The purpose behind the inquiry-based approach is to help learners engage with course material beyond sole memorization by encouraging them to demonstrate curiosity and take an active role in exploring their topic of interest by attempting to answer essential questions that could deepen their understanding (legacy posts, 2012). There are several ways in which this can be done. For example, controlled inquiry has the instructor choose a topic and provide learners with resources needed to answer the key questions (MacKenzie, 2018). The guided inquiry, on the other hand, has the teacher select the topic but not the resources. This allows for more flexibility and creativity when it comes to the solution proposed by the learners.
I find Josef’s computer science example, where students are first introduced to the essential question and then get to investigate it throughout the course, to be a great idea for making learning more inquiry based.
When presented with a question that encompasses the goal of the course in the very beginning, the students can already begin to think: “What information would be useful for me to be able to answer that question?”. Along the way, they might come up with their own questions to guide their learning, and that will further increase their level of involvement with the material.
Trevor MacKenzie, an instructional coach in Victoria, BC, mentions the idea of the Four Pillars of Inquiry: “Explore a Passion”, “Aim for a Goal”, “Delve into Your Curiosities”, and “Take on a Challenge” (MacKenzie, 2018). Our group will focus on two of these: “Aim for a Goal” and “Take on a Challenge”. We will utilize a more guided inquiry method by presenting our learners with a type of formative assessment called the self-care journal. That exercise is meant for students to reflect on how the knowledge they gain from our course on mental health maintenance in university can be applied to their own lives. We will ask our learners to come up with SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) goals in order to help them make positive behavioral changes in their diet, sleep, mindset, and social connections (Boogaard, 2021). By having each individual ask themselves: “What do I personally need to do to better support my mental health?”, we hope to get our learners to push themselves out of their comfort zone and interact with our course material in a more meaningful, memorable way.
Boogaard, K. (2021, October 15). How to write SMART goals. Work Life by Atlassian. https://www.atlassian.com/blog/productivity/how-to-write-smart-goals
legacy posts. (2012). Inquiry-Based Learning In The Classroom. STEM JOBS. https://edu.stemjobs.com/inquiry-based-learning/
Sketchnotes. (2018). Trevor MacKenzie. https://www.trevormackenzie.com/sketchnotes
Hello.
Through your blog I learned about the meaning of inquiry-based approach. The teachers provide the topics and resources and then let the students answer some questions. This is a way of learning in which the students discover the answers themselves through the topics provided by the teacher. This approach allows students to understand the content in depth and is very helpful for their learning!
Thank you for sharing about the inquiry-based approach!