Teaching and Learning Through Inquiry: A Guidebook for Institutions and Instructors

by Lee, Virginia S.

• ISBN13: 9781579220815
• ISBN10: 1579220819
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-08-01
• Publisher: Stylus Pub Llc

Summary

Inquiry-guided learning (IGL) refers to an array of classroom practices that promote student learning through guided and, increasingly independent investigation of complex questions and problems. Rather than teaching the results of others' investigations, which students learn passively, instructors assist students in mastering and learning through the process of active investigation itself. IGL develops critical thinking, independent inquiry, students' responsibility for their own learning and intellectual growth and maturity. The 1999 Boyer Commission Report emphasized the importance of establishing "a firm grounding in inquiry-based learning and communication of information and ideas". While this approach capitalizes on one of the key strengths of research universities, the expertise of its faculty in research, it is one that can be fruitfully adopted throughout higher education. North Carolina State University is at the forefront of the development and implementation of IGL both at the course level and as part of a successful faculty-led process of reform of undergraduate education in a complex research institution. This book documents and explores NCSU's IGL initiative from a variety of perspectives: how faculty arrived at their current understanding of inquiry-guided learning and how they have interpreted it at various levels -- the individual course, the major, the college, the university-wide program, and the undergraduate curriculum as a whole. The contributors show how IGL has been dovetailed with other complementary efforts and programs, and how they have assessed its impact. The book is divided into four parts, the first briefly summarizing the history of the initiative. Part Two, the largest section, describes how various instructors, departments, and colleges in a range of disciplines have interpreted inquiry-guided learning. It provides examples from disciplines as varied as ecology, engineering, foreign language learning, history, music, microbiology, physics and psychology. It also outlines the potential for even broader dissemination of inquiry-guided learning in the undergraduate curriculum as a whole. Part Three describes two inquiry-guided learning programs for first year students and the interesting ways in which NCSU's university-wide writing and speaking program and growing service learning program support inquiry-guided learning. Part Four documents how the institution has supported instructors (and how they have supported themselves) as well as the methods used to assess the impact of inquiry-guided learning on students, faculty, and the institution as a whole. The book has been written with three audiences in mind: instructors who want to use inquiry-guided learning in their classrooms, faculty developers considering supporting comparable efforts on their campuses, and administrators interested in managing similar undergraduate reform efforts. It will also appeal to instructors of courses in the administration of higher education who are looking for relevant case studies of reform. While this is a model successfully implemented at a research university, it is one that is relevant for all institutions of higher education.

Table of Contents

PREFACE	ix
PART I: SETTING THE CONTEXT
1. WHAT IS INQUIRY-GUIDED LEARNING?	3	(14)
Virginia S. Lee, David B. Greene, Janice Odom, Ephraim Schechter, and Richard W. Slatta
2. INQUIRY-GUIDED LEARNING AT NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY: A BRIEF HISTORY	17	(14)
David B. Greene, Virginia S. Lee, and J. Douglas Wellman
PART II: INTERPRETING AND IMPLEMENTING INQUIRY-GUIDED LEARNING
3. ALL IN THE BALANCE: PSYCHOLOGY 201 "CONTROVERSIAL ISSUES IN PSYCHOLOGY"	31	(10)
Samuel B. Pond, III
4. MUSIC 200 "UNDERSTANDING MUSIC": AN INQUIRY-GUIDED APPROACH TO MUSIC APPRECIATION	41	(10)
Jonathan Kramer and Alison Arnold
5. SCALE-UP: BRINGING INQUIRY-GUIDED LEARNING TO LARGE ENROLLMENT COURSES	51	(20)
Maria Oliver-Hoyo and Robert Beichner
6. INQUIRY-GUIDED LEARNING AND THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASSROOM	71	(10)
Ana Kennedy and Susan Navey-Davis
7. INCORPORATING ACTIVE LEARNING, CRITICAL THINKING, AND PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING IN AN ADVANCED FRENCH CULTURE AND CIVILIZATION COURSE	81	(12)
Arlene Malinowski
8. ENHANCING INQUIRY-GUIDED LEARNING WITH TECHNOLOGY IN HISTORY COURSES	93	(10)
Richard W. Slatta
9. INQUIRY-GUIDED LEARNING IN A FOOD SCIENCE CAPSTONE COURSE	103	(12)
Lynn G. Turner and Christopher R. Daubert
10. INQUIRY-GUIDED LEARNING THROUGH COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH IN A GRADUATE COURSE	115	(14)
George R. Hess and C. Ashton Drew
11. INQUIRY-GUIDED LEARNING AND THE UNDERGRADUATE MAJOR IN THE DEPARTMENT OF MICROBIOLOGY	129	(14)
Michael Hyman and Gerry Luginbuhl
12. THE CHALLENGE OF IMPLEMENTING AN INQUIRY-GUIDED APPROACH IN A HIGHLY TECHNICAL CURRICULUM	143	(14)
Adrianna G. Kirkman, Medwick V. Byrd, Hasan Jameel, and John A. Heitmann
13. ENGINEERING COMPUTING AS AN ESSENTIAL COMPONENT OF INQUIRY-GUIDED LEARNING	157	(16)
Roger P. Rohrbach, Joni E. Spurlin, Kathy Mayberry, and Sarah A. Rajala
14. INQUIRY BY DESIGN: LEARNING IN THE STUDIO SETTING	173	(10)
Meredith Davis and Paul Tesar
15. INQUIRY-GUIDED LEARNING AND THE UNDERGRADUATE CURRICULUM: GENERAL EDUCATION AND THE MAJOR	183	(24)
Susan Blanchard, Marilee Bresciani, Michael Carter, Virginia S. Lee, and Gerry Luginbuhl
PART III: INQUIRY-GUIDED LEARNING PROGRAMS AND RELATED INITIATIVES
16. INQUIRY, CRITICAL THINKING, AND FIRST YEAR PROGRAMS	207	(12)
David B. Greene, Janice Odom, and Arlene Malinowski
17. THE HEART OF THE MATTER: WRITING, SPEAKING, AND INQUIRY-GUIDED LEARNING	219	(10)
Chris M. Anson and Deanna P. Dannels
18. SERVICE-LEARNING: INTEGRATING INQUIRY AND ENGAGEMENT	229	(16)
Sarah L. Ash and Patti H. Clayton
PART IV: SUPPORTING AND ASSESSING INQUIRY-GUIDED LEARNING
19. MASTERING INQUIRY-GUIDED LEARNING ONE STEP AT A TIME: FACULTY DEVELOPMENT AND DISSEMINATION	245	(14)
Virginia S. Lee
20. ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF INQUIRY-GUIDED LEARNING AT NCSU	259	(18)
Virginia S. Lee
CONTRIBUTORS	277	(6)
INDEX	283