Teaching and Learning Through Inquiry: A Guidebook for Institutions and Instructors

Inquiry-guided learning (IGL) is a pedagogy that promotes student learning through guided and, increasingly independent investigation of complex questions and problems. Rather than teaching the results of others’ investigations, which students learn passively, instructors assist students in mastering and learning through the process of active investigation itself. North Carolina State University is at the forefront of the development and implementation of IGL both at the course level and as part of a successful faculty-led process of reform of undergraduate education. This book documents and explores how faculty arrived at their current understanding of inquiry-guided learning and how they have interpreted it at various levels - the individual course, the major, the college, the university-wide program, and the undergraduate curriculum as a whole - and how they have assessed its impact. The book has been written with three audiences in mind: instructors who want to use inquiry-guided learning in their classrooms, faculty developers considering supporting comparable efforts on their campuses, and administrators interested in managing similar undergraduate reform efforts.