Roles of digital technologies in the implementation of inquiry-based learning (IBL): A systematic literature review

Abstract

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the field of education has encountered numerous pedagogical and socioemotional challenges. These circumstances have obliged teachers to employ a range of strategies aimed at enhancing their students' learning experiences. The knowledge acquired during this health crisis, particularly the use of digital technologies, now presents an opportunity for fostering more dynamic learning methods, such as Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL), one of the active learning approaches frequently discussed in educational literature as a positive influence on students' learning processes. To harness this opportunity and facilitate the adoption of digital technologies, it is necessary to have a clear understanding of how to use them for the implementation of IBL. Therefore, we conducted a systematic literature review to investigate how digital technologies have contributed to the progress of IBL. We. We analyzed a total of 25 articles that have demonstrated positive academic outcomes and identified seven key roles that digital technologies play in IBL: i) guiding the IBL process; ii) representation of the phenomena to be investigated; iii) source of access to content; iv) data collection tool; v) tool for organizing ideas and information; vi) tool for sharing ideas and information; and vii) tool for receiving feedback. This review reveals that the digital tools commonly employed to facilitate IBL phases are generally conventional. Nevertheless, there are opportunities to introduce new technologies to enhance students’ active learning at all IBL stages.