Inquiry-Based Learning Approaches

Inquiry Based Learn­ing places the respon­si­bil­i­ty for learn­ing on the stu­dents, and encour­ages them to arrive at an under­stand­ing of con­cepts by them­selves.

Some Inquiry-intensive practices include:

1. Design Think­ing
   Design Think­ing sup­ports and struc­tures the cre­ative process of gen­er­at­ing ideas and bring­ing them into real­i­ty through con­crete actions and prod­ucts. Com­mon­ly used to frame stu­dent work in art, but adapt­able to many oth­er dis­ci­plines, Design Think­ing guides stu­dents through five phas­es of think­ing and activ­i­ty: Dis­cov­ery, Inter­pre­ta­tion, Ideation, Exper­i­men­ta­tion, and Evo­lu­tion.

2. Prob­lem-Based Learn­ing
   Prob­lem-Based Learn­ing con­fronts stu­dents with messy, com­plex prob­lems encoun­tered in the real world as a stim­u­lus for learn­ing. Prob­lems are raised with stu­dents before have been taught the rel­e­vant knowl­edge. By active­ly engag­ing with the prob­lem first, learn­ers devel­op skills around defin­ing prob­lems, iden­ti­fy­ing what infor­ma­tion they need, and find­ing, eval­u­at­ing and using infor­ma­tion. Learn­ers are able to con­nect their thought process­es in class to solv­ing prob­lems in the real world.

3. Case or Sce­nario-Based Learn­ing
   Case or Sce­nario-Based Learn­ing engages stu­dents in analy­sis of spe­cif­ic sce­nar­ios that resem­ble or are real-world exam­ples. This method is learn­er-cen­tered with intense inter­ac­tion between par­tic­i­pants as they build their knowl­edge and work togeth­er as a group to exam­ine the case. The instructor’s role is that of a facil­i­ta­tor while the stu­dents col­lab­o­ra­tive­ly ana­lyze and address prob­lems and resolve ques­tions that have no sin­gle right answer.

4. Meta-ques­tions
   Meta-ques­tions are fram­ing ques­tions designed to struc­ture stu­dent work dur­ing a whole term with­in an envelop­ing inves­ti­ga­tion. Activ­i­ties are devel­oped and resources are cho­sen for sup­port­ing stu­dents’ con­sid­er­a­tion of this Big Ques­tion. Dai­ly dis­cus­sions and var­i­ous assign­ments repeat­ed­ly return to the fram­ing inquiry, and at the end of the term stu­dents are asked to pro­duce a com­pre­hen­sive response to the Meta-ques­tion.

Inquiry can also be embed­ded in oth­er learn­ing frame­works, such as:

• Project-based learn­ing
• Under­grad­u­ate Research
• Thresh­old con­cepts
• Pub­lic Sphere Ped­a­gogy
• Engaged Learn­ing (e.g., civic engage­ment)
• Field work
• Pro­gres­sive Inquiry