Flint, Chapter 11

In so many of our classes, we have heard time and time again the benefits of inquiry based learning. It encourages students to ask questions, facilitates them asking questions such as “why” and “how”, gives them personal ownership of their work, they become risk takers, collaborators and diverse learners. I find all of these to be important and relevant, but the benefit that I believe has the greatest pull is articulated in the Flint text as “Inquiry based teaching requires that teachers and students are active participants.” As both an outside observer and a classroom participant, I can’t even estimate the number of times that I have seen a classroom plagued by uninvolved, inactive students, teachers, or both.

Inquiry based learning, though, seems to be a great tool to solving this problem though. When students are allowed and encouraged to pursue their interests and questions they want to answer, they are engaged in high cognitive function. Even more importantly than that, they are engaged. They’re active. They want to solve the problem, find the answer, or even just figure out how something works. On the teacher’s end, they are required to observe and guide their students. They must actively scaffold them, and lead them in the right direction. Inquiry based learning is an integral part of creating an active, motivated, engaged, educational classroom.