Inquiry-based learning

Inquiry-based learning, or IBL, is an education strategy that encourages asking questions and seeking the answers as a way to enhance student knowledge. It is based on the idea that telling or showing a person something does not result in the same kind of deep learning as personal experience. Therefore, IBL supporters believe a student who asks questions and finds ways to determine the answers to their questions will learn and retain more information. The strategy encourages a teacher to serve as a facilitator.

When done well, supporters say that IBL results in increased knowledge and understanding of the material while building discipline, curiosity, and motivation. Opponents say that IBL's success depends greatly on the base of knowledge the student already has attained as well as the skill of the facilitator.

Background

Learning by gaining experience and asking questions is essentially the default learning method of humans. Babies smash bits of food and drop toys to see what happens and whether the same thing happens each time, while toddlers ask questions about how things work and why things are the way they are. This is inquiry-based learning, when the child wonders about something and attempts to find the answer.

American philosopher and education reformer John Dewey is generally credited with making inquiry learning a formal educational concept. He believed that education in the early part of the twentieth century included too much emphasis on memorizing facts and not enough on understanding the meaning and applications of those facts. In 1910, Dewey recommended that science teachers incorporate certain classroom practices based on the scientific method. He encouraged identifying questions or problems, clarifying their essence, forming a hypothesis or educated guess of the answer or solution, testing the hypothesis, retesting as necessary, and formulating a plan of action based on this process.

Over time, Dewey revised his concept to add an emphasis on the student pursuing questions of personal interest. He believed this would increase a student's personal knowledge of science by making it relative and encouraging active learning. By the middle of the 1930s, the United States Commission on Secondary School Curriculum had adopted Dewey's concept as the basis of high school science classes nationwide.

The Russian launch of the Sputnik satellite in 1957 and concern with keeping up with newly developed technology created a new sense of urgency about science education. Educators began to see science as two bodies of knowledge: a static form made of things that had already been learned and established as scientific fact, and new knowledge that grew through the continual addition of new learning. Education emphasized teaching students to think like scientists and to continually apply the scientific method. Much of this effort was led by another American education reformer, Joseph Schwab. Like Dewey, he emphasized an inquiry-based approach. Other educators over the next several decades also promoted inquiry-based instruction as a valuable way to increase student knowledge and understanding, especially in science and math. While debates persisted concerning the efficacy of inquiry-based learning, schools in countries around the world continued to institute or experiment with the method into the first decades of the twenty-first century. Research around, including dedicated studies of, inquiry-based learning remained ongoing.

Overview

Inquiry-based learning is promoted as a way to continually increase knowledge. The student starts with a body of knowledge that has already been acquired. This is used to help the student identify other things that are not known and to form educated guesses, or hypotheses, about those unknown things. Through research, observation, and the use of the five senses of sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell, the student applies knowledge that has already been acquired to learning something new.

For instance, a student might hear about how icebergs are melting in the ocean and wonder how fast ice melts. With the guidance of a teacher, the student or a group of students could think about the various situations under which ice might melt—in still water, in running water, in hot water, in salt water, in room temperature air, in air with a fan blowing it over the ice, in the refrigerator, in the oven, in the microwave, etc. They might guess that the ice would melt fastest in the oven.

They could then test this hypothesis by making multiple blocks of ice of the same size and shape, placing them in the different circumstances, and observing them to see which block melts the fastest. The students could then think about how their findings apply to how ice melts in the moving water of ocean currents. According to the inquiry-based learning concept, the students should retain both the knowledge about ice melting and the understanding of how this applies to melting icebergs far better than if they had simply read about it in a book or listened to the teacher explain it.

Proponents say this multistep process that allows the students to experience what they are learning about helps them to not only learn about the subject at hand but also to learn how to learn. In other words, they can apply the techniques of asking questions, investigating and forming hypotheses, conducting tests and gathering evidence, connecting what has been learned, and developing the finding to other subjects. For instance, a student who has already learned to experiment to learn about the melting time of ice can use the same process to determine which of several fertilizers will help a plant grow the fastest.

The techniques can also be applied to other areas of learning besides science. For instance, forming and testing the experiments can bolster math and writing skills as students gather, compare, and record evidence. Research may also be required to determine some information; for instance, the student investigating plant growth may need to look up the names and kinds of known fertilizers. The process can also be applied to historical studies; students can develop theories about why a group of people migrated, for instance, and then test that theory by examining historical records related to the migration.

Although inquiry-based learning offers many benefits, teachers have often preferred other methods. The most common reasons for resisting inquiry-based instruction have been found to be insufficient time to allow for the inquiry and hypothesis trial it requires, limited access to the materials needed, and emphasis on facts in available textbooks. Standardized testing that requires all students to know the same facts also limits opportunities to pursue inquiry-based learning. Some experts believe that the technique is too dependent on the skill of the teacher in leading students through the process, and that the ability of students to form theories can be too limited to allow adequate learning.

Bibliography

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