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Inquiry-based learning (IBL) is a student-centered approach driven by students' questions ... Inquiry-based Learning: Definitions and Theoretical Background.
Typology: Study Guides, Projects, Research
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American University in Dubai Inquiry-based learning (IBL) is a student-centered approach driven by students’ questions and their innate curiosity. IBL was introduced and effectively implemented in the general secondary teaching methods course at the American University in Dubai. The study made use of a mixed methods approach. It was guided by two research questions: 1). What factors hinder the implementation of IBL in the student teachers’ classrooms? 2). Why do student teachers favor the use of IBL in their classroom? Eight student teachers enrolled in the general secondary teaching methodology course at the American University in Dubai (Fall 2017) participated in the study. First, they completed a survey to gain insight into the challenges and difficulties student teachers face in the implementation of IBL in their classroom. In order to build on the results from the quantitative phase, the student teachers were next involved in a qualitative data collection phase, where they had to answer the question: What makes you want to implement IBL in your own classroom? Results revealed that student teachers considered ‘school system’ as a factor that hinders the implementation of IBL in their classroom. In addition, data collected from the open- ended question were categorized into two main themes: IBL creates a culture of deep and transferable learning and strengthens student engagement and IBL allows for differentiation and empowers student voice and choice. To make the most of this innovative student-centered approach, IBL needs to be highly valued at all academic levels starting from early stages and across all disciplines. It is essential that IBL becomes embedded in daily school curricula to ensure an interactive learning journey that calls out for student questioning, deep learning, and engaged, motivated learners.
Let us consider the phrase, ‘students’ role’ and reflect on its implications. To do so, we imagine ourselves visiting a classroom in the school we are currently teaching at. What do we observe? What do we notice? How are students reaching understanding? Are teachers predominantly lecturing to cover content? Are students consistently active as learners? Are they engaged in investigations that promote higher order thinking skills and conceptual understanding? Are students involved in a collaborative learning journey and offered a chance to explore their interests, opinions, feelings, beliefs, and curiosities? Such questions reveal a lot about the classroom culture. Today, it is essential that we revisit our classroom culture, reflect on what we think about our 21st century students, and ask ourselves how students want to learn. Our
students today want to acquire new knowledge by doing. They want to think, analyse, evaluate, apply, and create. They want to tell a story, be autonomous, interact, and collaborate. They want to explore and be engaged while using meaningful technological tools. Our societal needs have tremendously changed over the years. We need to think of our students and the challenges that are ahead of them. To make sure our students are well equipped with the necessary tools to face the demands and expectations of the future, there has been a clear need for instructional practices that promote critical thinking, reflection, questioning, collaboration, communication, and research. Inquiry-based learning (IBL) is a student-centered instructional approach that makes use of meaningful tasks such as cases, projects, and research to situate learning (Avsec & Kocijancic, 2016). Students are expected to work collaboratively to identify how to solve a problem, gain research skills, and trade-off capacity (Avsec, Rihtarisic, & Kocijancic, 2014). With IBL, students are engaged in the learning process and are making sense of the world around them. Alfieri et al. (2011) refer to the benefits of IBL in the classroom by explaining that, “allowing students to interact with materials, models, manipulate variables, explore phenomena, and attempt to apply principles affords them with opportunities to notice patterns, discover their underlying causalities, and learn in ways that are seemingly more robust” (p. 3). Therefore, adopting IBL engages students in the learning process and maximizes learning. The purpose of the following study was to gain insight into the challenges student teachers face in the implementation of IBL in their classrooms. It also aimed at studying student teachers’ reflections, views, and opinions on IBL. Hence, the study focused on the following two research questions:
Inquiry is a term used both in education and in daily life to refer to seeking explanations or information by posing questions (Harlem, 2013). IBL is an instructional practice where students are at the center of the learning experience and take ownership of their own learning by posing, investigating, and answering questions (Caswell & LaBrie, 2017). It is also considered a form of self-directed learning where students take responsibility for their learning (Spronken-
IBL can be implemented at different levels (Duran & Dökme, 2016). Mackenzie (2016) explores the differences between four types of student inquiry – structured, controlled, guided, and free. He further explains that teachers usually begin the year in a structured inquiry model, move to controlled inquiry, then guided inquiry, and if all goes well, conclude the year with free inquiry. The following is a brief summary of Mackenzie’s four types of student inquiry:
In a video titled, 7 Skills Students Need for Their Future (2009), Dr. Tony Wagner delivers a speech where he identifies a variety of skills needed for student success in a global economy. The seven skills are: critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration and leading with influence, agility and adaptability, initiative and entrepreneurialism, effective oral and written communication, accessing and analyzing information and curiosity and imagination. Marks (2013) explains that: “In an IBL classroom, students learn, practice, and reflect on these seven skills in an authentic process that imitates those processes used in the real world” (p. 23).
IBL is an instructional strategy that brings teaching and learning into alignment with the student and the skills needed for future success (Marks, 2013). Many studies have been conducted on the benefits of applying IBL in the classroom. Guido (2017) identifies seven benefits of IBL, arguing that it: (a) reinforces curriculum content, 2). warms up the brain for learning, 3). promotes a deeper understanding of the content, 4). helps make learning rewarding, 5). builds initiative and self- direction, 6). works in almost any classroom, and 7). offers differentiated instruction. According to Sockalingam, Rotgans, and Schmidt (2011), when students are provided the opportunity to work on a problem, they gain new knowledge and further extend and deepen their current understanding. When students explore and investigate, they take responsibility for their learning, as they are expected to make decisions and reach conclusions and judgments (Jonassen, 2000). Similarly, Hwang and Chang (2011) argue that when students learn by means of discovery and investigation in authentic settings, they improve their critical thinking skills. Goldston et al. (2010) argue that IBL considers the knowledge aspect of learning, yet places great emphasis on critical thinking, problem solving, and communication abilities. A research study by Gu et al. (2015) has found that students involved in inquiry-based practices have reported higher levels of academic self-efficacy, resolved conflicts at a higher rate, been less afraid to take risks, and more likely to continue trying different ways to be successful when they failed. Marks (2013) concludes that students who are actively engaged in inquiry do not only master content but master habits of mind. Harlen (2013) mentions that developing understanding through students’ own thinking and reasoning has many benefits for students including: enjoyment and satisfaction in finding out for themselves something that they want to know, seeing for themselves what works rather than just being told, satisfying and at the same time stimulating curiosity about the world around them, and developing progressively more powerful ideas about the world around them.
The variety of inquiry phases and cycles is well documented in the educational literature (Pedaste et al., 2015). For example, Marshall (2013) lists four inquiry phases: Engage, Explore, Explain, and Extend and explicitly incorporates formative assessment (continually checking in with students) and reflective practice (now where?) into each phase. Whereas Bybee et al. (2006), list five inquiry phases: Engagement, Exploration, Explanation, Elaboration, and
In order to uncover the challenges student teachers face in the implementation of IBL in their classrooms, explore their beliefs and opinions regarding IBL, and examine their personal reflections on the reasons they favor the use of IBL in the classroom, a mixed method design was implemented to gather and analyze data. Participants IBL was thoroughly introduced in the general secondary methodology course offered at the Graduate School of Education at the American University in Dubai. Seven female student teachers and one male student teacher enrolled in the methodology course participated in the following study. Two student teachers were teaching Science. Two were teaching French as a second language. Two were teaching Math, and one of them was also Head of the Math Department. Two were not teaching at the time. A profile of the student teachers is presented in Table 1 Student Teacher Profiles CHARACTERISTICS STUDENT TEACHERS Course Size 8 Gender Male Female
Discipline Science French as second language Math
Not Teaching 2
The first method focused on surveys. According to Ary et al. (2013) survey research makes use of instruments such as questionnaires and interviews to collect data from groups of individuals. It also permits the researcher to summarize the characteristics of different groups or to measure their attitudes and opinions towards an issue. IBL was implemented in the general secondary methodology course at the American University in Dubai for two main purposes. The first purpose was to ensure a student centered learning
culture that embraced the following essential factors: questioning, research, collaboration, reflection, and higher order thinking. Every single session of the course included hands-on activities that began by exploring what student teachers already knew about the subject. The course was not a reflection of a traditional classroom where the teacher would bestow the students with the knowledge, but rather, they would construct that knowledge together through exploring gallery walks, inquiring into in a variety of visual thinking routines, taking part in discussion and collaborative tasks, watching videos, engaging in reflection, formulating essential questions, finding the answers to their questions, and sharing their learnings. Teacher-talk was at a complete bare minimum and included clarifying, guiding, supporting, and extending the learning process. Student teacher would reflect at what they had done and realize they needed only minimal help to come up with the content themselves. IBL was also implemented in the general secondary methodology course to make sure student teachers received hands-on experience in IBL and implement it successfully and meaningfully in their own classrooms. The student teachers completed an online survey, which was previously designed by researchers working on the Mascil project (Project Evaluation, 2013) that aimed to promote widespread use of IBL in mathematics and science education. The two student teachers who were not teaching at the time did not complete the online survey. The survey addressed teachers’ challenges, views, and beliefs on IBL. For the purposes of the following study, only one domain was considered: ‘Problems with Implementation’. This domain included fifteen indicators that could be grouped into four main factors: student readiness and attitude, classroom management, resources, and school system. Student teachers were asked to think of each indicator and rate the extent to which they agreed. Each student teacher received an electronic copy of the forces and indicators and a brief short introductory paragraph which included an overview of the study and an assurance of confidentiality. The items did not allow participants to opt for a neutral response, therefore, they were asked to use a Likert scale from 1 to 4 to respond to each force and indicator. A score of ‘1’ indicated ‘strongly disagree’, ‘2’ indicated ‘disagree’, ‘3’ indicated ‘agree’, and ‘4’ indicated ‘strongly agree’. In order to build on the results from the quantitative phase and provide space for freedom and spontaneity, the student teachers were next involved in a qualitative data collection phase.
disagreed. The second indicator evaluated by the student teachers was, ‘I don’t feel confident with IBL.’ The mean score was 1.66 on a 4-point scale, indicating that the student teachers strongly disagreed. The third indicator evaluated by the student teachers was, ‘I think group work is difficult to manage.’ The mean score was 2 on a 4-point scale, indicating that the student teachers disagreed. The mean score for the overall factor, ‘Classroom Management” was 1. indicating that student teachers disagreed that classroom management hindered the implementation of IBL. Table 2 presents the mean scores of the second factor, ‘Classroom Management’. Table 2 ‘Factor2: Classroom Management’ Mean Scores Standard Mean Score Indicator 1 2. Indicator 2 1. Indicator 3 2 Total 1. The third factor, ‘Resources’ included four indicators. The first indicator evaluated by the student teachers was, ‘I don’t have enough adequate teaching materials.’ The mean score was 1.83 on a 4-point scale, indicating that the student teachers almost disagreed. The second indicator evaluated by the student teachers was, ‘IBL is not included in the textbooks I use.’ The mean score was 2.33 on a 4-point scale, indicating that the student teachers disagreed. The third indicator evaluated by the student teachers was, ‘The quality of available instructional materials.’ The mean score was 2.33 on a 4-point scale, indicating that the student teachers disagreed. The forth indicator evaluated by the student teachers was, ‘I don’t have sufficient technology resources.’ The mean score was 2.83 on a 4-point scale, indicating that the student teachers almost agreed. The mean score for the overall factor, ‘Resources” was 2.33 indicating that student teachers disagreed that quality and availability of resources hindered the implementation of IBL. Table 3 presents the mean scores of the first factor, ‘Resources’.
Table 3 ‘Factor3: Resources’ Mean Scores Standard Mean Score Indicator 1 1. Indicator 2 2. Indicator 3 2. Indicator 4 2. Total 2. The fourth factor, ‘School System’ included five indicators. The first indicator evaluated by the student teachers was, ‘The curriculum does not encourage IBL.’ The mean score was 2. on a 4-point scale, indicating that the student teachers disagreed. The second indicator evaluated by the student teachers was, ‘There is not enough time in the curriculum.’ The mean score was 2.83 on a 4-point scale, indicating that the student teachers nearly agreed. The third indicator evaluated by the student teachers was, ‘My students have to take assessments that don’t reward IBL.’ The mean score was 3 on a 4-point scale, indicating that the student teachers agreed. The forth indicator evaluated by the student teachers was, ‘Too little time is available to plan and prepare lessons.’ The mean score was 3.16 on a 4-point scale, indicating that the student teachers agreed. The fifth indicator evaluated by the student teachers was, ‘The school system does not encourage changes.’ The mean score was 2 on a 4-point scale, indicating that the student teachers disagreed. The mean score for the overall factor, ‘School System” was 2.63 indicating that student teachers almost agreed that the school system hindered the implementation of IBL. Table 4 presents the mean scores of the first factor, ‘School System’. Table 4 ‘Factor4: School System’ Mean Score’s Standard Mean Score Indicator 1 2. Indicator 2 2. Indicator 3 3 Indicator 4 3. Indicator 5 2 Total 2.
Students keep on visiting their questions again and again …. They add new acquired thoughts …. They add new learnings …. They share their learnings with their friends…. They feel content, happy, and confident to share what they discovered…. They are proud to share their thinking…. They reflect on what they learned …. It is rewarding to see how discussions arise when students want to share their findings …. Discussions often lead to debates… It is a cycle and new questions keep on popping up.” Fifth, such questions can be student oriented, as students are given the choice to formulate their own questions. When students ask their own questions, their motivation increases, which eventually leads to an increase in the likelihood of investigating and acquiring new knowledge. Providing students with an opportunity to ask questions and engage in the process of finding answers on their own, helps them grasp knowledge at a deeper level: “They continuously want to ask questions…. They are fascinated by everything around them…. They want to discover and learn about things around them…. Inquiry starts with a question and when students are allowed to think about their own question, they become excited…. They want to find answers to questions they developed…. They are curious about their questions…. When students have the opportunity to ask questions, especially questions that mean something to them, they are invested in the learning process… Questions come from students’ own curiosity and this makes the whole difference…. The natural urge to inquire creates such an excitement.” By following the 6E Model of Inquiry, students will think about how they have learned, not just what they have learned: “Students think about the steps they took to arrive to a conclusion…. It is never about the product only…. The process is important…. Students reflect on the tools they made use of to reach their understanding”. Students will reflect on each phase of the inquiry cycle, move across the different phases, and think about their thinking. As students reach final decisions and conclusions, they tend to defend their own perspectives, listen to other perspectives, and participate in provocative debates and discussions. This ensures a learning process that is deep, enduring, transferable, and profound: “Active learning is ongoing in an IBL classroom…. Students are working in groups and cooperating together to solve a certain task or find an answer to a question…. They listen to one another and engage in meaningful and rich discussions…. Students are always on the go….. They are analyzing, thinking, comparing, reflecting, and discussing…. It is refreshing to see the thinking in the classroom…. IBL is simply the thinking classroom”.
IBL is a dynamic process that capitalizes on students’ natural curiosity about the world they live in: “Students have a natural urge to inquire….. Curiosity is always evident …. They want to know why, how, when, and where?..... They are never satisfied…. They want to know more about a topic…”. Curiosity drives learners to search for what they don’t know. IBL embraces curiosity, as it takes into consideration students’ questions. When students are asked to find answers to their posed inquiries, they become engaged in the learning process and motivated to reach conclusions. Students engage in activities and tasks that are relevant, meaningful, and above all, authentic. Students also go beyond the facts, and instead think of concepts, patterns, and generalizations: “IBL calls out for conceptual learning ….. We never stop at the facts, but we go beyond….. We are always thinking of the so what?.... IBL is all related to real life ….. It is real life experience ….. It is authentic….”. With such conceptual thinking, students reach a deeper understanding and develop a personal intellect that drives them to understand more. It is only when students reach enduring understanding of a certain concept that they are able to retain and transfer their learning to real life situations: “The learning is transferable….. the understanding is enduring and stays with them …. They are actively involved in the task, they reach a deeper understanding that is easily retrieved in their memory… Students apply their learning to new situations….”. Theme 2: IBL Allows for Differentiation and Empowers Student Voice and Choice IBL is a student-centered approach, where students manage their own learning through open-ended tasks, inquiries, and experiments: “It is never a one approach to learning…. Students are often engaged in tasks that require thinking and reflection…. They experiment with materials and manipulatives around them to reach conclusions…. Tasks are complex and require students to go further....” They work in groups, take up roles that bring out the best of their abilities and uniqueness, take control over their learning, and decide on a certain procedure to complete a certain task or answer an essential question: “Students invest their interests, abilities, and prior knowledge to make meaning and reach conclusions…. They have ownership over their learning…. They decide on how to carry on their inquiry and at times, they also decide on the content… In one of my Science lessons, my students worked in groups and came up with
IBL. In her study, Beshears (2012) revealed that teachers considered the following factors as hindering the implementation of IBL in the classroom: lack of background knowledge in content and pedagogy, classroom management, and curriculum design and infrastructure. Participants in this research study did not consider lack of background knowledge in content and pedagogy and classroom management challenging, but they did consider curriculum design and infrastructure as contributing. Walker (2007) presented a list of problems teachers perceive with the implementation of IBL, including: school system, school resources, and the individual teacher. The first of these factors, school system, was mentioned by the participants in this study. In their study, Saunders-Stewart et al. (2012) derived from a literature review a 21-item criterion referenced inventory which focused on theoretically and empirically based outcomes for students engaged in inquiry. The authors reported a range of benefits: deep understanding of the content area, application of knowledge or skill, acquisition of thinking, problem solving, and personal skills, and increased motivation, self-confidence, and self-efficacy. Stern, Ferraro, and Mohnkern (2017) extended on the above notion and argued that the “goal of instruction is depth of learning and quality of thought that organizes and transfers to new situations” (p. 30). When students reach transfer, deep learning has been accomplished (Fisher, Frey, & Hattie, 2016). Friesen and Scott (2013) emphasized the importance of authenticity in students’ learning. They argued that students learn best when the subjects are meaningful to them and interesting. “Students must have an authenticity and a sense that the work being done in classrooms is real work that reflects the living realities of the discipline being taught” (as cited in Friesen & Scott, 2013, p. 11). Byrne, Rietdjik, and Cheek (2016) reflected on the framework of inquiry and explained that students involved in IBL reinforced a variety of essential skills, such as: observation, questioning, planning, recording, communication, and problem solving, and they also developed responsibility and self- autonomy. The data described by the student teachers supported each of the notions brought by Saunders et al. (2012), Stern et al. (2017), Fisher et al. (2016), and Friesen & Scott (2013): “…Students investigate, solve problems, and draw conclusions about a particular inquiry, which is related to the real-world… They will be engaged more deeply if the learning activities can be applied to real-world situations… They become more creative in applying knowledge that they have learned in other situations and disciplines… IBL is not about memorizing facts – it is about conceptual thinking.... Students transfer their learning to the real world. In addition, student teachers elaborated on skills that
were previously reported by Byrne, Rietdjik, & Cheek (2016): “… Questioning and inquiring is all part of IBL, and these strategies allow students to think deeper and more critically in order to find solutions to their questions…. Students are not waiting for the teacher to provide an answer… IBL is not about finding the right answer, but about developing inquiring minds… Students will formulate and reformulate questions, tweak their research methods, evaluate their results and communicate their findings… Students are encouraged to elaborate on their answers, which contributes to meaningful and interesting discussions …. With time, students will learn how to participate in Inquiry-based Learning Cycles and gradually move from structured to guided and eventually open inquiry – they acquire a sense of responsibility. Data from student teacher responses also indicated that IBL empowers student voice and choice, which naturally increases motivation and leads to differentiation. Armstrong (2016) presented a wide spectrum of choices that teachers can make accessible in their classroom. He mentioned that choices could be small or limited, open ended or significant, and they could be related to content (what do you want to inquire about?) or process (how do you want to show what you have learned?). When students are offered different choices in the classroom, they become engaged in the task, put effort to complete the task, and their overall performance improves (Patall, 2013). In their study, Bayram et al. (2013) concluded that IBL promoted motivation in the classroom because students were provided with a variety of choices, given the chance to reinforce self-regulation, and carry out investigations they are interested in. According to Vasquez, Sneider, and Comer (2013), it is crucial that teachers include problem and project based approaches, which are elements of IBL, in the design of learning engagements. These approaches allow students to express their knowledge and understanding in various ways and emphasize differentiation. The findings of this study supported the relationship that previous research had showed between IBL, student voice and choice, motivation, and differentiation: “….It honors the way students choose to learn and acquire knowledge…. Students have control over their learning…. They are provided with a variety of choices…. When students are allowed to ask questions, especially questions that mean something to them, questions that they want to find answers to, then they are invested in the learning process…. As a Science teacher, I can start a new unit by asking students to brainstorm a list of questions they are interested in exploring – they become motivated to find answers to their questions…. Inquiry-based learning is also centered around students’ own interests and questions, which allows for differentiation…
inquiry in the classroom: A classroom that nurtures curiosity, establishes a culture of deep learning, and creates engaged and motivated learners.
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