Instructional Planning: Inquiry-Based Learning Debate

Inquiry-based learning has been at the forefront of online debates as educators share differing opinions of its value. While some find this method to be ineffective, others believe it offers benefits for students and find the criticisms to be based on deficient thinking. 

  • “There’s this trendy belief in education that children are better off ‘discovering’ information (see: floundering and failing) rather than being taught directly from a skilled teacher. A self-evidently idiotic idea and yet widely promulgated.” —Teacher in Wisconsin 
    • “​​Hattie refers to this in his list as ‘inquiry-based instruction.’ instruction. There are literally over 100 more effective ways to teach.” —Elementary Teacher in Utah
  • “I’ve seen good direct instruction. I’ve seen bad direct instruction. I’ve seen good inquiry, as well as bad inquiry.. Neither style will transform a poor instructor into an effective one. Good DI can do everything inquiry can do and vice versa. There’s levels of both, anyway.” —STEM Educator
  • “Spoiler alert: you can use both direct instruction and inquiry-based learning (within the same lesson/activity, even). Without the former, students will be lost. Without the latter, they won’t be challenged. They both have their place.” —High School Teacher in Texas
  • “Some prominent edupeople are speaking out against inquiry-based learning —and not just that —  they specifically want to stop children from low-income areas from doing inquiry-based learning. can’t decide if it feels more like ‘they can’t handle it’ or ‘they don’t deserve it’
    • Seems like in both charter or public schools in these areas the consensus is that Children Are Behind, therefore any kind of student-centered, play-based, collaborative learning approach is out of the question.
    • Think about how punitive it seems. The children are not responsible for the failures of the system yet they are the ones drudging through worksheets each day just to ‘catch up’ Can’t we work with them in ways that work FOR them? Inquiry learning is effective & fun. Come on” —Elementary Teacher in New York
      • “The student who would benefit the most from play based and/or inquiry-based learning are the ones who don’t get it. I don’t understand, with all of the research available, why we continue to fail our underserved children this way. Makes me angry” —Elementary Teacher
      • “Seems like for everyone saying it works, there’s someone with research saying it doesn’t. I’ve gone back and forth on this one. My observation has been that for students lacking background knowledge and a lot of skills, it is a very inefficient approach.” —Instructional Coach in Missouri