Isn't all learning sort of inquiry-based? Like, don't students have to ask a lot of questions—and also, the teacher asks them questions—and then everyone answers, and then knowledge is born?

Sure, in a way. But the method of inquiry-based learning puts students front-and-center in the classroom, and the types of questions they ask at the core of the learning process. In the words of Teach Inquiry, an organization that specializes in the method, "The power of an inquiry-based approach to teaching and learning is its potential to increase intellectual engagement and foster deep understanding through the development of a hands-on, minds-on and 'research-based disposition' towards teaching and learning" (source).

Sounds pretty good, right? The site adds that this type of intellectual engagement and comfort with research is especially valuable in the "knowledge society" that characterizes the 21st century, what with its surplus of information, social media apps, and various cat-related trends periodically breaking the internet.

By the way, if any of this sounds familiar, that may be because it's similar to project-based and problem-based learning. IBL has a different core idea, but a lot of similar values that are meant to develop a similar skill set.

Look at all that learning for the new millennium.

How It Works

An IBL class is student-driven, with instructors hanging around to act like coaches, but relatively quiet ones. Rather than saying exactly which plays to make, they just sort of remind the players—er, students—what sport they're playing. In other words, they try to ensure that the learners work toward a good set of questions that will get them to the right solutions—without actually saying what those questions are, much less how to answer them.

Instead, what it might look like is a series of student presentations. As an example (given by a math-specific definition of IBL), students take turns doing proofs and solving math problems in front of the class, and the class must approve of the solution by consensus in an example (source).

And if they don't approve, cue the teacher?

Nope.

The instructor can work with the class to come up with more ways to approach the problem or might assign pair work or group work to figure out new strategies, but will pretty much never step in and give the answer.

So the goal of all this, in the words of the YouthLearn page on the topic, is for students to "identify and refine their 'real' questions into learning projects or opportunities" (source). Because you can't get at the right solutions if you don't ask the right questions, right?

Come to think of it, was "right?" the question we meant to ask? Maybe we should have said "yeah?" or "wazzup?"

Hm. Maybe this question thing is more complicated than we thought.

Constructing Questions, Constructing Knowledge

So, where did this whole idea come from? We're glad we asked. The answer helps demonstrate IBL's goals and how they tie into the process as a whole.

As the YouthLearn site describes, IBL was born long, long ago in a luscious secret rainforest called the constructivist approach to education. That rainforest is full of millions of bugs and flowers that don't have a name yet, but anyone who goes there tries to name them after other bugs and flowers that are already known to the world.

Uh…what?

Okay, fine, we'll give it to you in education theory speak. IBL is based on the idea that "there are many ways of constructing meaning from the building blocks of knowledge and that imparting the skills of 'how to learn' is more important than any particular information being presented" (source).

So it's not just the individual facts and factoids you need to store up in your memory; it's how you learn to approach them and interrogate them in the process. And IBL was designed to encourage students to think a little harder about, well, thinking.

In other words (words that we paraphrased from TeachInquiry—thanks, guys), everyone has preconceived notions of how the world works. The underlying idea of learning is developing a set of concepts that you more or less abide by and work on applying in a range of situations. So thinking about exactly how you maneuver that set of concepts, instead of just taking it for granted, can help students develop a deeper level of understanding. Yes, that's those built-in opportunities to "think about thinking" we were talking about.

What this all means is that you don't just go around naming new bugs after old bugs. You study that new bug, debunk your preconceptions of what a bug is, and maybe end up realizing you discovered a tiny dinosaur or an alien.

See all the benefits? So grab your safari hat, head to your nearest rainforest, and make IBL your route through the forest.