In the classroom, educators have the option of using a wide variety of instructional strategies. As educators choose strategies for use, they have a responsibility to ensure they are positive for student learning.
Inquiry-based learning is one such instructional strategy used in classrooms around the world. Students are able to explore content on their own, while teachers facilitate their learning. Several studies indicate that inquiry-based learning is beneficial for students in elementary and middle schools. Some of the best international schools in Coimbatore have already incorporated this method.
What is IBL?
After introducing a topic in class, students may spontaneously ask questions or they may be prompted to do so by the teacher. In order to find answers, students will be encouraged to research, participate in activities that will help them get the answers, or work collaboratively. Rather than passively listening to their teacher and memorizing facts, students learn through questioning.
As children grow, they ask questions to make sense of the world around them and to find answers to their questions. We all want to understand and ascertain how everything works, and the way we accomplish this is through asking questions. We have an innate desire to learn, and as a result, we constantly seek to understand the world around us.
Inquiry-based learning teaches students how to ask insightful questions and conduct research to uncover the answers to those questions. Inquiry-based learning fosters the natural human desire to learn and think.
Benefits:
- Students who learn through inquiry, have the opportunity to make decisions for themselves. They get to choose which questions to bring up at different times, which to explore further, what resources to employ, how to arrange and display the facts, and what conclusions to reach, whether to accept or reject the information.
- IBL encourages students to think critically. Independent problem-solving and critical thinking abilities can be developed with the help of higher-order thinking abilities. Students become more skilled at creatively applying what they have learnt to various fields as their critical thinking abilities grow.
- Students who use inquiry-based learning become lifelong learners.
- Life is about learning how to deal with new situations, and students who are successful in their academic careers as well as those who can adapt to a workforce and a world that will continue to change in unexpected ways will learn how to find success in contexts of uncertainty.
- This teaching method encourages students to use their knowledge and experience to come up with answers, giving them the freedom to explore without fear of being "wrong" which in turn builds their self-confidence.
- Their social development and interpersonal skills are both enhanced by the collaborative nature of the learning process.
Incorporating inquiry-based learning into the classrooms could signal a radical change from the ineffective old teaching approaches to a powerful and successful approach that improves student learning.
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