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Inquiry-based teaching and learning is a valued learning theory, which can transform a prescriptive, teacher-led classroom into a dynamic, active learning environment. Some factors to consider about inquiry-based activities are that they are designed to incorporate many strategies and techniques to develop students’ affective, social, and metacognition domains. Inquiry-based teaching and learning is most successful when students have some level of self-regulation and when faculty members provide meaningful guidance. Unfortunately, students are infrequently taught how to be self-regulated learners. In addition, faculty members are uncomfortable and under-incentivized to try innovative teaching pedagogies.

To illustrate the dichotomy of both the delivery of inquiry-based teaching and a student-centered approach, a DNA double helix is used as a metaphor and visual model. Importance is placed on designing learning experiences that can be adapted based on context, available technology, meaningful assessment, and positive student outcomes. Educational trends in higher education are explored and implications are drawn based on the research and programs being implemented at many universities and colleges. This chapter provides insight into how higher education institutions can scale inquiry-based teaching and learning through their strategic initiatives to promote faculty excellence. Evaluation frameworks and logic model planning strategies are included in this chapter.

This chapter provides an introduction to how the inquiry-based learning (IBL) approach is being used by colleges and universities around the world to improve faculty and institutional development and to strengthen the interconnections between teaching, learning, and research. This chapter provides a synthesis and analysis of all the chapters in the volume, which present a range of perspectives, case studies, and empirical research on how IBL is being used across a range of courses across a range of institutions to enhance faculty and institutional development. This chapter argues that the IBL approach has great potential to enhance and transform teaching and learning. Given the growing demands placed on education to meet a diverse range of complex political, economic, and social problems and personal needs, this chapter argues that education should be a place where lifelong and lifewide learning is cultivated and where self-directed learning is nurtured. To that end, this chapter argues that IBL helps cultivate a learning environment that is more meaningful, responsive, integrated, and purposeful.

In order to teach science effectively, teachers need a strong background in science content as well as an understanding of productive methods of teaching. This includes inquiry-based learning that will cultivate conceptual development of science concepts with their students. Furthermore, it is imperative to use student-focused activities in high-needs schools to engage all students, particularly students of color, in the learning process. As a result, faculty from the teachHOUSTON Program and the Department of Physics at the University of Houston produced a Physics by Inquiry course to engage middle school and high school preservice teachers in interactive, inquiry-based teaching pedagogies for physics. This chapter provides an overview of the course. It also highlights the benefits of including such a course in a STEM teacher education program.

This study examined educators’ self-perception as practitioners of inquiry-based math and science instruction, their motivation to produce videos to share that practice, and the impact of video production on their use of inquiry and role in the professional development community. Semi-structured interviews were used to address the research questions. Participant responses indicated a high level of self-reflection and a keen understanding of the nature of inquiry-based math and science teaching. Participants were motivated to share their practice largely by their desire to help other educators develop as inquiry practitioners. Articulating how and why they used inquiry-based techniques for the videos deepened their already reflective teaching. The positive aspects of participation also increased their confidence in their ability to engage in professional development as teacher-leaders. Overall this study indicated that videos created for the purposes of professional development had a transforming effect on those who produced them in addition to their benefit for others.

By asking questions and presenting creative problems for students to solve, faculty nurture critical thinking and creativity. This type of inquiry-based teaching and learning is at the core of design curricula and provides the backbone of student charrettes and competitions, rooted in the professional realities of the disciplines. This chapter provides a guide for faculty members through the steps of how to do assessment of inquiry-based education within an artistic discipline. It provides a path to improve both content and form: to integrate what is known about inquiry-based learning in the arts with assessment practices that have emerged over the past three decades, and to use that as a basis for discussing how using reflective and inquiry-based practices coupled with well-designed assessment practices can serve to improve teaching practice, student learning, and further the development of inquiry-based environments at the individual, program, and even institutional levels.

This chapter provides an introduction to how the inquiry-based learning (IBL) approach is being used by colleges and universities around the world to strengthen the interconnections between teaching, learning, and research within the arts, humanities, and social sciences. This chapter provides a synthesis and analysis of all the chapters in the volume, which present a range of perspectives, case studies, and empirical research on how IBL is being used across a range of courses across a range of institutions within the arts, humanities, and social sciences. The chapter argues that the IBL approach has great potential to enhance and transform teaching and learning. Given the growing demands placed on education to meet a diverse range of complex political, economic, and social problems and personal needs, this chapter argues that education should serve as an incubator where students are part of a learning community and where they are encouraged to grow cognitively, emotionally, and socially by taking increasing responsibility for their own learning.

In this chapter, we argue that if online education moves toward a dynamic, collaborative, and humanized experience, inquiry-based learning can result almost naturally. We begin by briefly tracing the history and growth of online education and discussing the real, and often negative, perceptions about online education. The readers are then asked to consider their assumptions about student’s learning experiences in the face-to-face environment before making decisions about strengths and limitations of online education. The chapter then provides an overview of how online education and technology-enhanced classes create natural linkages to inquiry-based learning while meeting the unique needs of diverse learners; general examples of technology as a modality for inquiry-based learning are provided. The chapter culminates with four case studies that demonstrate how inquiry-based learning can be facilitated outside of the classroom walls and effectively integrated with technology. The case studies are drawn from education, chemistry, and business providing an example of how to investigate facts through collaborative presentations, develop informed opinions through asynchronous discussion, and make sense of concepts through curation.

Educators often stress the importance and value of interdisciplinary/cross-disciplinary measures that contribute to the holistic development of students through attention to experiential learning activities. However, collaborative approaches that reach outside or across disciplines are often overwhelming and time consuming for faculty to develop. Often, faculty would like to expand learning opportunities through collaborative approaches for their students to experience successful engagement although they may not have the “know-how.” This chapter provides a framework that can be used to develop both collaborative interdisciplinary/cross-disciplinary teaching and inquiry-based engagement. The authors developed the PLACERS model (Plan, Create, Engage, Reflect, and Share) in an effort to extend learning experiences in a preprofessional learning environment and to advocate collaboration. Implementing this model, along with a variety of inquiry-based activities produces opportunities for students to increase content knowledge, engagement, and critical thinking skills. Moreover, it provides a guide/schema for educators to delve into collaborative instruction. This chapter documents the process of interdisciplinary/cross-disciplinary collaboration between social science and professional practice faculty who developed transformational approaches to expand inquiry-based teaching through experiential learning. As a result of this collaboration, structured reflection strategies were developed which allowed students to: practice critical thinking and problem-solving skills, utilize 21st century technology, and increase content knowledge.

This chapter provides an introduction to how the inquiry-based learning (IBL) approach is being used by colleges and universities around the world to strengthen the interconnections between teaching, learning, and research within the multidisciplinary programs. This chapter provides a synthesis and analysis of all the chapters in the volume, which present a range of perspectives, case studies, and empirical research on how IBL is being used across a range of courses across a range of institutions within multidisciplinary programs. The chapter argues that the IBL approach has great potential to enhance and transform teaching and learning. Given the growing demands placed on education to meet a diverse range of complex political, economic, and social problems and personal needs, this chapter argues that education should be a place where students learn “how-to-learn” – where increasingly higher levels of self-directed learning is fostered – and where students grow in the three key areas of learning: cognitively, emotionally, and socially. To that end, this chapter argues that IBL, if designed and implemented properly, can be an important approach to enhancing and transforming teaching and learning.

This chapter overviews the articulation of inquiry in the three International Baccalaureate (IB) levels, Primary Years (ages 3–12), Middle Years (11–16), and the Diploma Program (16–18) that is widely accepted by universities for matriculation. It reviews inquiry-based instruction in the publicly available IB research literature. The IB advocates inquiry as its pedagogical approach. We identified empirical classroom research involving IB teachers or students from four databases; 35 reports matched inclusion criteria and 31 of these had appeared in gifted-education journals. The IB’s inquiry philosophy, interdisciplinary emphasis, and specific elements in the Diploma Program such as the Theory of Knowledge course, a program entitled Creativity, Action, and Service, and the Extended Essay, comprise qualities that should inform higher education. There has been disproportionate attention to the planning part of inquiry (e.g., generating worthy questions and deciding how to answer them) versus enactment or reflection; this leaves room for other research input about enacting inquiry in university instruction that creates a cycle of creative engagement. Successful IB experiences, through some of the IB pedagogy and content, raised learners’ expectations about their higher education learning experiences. However, as one moves from the Primary Years through to the Diploma Program, students report increasing “teaching to the test” and content-coverage that constrain inquiry opportunities students value. The importance of providing detailed, supportive, step-by-step introductions to inquiry, and attending to the social and emotional correlates of the substantive learning, were highlighted.