Inquiry-based learning (IBL)
IBL is a term used to describe approaches to learning that are based on a process of self-directed inquiry or research. Students conduct small or large-scale inquiries that enable them to engage actively and creatively with the questions and problems of their discipline, often in collaboration with others. IBL approaches include case-study and problem-based learning (PBL) methods as well as research projects of different kinds. It is a key characteristic of IBL that inquiry tasks facilitate exploration and investigation of issues or scenarios that are open-ended enough for different responses and solutions to be possible (Khan and O´Rourke, 2005).
IBL can be used as the design principle for whole modules or programmes, in which case all students´ activities and all learning resources and teaching strategies will be designed to support the inquiry process. Alternatively, discrete IBL activities can be incorporated into more traditional curriculum designs, for example as part of seminar, laboratory or fieldwork activities. This approach might be seen as `hybrid IBL´.
IBL reflects a strongly student-centred conception of learning. Research has demonstrated that active learning approaches such as IBL are particularly powerful educationally, improving the experience of discipline-based learning (Prosser and Trigwell, 1999). Further benefits for students include the development of a wide range of transferable capabilities in crucial areas such as autonomous learning, critical thinking, team-work and information literacy. Capabilities that are developed through inquiry-based activity are essential not only for students´ academic work, but also for their employability and lifelong learning. At the same time, IBL can greatly enhance students´ enthusiasm and motivation for learning (Brew, 2006).
IBL is seen as having the potential to further strengthen the relationship between teaching and research in universities (Jenkins and Healey, 2005). This is because IBL makes the links between research and learning explicit, and encourages forms of learning and teaching that enable students to participate more fully in the research practices and communities of their discipline. By highlighting the gulf that exists between teaching and research in many US universities, Boyer´s critique of the US system of higher education led to a blueprint for change in research-led institutions in the US (Boyer Commission, 1998). That in turn has led to an international movement that aims to make student inquiry central to the undergraduate and taught postgraduate learning experience in both research-led and teaching-led institutions.
Traditionally, independent inquiry has tended to be seen as something that students will be ready to engage in only when they have already acquired a body of subject knowledge through other means. This is, typically, at the stage of the Level 3 undergraduate project or dissertation. However, learning through inquiry is increasingly recognised as an approach that can be applied successfully to lower as well as to higher levels of study in higher education, to develop students´ understanding of subject knowledge that is new to them.
IBL and PBL
As an approach that organises curricula around situations and problems, rather than around disciplines or subjects, and that requires students to adopt the role of independent, critical inquirers, PBL can be seen as one form of IBL. A useful distinction can be made between both IBL and PBL, and problem-solving. In the latter case, solutions to the problems are already known by staff and students know that specific solutions exist. Problem-solving therefore involves students in identifying information that is relevant from a bounded body of knowledge supplied by the member of staff, rather than engaging in more open-ended inquiry (Savin-Baden, 2003). Problem-solving activities are used in some forms of both IBL and PBL.
Designing, supporting and facilitating IBL
Successful IBL arises out of enthusiastic, purposeful, creative engagement with well-designed inquiry tasks, effectively supported and facilitated within an appropriate learning environment. The stimulus for an inquiry could, among other possibilities, be an intriguing fieldwork problem, a complex `real-life´ case-study, or an interesting research question. The broad parameters of the inquiry will be set by academic staff. In some cases, these parameters will be very flexible - for example, students may be invited to identify their own research questions within a broad disciplinary or interdisciplinary area. In others, the focus of the inquiry will be determined by questions or problems identified by staff.
Whatever the case, inquiry is an active, self-directed, questioning and critical approach to developing knowledge. IBL often asks students to learn in a way that is different from their previous experience, and it may challenge their expectations and mean that they need to develop new capabilities and skills. The support and facilitation that are offered need to encourage a gradual increase in the level of responsibility and freedom that students have as learners, in line with their growing confidence and skills.
The CILASS framework for IBL
The IBL framework that we are developing at the University of Sheffield is distinctive in its thematic focus on three areas of student engagement: collaborative inquiry, information literacy and networked learning. It includes a strong emphasis on embedding explicit support and facilitation for students in these areas into the IBL curriculum by asking students to engage in a meaningful way not only with issues and material related to their inquiries, but also with the process of their own learning. Students can, for example, be provided with introductory guidance on IBL and carry out `practise´ tasks to begin with. On-going critical reflection on personal and collaborative learning in the IBL context, for example by means of reflective journal writing, further enhances students´ understanding of inquiry and their development of inquiry-related skills.
Collaborative inquiry
A broad range of intellectual and transferable skills-related benefits are associated with group-work and other participatory forms of learning. Collaboration with peers on inquiry tasks, and with more experienced learners and researchers in the discipline, can facilitate the development of students´ identity as members of a learning or research community and the development of their group-work skills. Collaboration across disciplinary boundaries enables students to recognise both the distinctiveness and transferability of their own knowledge, practices and capabilities, and to contribute to the learning of their peers in other disciplines.
Information literacy
Information literacy refers to the capacity to find and use information effectively and ethically in any given context, through any medium. We identify `higher order´ information literacy capabilities, including critical evaluation, synthesis and communication of information, in addition to knowledge of relevant information resources and skills in information searching, as essential for effective IBL. Rapid developments in the digital information environment over recent years mean that there are particular implications for supporting the development of students´ awareness and skills in relation to digital information sources, services and tools.
Networked learning
New information and communications technologies (ICT) offer a wide range of opportunities for supporting and facilitating `blended´ and fully distance learning approaches to IBL. Blended approaches combine the use of technology in and beyond the classroom with face-to-face interaction. Using technology to support IBL also develops students´ ICT skills, and enables the creation of shareable digital learning designs and resources. CILASS uses the term `networked learning´ to highlight the benefits of the different connections afforded by ICT: connecting students with students, students with tutors, and learning communities with their learning resources (Goodyear, 2001). For example, WebCT Vista, the University´s Virtual Learning Environment, offers a platform for collaborative IBL activity and interaction, as well as flexible access to multimedia content and the rich landscape of digital information resources.
CILASS IBL programmes and projects
CILASS-supported IBL innovation programmes and projects are building further on existing excellence in IBL in the University, using and developing the CILASS framework across the disciplines in the Faculties of Arts, Social Sciences and Law. As part of this work they are creating case studies and other outputs to share their activity across the CILASS community and beyond.
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