Self-Regulation and Inquiry-Based Learning in the Primary Classroom

In this unique text, Dr. Brenda Jacobs brings together two important ideas that have become central to learning and development in education, demonstrating the core relationship between self-regulation and inquiry-based learning in primary classrooms.The author compellingly shows that inquiry-based learning can empower children and is vital to becoming self-regulated learners. Drawing on real-life classroom examples, the volume outlines four key insights: that children learn self-regulation during inquiry-based learning in the same way they do during play; that teachers can use scaffolding strategies to support this development; that inquiry-based learning promotes the positive emotions essential for the development of social and emotional learning; and, finally, that during inquiry-based learning, children use oral language as a self-regulatory tool. These insights are applied to the four components of emergent curriculum—inquiry design, classroom environment, conversation, and documentation—to show how educators can help children become self-regulated learners. Considering how COVID-19 has exacerbated children's social, emotional, behavioural, physical, and mental health problems, this timely volume also provides guidance about how to do inquiry-based learning in virtual classrooms.Concise and practical, Self-Regulation and Inquiry-Based Learning in the Primary Classroom is an invaluable foundational text for students in Education and Early Childhood Education and for pre-service and in-service teachers alike.

Dr. Brenda Jacobs is a professor in the Faculty of Education at Ontario Tech University and is a member of the Ontario College of Teachers and the College of Early Childhood Educators. Brenda has taught elementary school-aged children in Toronto, Vancouver, and Oxford, England. She attends and participates in presentations and workshops held throughout Canada and internationally.