Weekly Vitamins: Creating a New Recipe with Inquiry Based Instruction

Everyone knows someone that seems to be able to craft the best meal or make the most savory chicken or brew the best coffee. Perhaps that someone is a parent or grandparent or friend. While they may have all of the same supplies and ingredients as the next cook, their dish seems to come out better. You just keep wondering what recipe they follow in order to come with that result.

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Inquiry based instruction is similar to that magical recipe. This educational technique allows learners to form their own recipes to discover and learn. They may not get the same exact results as the other groups in their class, but they learn the concept of whatever problem they are trying to solve. This relatively newer idea of inquiry based instruction (IBI) allows students to make their own dish instead of following the recipe the teacher makes them follow. 

IBI vs. Problem Solving Approach

When I first started hearing about IBI and the problem solving approach (PSA) it was difficult for me to differentiate between the two. Both techniques challenge students to solve problems, are student driven, and is facilitated by the teacher. 

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However in doing the readings for this week, I was able to pull out some small differences between the two techniques. The main thing was that with IBI, students are trying to solve a problem, but they are making their own procedures and they are evaluating their results with the scientific method (not always, but typically). In the PSA, students are more so just utilizing their resources to solve the problem posed to them. In addition, I think IBI encourages the concept of the topic the students are learning about rather than coming up with an exact answer. PSA doesn't necessarily have a right or wrong answer, but the goal of PSA is to find the best answer. It does still encourage learning the concepts and skills, however. 

Maybe these two techniques aren't separate, though. Perhaps inquiry based instruction is a form of one of the problem solving approach methods. Of that I'm not entirely sure. No matter what category it falls under, I think the main point is that teachers should be encouraging their students to seek the answers and experiment in order to learn; not allowing the teacher to tell them the information all the time. 

Emphasizing the "why"

I think it is so important for students to understand not only why the information that they are learning is important, but why they are learning it the way they are. Traditional learning, as it says in the readings, does not challenge students to find the answers, but lets them absorb the information instead. They have to learn how to learn all over again, essentially. There might be some push back on this, as some of the participants in the Journal of Agricultural Education mentioned, where it took several tries for students to get comfortable with this style of teaching. 

So if I can get my students to understand why I am facilitating in this way, I think that will make it much easier for them to want to learn and not concern themselves with finding the one right answer to pass the class.

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A novice to inquiry based instruction

I feel as though at least one of my teachers in my past has used IBI, but I can't say I clearly remember a lesson where this has taken place. I still have so many questions regarding how it is done, so I fear that I might struggle with it initially until I work out all of the kinks. I believe that if I make it my goal to give students the chance to cook up their own plan and chew on their answers and research for a bit, they will gain much more than I could ever teach by telling them the information alone. 

Leaving Thought

"It's okay to not know, but it's not okay to not try"

--Unknown