Creating a Culture of Inquiry in the Classroom

by Janet Salmons, Ph.D., Research Community Manager for Methodspace and author of Your Super Quick Guide to Learning Online and Learning to Collaborate, Collaborating to Learn. See this related Methodspace post: Using Inquiry Models to Learn How to Ask Questions.

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While Methodsspace is a community of researchers, many of us also find ourselves in the role of teacher or professor. How can we infuse research activities into courses where students learn about methods or curricular courses where they develop critical thinking skills?

The philosopher John Dewey wrote about education in an era with remarkable similarities to our own.

When the telegraph and telephone opened immediate communication across the oceans and continents, Dewey observed that while these technologies had broken down barriers “to bring peoples and classes into closer and more perceptible connection with one another. It remains for the most part to secure the intellectual and emotional significance of this physical annihilation of space” (Dewey, 1916, p. p. 85). At the same time, the nature of work was changing with the Industrial Revolution, and Dewey saw a corresponding need to change the nature of education. He identified a prevalent view, that “the subject-matter of education consists of bodies of information and of skills that have been worked out in the past; therefore, the chief business of the school is to transmit them to the new generation” (Dewey, 1938, p. 17). He criticized it as hopelessly out of step with the need to prepare students for the newly connected world. Instead, he thought students needed opportunities to learn from experience through problem-solving and reflection.

How can we use research activities to build critical skills researchers, professionals, and citizens will need in the future?

So many years later we revisit similar themes. We still grapple with the need to meaningfully, respectfully, bridge distances even though we live in a connected world. Strikingly, today, some welcome globalism and others fear it. We still contend with the educational dilemma Dewey described because simply transmitting information and skills is inadequate preparation for the challenges today’s students will face in academic, professional, and civic life. Technology has made it easier to copy and paste or ask an app or artificial intelligence for an answer, versus thinking critically and creatively. In our time it is ever more important to know how to dig below the surface, discern fact from opinion, use scientific approaches to understand problems, support conclusions with empirically-derived evidence, interpret and apply findings in creative ways. How can we infuse research methods into instructional approaches to develop new habits of mind?

For the moment let’s set aside the details associated with various methodologies and think about the core elements of the research process. In most cases, we begin with a problem, and define the questions we want to answer. We find people or source materials to explore and gather relevant data. After we analyze it, we tried to draw some kind of conclusions then share what was learned by presenting it to others in written or verbal form. We carry out these steps within epistemological and theoretical frameworks that help us understand and explain their positions as researchers in relationships with the world. How can we use these steps to build a culture of inquiry in classes we teach? Here are some suggestions from a learning to research, researching to learn orientation. Depending on the available time and the nature of the class, you can use these ideas to reframe discussions are written assignments, or as the basis for research projects that involve collecting and analyzing data.

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Whether we are working with students who are children or adults, by moving from transmission to exploration, we can help our students realize the importance of inquiry. Being prepared to ask hard questions and think critically will be beneficial not only in the classroom or laboratory, but also in their everyday lives. In the process, they will develop mindsets and skillsets that will prepare them to be problem-solvers who are prepared to help us navigate the future in a complicated world.

References

Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and education. New York: Macmillan Company. Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and education. New York: Macmillan Company.

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