“The important thing to remember if you are going to adopt [inquiry-based learning] is to gauge how much experience and prior knowledge your students have doing inquiry-based tasks so you can determine the amount of direction you need to give them.”2
Learning Intention
In any inquiry-based learning approach, success depends on matching the level of inquiry with student capabilities. Understanding your students’ level of readiness to engage in inquiry-based learning approaches will help you select the most appropriate level of inquiry for them to be successful.2 Levels of Inquiry will help you determine which learning tasks should be modeled/performed by the teacher, by the students, or in cooperation with one another.
Overview
Inquiry-based learning is a teaching approach that engages learners in asking questions and exploring responses, putting students in the role of discovering information for themselves and teachers in a more facilitative, rather than instructive, role. Some students are prepared to take on the responsibility of directing their own learning while others need more guidance. If a learning task is too difficult, students will get frustrated, and if it is too easy, they will get bored.2 Instructors can appropriately plan, structure, and implement inquiry-based learning practices for any class by assessing students’ current capabilities, both in content and in process, and assigning roles accordingly.
Traditional instruction assigns the teacher to perform each step in the inquiry process as a model to students. As the levels of inquiry advance, from structured to guided to student-directed, students take on more and more responsibility. Faculty should identify a starting-point and then help students progress through increasingly student-driven levels of inquiry as the course progresses.2Instructions
|
Traditional |
Structured |
Guided |
Student Directed |
Student Research |
Topic |
Teacher |
Teacher |
Teacher |
Teacher |
Teacher/ Student |
Question |
Teacher |
Teacher |
Teacher |
Teacher/ Student |
Student |
Materials |
Teacher |
Teacher |
Teacher |
Student |
Student |
Procedures/ Design |
Teacher |
Teacher |
Teacher/ Student |
Student |
Student |
Results/ Analysis |
Teacher |
Teacher/ Student |
Student |
Student |
Student |
Conclusions |
Teacher |
Student |
Student |
Student |
Student |
Considerations