Inquiry Based Learning Gleams Education Reform
No matter the initial word that precedes the phrase “ -Based Learning”, they all fall under the Inquiry shelf. Problem or Project, Place or Passion, they all share the same derivative of purpose and intent driven study, that lead a learner down their own unique path.
When you consider the impact this has on the vast majority of all learners, leaving no single student out of the equation of success with this pedagogical approach, it is only logical to think that this very notion of education — can drive true change if adopted elsewhere, modified, and refined.
Project Based Learning, which is the most commonly used phrase to describe the method for content exposure and delivery — is not having students complete projects so they can learn, which makes learning about the end result that is displayed or presented.
In fact, project based learning is about the journey a student takes to find out information necessary to determine newly formed knowledge on a given topic of study.
Think of it as this, learning is made of two parts — the process and the product.
Project or Problem Based Learning, dangles the impacts of current products or outcomes in life in attempts to foster curiosity in students to find new ways to create better results for both.
If you are a learner, and you are not given a choice but to understand new information no matter the purpose, would you recall it in the same way that you would if you intrinsically were connected to the outcome — which could drastically improve the way we live in this world?
When teachers fuse PBL into the learning cycle and make that drive the instructional path for students — the outcomes are endless, the engagement is through the roof, learners are learning in ways that they feel most comfortable with therefore succeed because of, and you will reach the most amount of students while freeing yourself up to spend time with the entire class as you see fit.
Currently, the teaching and learning process or the traditional one, is about the product — what students have learned. Incorporating Inquiry Based Learning opens doors to a students mind in ways that any curriculum without it could easily miss because it’s not what the teacher is interested in or curious about. This turns attention to the process instead.
In the traditional method for content delivery which is teacher centered, is a ton more work than one might think. For a teacher to teach for 60 minutes, that’s 60 minutes worth of content they are spewing. For a teacher to teach an Inquiry Based Lesson, they can pose an open ended question at the beginning of a lesson that may start with images of a population impacted by something wild — and that kid’s heart is on fire and they feel alive and with purpose to want to get involved and learn more.
This is the foundation for knowledge endurance.
A wild side effect to Inquiry Based Learning, is the holistic level of teacher to student relationship that derives from student centered environments.
Almost every time I’ve observed a teacher facilitating around working with students, the conversations seem more sincere because they are more individualized.
Teachers can ask questions that are more directly related to student needs, because they aren’t asked in front of a class, they could be about something that has nothing to do with other group projects making it all the more unique, but may require teacher inquiry as well — making a leveled playing field modeled for the student. Everyone is learning, and once students learn to find and cite reputable sources, they can begin to learn anything.
It may seem odd that a class with 12 different projects going at once and seemingly chaotic daily, may foster a more successful learning environment and one that is easier to teach in than a traditional teacher centered one. This would be on account of the student’s now driving the learning, not the teacher.
The teacher provides the examples for how to learn, and shows avenues for where information can come from.
The teacher also proposes the foundation of the setting and situation, and if done in a way that shows meaning and value to the students — they will become a part of it during the Inquiry Based process to learning.
