inquiry-based learning Archives • TechNotes Blog

Did you know you can improve the success of inquiry learning efforts with digital learning environments? Researchers report that educational technology tools can enhance different phases of inquiry-based learning. These inquiry phases constitute the inquiry cycle. Let’s review the results of the research and explore some suggestions that address the use of digital tools to support inquiry cycle phases.

Note: Content in this blog entry references a paper appearing in ScienceDirect. The paper is “Phases of inquiry-based learning: Definitions and the inquiry cycle.” Authors include Margus Pedaste, Mario Mäeots, Leo A. Siiman, Ton de Jong, Siswa A.N. van Riesen, Ellen T. Kamp, Constantinos C. Manoli, Zacharias C. Zacharia, Eleftheria Tsourlidaki. Read the CC-BY-NC-ND licensed paper online.

Why Is Inquiry Learning Effective?

If you read John Hattie, you’ll see that inquiry based teaching has an average effect size of 0.46. The Visible Learning Meta X database describes it in this way:

Inquiry-based teaching is an educational practice. Students behave as scientists or philosophers. They generate questions and seek to develop answers through the accumulation of evidence. This could include asking questions and solving problems. It often includes procedures such as small-scale investigations and practical projects.

Let’s explore how inquiry-based learning happens:

Students follow methods and practices similar to those of professional scientists. They do this to construct knowledge.
Learners formulate hypotheses and then test them.
They test hypotheses by conducting experiments and/or making observations.

This is not dissimilar to the Scientific Method, as shared in a previous TCEA blog entry, Interactive Science: Labs to Master the Scientific Method.

Problem-Based Learning, Project-Based Learning, and Design Thinking Learning are variants of inquiry learning.

What Are the Five Phases of Inquiry?

The five phases of inquiry researchers identified include:

Orientation
Conceptualization, which includes questioning and hypothesis generation
Investigation, which includes exploration/experimentation leading to data interpretation
Conclusion
Discussion, which includes reflection and communication

In total, the five phases with their subphases add up to twelve possible components. You can see them articulated in the diagram shown above. Elaborating on that process, you can see this diagram from researchers below:

A more detailed infographic flow chart shows the relationship between the 5 phases of inquiry including up to 12 possible components. It also outlines examples of each phase. — Screenshot by author

Scaffolding Inquiry Learning with Technology

The authors in the study cited two amazing tools you may be unfamiliar with. Those include:

1. The Go-Lab Ecosystem

The intent of the Go-Labs is to assist teachers in finding online labs that enrich learning.

Online labs provide your students with the possibility to conduct scientific experiments. These experiments occur in an online environment. Some labs offer an opportunity to experiment with real equipment from remote locations.

Virtual labs simulate the scientific equipment. Data sets present data from already performed lab experiments. Combine labs with dedicated Apps to create Inquiry Learning Spaces (ILSs).

Go-Lab organizes the labs by age range, lab types, big ideas of science, and/or subject domains. You will find anything from astronomy to geography, math, physics, and technology. These are also available for students aged <7 years to >16 years.

At Go-Lab, per their website, you will find:

Online labs: These digital simulations often mimic laboratory situations where students can perform experiments digitally. The Go-Lab Ecosystem provides the most extensive collection of over 600 online labs, coming from resources from all over the world. You can access the labs through the main navigation on top of the page (“Labs”) and search labs using the filters on the right of the page.
Inquiry Learning Apps: These small digital tools guide students through the inquiry learning process and assist them at every step. For example, there are tools helping to formulate hypotheses, design experiments, visualize experiment data, draw conclusions, and many more. Learning analytics and collaborative learning tools are available as well. You can access the list of apps through the main navigation on the top of the page (“Apps”).
Inquiry Learning Spaces (ILSs): These digital spaces can be created with the help of the Go-Lab Ecosystem. Each ILS represents a structured learning scenario helping students discover a certain STEM topic through a process of inquiry learning. An ILS typically contains an online lab, several inquiry learning apps, and any learning content of your choice. You can find over 1,000 ready-to-use ILSs using the main navigation on top of the page (“Spaces”).

Many aspects of the Inquiry Learning Spaces are available under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license.

A screenshot of the Go-Lab website shows a sinking-floating experiment with the options to preview it or duplicate it. — Screenshot by author

2. Ark of Inquiry

The Ark of Inquiry seeks to promote scientific interest through inquiry learning. There are ample resources on their website, along with an hour introductory video:

Their website shares this goal:

The overall aim of the Ark of Inquiry project is to create a “new science classroom.” A science classroom that provides more challenging, authentic and higher-order learning experiences. One that gives students the chance to engage in scientific practices and tasks. Students use the discourse of science and work with scientific representations and tools.

Ark of Inquiry makes some materials available as both webpages and Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files.

Materials for teachers (Get PDF)
Materials for teacher educators and researchers (Get PDF)
Materials for scientists (Get PDF)
Materials for parents (Get PDF)

Inquiry Learning

You can find several models for using inquiry learning in your classroom, but these websites (e.g., Go-Labs and Ark of Inquiry) offer two great starting points for leveraging technology to support inquiry learning.

Feature Image Source

Screenshot by author

“The largest and easiest gains in knowledge work come from redefining the task. They involve eliminating what need not be done,” says Peter Drucker. Didn’t get the results you want? Prune the unnecessary. Stop doing anything and everything that fails to move you towards those results. Are you a principal focused on achieving innovative learning? How you get there varies.

Getting to Innovation

Some leaders hope to accomplish innovation with technology. They want to achieve it through various strategies. Expensive options can include:

Increased access
More professional development
Grabbing attention with media-catching projects

Today, leaders task themselves with a question to answer. That question is simple but tough to achieve. It is “How can you make meaningful growth happen with digital technology?” Here are a few ways to do that.

1. Close The Learning Gap

Close the learning gap, one implemented strategy at a time. You do it through the juxtaposition of technology and evidence-based, instructional strategies. Some focus on technical changes, but instead, they should focus on culture changes. Without culture change, instructional strategies and digital tools both fail.

Tina Peji (@TinaPeji_21) does a great job sharing instructional strategies that work in this video:

Given years of pandemic teaching and learning, we know this type of first-order change doesn’t work well. It leaves learners behind and decimates the ranks of educators. Both teachers and students get stuck. The mud at their feet? The jumble of best practices and digital tools dumped on them all at once.

A better approach to closing the learning gap? Transform the culture. Leverage social-emotional learning (SEL) activities. Embed those SEL practices in the context of a school culture that varies from campus to campus. Make changes consistent and incremental at the building level.

This requires relationship-savvy leaders. To begin, combine context-sensitive culture change with coaching. Include technology as an amplifier for teachers and learners. The preferred approach is the one that impacts attitudes and beliefs. This is a second-order change that can close the learning gap in the long run.

Using technology to measure student progress might be a first-order change. Second-order changes focus on attitudes and beliefs. Second-order goes to the heart of cultural norms and people’s shared values. It’s time to move beyond first-order issues to second-order. The smart leaders have done so. It’s the only way to close the learning gap and to build a bridge from where students and staff are now to where they need to be.

2. Enhance Cultural Competence.

To enhance cultural competence in schools, a way of valuing diversity among students and staff, take advantage of students’ cultures and abilities. Focus on amplifying positive experiences students have in school.

Juxtapose real-life events with technologies that amplify positive experiences. Use technology to create a rich platform for celebrating and sharing student success. Adopt the #TxEdTuesday approach of Tell It, Tag It, Share It. Not familiar with that approach or how to get started?

Explore specific strategies on how to showcase your school’s success online:

The National Education Agency (NEA) recommends valuing diversity. To achieve this, highlight the advantages of students’ culture and abilities. The resources above can assist you in celebrating diverse backgrounds that support instructional practices.

3. Embrace Scaffolded Inquiry-Based Learning with Evidence-Based Strategies.

Build up student stamina for learning with evidence-based instructional strategies. These strategies are research-based. They rely on how current science shows the brain works. Strategies like The Jigsaw Method, Vocabulary Programs, Note Taking, Outlining and Summarizing, Classroom Discussion, and Retrieval Practice support foundational learning experiences. Get students to build foundational knowledge, filling in missing knowledge. With that, students can then start applying knowledge to new situations. Juxtapose real-world problems with digital solution-making. Use design thinking approaches (source) to perceive the world in new ways.

Here are specific steps aligned to evidence-based strategies via Mike Bell’s Evidence-Based Teachers Network (EBTN):

Go digital with collaborative, inquiry-based projects. Real-world learning works for students. It empowers learners to be hands-on, social problem-solvers as media-makers. Digital media, team-building, real-world problem solving work well. Team-building in small groups can lead to scaffolds that support instruction. This explicit, focused instruction aligns to student needs (source). Another approach relies on digital tools. Use technology to drive teamwork. Rely on one-on-one connections via culturally responsive teaching to support a student’s learning.

“Stop Doing” List

As Drucker says, redefining tasks and eliminating the unnecessary can yield the greatest gains. What this means in the classroom is simple. It can be fraught with angst and anxiety. We must identify what we do in the classroom. Then, with kindness, examine and discard only what fails to align with research. A great compendium of research to look at is Mike Bells’ six steps. Get a primer here.

inquiry-based learning

Two Digital Tools to Support Inquiry Learning