If you were wondering about the lack of recent posts, then I probably should explain that I have spent the last six months cycling around Peru, raising awareness for the children. I can tell you it was a real eye-opening experience, apart from when it was dusty.

Prior to that, I spent a lot of time having dinners across the globe with committed edupreneurs, changemakers and changepreneurs. At one such event, I found myself in discussion with Andreas Schleicher of the OECD and PISA. He was kind of bummed-out that the most recent set of PISA results showed the wrong thing; that inquiry learning was associated with worse science scores. We knew that wasn’t right and so we chewed it over, along with the poached wild salmon with a watercress and butter reduction.

After a while, I was struck by an epiphany. A light bulb literally went on inside my head. “It must be that teachers simply aren’t doing inquiry right!” I exclaimed. Everyone around me nodded their heads in furious agreement. We all knew that I had nailed the problem.

That night, I vowed to the assembled throng that I would save inquiry from teachers doing it all wrong. And thus was born Metaquiry. A momentous moment indeed!

My genius was to realise that the process of inquiry could, in of itself, be subjected to the process of inquiry. And so I constructed the following diagram, The Metaquiry Accelerator, to illustrate this point:

Hubert On is lead educator at Archipelago International School, UA. He takes up the story from here.

“We were keen to develop 21st century skills such as the ability to see connections between subjects and to manipulate knowledge in new contexts,” On explains, his deep brown eyes glistening as he gently caresses his velvet fringe.

“We knew that inquiry was the only way to do this but we just couldn’t get it right.”

I listen, nodding sagely in recognition of this convex problem.

“Then we tried The Metaquiry Accelerator,” On continues, “and we launched from inquiry to metaquiry. We haven’t looked back! We can now evaluate our quiry against globally recognised standards and ensure we are doing it right.”

“I am glad,” I reply, as a burst of birdsong issues from the classroom speakers to signal the end of recess and similing, happy children rush to class!

Note: Metaquiry should not be confused with Biddulph’s Hyperquiry, which is a different kind of quiry altogether