Inquiry-based Learning
What?
Inquiry-based learning is a learner-centered model of education where students engage in meaningful inquiries connected to course topics.
Why?
Inquiry-based learning has been shown to increase learner achievement, cultivate professional skills, and fosters more effective collaboration and communication in disciplines throughout the humanities and the natural and social sciences.
How?
The instructor becomes a guide and facilitator and puts the student in the driver’s seat. Students co-create the learning environment through discussion and group dialogue, while the teacher scaffolds the inquiry-based learning process and gives regular formative feedback. In this way, students learn from mistakes, solve authentic problems, and become independent learners.
What is Inquiry-based Learning?
This resource on inquiry-based learning (IBL) provides an overview of this teaching approach.
Supported by evidence-based research, a clear path is provided for educators wanting to implement IBL in any discipline. IBL foregrounds learner curiosity and puts students in control of their learning. Students come up with questions or ideas to explore, learn by doing, reflect on their process, and share their findings with classmates or the larger community. This process can vary from a single activity that occurs in a two-hour class to a multi-semester project.
IBL can be applied in many ways. Although originally developed to parallel the scientific method (e.g., coming up with a hypothesis, gathering data, conducting an experiment to gather results, reflecting on the process, and sharing your findings), IBL has been adapted to be applicable in any discipline. As a general framework, learners propose an essential question to follow, engage in research and collect evidence related to their question, create a final product or solution (which can vary from a creative piece, to a scientific paper, to facilitating a process-based activity), and share their experiences and findings with others. IBL shifts the focus from knowledge transfer to cultivating communities of learning led by learner discovery.
Watch video
Harry Potter and Inquiry-based Learning
Key aspects of Inquiry-based Learning:
Learner-centred
Students are in the driver’s seat, and are central to the design, implementation, and assessment of their own learning
Active
Unlike transmission-based lecture, learning is largely experiential, and students make their own connections to personal or real-world issues
Reflective
Students develop and examine their own learning process and adapt their approach based on self-reflection and instructor feedback
Curiosity-driven
The instructor creates a learning environment where students can take risks, follow their own curiosities, and tackle authentic tasks
Process-based
Although a final product or solution is typically part of the IBL approach, the process is where most of the deeper learning takes place
Constructivist
The theory that learners need to construct knowledge for themselves, through experience and reflecting on this experience. Learning is seen as an active and social process, with motivation central to students’ ability to learn
Am I doing something for my students that they should be doing for themselves?
Trevor MacKenzie, educator and inquiry-based learning expert
As a point of comparison, the following table contrasts traditional (lecture-based) instruction with inquiry-based learning founded on constructivism, and outlines the role of the facilitator in IBL in cultivating strength-based learning rather than deficit-based. Note that direct instruction via lecture has an important place in teaching definitions or difficult concepts, and can complement IBL (see the Teaching Models section for more details).
| Traditional Teaching (e.g., lecture) | Constructivist Teaching (e.g., inquiry-based) | Role of teacher/facilitator in inquiry-based learning |
|---|---|---|
| Students typically work on their own | Students often work in groups | Form students into small groups with specific intentions |
| Knowledge is delivered by an expert to more passive learners | Knowledge is dynamic and changes with experience and is constructed directly by learners | Ask students open-ended questions, provide space for dialogue and reflection |
| Teacher’s role is directive and rooted in authority | Teacher’s role is interactive and rooted in collaboration | Hold space for students to give input and guide the process |
| Students are recipients of knowledge | Students construct their own knowledge | Get to know your students, and access and incorporate their prior knowledge |
| Primary materials are textbooks and other written/digital resources provided by teacher | Learners discover their own resources during their inquiry, in addition to those provided by teacher | Provide a clear framework for inquiry journeys, and help learners access reliable resources |
| Curriculum is largely prescribed and followed | Student questions and interests are embedded, emergent learning is encouraged | Willingness to follow students’ lead and diverge from prescribed path when needed |
| Learning is based on repetition | Learning is interactive, building on what the student already knows | Facilitate active and authentic learning |
| Product-based, and assessment is summative through exams or similar | Process-based, and assessment is primarily formative through reflection and low stakes feedback | Provide formative assessment including descriptive feedback |
Additional resource: a module on inquiry-based learning, created by the Learning Commons and focused on learning design and assessment, can be accessed by KPU employees here