Using the Web to Support Inquiry-Based Language Learning

Peirce's idea (1868) of a community of inquiry is more relevant today than notions of an invariant curriculum or conventional modes of instruction. In order to foster such a community, we have employed web-based communication and knowledge-building tools such as the Inquiry Page http://inquiry.uiuc.edu, through which users can create modifiable representations of ongoing stages of inquiry called Inquiry Units. For example, teachers can represent the initial stages of inquiry in a Unit, which is then spun-off by students as they continue the inquiry. This process blurs the line between curriculum development and student work and between teacher and student in a way that is more productive for future work and learning. The web-linked Inquiry Units thus enable a tangible form of a community of inquiry and provide insights for future development of web-based resources. Students today encounter rapidly changing technologies and information resources, as well as the need to understand a complex global society. Yet the traditional modes of learning are often inadequate for coping with these changes or building upon the students' diverse and rich personal backgrounds. Moreover, these modes are poor models for the collaborative inquiry and reflective practice (Schon, 1983) that people need as they engage with others in their roles as students, citizens, and productive members of society. In this paper, we discuss inquiry-based learning as a philosophical and pedagogical response to the changing needs of the information age. We then present the Inquiry Page, which is simultaneously a website, a community of learners, and a research project. Third, we discuss various ways that the Inquiry Page supports inquiry-based language learning. What is Inquiry-Based Learning? Traditional curricula in most countries have emphasized a delivery of content approach. Knowledge is assumed to exist, or be encoded within texts. The role of the teacher is to manage the delivery of this knowledge and the role of the learner is to absorb as much as possible. More specifically, students are expected to master certain basic learning skills, such as to: Solve problems Remember the textbook Follow directions Work alone "Cover" the curriculum Whether such a pre-set curriculum and approach to learning were ever fully adequate is debatable. But in today's rapidly-changing world it is clear that they are not. Students today need to learn much more than the knowledge written in a textbook. Instead they need to be able to examine complex situations and define solvable problems within them. They need to work with multiple sources and media, not just the single textbook. They need to become active learners, and to collaborate and understand the perspectives of others. In short, they need to learn how to learn; to learn how to: Ask: Find problems Investigate: Multiple sources/media Create: Engage actively in learning Discuss: Collaborate; diverse views Reflect: Learn how to learn Thus, there is a shift from a transmission-oriented pedagogy to a more open, inquiry-based mode of teaching and learning. The value of inquiry-based learning is now widely recognized (Bruce & Davidson,1996; Minstrel & van Zee, 2000; Wells, 2001). For example, the US National Science Foundation asks for "research-validated models (e.g., extended inquiry, problem-solving)." The (Carnegie Foundation's) Boyer Commission on Educating Undergraduates in the Research University (1998) sets as its number one priority, to make research-based learning the standard. Project 2061 of the American Association for the Advancement of Science has as its number one goal, "science literacy for all high-school graduates", by which they mean developing the broad, critical perspective and the habits of mind that develop through scientific inquiry. Diversity of Learners and Disciplines of Study All learning begins with the learner. What children know and what they want to learn are not just constraints on what can be taught; they are the very foundation for learning. For this reason, Dewey's (1956) description of the four primary interests of the learner are still a propos: inquiry, or investigation—the natural desire to learn; communication— the propensity to enter into social relationships; construction— the delight in creating things; and expression, or reflection—the desire to extract meaning from experience. Dewey saw these as the natural resources, the uninvested capital, "upon the exercise of which depends the active growth of the child." As Dewey recognized, schooling is not only about the individual, but also about the intersection of the child's interests with those of the society. The disciplines we study in school represent centuries of collective thought as well as the interests of the larger community in maintaining itself by communicating its knowledge and values to the next generation. Newcomers to a field of inquiry are often frustrated by the gap between their ordinary experience and the codified knowledge of a discipline of study. In the field of education, for example, many have trouble connecting what they know of their own learning processes, or the experiences from their own teaching, with the canonical articles and theories they are given in university courses. Dewey argues that this gap is enlarged when we reify disciplinary knowledge, viewing it as static, and constructing it as different in kind from the knowledge we gain through daily living. If instead, we could see the disciplines as representing the ongoing processes of a community of inquiry, then the conflict between personal, situated knowledge, and historically-constituted, communal knowledge becomes a problem of melding and connecting, not of choosing one over the other.