Few things energise a classroom quite like a well-placed question. Not the kind with a single correct answer already circled in the teacher’s mind, but the kind that opens a door: what do you notice?, what might happen if…?, how could we find out?. These are the questions that sit at the very centre of inquiry based learning, and for over forty years, Australian educator Kath Murdoch has been helping teachers around the world ask them well.
At Quintilian School, inquiry learning is the basis upon which every subject, every excursion, and every classroom conversation is built. Our 2026 Parent Survey bears this out: the inquiry learning approach was the second most common reason families chose Quintilian, and it remains one of the top things that impress parents once their children are here. So where does this approach come from, and how does the thinking of an educator like Kath Murdoch find its way into the daily rhythm of our school? Let us explore.
Who Is Kath Murdoch?
Kath Murdoch began her career as a classroom teacher in Melbourne, drawn early on to a single, absorbing question: how do children actually construct understanding? That curiosity carried her from primary classrooms into university lecturing, educational research, and eventually into a career as one of the world’s most sought-after consultants on inquiry-based learning. She has authored seventeen books, including the widely read The Power of Inquiry, and has worked alongside teachers and students in schools across Australia, New Zealand, Asia, Africa, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe.
What sets Murdoch apart is that she has never stopped being a classroom practitioner. She regularly steps into schools to demonstrate techniques, coach teachers, and design learning experiences shoulder-to-shoulder with students. This commitment to staying grounded in real classrooms means her ideas carry the weight of lived experience rather than theory alone.
Her message is consistent and refreshingly direct. Inquiry is a structured approach that grants students choice and agency, but always within thoughtfully designed boundaries. You will see a great deal of conversation, questioning, and active teaching with teachers working alongside learners.
Demystifying the Inquiry Cycle
One of Murdoch’s most influential contributions to classroom practice is her inquiry cycle, a flexible set of phases that guide both teacher planning and student learning. The stages (Tuning In, Finding Out, Sorting Out, Going Further, Making Conclusions, and Taking Action) are not meant to be followed like a recipe. Murdoch herself has written candidly about the frustration of seeing her cycle treated as a rigid, step-by-step formula, when its real purpose is far more nuanced.
The cycle works because it mirrors how human beings naturally learn. We begin with what we already know and what we are curious about (Tuning In). We gather new information through investigation, experimentation and conversation (Finding Out). We organise, compare and make sense of that information (Sorting Out). We apply our emerging understanding to new contexts (Going Further), draw reasoned conclusions, and critically consider what action our learning might lead to.
What makes this cycle especially valuable in a primary school setting is that it honours where each child actually is, rather than where a curriculum document assumes they ought to be. Teachers tune in to students’ existing thinking, identify misconceptions and genuine interests, and then shape the learning journey accordingly. The phases are revisited and interwoven as new questions surface and understanding deepens. Inquiry, in this sense, is ongoing, dynamic and deeply responsive.
Curiosity As the Competency That Fuels Everything Else
Ask Murdoch what matters most in learning, and she will point to curiosity. In a 2025 professional development keynote, she described it plainly: “Perhaps the most important competency is curiosity. Students need to be relentlessly curious about themselves, about others, and about the world around them. Curiosity fuels learning.”
This has practical implications for how teachers speak, how classrooms are arranged, and how lessons are designed. Murdoch encourages teachers to model curiosity themselves: to wonder aloud, to admit when they do not know something, and to pursue their own questions alongside their students. When children see the adults in their lives truly curious, they learn that not knowing is the starting point of all investigation.
She extends this message to parents as well, urging them to resist the impulse to solve every problem for their children. “Don’t do for children what they can do for themselves,” she has said. This is a quietly powerful reminder that independence grows in the space between a question and its answer.
What Inquiry Based Learning Looks Like at Quintilian
For families familiar with our Immersive Education philosophy, the connection to Murdoch’s inquiry framework will feel immediately recognisable. Our blog on immersive learning explored how children at Quintilian learn through direct experience: digging in gardens, interviewing community members, constructing models, and building knowledge through hands-on engagement rather than passive reception. Inquiry-based learning is what drives those experiences.
Consider a typical learning sequence in a Quintilian classroom. A unit on local ecosystems might open not with a textbook chapter, but with a tuning-in activity: perhaps a walk through the school grounds to observe what lives and grows there, followed by a class discussion where students share what they already know, what they think they know, and what they are curious about. Their questions scribbled on sticky notes or mapped onto a wonder wall can become the raw material for the weeks ahead.
From there, students move into finding out: conducting experiments, reading, interviewing experts, or heading out on an excursion to a nearby wetland. They document their learning in journals, sort their discoveries into categories, and begin to identify patterns. A teacher might step in at this point with a carefully timed question that nudges their thinking further: you have noticed that certain plants only grow near the water’s edge. Why do you think that might be?
As the inquiry deepens, students might choose their own research focus: one group investigates the role of frogs as indicator species, while another explores the impact of stormwater runoff. They present their findings to classmates, reflect on what they have learned, and consider what action they might take: perhaps writing to the local council or designing a school garden to attract native wildlife.
This is inquiry learning in practice. It is structured without being stifling, guided without being teacher-dominated, and academically rigorous without sacrificing joy. It also aligns with Australia’s own curriculum frameworks, which increasingly emphasise critical and creative thinking, ethical understanding, and personal and social capability as essential skills for young learners. Research consistently shows that inquiry-based approaches strengthen not only academic outcomes but also collaboration, communication and empathy, the very skills that serve children well beyond any single test score.
What Parents Tell Us
The 2026 Quintilian Parent Survey confirms what we see in our classrooms every day. Among families new to the school, the inquiry learning approach was the second strongest draw ahead of facilities, location and even academic reputation. And once children are enrolled, that appreciation deepens: over half of all parents surveyed named inquiry learning as one of the aspects of the school that continues to impress them.
Parents often tell us that what surprised them most was not just that their children were learning, but how. They describe children who come home bursting with questions, who want to continue an investigation over the weekend, who have begun to see the world as something to be explored rather than something to be told about.
An Invitation to See for Yourself
Kath Murdoch has spent decades reminding educators of something essential: the best learning does not begin with an answer. It begins with a question worth asking, a teacher who knows how to guide without controlling, and a classroom culture that treats curiosity as the serious business it genuinely is.
At Quintilian School, that philosophy lives in every wonder wall, every hands-on investigation, every conversation between a teacher and a child that begins with the words “I wonder…” Our immersive approach to education takes the principles Murdoch champions and brings them to life in ways that are developmentally appropriate, academically rigorous, and deeply engaging for every child.
If you would like to see inquiry-based learning in action (to walk through our classrooms, speak with our teachers, and watch how a well-placed question can spark an entire journey of discovery), we warmly invite you to join us at one of our upcoming Open Mornings. You can find details and register your place through the events page on our website. In the meantime, explore more about our philosophy in our previous post on Immersive Education, or read about the broader benefits of inquiry learning on our blog. We would love to welcome you into the conversation.
