Advantages and
Disadvantages of Inquiry Based Learning Strategy
Alberta (2004: 3) a systematic
approach to the development of these skills is essential to prepare students for
problem solving and lifelong learning. A
systematic approach ensures that students have the opportunity to engage in
inquiry, to learn an overall process and to understand that this general
inquiry process can be transferred to other inquiry situations. Inquiry-based
learning provides opportunities for students to:
1)
Develop skills they will need all their lives
2)
Learn to cope with problems that may not have clear solutions
3)
Deal with changes and challenges to understandings
4)
Shape their search for solutions, now and in the future.
Wood (2010: 33) Students from
this course felt that a more structured inquiry task had the following
benefits:
1)
All of the students know what they are supposed to be doing, so they can
start quicker.
2)
Students might not come up with a question that was as challenging as the
staff member, and therefore the project would not have been as interesting;
students know they are going to learn ‘something’, either about the topic or
about how they work.
3)
If students have a question, it is more specific, there is less ambiguity
about what you need to be studying.
However the the negative side
or disadvantages of using Inquiry based learning stratgy as follows
1)
students might not like the question they have been given or the group
they are assigned to.
2)
Students can explore the task more and get to use all of their abilities,
‘so it probably works out better, but it would take more time.’
3)
Because there is more discussion and communication in the team, you have
to show the skills more finely.
