Developed by the Singapore Centre for Chinese Language, the “Inquiry-based Learning with Authentic Life Materials” teaching toolkit is designed mainly for teachers of Higher Chinese at Primary 5 level. However, it is also a useful tool for teachers of Chinese at Primary 5 and 6 levels. It provides teachers with useful supplementary teaching materials and can be used for a school-based curriculum.

In order to help students to complete the inquiry-based learning activities, the toolkit provides sufficient thinking scaffolds and illustrative examples. These help to make inquiry-based learning visual and procedural, thus making it more practicable. Their purposes are to raise students’ awareness of their thinking processes and enhance their ability to identify and solve problems.

The toolkit consists of six lesson plans, complete with PowerPoint slides, as well as assessment rubrics. These materials systematically guide students through the inquiry-based activities and learn to use assessment as a tool to facilitate their own learning. The teaching toolkit, therefore, is very useful for Chinese language teachers planning to implement inquiry-based learning in their classrooms.