What is inquiry-based learning?
An old adage states: "Tell me and I forget, show me and I remember, involve
me and I understand." The last part of this statement is the essence of
inquiry-based learning, says our workshop author
Joe Exline 1. Inquiry implies involvement that leads to
understanding. Furthermore, involvement in learning implies possessing skills
and attitudes that permit you to seek resolutions to questions and issues while
you construct new knowledge.
"Inquiry" is defined as "a seeking for truth, information, or knowledge --
seeking information by questioning." Individuals carry on the process of inquiry
from the time they are born until they die. This is true even though they might
not reflect upon the process. Infants begin to make sense of the world by
inquiring. From birth, babies observe faces that come near, they grasp objects,
they put things in their mouths, and they turn toward voices. The process of
inquiring begins with gathering information and data through applying the human
senses -- seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling.