I’m a little bit behind on my readings as I spend much of the last 3 weeks working on assignments and teaching, rather than following up with the readings. So I’m now catching up on Module 4.

As part of an IB school, I ‘think’ I know all about inquiry-based learning. I was shocked when reading Module 4 to find that there are several versions of inquiry-based learning including Project Based Learning (PBL) and Guided Inquiry (GI); I presume there is an Unguided Inquiry (UI) too.

PBL originates from the Buck Institute for Education, and revolves around a scenario in which students work collaboratively to solve. Kind of like what happens in workplaces around the world. Your boss tells you about the new project and a group is formed to work on it. Your team comes across many problems and several solutions too, at the end you share your report/final product and you either get that pay raise (A+) or fired (F). PBL teaches students life skills like, collaboration, communication and research.

GI is far more structured and relies heavily upon the teacher to structure each lesson to guide students through the inquiry process. In the IB world, this begins with a provocation; a photo, video, play or anything that gets the students thinking, provokes their thought and makes them ask questions.  A good teacher will take these questions, guide students to ask other essential questions and build the unit around these ‘key questions’; guiding students through the process of asking questions, seeking information, sorting information, drawing conclusion and taking action. These are easily broken down steps that help guide the student through the inquiry process (Fitzgerald, 2015, p. 18).

UI I presume gives students a task and allows them to research and present however they see fit, without any teacher intervention.

A large portion of my inquiry-based teaching has been GI and for assessments PBL, however I never differentiated between the two, simply seeing them as one.

 

References:

Fitzgerald, L. (2015). Guided inquiry in practice. Scan 34(4). pp. 16-27. https://search-informit-com-au.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/fullText;dn=211651;res=AEIPT