Inquiry-based Learning Strategy Research Articles

Inquiry-based civil discourse education

Course: Civil discourse, argumentation, debate, persuasion, political communicationObjectives: This unit activity will help students build an understanding of civil discourse and its function in society. Students will: (1) increase their capacity to examine arguments critically, (2) enhance their own ability to self-reflect critically, and (3) improve their ability to engage in civil discourse. This activity will employ inquiry-based learning strategies to apply students’ understanding of civil discourse in a dialogue with the broader campus community by partnering with campus media to develop and publish original opinion-editorial pieces.

EXAMINING THE EFFECT OF INQUIRY-BASED LEARNING ON STUDENTS’ LEARNING PERSISTENCE

This study aims to reveal the effect of inquiry-based learning strategies to students' learning persistence in science subjects in junior high school. The design of this research was pre-test post-test control group design. Learning Science is done by stages of inquiry learning in grade 8 students for six meetings in the experimental class with 16 students of class 8. In the classroom controlled learning with conventional strategy was employed. The results showed that there was a significant effect of inquiry-based learning strategy on student's learning persistence. Article visualizations:

Facilitating Instructor Adoption of Inquiry-Based Learning in College Mathematics

Faculty development workshops are one strategy for increasing instructor use of evidence-based teaching practices that are known to improve student outcomes in mathematics and other STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) disciplines. Yet relatively little is known about the impact of professional development on teaching practice in higher education. We report findings on participant outcomes from a series of annual, weeklong professional development workshops for college mathematics instructors about Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL) in undergraduate mathematics. We gathered data from surveys with the 139 workshop participants and interviews with a subset of 16 participants. These workshops were found to be effective in encouraging instructors to try this student-centered approach to teaching mathematics, as 58 % of participants reported implementing IBL strategies in the year following the workshop they attended. Analysis suggested that certain features of the workshops supported participants’ adoption of IBL strategies. The findings pointed to the importance of (1) sharing broad, inclusive definitions of IBL, (2) representing viewpoints and experiences from diverse institutional contexts, (3) allowing sufficient time within the workshop to explore and revisit topics, (4) addressing common concerns such as content coverage, student resistance, and skills to implement IBL, and (5) providing ongoing follow-up support and inclusion in the community of IBL practitioners. We also make connections with studies of the impact of instructional development in other STEM disciplines and share implications for effective professional development in general.

Teachers' experience of the introduction of student-centered pedagogies that promote lifelong learning and enthusiasm for chemistry and science

This paper looks at the first steps taken by a group of Maltese teachers participating in the EU funded FP7 project aimed at promoting inquiry-based learning (IBL) in Mathematics and Science classrooms across Europe, PRIMAS, by providing long-term professional development (PD) to teachers during the introduction and implementation of IBL in an examination-oriented culture. Data were obtained through teachers’ reflective journals and interviews. Difficulties encountered and ways of overcoming challenges are presented. The main difficulties encountered may be classified as systemic difficulties; barriers due to teachers’ personal beliefs and attitudes; and student-related difficulties. Peer support, support of school authorities, and long-term continued PD are needed to help teachers move away from traditional teaching and implement IBL strategies.

Gender differences in students’ learning achievements and awareness through residence energy saving game-based inquiry playing

Energy consumption and conservation is one of the important topics in Energy Education, whereby students are required to understand the factors of energy consumption leading to promote students’ awareness on saving energy in residence. Moreover, inquiry-based learning strategy can be used to encourage students’ learning in the topic. Although, several researchers studied on how to use digital games to improve understand the topic. However, a few studies have been conducted to investigate what the gender differences in playing and learning energy game-based learning are. In this vein, this paper address this issue by investigating the gender differences in learning achievement and energy-saving awareness through a digital game based on inquiry-based learning called Residence Energy Saving Battle (RES-battle). An experiment has been conducted on a secondary school physics course. The experimental results from 129 students indicate that the RES-battle can decrease the difference between female and male learning achievements reasonably and energy-saving awareness. This suggests a need to develop the game that can provide the opportunities for interaction on game screen and also with other students.

Comparing Reported Classroom Practice in Public and Private Schools in the United Arab Emirates

This is a comparative study of science classroom practice in public and private schools in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. The vast majority of science teachers in these schools are expatriates, specifically recruited from overseas to teach through the language medium of English. Since both groups of teachers come from a diversity of international backgrounds (though predominantly from ‘Western’ countries) it might be fair to hypothesize that the range of classroom practices of private and public teachers would be broadly similar, accounting for differences in individual school systems such as resources, class sizes, training opportunities etc. We surveyed 248 public school teachers and 66 private school teachers, and asked them to rate statements about their science classroom practices, such as whether they encouraged students to work collaboratively, employed inquiry based learning strategies, adopted hands-on student centred approaches to learning in science, applied science to real life and drew connections between science and other subjects. Contrary to our hypothesis, it was found that there were extremely significant differences between the responses of the private and public school teachers. We make some suggestions for why there might be such a chasm in reported practices of public and private school teachers.

A contextual game-based learning approach to improving students' inquiry-based learning performance in social studies courses

Inquiry-based learning, an effective instructional strategy, can be in the form of a problem or task for triggering student engagement. However, how to situate students in meaningful inquiry activities remains to be settled, especially for social studies courses. In this study, a contextual educational computer game is developed to improve students' learning performance based on an inquiry-based learning strategy. An experiment has been conducted on an elementary school social studies course to evaluate the effects of the proposed approach on the inquiry-based learning performances of students with different learning styles. The experimental results indicate that the proposed approach effectively enhanced the students' learning effects in terms of their learning achievement, learning motivation, satisfaction degree and flow state. Furthermore, it is also found that the proposed approach benefited the “active” learning style students more than the “reflective” style students in terms of learning achievement. This suggests the need to provide additional supports to students with particular learning styles in the future.

Inquiry-based Learning in China: Lesson learned for School Science Practices

Inquiry-based learning is widely considered for science education in this era. This study aims to explore inquiry-based learning in teacher preparation program and the findings will help us to understanding what inquiry-based classroom is and how inquiry-based learning are. Data were collected by qualitative methods; classroom observation, videotape recording, photography, and interview were employed during time of visiting Guangxi Normal University, China. The results can be explained in terms of lesson learned for school science practice of inquiry-based learning and pedagogical strategies. It can be understandable, simply to incorporate for general science classroom, and also be implied to inquiry-based instructional practices.

Perceived Benefits and Attitudes of Student Teachers to Web-Quest as a Motivating, Creative and Inquiry-Based Learning Tool in Education

This study discussed how the Department of Teacher Education, University of Ibadan utilized Web-Quest as a motivating and creative tool to teach a compulsory and large pre-service teachers’ Course (TEE 304) The study also investigated the attitude and perception of pre-service teachers to the use of Web-Quest. The results showed that the sample perceived Web-Quest as a useful creative, motivating pedagogical tool for learning. Student teachers perceived Web-Quest as interesting and highly beneficial to their learning. Gender was also a factor in the utilization of Web-Quest. Furthermore, students’ age and gender had positive influence on their attitude to Web-Quest. The student teachers saw Web-Quest as an Inquiry-based pedagogical tool and learning strategy that enhanced team spirit, high level thinking, collaboration and that it saved costs and time.

An integrated lecture-laboratory approach to teaching musical acoustics

At Central Washington University, "Physics of Musical Sound" (PHYS103) is an introductory level course that satisfies a General Education Breadth requirement in the lab-based science category. Enrollment is capped at 40 students, of which 10-15 are typically music education majors. From 1998 to 2010, this five-credit course was taught in a traditional lecture format: four 50-minute lectures and a two-hour lab each week. Starting in 2011, the course was reformatted into three two-hour periods. The objective was to incorporate inquiry-based learning strategies adopted from physics education research. The two-hour meeting time provides flexibility to structure the class with a combination of lecture, tutorial, group problem solving, and experiment. Computational resources, including sound analysis software and online interactive simulations, are heavily utilized. Example activities will be described and lessons learned from the transition to the new format will be discussed.

Promoting Self-Directed Learning in Simulation-Based Discovery Learning Environments Through Intelligent Support

Providing learners with computer-generated feedback on their learning process in simulation-based discovery environments cannot be based on a detailed model of the learning process due to the “open” character of discovery learning. This paper describes a method for generating adaptive feedback for discovery learning based on an “opportunistic” learning model that takes the current hypothesis of the learner and the experiments performed to test this hypothesis as input. The method was applied in a simulation–based learning environment in the physics domain of collisions. Additionally, the method was compared to an environment in which subjects received predefined feedback on their hypotheses, not taking the experimentation behavior into account. Results showed that overall both groups did not differ on knowledge acquired. A further analysis indicated that, in their learning processes, the learners in the experimental condition built upon their intuitive knowledge base, whereas the learners in the control condition built upon their conceptual knowledge base. In addition, measures of the learning process showed that the subjects in the experimental condition adopted a more inquiry-based learning strategy compared to the subjects in the control condition. We concluded, therefore, that providing learners with adaptive feedback had a different and beneficial effect on the learning process compared to more traditional predefined feedback.

Addressing the Challenges of Inquiry-Based Learning Through Technology and Curriculum Design

Inquiry experiences can provide valuable opportunities for students to improve their understanding of both science content and scientific practices. However, the implementation of inquiry learning in classrooms presents a number of significant challenges. We have been exploring these challenges through a program of research on the use of scientific visualization technologies to support inquiry-based learning in the geosciences. In this article, we describe 5 significant challenges to implementing inquiry-based learning and present strategies for addressing them through the design of technology and curriculum. We present a design history covering 4 generations of software and curriculum to show how these challenges arise in classrooms and how the design strategies respond to them.

Addressing the Challenges of Inquiry-Based Learning Through Technology and Curriculum Design

Inquiry experiences can provide valuable opportunities for students to improve their understanding of both science content and scientific practices. However, the implementation of inquiry learning in classrooms presents a number of significant challenges. We have been exploring these challenges through a program of research on the use of scientific visualization technologies to support inquiry-based learning in the geosciences. In this article, we describe 5 significant challenges to implementing inquiry-based learning and present strategies for addressing them through the design of technology and curriculum. We present a design history covering 4 generations of software and curriculum to show how these challenges arise in classrooms and how the design strategies respond to them.

Community partnerships: redirecting the education of undergraduate nursing students.

Consistent with the goal of reforming nursing education to support nursing's agenda for health care reform, a community-based, multiprofessional initiative supported by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation began in Hawaii in 1991. This initiative created a partnership among the University of Hawaii Schools of Medicine, Nursing, Social Work, and Public Health, three community health centers, and their communities to provide a community-based, integrated system of health care, education, and research. In response to this initiative, the School of Nursing developed an integrated undergraduate curriculum consisting of: a discipline-specific tutorial using an inquiry-based learning strategy; a multiprofessional tutorial; and a 1-year clinical experience providing culturally competent primary care. Community-based education has stimulated changes in the philosophy, mission, and curriculum of the School of Nursing. The outcomes achieved as a result of this initiative have had a favorable impact on clients using the community health centers, the communities, the School of Nursing, and the students.