Create a blog entry that describes how your thoughts about inquiry based learning have developed over the past week. What new insights have you developed? Has anything changed? Are there any "burning questions" that you feel need to be answered?
Prior to this week I had not heard the term "inquiry-based learning." After the readings, I see that it is not so different from a flipped classroom. In a flipped classroom, the students utilize class time conducting research rather than listening to a teacher lecture. Inquiry based learning specifically targets a question, whether open ended or specific, encouraging students to investigate real world problems (School, 2023) Inquiry based learning isn't just asking questions; the teacher has to be skilled in prompting curiosity to allow students to self direct their research and problem solving. A powerful question presented in an engaging way "should help drive the research, the writing, and the presentation" (Wolpert-Gawron, 2016) As with a flipped classroom, a good deal of work must be done on the front end by the teacher, but a well constructed inquiry based lesson allows the teacher to monitor student work and offer feedback rather than directing conversation or assignments.
I still feel that this style of teaching would take an enormous amount of time to practice and plan, but could be instrumental to student achievement in the right environment. I would like to talk to teachers who have taught successfully in this style to get feedback about the logistics and in what circumstances this would work best.
Resources
Scholl, A. (2023,
October 9). What is inquiry-based learning? types, benefits, examples. SplashLearn. Retrieved October 26, 2023, from https://www.splashlearn.com/blog/what-is-inquiry-based-learning-a-complete-overview/
Wolpert-Gawron, H.
(August 11, 2016) What the Heck is Inquiry-Based Learning? Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/blog/what-heck-inquiry-based-learning-heather-wolpert-gawron
