Inquiring Minds in Undergraduate Instruction

Abstract

Research-based or scholarship-based teaching is better teaching because it leads to better learning and sustained motivation. Creating a mutually supportive link between teaching and research comprises the teaching-research nexus. In this chapter, the authors address the teaching-research nexus in undergraduate education by presenting a range of initiatives for inquiry-based instructional improvement through activities that require integrated, individual, and collaborative efforts in and across disciplines. The authors present theoretical and practical arguments of the theory of social constructivism in support of a professor’s own scholarship and teaching. They also highlight the importance of changing the nature of undergraduate teaching by offering examples of how undergraduate instructors can foster inquiry-based learning in their teaching as well as ways of facilitating these approaches to teaching. To be able to connect research and teaching in students’ minds, instructors must strengthen within undergraduate students some of the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that enable the development and maintenance of inquiring minds.

Chemistry Professors' Perceptions of Undergraduate Learning

“…Despite their perspectives about undergraduate learning, our study echoed similar findings from Chichekian et al (2013) because professors largely referred either to contextual contributors such as programs, laboratories, research groups, or to explanations through fine-tuning teaching by asking questions or being clear about goals. Professors generally connect their teaching to their research in ways that point to examples of initiatives (e.g., keeping course content up-to-date or modeling for students the intellectual curiosity and critical thinking that characterize good research) and this might usefully be addressed in instructional improvement efforts, professional development, and departmental conversation on how to promote the research-teaching connection in undergraduate education.…”

“…Overall, our results provided signs of progress compared to the findings from Chichekian et al (2013) regarding moving more toward a culture of inquirers. Despite two-thirds of the chemistry department still preferring a transmission mode as a teaching method compared to 83% 25 years ago, our results are indicative of progress that is more aligned with the department's agenda regarding instructional development and the implementation of active learning spaces.…”

“…Therefore, defining inquiry simply as a set of student-led activities with the teacher acting as facilitator to a more elaborated list of tasks involving the teacher, student, and curriculum could create challenges to the actual and successful practice of inquiry-based instruction (Crawford, 2007). This is especially important because practicing a discipline (emulating authentic learning processes) and practicing disciplinebased activities (such as interactive and hands-on classroom activities) are not the same thing (Chichekian, Hua, & Shore, 2013).…”

The distinction between inquiry-based instruction and non-inquiry-based instruction in higher education: A case study of what happens as inquiry in 16 education courses in three universities

“…Research reports exist about undergraduate IBI in the USA (e.g., Ball & Pelco, 2006;Boyer Commission, 1998;Handelsman, Miller, & Pfund, 2007;Park Rogers & Abell, 2008;Stokking, Van der Schaaf, Jaspers, & Erkens, 2004), Canada (e.g., Aulls & Shore, 2008;Barrows & Tamblyn, 1980;Chichekian, Hua, & Shore, 2013;Redden, Simon, & Aulls, 2008), New Zealand (e.g., SpronkenSmith, Bullard, Ray, Roberts, & Keiffer. 2008-this paper also presented examples from the USA and UK; Spronken-Smith et al, 2011;Volkmann, Abell, & Sgagacz, 2005), and the UK (e.g., Brew, 2003;Healey & Jenkins, 2009).…”