“it’s that quality of teaching in which teachers ask more questions than they give answers and students have to discover for themselves. And so it’s a very ancient form of learning, starting from Socrates and getting kids to wonder and to think for themselves and to become curious and to answer their own questions rather than transmitting that knowledge.”

– Arthur L. Costa

Arthur L. Costa is the codirector of the Institute for Intelligent Behaviour in Berkley, California. He was interviewed for a workshop held by Joe Exline to obtain a different view on IBL. Costa was asked 16 questions on the subject, from the origins of inquiry-based learning (which he states goes back all the way to Socrates) and what countries use it (Singapore has an interesting way of using IBL where the students and the teachers are all searching for the solution to a problem together) to the comparison of IBL And traditional school (he states that inquiry has students look at a problem longer than traditional schooling, which allows them to have a better understanding of the solution) and the difference between IBL and constructivism (he claims there isn’t so much a difference as IBL is the methodology of constructivism). He goes somewhat into depth about the teacher’s role in IBL – they are there to guide and ask questions to support the students discovery of their answer.

Interview with Arthur L. Costa [Transcripts]. Retrieved from http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/inquiry/index_sub5.html