Blog Post 2 – Inquiry-Based Learning

Inquiry-based learning is an approach to a learning environment where students actively learn by asking questions, exploring new topics (usually real-world problems), and drawing conclusions through self-driven investigation (MacKinnon and Archer-Kuhn 2023, 11). Teachers are the facilitators and students create and build their own understanding of the content. This means that inquiry based-learning cannot occur without the participation and engagement of curious students. While the students develop the questions, the instructor still needs to create an open environment where inquiry-based learning can occur. 

Inquiry-based learning is rooted in constructivist theory, meaning it requires the student to construct their own knowledge through open-ended inquiry. When a student responds to their curiosity by asking questions or considering possibilities, they can then reflect on those questions and the (potential) answers. When students self-instigate their search for new knowledge, students do not passively receive information. 

Inquiry-based learning is rooted in constructivist theory, meaning it requires the student to construct their own knowledge through open-ended inquiry. When a student responds to their curiosity by asking questions or considering possibilities, they can then reflect on those questions and the (potential) answers. When students self-instigate their search for new knowledge, students do not passively receive information. 

My group and I are weighing potential ways to create the most optimal learning environment to inform and increase awareness about insomnia. Inquiry-based learning provides a potentially effective avenue to explain this complex condition because biological, psychological, and social factors are equally considered (Hobbs 2023). Scholar Virginia S. Lee puts it best in her article about inquiry-guided learning (IGL) when she comments: 

“IGL promotes the acquisition of new knowledge, abilities, and attitudes through students’ increasingly independent investigation of questions, problems, and issues, for which there often is no single answer” (Lee 2012, 6). 

There is no single way to understand what insomnia is, how to identify it, and how to treat it. For this reason, perhaps my group and I will consider inquiry-based learning in our lesson design. 

But what would inquiry-based learning look like if we integrated it into our lesson plan? Perhaps in our initial presentation, we could ask students an open-ended question: “Why have people had trouble sleeping in the past 10 years?”. Before jumping straight into the content, students can depend on their own experiences and knowledge to encourage them to think about identifying the problems of having insomnia, potential causes, and potentially spark more curiosity in the subject. As the lesson continues, an inquiry-based learning environment encourages students to ask further questions, propose research methods, and reflect on their knowledge.

While our insomnia lesson could technically take place in an exclusively inquiry-based learning environment, I think that applying the critical thinking that would be required could be taken even further in combination with other learning-styles. I predict that we will consider more of an experiential learning approach, which you can read more about on Sam’s post here! There are endless combinations to the ways inquiry-based learning could be integrated into other learning styles to inform people about insomnia, and I look forward to meeting with my group to find the most optimal approach. 

References 

Hobbs, Heather. 2023. “8 Myths and Facts About Insomnia.” Healthline. November 13, 2023. https://www.healthline.com/health/insomnia/insomnia-myths-facts.

Lee, Virginia S. 2012. “What Is Inquiry‐guided Learning?” New Directions for Teaching and Learning 2012 (129): 5–14. https://doi.org/10.1002/tl.20002.

MacKinnon, Stacey L., and Beth Archer-Kuhn. 2023. Reigniting curiosity and inquiry in higher education. Routledge eBooks. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003446743.