The Effect of Inquiry-Based Learning on Academic Success: A Meta-Analysis Study

Abstract

Inquiry Based Learning (IBL) is a student-centered strategy within the constructivist learning approach. This strategy is an important approach that makes students active inside and outside the classroom, and enables students to work in groups, conduct research, present their research, and increase their academic success. When the literature is reviewed, there are many studies that show that IBL increases the academic success of students. The aim of this study is to make the meta-analysis of articles and theses carried out in Turkey between the dates of 01.01.2000 and 01.03.2020 that investigate the impact of IBL on the academic achievement. In this study, meta-analysis method was used to determine the effects of IBL on students’ academic achievement based on grade levels and publication types. The studies evaluated within the scope of this study were created by using the databases of Google Scholar and the National Thesis Center of the Council of Higher Education. To this end, 30 studies were selected in accordance with year, method, data, and publication type criteria. In this study, the thesis and article evaluation form developed by the researchers was used as the main means of data collection. Comprehensive Meta-Analysis (CMA) program was used to analyze the data. According to the results of this study, it is concluded that IBL significantly increases the academic achievement and the effect sizes are meaningful when grade levels are compared. That is, IBL at high school level is more effective than other educational levels, and when the effect sizes are examined, there are no significant differences based on the types of publication (i.e., articles and theses).

Teacher Educators Experience Adopting Problem-Based Learning in Science Education

“…Other researchers define PBL as activities that guide students inquiries, generate meaningful questions, and find answers to discovering new knowledge [9][10][11]. PBL is a student-centred instructional approach that helps students working on real-case scenarios to interpret data, construct models, and develop ideas through integrated scientific knowledge activities [12][13][14]. In exploring PBL, seven indicators exist to follow in solving problems.…”

The Effect Project Based Learning Model Based E-Learning on Students' Critical Thinking Skills: A – Meta-analysis

“…Analysis of publication bias is very important to test the research hypothesis (Diah et al, 2022;Yıldırım, 2022;Yusuf, 2023). In addition, research bias influences whether or not research hypotheses are accepted (Kaçar et al, 2021). Thus, in this metaanalysis study the entire study was resistant to publication bias.…”

A problem-based learning activity for enhancing inquiry skills and facilitating conceptual change in a biological chemistry course

“…This approach encourages the development of critical thinking skills, problem-solving abilities, and scientific inquiry skills. While inquiry-based instruction has been shown to have a positive effect on students' academic achievement in STEM subjects (Kaçar et al, 2021), it does not necessarily lead to more successful learning in terms of subject-content acquisition (Reid and Amanat, 2020). This method best suits older and more able learners who need less support because of their developed cognitive structures, greater prior knowledge and less propensity to be overwhelmed due to working-memory overload (Kirschner et al, 2006;Reid and Amanat, 2020), which may be the case for activities involving reduced teacher participation, leading to a decreased level of understanding and the emergence of misconceptions (note that throughout this paper we use the term misconceptions, which is also referred to as 'alternative conceptions', to refer to students' conceptions that are often inconsistent with the scientific notions generally agreed).…”