How does inquiry learning differ from expository learning

Below is a simple example of an expository approach for teaching PowerPoint users about graphic formats. All the information is provided as statements, creating a more passive learning experience. The chance that they will remember all of it is not high. On the other hand, the inquiry-based approach below is framed around a question and invites designs that allow exploration. Working in the context of a question creates a more active experience, because the learner must take information and apply it by making comparisons and evaluating information to answer the question.

These types of cognitive tasks should increase retention. In the example below, the PNG Format button is selected. Benefits of Inquiry-based Learning When designed correctly, inquiry learning has some benefits over the expository approach because it:. Much of the research that compares completely open discovery learning with structured learning does not result in performance improvements. Here are some guidelines:. I think the example was good. It shows that instead of having one slide presenting all information, where learners have to memorize everything and then, in case they come across with a digital photo, to recall the differences of each type, an instructional design based on an inquiry learning approach makes learners ACT, that is they have to DO something in order to explore the different types of digital photos.

Today all eLearning authoring tools offer this option. By letting learners explore possible difference themselves, you give them the chance to better assimilate the information presented and therefore to make easier the recall process, afterwards, when they will have to recall this piece of information.

Great article Connie. You gave me some very good ideas. Recently I came across another interesting article with further tips, which may be of interest of you and your readers. The notion of students assessing themselves is difficult for many educators to get around, but they're warming to the idea. The fact is if our students learn to ask the right self-assessment questions and keep themselves accountable, the results in learning improvement can be amazing.

Self- and peer-assessment practices have a number of benefits for both students and teachers. Here are just a few of them:. It can start with something as simple as a pair or group debrief when a project is over, and those experiences can then be developed into something more ongoing.

Get your learners started with some quick, effective, and enjoyable assessment activities to start, and then encourage them to practice them more and more as learning progresses.

Traditional methods of instruction see students in a sit-and-listen environment where connection can be quickly lost. In his brilliant book Brain Rules , Dr. John Medina demonstrates learners are only capable of listening to a speech or lecture on a single topic for approximately ten minutes.

After that, our attention stores are pretty much depleted. Teacher-centred learning is largely based on this instructional model and is both passive in nature and about consuming.

When we move from passive learning consumption to active learning participation , both engagement and thinking are at a much higher level. Part of what makes inquiry-based learning so great is that it nurtures open discussion between not only the students but the students and their instructors.

While working in collaboration with other learners and the teacher, learning becomes an active search for meaning by the learner. As ideas and experiences are shared across the table, this leads students to personal learning moments defined by the constructing of knowledge, rather than them just passively receiving it. In many ways school was has been a marvellous and ambitious information delivery system. Universities cultivate experts in specific subjects who then move to distant communities and transmit that information to the next generation.

Today we have a more efficient information delivery system, the internet, and the teacher's role has moved to the facilitator of knowledge who guides learners to create versatile and creative solutions to real-world challenges that matter.

In the modern inquiry-based learning classroom, students construct new knowledge and skills by building on current knowledge and skills.

They face problems and issues in a classroom setting using unconscious methods like Solution Fluency and Information Fluency and produce work that demonstrates authentic learning.

Trans-disciplinary, also known as integrated learning, is just as the name implies. It is transcendent from a single linear discipline into the realm of many disciplines curricular or otherwise , collaborative pursuits for awareness and answers, and a sharing of these things across culture and personal belief—all hallmarks of truly authentic modern learning.

The nature of direct instruction is to teach one thing at a time, and then the next thing, built on the previous, which makes it a very useful tool in any pedagogy. Life is an integrated subject. We fluidly use skills from all learning areas in our daily lives.

Through inquiry-based learning, the lines between subject areas naturally dissolve, just like in life. Traditional instructional settings have seen the teacher keep domain over every facet of what and how learning took place.

However, as the shift from a teacher being a director to a facilitator of learning has happened over the last few years, some remarkable things have happened. For one thing, a huge amount of learning responsibility has shifted from them to the students, freeing teachers up to be increasingly creative with lesson planning.

When we give our students the freedom of a certain level of control over their learning, everything changes.

They begin to become more aware of the significance of what is being taught and how it relates their world. Expository Approach is also known as Transmission Approach. In this approach the teacher is communicating maximum information to the students in minimum of time. This approach helps the teacher to cover the content to be taught to the students. This approach is widely used across all the subjects and different levels of education by the teacher. The main proponent of this method is David P.

The word expository is derived from exposition which means an explanation or interpretation in which commentary by the teacher is given that seeks to clarify the meaning of and implications of the object of exposition.

In this approach there are various methods such as Expository Method, Tell and do method, deductive method etc. The approach is totally teacher centered. Expository Method: If the initial move of the teacher is the statement of the rule or generalization or principle followed by clarification, justification and application of the rule then the sequence of moves is known as Expository Method.

Depending upon the combination of these moves and number of moves used by the teacher while teaching, the expository method takes different forms such as telling method, tell and do method, lecture method, and expository method.

In order to be effective expository teacher the teachers must use all the four moves in a sequence that is mentioned above. This method has definite advantages over two other approaches. These are given below. The teachers always complain shortage of time to complete the syllabus. There is no conclusive proof. Hence it is still used to large extent at all levels.

All the cues provided by the teacher. Since then a number of educators trying to popularize these group methods, but this method is rarely used by the teachers in the classroom. According to Bruner, discovery is a process, a way of approaching problems rather than a product or a particular item of knowledge. Many educators developed instructional strategies based on ideas proposed by Bruner. The discovery approach is a type of teaching that encourages students to take a more active role in their learning process by answering a series of questions or solving problems designed to introduce a general concept Mayer While teaching any rule from any discipline, the same moves are to be used as given in the Expository method but its sequence is different while using the discovery approach.

There are three types of methods that are included under discovery approach- Open Discovery method, Guided Discovery method, and Deductive discovery method. Open Discovery method is mostly followed by Scientists where as the teachers use Guided Discovery method while teaching to the students. The pattern that is used in Guided Discovery method is Example Rule. The teacher starts with the examples of the rule and then the students generate rule on the basis of similarities and difference between different examples presented to them by the teacher.

Guided Discovery Method.