Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 Background of the Study
In the 21st century, human being has begun to enter a time of learning. As amember of the era，we can no longer expect that the knowledge can be stored enough tolast a life time when we are young. In this age, people can keep up with the pace of eraand establish himself in society. In the book of Learning To Be, Edgar Faure who is thechairman of united nations educational scientific and cultural organization(UNESCO),has pointed out that "Illiteracy in the future is not illiterate, but can not studying?” Soteachers have been confronted with the problem of how to teach, also students have beenfaced with that how to study for these years.As an old saying from China goes, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for aday; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Meanwhile the Germaneducator RA.W.Disterweg says，"Bad teachers just show the truth to students, while goodteachers teach students to find the truth in their own way." From above, we can know thatteachers should teach not just the contain of knowledge, but also the way of gettingknowledge. Teachers should make students clear that the way of learning is moreimportant.Furthermore, with the implementation of all-round education and the newcurriculum reform, the significance of finding the way teachers teach and the waystudents leam is gradually arising in recent years. The Reformation of FundamentalEducation Curriculum(trial implementation) (2001) states that, "Teaching shouldconcentrate on developing the independence and self-govern of students and guidingstudents to pose questions, investigate problems and explore the truth. Therefore, it canstimulate the students' initiative and individuation in study under the guidance ofteachers. New Curriculum Standard (2011) proposes that classroom teaching shouldcomplete a transformation from the teacher-centered and book-centered into thestudent-centered. It also requires that teacher should be a guider rather than a knowledgeimporter and students should be initiative seekers rather than passive recipients bydiscarding the traditional model of teaching. English Curriculum Standards in the Phaseof Compulsory Education (2011) raises an important view for students and says thatbuilding a relaxed and harmonious atmosphere by paying attention to students' emotionis needed for education today. All in all，shifting the role of teachers and cultivating theindependent and autonomous abilities of students are of growing importance nowadays.
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1.2 Current Research
Investigation of ancient Chinese educational history can be found that containsinquiry learning activities. Early in the spring and autumn period，Confucius's "Wouldnot explain unless one is desperately anxious to leam or not determined to leam" couldbe regarded as the spirit of "heuristic" teaching ideas to explore the students' initiativelearning style. In ancient China during the Warring States period many thinkers in thisbasis discussed that students' actively constructing knowledge and independentconstruction is meaningftil. They emphasize the importance for students to question andcriticize for knowledge. Such as Mencius' words "better no book rather than trust bookcompletely，Xunzi's “never too old to leam”，"LI JI” of "extensive learning; be question;careful reflection; clear discrimination; work perseveringly".In a survey of the domestic modem researches on inquiry-based instruction, ZhongLing proved that inquiry-based teaching can improve the motivation and efficiency ofstudy (Zhong Ling, 2008： 26). Lu Huifang suggested that inquiry-based teaching had itspositive effects on study interests, ability to gather and process information, andcommunicating ability (Lu Huifang, 2007:38). The last type is around researches aboutthe effects of inquiry-based instruction on thinking ability, especially on critical thinking.Zhou Qing，Guo Jing and Wang Yan explored promoting preservice teachers' criticalthinking by inquiry-based chemic
