“Inquiry-based teaching is more effective when the students already have strong knowledge of the subject matter at hand. While this is true, I do not think it should stop teachers from using the inquiry method with those students who do not have prior knowledge or have not yet gained ‘internal guidance.’”

– Chelsea Hasenpflug

In an effort to find the disadvantages of inquiry-based learning, like any inquirer should when researching a topic, I stumbled upon this educator’s blog. While I’ve tried to keep my research to Canadian sources, or at least attempted to have the topic be looked at from a broad scope instead of location-specific information, it touches upon the restrictions on inquiry-based learning with the old curriculums. With the specifications on what needed to be covered in all the subjects (which was determined by the government), teachers had limited time to allow students to explore their own learning. This didn’t foster the “processes over product” mindset of inquiry-based learning.

Hasenpflug also touched on the misconceptions around the role of the teacher in inquiry-based learning (as a facilitator rather than a direct instructor). It’s a subject that I’ve been curious about for the past while, and one that I’ve been poking at randomly when given a chance to talk to parents who have school-aged children (not my practicum parents, though). I’ve wondered how our own expectations of what school is supposed to look like limits us to accepting different forms of learning. I’ve applied this idea to many of my cohorts’ presentations, trying to think from the perspective of a parent who is so used to having school look and work in a certain way. I can see how all this change can be hard to trust, but I feel that in the long run, they could see the benefits. It just might take a while.

C Hasenpflug. (2010, March 9). Inquiry-Based Learning: Teaching students to be better consumers of information [Web log comment]. Retrieved from https://chelsearoseh.wordpress.com/2010/03/09/inquiry-based-learning-teaching-students-to-be-better-consumers-of-information/