources beyond the classroom and the school. Teachers who use inquiry can use technology to connect students appropriately with local and world communities which are rich sources of learning and learning materials. They replace lesson plans with facilitated learning plans that account for slight deviations while still keeping an important learning outcome in focus. Another issue regarding inquiry-based learning has to do with a misconception about when to do inquiry.
Teachers can do collaborative meaning-making through discourse.
No one has been down there, and physical probes have only scratched the surface. To enhance inquiry learning, the teacher should explain that indirect scientific evidence, mainly the transmission and reflection of different kinds of earthquake waves, provides much of our understanding about the internal structure of the earth. This approach provides the student with the opportunity not only to learn the names and sizes of the structures but, more importantly, to ponder and question the nature of indirect scientific evidence as well. Thus, an inquiry approach can help students connect science with the scientific method. Students learn to apply the method to various fields of study while coming to understand their content.