5) The Challenges and Realities of Inquiry-Based Learning by Thom Markham, @thommarkham

The final piece for today’s digest is not “against” inquiry-based learning, but rather lays out several of the possible benefits to using inquiry-based learning, while noting that these are difficult to assess. In essence, today’s society assesses knowledge acquisition and retention and indeed we promote learning strategies that aid in that process. However, Thom Markham is arguing that there are key skills that are developed through inquiry learning. We offer this here as a thought-provoking positive spin on inquiry-based learning, with the understanding that it is not contradictory in that all of the above posts and our own descriptions revolve around learning knowledge.

Bottom Line

If your learning outcomes involve the retention of information, you should not use pure discovery learning. If you are working with novices, you should use some form of instruction (but please do interact with your class) and if you are working with individuals who have some prior knowledge, try having them extend that knowledge through creative projects. And do your own research before trusting the “hot new trend” for your classroom.